<b>Attitude of Programme Presenters towards Broadcasting of Agricultural Programmes on Electronic Media in Kwara State, Nigeria</b>

Abstract

The study assessed the attitude of programme presenters towards broadcasting of agricultural programme on electronic media in Kwara state. A two-stage sampling technique was used in selecting a total of 120 respondents from the broadcasting stations in Kwara state. Frequency counts, percentages, means, standard deviation, Spearman Rank correlation and chi-square were used in analysing the data. Findings revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 34.1% , while majority (55.2%) were male, 75.0% were married and 68.1% have up to HND/BSc degree. Furthermore, most of the respondents (26.7%) studied mass communication, 61.2% were Muslims and 66.4% were permanent staff of the stations. Mean years of working experience as presenters was 7.50 years, most of the respondents (69.0%) resides in urban areas and 31.9% mainly present
entertainment programmes. Results of the inferential statistics; spearman rank correlation revealed that there was significant relationship between; educational level (r = 0.261, p<0.01), Marital status (r = 0.631, p<0.01), professional responsibility (r = 0.381, p<0.01) and work experience (r = 0.817, p<0.01) and the respondents’ attitude towards broadcasting of agricultural programmes. Result also showed a significant relationship between the respondents’ knowledge level on agriculture (X² = 21.586, p <0.01) and their attitude towards broadcasting of agricultural programmes. The study concluded that greater proportion of the respondents have a positive attitude to agricultural programme broadcasting and may take to presenting agricultural programmes if an enabling environment is provided. It was therefore recommended that training of agricultural communicators should receive appropriate attention in tertiary institutions; so as to ensure that personnel who are adequately trained in agriculture and communication are readily available for the broadcasting stations and that research findings from agricultural institution and universities should be made readily available to the broadcasters.

Keywords: Attitude, programme presenters, broadcasting, electronic media