Africa Media Review Vol. 7 No. 2  1993
©African  Council for Communication  Education

Agriculture on Nigerian Television:

A Critique of Current Practice

by Lai Oso*

Abstract

This  article  examines  the  type,  objectives  and  availability  of  agricultural
programmes  on Nigerian  television based  on an  examination  of the  social
structure.  Agricultural programmes were limited in focus, perspective  and
range  of issues  treated. The programmes were mainly concerned  with  the
transfer of technology and ideas to the neglect of other crucial socio-structural
issues.

Because it has been difficult  to get sponsors for agricultural programmes,
unlike entertainment programmes which dominate the prime viewing hours,
the  policy of  commercialisation  is  responsible  for  the  lack  of  agricultural
programmes on Nigerian television.

*Dr. Oso teaches in the  Department  of Mass Communication,  Ogun  State
Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Nigeria.

30

LfAgriculture  k la Television
Nigerianne:
Une Analyse Critique des Pratiques
Actuelles

par Lai Oso

R6sum6

Cet article examine les programmes agrlcoles - type,  objectlfs et
disponibilite - a la television nigerianne.  Les programmes  sinteressent
principalement au transfert  de technologie et des idees au depens  d'autres
problemes cruciaux d'ordre socio-culturel.

L'artlcle examine aussi l'effet  de la politique actuelle de

commercialisation sur la programmation de la television.  Selon l'article
cette politique est responsable de la disparition des programmes agrlcoles a
la television nigerianne.

31

Introduction

From whatever theoretical or ideological perspective we may view the
social role of the mass media in general and television in particular, it
is  generally  agreed  that  they  constitute  a  crucial  variable  in  the
development process of any society.  Even in developing countries like
Nigeria and Ghana,  governments and individuals invest a great deal
of resources in the mass media because these media are credited with
a lot of power and influence.  The intellectual roots of this belief could
be  found  in  the  works  of  Western  scholars  like  Lerner,  Pye  and
Schramm, among others.  According to Schramm (1964).

... Countries In a hurry cannot afford the luxury of...  an inert mass. They
require the active and informed cooperation of their village people as well
as their city people. Their human resources are indispensable. Therefore,
they are going to have to speed the  flow of information,  offer  education
where it has never been offered before, teach literacy and technical skills
very widely. This is the only way they can rouse and prepare their populace
to climb the economic  mountains, and the only way they can do it and
keep  the  timetable  they  have  in  mind  is  to  make  full  use  of  modern,
communication  (Schramm,  1964).

The  mass media  have been  charged with  the role of diffusion  of
innovation,  social mobilization,  attitude  change  and  the  creation of
psychic mobility and empathy, and in Nigeria, it is not different.  For
instance,  the  Second National Development  Plan  (1970-74)  saw the
role  of  public  communication  as  "mobilizing  massive  support  for
national  development  measures  and  programmes"  (Agbaje,  1986).
Speaking at the inauguration of WNTV at Ibadan in 1959, Chief Obafemi
Awolowo said TV was to "serve as a teacher, entertainer and stimulus
to us all to transform  Nigeria into a modern and prosperous nation"
(Aina,  1990). The conventional  view, which  is  still  dominant  in  the
development thinking of Nigeria's public communication and campaign
policy-makers. Is to regard the mass media as tools to be used to pass
official information and development ideas from an enlightened urban-
based elite to the illiterate, tradition-bound masses in the rural areas.
The mass media are the great teachers and the mobilizers for change.
They  are  there  to  mobilize  human  resources  by  substituting  new
norms and values, attitudes and behaviours for existing ones In order
to  stimulate  the  rural  dwellers  to  increase  their  productivity.
Development, seen mainly within an economic perspective, is aimed
at higher productivity and an increase in GDP and national income.  It
is the values which support this ideology of hard work that the mass

32

media are supposed to transmit.

Within the last few years, the role of the mass media in development,
especially rural development, has received added emphasis. This has
come  mainly  from  the  shift  in  development  planning  toward  rural
development through such programmes as DFRRI and Better Life for
Rural Women.

Generally,  people  speak  of  rural  development  as  agricultural
development. This is understandable in the sense that almost 80% of
the  rural  population  of  Nigeria  are  engaged  in  agriculture  and
agricultural related activities.  Almost 80% of the nation's population
reside and work In the rural areas of the country, which underscores
the importance of agriculture in  the nation's political economy.

Despite  official  pronouncements  and  budgetary  allocations
agricultural productivity has not improved.  In fact, views have changed
little since then:

The agricultural sector at present Is characterised by very small production
unit. The most prominent  feature Is one of the small holders cultivating
two  or  more  acres  each.  Techniques  of  production  are  not  advanced.
There is little mechanization. The seeds are low yielding. The use of fertilisers
and pesticides is not widespread. Prices are low and this reduces incentives
to modernise. The land tenure system encourages fragmentation. Storage
and  marketing facilities  are not well  organised.  Credit  facilities  are not
adequate.  Finally,  social  amenities  are  generally  at  a  low  level  when
compared with the urban areas of the country (Williams,  1980).

It is generally accepted, therefore, that the productivity of the rural
inhabitants is low.  Official  efforts to increase the productivity of the
peasant farmers involve the application of better technology,  diffusion
of modern ideas and organization of work. According to O. Ogunfowora,

In recent years, there seems to be a growing theoretical consensus that a
combination  of increased  supply  of credit  and  improved biological  and
chemical technologies is a measure which has high potential for increasing
farm productivity, income and employment [Ibid,].

To  this  end,  the  rural  farmers  are  to  be  Introduced  to  new
technologies  and  Ideas.  This  is where  the  role  of the  mass  media
comes  into  focus.  Simply  put,  they  are  to  be  used  as  agents  to
transmit the new ideas and technologies, and to create and induce the
socio-psychologlcal conditions to make the farmers receptive to these
ideas and technologies

33

T.V. in the Nigerian Society

The way the TV is used in any development project is influenced  by
the social structure.  The mass media do not exist in isolation, but are
part  of the  complex structure  of power and  control  existing in  any
particular  society.  As  Opubor  once  remarked.  "Different  views of
development  lead  to  different  views  of  the  relationship  between
communication and development and hence communication strategies
most desirable for development" (Opubor, 1976).

Until recently. Nigeria's development plans have been urban-centred
and  elite-oriented.  National  resources,  including rural  wealth  and
income, are usually deployed to cater for the needs of the urban elites.
The mass media, and especially television, are part of these national
resources being used by the ruling elite to serve their interests and
those of their allies in the few urban areas of the country.  Nigerian
mass  media  are  also  urban-centred  and  elite-oriented  and  do  not
adequately cater for the needs and interests of the rural dwellers. This
is not necessarily out  of neglect of working Journalists, though  they
are  not  totally  blameless.  Rather  it  is  due  mainly  to  the  way  and
manner  in  which  the  mass  media  and  the  Nigerian  society  are
constituted. Writing on the centralised nature of Nigerian broadcasting.
Professor Opubor observed that.

The  messages  produced  within  such  a  system  of  communication  are
directed  and  controlled  by an  elite group who  have  almost  pre-emptive
access to the media,  understand  its technology, and  use it in a  one-way
manipulative fashion, exhorting the masses to be patriotic, etc. Hie content
of communication  is  almost  certainly  oriented  towards  the  need  of  the
controlling group, and  to maintain  their position of power and  privilege.
Consequently,  the majority  may find the content of the media  irrelevant
and unresponsive to their needs and views (Opubor,  1976).

The  imperatives  of  state  control  of  mass  media  "often  tend  to
translate into utilizing the system to transmit the policies, values and
ideology of the ruling elite" (Boafo, 1985).

Agricultural Programmes  on  T.V.

With  government's  often  stated  commitment  to  agricultural
development,  and  rural  development  in  general,  one  would  have
expected  a  vigorous  and  sustained  media  campaign  on  agriculture
and  related  activities;  however,  this  seems  not  to  be  so.  All  the
stations visited had one or two programmes on agriculture.  Apart

34

from LTV 8 (the Lagos State owned TV), all the stations broadcast the
programmes in Indigenous languages.

The objectives of the programmes are similar.  Generally they are
designed to enlighten the farmers on new farming techniques (OGTV,
Abeokuta); let the people know that there is dignity in being a farmer
(NTA 7, Ikeja); teach practical farming (OGTV); give information about
forming fanner's cooperative societies (OGTV); highlight government
activities in the development of agriculture (NTA, Ibadan); encourage
the  people  to  go back  to  the  land  for  mass  food  production  (NTA,
Ibadan),  and  put  agriculture  back  on  its  feet  as  the  backbone  of
Nigeria* economy (NTA, Ibadan).

The duration  of these weekly programmes  did not  go beyond  30
minutes and were transmitted  during non-peak hours.  Indeed,  the
LTV 8  had  no  specific  time  slot  for  the  programme  before  it  died
towards the last quarter of 1990.

Though almost all the stations, with the clear exception of NTA 7,
Ikeja  and  LTV 8,  stated  that  their target  audience was the  peasant
farmers, the indication is that  the actual receivers and  beneficiaries
are far from being rural-based  peasant farmers.  In the rural  areas,
there  was  no  available  electricity  and  no TV sets  among  peasant
farmers.  Our position is buttressed by the Information Officer at the
Ogun  State  Agricultural  Development  Programme  (OGADEP),
Abeokuta, and the Producer of Obalagbe on OGTV, who told us most
of the  letters they received  from  viewers when  the  programme  was
running on OGTV came from the urban centres like Lagos, Ijebu-Ode,
Ibadan, Sagamo, etc.  This, according to the OGADEP officer,  differed
from  the letters coming from radio listeners who were, according to
him, "realty rural people".

From the various topics treated in the programmes, it is clear that
emphasis  was  on  teaching  farming  techniques.  Introduction  and
application  of  fertilisers  and  herbicides.  Other  topics  included  the
activities of ministries of agriculture, ETTA, Ogun Oshun River Basin
and Rural Development Authority, fisheries  and then such items  as
the processing of cassava into different food flours - gari, 1qfun,jufu, etc.
The programmes on OGTV also treated  issues like sources of loans
and the procedure for obtaining the loans, as well as planting seasons
for different  products.

Apart from these programmes, which are clearly labelled agricultural
programmes,  Oba-Lagbe  (OGTV),  Ghogun  Tiyan  (NTA  7,  Lagos),
Farming  (LTV  8),  and  Ere  Agbe  (NTA,  Ibadan).  there  are  other
agricultural  ones  such  as  Iya-Loja  on  OGTV.  This  programme  is
mainly designed for market women and buyers of foodstuffs  and is

35

principally concerned with market days and prices of foodstuffs.  In
essence.  It  is  mainly  designed  for  women,  and  the  presenter  is  a
woman, while the other agricultural programmes are produced  and
presented by men.

Nigeria's  development  policy  is  obviously  based  on  technology
transfer from the advanced industrialised countries to the urbanised
elite, and  subsequently, from the  cities to the villagers.  The socio-
cultural context within which these technologies exist are often ignored
In  the  eagerness  to  "develop"  and  catch  up  with  the  West.  The
parameters  and  constituents  of this very elusive word  development
are decided by the elites with no inputs from the overwhelming numbers
of the lower classes — the peasant farmers  and the workers.  As a
leading Nigerian political economist. Prof. Claude Ake, once remarked.

The Nigerian state is constituted In such a way that It reflects a narrow
range of Interests mainly that of the Nigerian bourgeoisie and metropolitan
capital. The apparatus of the state expresses the power and the interest of
labour in a limited way; that of the peasants and subsistence farmers, not
at all (Ake, 1985).

In  terms  of  communication  practices,  what  is  happening  is
Information  transfer  and  not communication.  Communication  is  a
process of popular dialogue, an exchange of ideas, or what is simply
called two-way communication.  This is very different from information
transfer, a process of transmission of facts and ideas from an individual
or social group often assumed to be superior to other Individuals and
social groups, i.e. the  supposed  receiver,  in the  society.  The  mass
media, as Moemeka has pointed out, "are not, by nature, channels of
mass communication. They are merely channels of mass information,
distribution and transmission. The mass media are one-way channels,
which means they are channels for making news, facts, figures and
opinions  available  to  the  public.  This  Is  not  communication;  it  is
Information" (Moemeka, 1990).

The  Nigerian  communication  system  is  centralized,  elitist  and
hierarchical, owned, financed  and controlled by the ruling elites and
their business allies.  This structure  of the mass media easily lends
itself  to  being  used  and  manipulated  as  instruments  of  one-way
"communication".  Though  the  producers  Interviewed  said  they
normally consult farmers in making the programmes, our acquaintance
with the programmes on television indicates that the farmers are more
often than not made to react to pre-set agenda, already pre-determined
elsewhere  in studios  and  offices  of experts. It Is generally  assumed
that the farmers are ignorant and/or cannot adequately articulate the

36

issues and problems.  Some of the so-called psychological  attributes
of peasant farmers  identified by early communication scholars of the
modernization  school  are  apathy,  fatalism  and  parochialism.  The
mass media are there to cure them of these ailments and make them
physically mobile.  The social reality being experienced by the peasant
farmers, which is quite different  from the cosy offices  of government
officials  and research  institutes, has not been allowed to have its full
impact on agriculture programmes on television and radio.

The  point  is  that  there  is  a  communication  gap  between  the
government, agricultural experts and TV producers on the one  hand
and peasant farmers  on the other, and this gap is partly  responsible
for some of the country's agricultural development problems. According
to Opubor and Nwuneli, "Some of the most urgent human  problems
that  need  to be  solved concern  the  creation  of equitable  systems of
information  distribution  so that  individuals, groups and nations  are
ennobled  to  communicate  and  be  communicated  with  as  equals"
(Opubor and Mwuneli,  1985).

Another  important  aspect  of TV agricultural  programmes  is  the
adopted strategy of open broadcasting, so called because it is directed
to an unorganized audience (Moemeka, 1981).  Largely because of the
unorganized nature of the audience, it is not certain whether people
are watching  and,  if they  are, whether  they  are benefiting  from  the
programme.  Open broadcasting suffers from three main problems:
(a) there is no interaction between TV producers and their audience.
Programme  planning  and  production  are based  on the notion  that
producers know what the people want;
(b)  programmes  are  devised  with  little  or  no  input  from  specialist
agencies  and  virtually  no  coordination  between  producers  and
communication  specialists.  Such programmes  are produced  on the
perceived or assumed knowledge, both of the subject matter and  the
environmental conditions of the audiences; and
(c) there is no guidance at the reception level. Because of these problems,
the  best  that  can  be  expected,  according  to  Moemeka,  is  "chance
success".

Commercialization and T.V. Programming

The  programmes  previously  discussed  have  all been  discontinued,
victims of the current broadcasting policy of commercialisation.  With
the  advent  of the Structural  Adjustment  Programme,  broadcasting
has become commercialised.  In response to this, the managers of the
country's  broadcast  industry  have  sought  to  sell  all air-time  and

37

programmes.  Including  news.  Agricultural  programmes  have  been
major casualties

of this policy. Since 1989, when most stations dropped their agricultural
programmes, they have not been able to get sponsors to foot the bills.
Commercialization, as presently conceived and practised, is mainly
concerned with making profit.  The stark reality is that when  profit-
making becomes the deciding factor in the operation of any organization,
public interest  suffers.  Throwing the country's media industry  into
the invisible hands of market forces is making capital and the Interests
it serves become the decider of the form and type of the mass media
and  the  range  of products  they  offer.  As an  observer  noted,  "the
quarterly  programme  schedule  of  network  television  has  shown  a
consistent bias for entertainment, especially during the peak viewing
hours  of 8-9  p.m.  Informative  and  educational  programmes—those
that directly address (hopefully)  issues of development—tend more to
occupy  late  evening slots  (between  10 and  11p.m.)" (The Guardian,
Sunday. July 2, 1989).

The current trend defeats all the ideals and purposes of development
journalism, which has been a major plank in the Third World criticism
of Western journalistic  practice  and  the  subsequent  call for  a New
World Information and Communication Order.  For instance, the type
of grassroots  development  based  on the  idea  of basic  needs would
largely be opposed  to the capital intensive import and  consumption
oriented  development  strategies  favoured  by  international  capital,
transnational companies and their local collaborators. In this sense,
such interests as those represented by foreign and local capital cannot
be  expected  to whole-heartedly  support  the  tenets  of  development-
oriented communication policy.

In this context, it is not surprising that none of the TV* stations has
been  able  to secure  a  sponsor for its main  agricultural  programme
since 1989. Agricultural programmes are considered rural development
programmes  designed  mainly,  if not  solely, for  the  benefit  of  rural
dwellers.  Rural dwellers are poor, unsophisticated,  uneducated  and
as such they lack the purchasing power to buy most of the goods and
services being advertised in the media.  Their tastes and needs are so
simple that even the desire to have these goods and services may not
arise.  One  doubts  if any  of the  country's  major  companies  would
sponsor a programme on the country's rural area.  In the calculation
of these companies, any money spent, either as wages and salaries or
even charity, is an investment  aimed at making profit  now or in the
future.  The  rural  areas  and  their  inhabitants  are  not  a  potential
source of profit for these corporate bodies. And our media managers

38

and operators know this.

Thus there Is a paucity and sometimes total absence of rural news,

in particular, and. In general, the views and perspectives of the poor in
the mass media.  The logic of capital is against wasteful,  unproductive
and  non-profit  generating ventures.  A broadcasting  system  whose
antenna  is turned  to profit-making  cannot be people-oriented.  The
search for advertisements and corporate sponsorship of programmes
will further consolidate the urban and elite bias of the Nigerian mass
media.

Even if any of these companies accepts to sponsor an agricultural
programme, it is still doubtful that the contents would reflect the true
interests  of the  peasant  farmers,  We know  that  for  a  company  to
accept to sponsor a programme, the philosophy and objectives of the
programmes must  support  and  advance  its corporate  interests  and
objectives.  We  also  know  these  Interests  and  objectives  are  often
opposed and sometimes detrimental to those of the Third World.

To reject  any offer  of corporate  sponsorship  is to risk having  no
programme.  The  solution  could  have  been  for  the  government  or
some of its agencies - Agricultural Development Programmes in each
state, DIFFRI, Better Life Programme and The Women Commission,
Universities of Agriculture, etc. - to take over these programmes.  This
was the  former  practice  that  has  been  abandoned  and  the  current
dogma in the country is against  all subsidies and  assistance  to the
poor.

As a developing nation, the philosophy of public service broadcasting
cannot  be  totally  abandoned.  Some  areas  of national  Interest  still
have to be protected and presented on television and radio.  The state
must  be  as  responsible  for  this  as  it  is  for  defence  and  national
security.  Food production  is too strategic to be left to market  forces
alone.

Effectiveness of T.V. Programmes

TV in general has a limited impact among rural dwelllers.  Despite the
fact that Nigeria has more than 30 TV stations, ownership of TV sets Is
limited.  The estimated total number of TV sets In the country is 2.8
million in  a  country  of more  than  80 million people, and  these  are
concentrated  in the few urban centres in the country.  On the  other
hand,  radio has a much better  reach,  and  is far more popular  and
available.

TV may actually be Increasing the gap in the knowledge of various
social farming groups.  Development strategy based on the transfer of

39

technology  benefits  the  privileged  and  resource-rich  groups  and
Individuals more than those on the lower scale of the  socio-economic

hierarchy.  As  Tiechnor  et  aL  (1970)  stated,  the  knowledge  gap
hypothesis  "does  not  hold  that  lower  status  population  segments
remain completely  uninformed  (or that  the  poorer in knowledge  get
poorer in an absolute sense). Instead the proposition is that growth of
knowledge  is  relatively greater  among  the  higher  status  segments".
There  is  a class  dimension to the  utilization  of information Just  like
other social resources available in a given society.

Structural  constraints  impose  limitations  on  the  effectiveness  of
communication technologies and strategies in the development process.
Many communication  scholars  have  argued  that  "the function  and
impact of communication strategies in development are prescribed by
the larger social system and that the main inhibitions to development
are more structural than Informational" (Boafo,  1985).  Grunlg came
to the following conclusion from his study of Colombian peasants:

Both communication behaviours and accompanying social-psychological
characteristics are derived from the situation in which the individual  is
found.  Unless  we  consider  the  structural  situation  in  which  the
communication  takes place, we are merely engaging in a vicious cycle of
relating characteristics of development while ignoring the reasons which
brought them into existence. Unless the sltuatlonal structure is favourable
for development  (i.e. opportunities are available), communication can be
of little use in development (Boafo, op. dL).

Television and mass media in general should therefore go beyond
teaching skills or transferring technology.  The scope and objectives of
TV agricultural  programmes  should  be  broadened  to  include  such
structural  constraints  as  poverty,  the  distribution  and  allocation  of
social resources, power relations, the operations of state Institutions,
peasants representation in the state, class division and socio-political
issues  and  problems,  all  of  which  are  very  fundamental  to  the
development  process.  The role of the mass media  is to educate  the
people to be aware of their social conditions, the origin of their social
problems  and how to confront,  challenge  and transform them.  The
media are to mobilise support among the local people for a structural
transformation of the society and should be agents of sensltlzation of
the lower classes.

A Brazilian educator,  Paulo Frelre, has  rightly noted that merely
tranferrlng knowledge and ideas from an authoritative source to passive
receivers Is an exercise in domination.  On the other hand,  liberation
education reveals the nature of social reality and makes men critical

40

thinkers and  transformers.

Whereas banking  education  anaesthetizes  and  inhibits  creative  power,
problem-posing  education  involves  a  constant  unveiling  of reality.  The
former attempts to maintain the submersion of consciousness; the latter
strives  for  the  emergence  of consciousness  and  critical  intervention  in
reality (Freire, 1972).

Amajor precondition for attaining the goals of liberation or problem-
posing  education  through  television  is  the  democratization  and
decentralization  of  television  and  other  channels  of  public
communication. The people must have access to these channels and
be  allowed  to  participate  in  the  communication  process  as  equal
subjects in the society.  The grassroots people must be provided the
opportunity  to  discuss  and  bring  their  perspective  to  bear  on  the
development process.  Access and participation  are the  cornerstones
of rural mobilization and motivation towards development (Moemeka,
1990).

It also demands a restructuring of the Nigerian mass media, and a
re-orientation  of  professional  media  practice.  There  is  a  need  to
reconceptualize some of the basic tenets and assumptions of media
practice.  Media  workers  need  to broaden  their  horizon  and  socio-
cultural assumptions.

Local governments, Ministries of Agriculture and the ADPs should
be made to devote a fixed percentage of their budgets for agriculture to
communication and information dissemination.  The allocation should
be substantial enough to cover an integrated communication package
(radio, print, television and interpersonal media, including extension
services). The production of media programmes and materials should
be jointly planned and financed by local governments, ADPs, Ministries
of Agriculture  and Rural Development. DIFFRI, Better Life for Rural
Dwellers, Agriculture Research, Institutes/Universities,  Co-operative
Societies and Farmers' Unions, Development Associations and  other
bodies concerned with agriculture and rural development.  Apart from
reducing the financial burden on any of the cooperating bodies, this
approach will also broaden the concerns and social perspectives of the
programmes.

Moreover,  it  is  urgent  to  establish  or  reactivate  mobile  cinema
units  in the  state  Ministries  of Information  and  local governments.
The operation of the community viewing centres should be strengthened
by more money, men and materials.  The existing centres are poorly
maintained  and  serviced.  Community  viewing  centres  and  mobile
cinemas will not only solve the problem of non-availability of television

41

In  the  rural  areas,  they  are  In  line  with  the  culture  of  the  rural
populace - the essence of group and community Irving.  They will

provide opportunities for combining the positive features of mass and
interpersonal  communications.  Discussions  and  feedback  by  the
viewers could be monitored, questions raised could be answered and
the communication needs of the people satisfied with minimum delay.
Programme makers and experts could also benefit  from the face-to-
face Interaction with viewers in such a setting.

Conclusion

The  current  approach  to  and  objectives  of  TV  programmes  on
agriculture  are too narrow and  Inadequate. Though they reflect  the
dominant development thinking in the country (transfer of technology)
and the problems of agricultural production (low productivity due to
poor farming techniques, lack of modern technology, and the  social
structure of the farming community), our contention is that structural
constraints are probably more fundamental to the development process
than information on technology.  The farmers may not be as ignorant
or non-receptive as we might think.  Their problems may stem more
from poverty, exploitation and other structural constraints which are
usually neglected In the mass media.  To be relevant and effective, the
mass media have to incorporate these issues by broadening the scope
and focus of TV agricultural programmes.  Agricultural development
is far too complex and important to national development for it to be
treated as merely rural development.

Our aim is not to say that we should stop providing information  on
new farming techniques but that there is more to farming than planting
and  harvesting.  We are gradually  seeing the  end  of public service
broadcasting.  The present non-availability of agriculture programmes
on TV is a clear testimony to this.  Therefore,  a major  step must  be
taken to give adequate access and participation to the lower classes in
the society. This calls for a more democratic media structure and a re-
orientation of media practice. Media workers as producers of knowledge
must  also  "face  the  question,  under  what  conditions  can  fanners
advance and protect their interests, and how can they, in alliance with
others  establish  and  maintain  those  conditions"  (Williams,  1980).
Improvement in our rural areas and in peasant production can only
be achieved when peasants are able to organize themselves to protect
and advance their own interests against those of the dominant ruling
bloc.

42

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