Assessment of Media Coverage of Environmental Hazards in Mining Communities in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

This study investigated the magnitude of media coverage of environmental hazards in the mining communities in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Motivated by the poor agricultural yields and increased prevalence of health challenges in the mining communities, the study posited that the media is indispensable in the fight for a healthy environment in the State. However, the failure of the mass media in the State to embark on any form of environmental communication in order to monitor environmental issues made the fight almost impossible. Thus, the study set out to determine how committed and professional the media were in the fight. A sample size of 25 media practitioners, two radio stations and four newspapers all domiciled in the State were assessed using multi-staged random sampling technique. The hypothesis was tested using the Chi - Square test at 0.05 level of significance