Evaluation of contribution of local journalists to lifelong learning(Example of Bartın province)

The aim of this research is to evaluate the contributions of local newspapers to life-long learning according to the opinions of readers in the local newspapers in Bartin province, which determine the news contributing to life-long learning of the readers. Converging parallel design was used in the research of the mixed research design. The population of the research consists of the newspapers which has created the journal of daily published local newspapers in Bartin in 2014 that are Bartın Halk, Hergün, Manşet, Pusula ve 74 Haber. In Bartın province, 160 women and 271 men as local newspaper readers formed are the other population of the research. In the qualitative dimension of the study, the criteria sampling method was used for the purpose of determining the interviewees to be interviewed. In this context, 42 people working in public institutions and organizations in Bartın Province were identified. In order to be able to collect quantitative data, the researcher prepared a "questionnaire on the contribution of local newspapers to life-long learning" for the purpose of the research together with the personal information form. In order to collect qualitative data, a semi-structured interview form was prepared by the researcher in order to determine the readers' opinions on the contribution of local newspapers to life-long learning. Descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of the quantitative data collected by the questionnaire and SPSS 20.0 software was used for the analysis. In the qualitative part of the study, the data obtained from the interviews were analyzed by content analysis method. The frequency of publication of health, education, socio-cultural, environment, labor market and employment news in daily local newspapers in Bartın province was screened by frequency analysis method included in content analysis techniques.In the analysis of data, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests were conducted in order to determine the differences that might arise between the variables for the opinion of readers about the contributions of local newspapers to life-long learning. Bonferroni correction was applied to determine the difference between the groups. Significant differences were found according to gender, education status, title and institution studied, reading frequency and duration of local newspaper. The research has resulted in the fact that local newspapers can contribute to the lifelong learning of their readers by means of limited opportunities and access to public institutions and their employees, even at the point of inadequate education, health, environment, socio-cultural life, employment and labor news. Key Words:Life-long learning, informal education, newspaper, local newspaper, news,reader