AN APPRAISAL OF THE APPLICATION OF ICTs IN THE NIGERIAN MASS MEDIA

AN APPRAISAL OF THE APPLICATION OF ICTs IN THE NIGERIAN MASS MEDIA

ABSTRACT

“The Use of ICTs in the Nigerian Mass Media: A Study of NTA and The Guardian Newspapers” was the topic of this study. The NTA and The Guardian newspapers were used as case studies by the researcher to determine the present extent of ICT use in the Nigerian mass media. The investigation made an effort to pinpoint the contributing variables, the expected consequences, as well as potential countermeasures for better uptake and improved application of ICTs in the two media. The method of survey research was employed. Data was collected using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. 400 respondents in all were chosen from the general community; 200 were chosen from the NTA and The Guardian Newspapers headquarters in equal numbers (i.e., 100 each); and 100 from the North [Gwagwalada area of Abuja (50), Bida L.G.A. in Niger state (50), and another 100 from the South [Surulere area of Lagos state (50), and Enugu North L.G.A. in Enugu state (50)] were collected from the public who have access to the two media under consideration. The stratified and straightforward random sampling methods were employed. Simple descriptive and statistical techniques, such as simple percentages, tabular displays, and frequency distributions, were used to analyze the obtained data. The Diffusion of Innovation idea served as the study’s foundation. The study’s conclusions showed that although the Nigerian mass media (NTA and The Guardian newspapers) had adapted the new ICTs to some extent, there was still a long way to go in terms of acceptance and implementation still falls far below expectations, especially when contrasted with what is attainable in the western world. According to the findings, there is a lack of infrastructure, such as electricity, a lack of trained or skilled ICT personnel, a lack of knowledge of ICTs at all levels, from suppliers to users, financial constraints, corruption, poor planning, and a lack of political or ideological will as the reasons for the underuse of ICTs in the two media. The study also showed that NTA and The Guardian newspapers’ underuse of ICTs had a significant negative impact on the programs’ quality and quantity, respectively. On the basis of these discoveries, suggestions were given. One way for the government to get involved is by creating an atmosphere that encourages the use of new technology and deters their misuse, such as by providing essential social utilities like power. persistent brain drain in the nation. The media organizations should make investments in the creation and acquisition of ICTs, as well as in the ongoing training and retraining of their workforce in computer literacy and how to use the newest ICTs in the media industry, among other things.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have revolutionized every aspect of human endeavor since their development. The great revolution has undoubtedly affected the mass media, including radio, television, newspapers, magazines, etc. Particularly for the broadcast industry, the satellite has made news more instantaneous and simultaneous. As a result, the new technologies have made media professionals’ jobs highly efficient, engaging, simple, affordable, quicker, more dependable, and possibly most profitable.
In her article on this media sector evolution, Maida (1996), which was quoted According to Idemili and Sambe (2007:181) Information gathering, processing, storing, retrieving, and transmission have undoubtedly been revolutionized by the development of some electromagnetic technologies, such as microcircuiting, micro-graphics, holographic memory, micro-electronics, optic fiber satellites, video discs, telex, view data, digital broadcast systems, facsimiles, videophones, computers, and microprocessors, etc. Information is now accessible to more people more quickly and at a lower cost.

For instance, the medium of television broadcasting has changed significantly over the years, from monochrome to color, from low-quality VHS cameras to Dvcam, Videophones, electronic news gathering (ENG), and satellite news gathering (SNG) tools, among other things.
TV productions and presentations have improved thanks to new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The era of linear editing is over. Today, editing is carried out digitally using a computer. It’s referred to as non-linear editing. This guarantees efficient editing and superior post-productions. Also, there are advanced modern studio facilities including Digital Lighting, teleprompters, digital studio cameras of various sizes, special effects equipment, character generators, digital playback devices, etc.
The revolution includes the radio as well. The radio sector, High Definition radios are being introduced. According to Akpan (2009), HD radio is a digital service that significantly enhances the sound and signal quality of terrestrial local stations. With HD radio, FM stations now sound as good as CDs, and AM stations sound as good as contemporary FM stations, aesthetic-free and free of atmospheric interference.

Modern print industry modern technologies that provide efficiency, speed, quality, and dependability considerably improve the manufacturing and distribution of newspapers. In the developed world, many large newspapers now participate in satellite publications, which involves the simultaneous publication of a newspaper edition in many cities within the nation and abroad. Ufuohu cites Dominick (1993) for this (2007:240) provided illustrations of these newspapers to name a few: The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Financial Times of London, etc.

Nonetheless, satellite publication is still relatively new in Nigeria, where it has failed to gain popularity among the country’s print media. Thisday is the only Nigerian daily that publishes concurrently in Nigeria and, according to Okorie (2008:170),

Currently, South Africa, and yet inconsistent. As a result, we continue to have early and late versions, as Ufuohu (2007:2007) correctly points out. explains:
As soon as one crosses the Niger Bridge into the East, one will notice differences in the contents: one is an early edition, the other is a late edition. This is true if one purchases a newspaper with national circulation in the West, Edo, or even Delta state and another copy of the same newspaper the same day.
Ende (2003:42) writes further about the issue of distribution and circulation of journalistic goods in Nigeria and discloses the following:
Since some publications (notably Vanguard and The Punch) repackage old news and send it up north in current dates under the guise of a northern edition, many of our so-called national dailies are read in arrears while the news is actually read a day or two later in southern editions of the tabloids…

Editions of Thisday and The Guardian are currently a day late in arriving in Markurdi, a town located barely 820 kilometers from Lagos and 323 kilometers from Abuja. With satellite technology, these issues with newspaper production and distribution is entirely lost.

Also, many Nigerian television stations are yet to adopt the non-linear editing which is digital. They still rely on linear editing which is very clumsy.

Again, many electronic media in the country are yet to adopt the use of Electronic News Gathering (ENG) gadgets, which enable the crew to broadcast, live from the scene of an event directly to the station. In the same vein, they have not adopted the use of Satellite News Gathering (SNG) gadgets. The SNG with its specially equipped technologies uplinks the signals live from the venue of an event to a communication satellite and back to the mother station which makes it possible for those with the receivers to receive the signals live across the world. The only similar thing many TV stations in the country have is the outside Broadcasting Van

(OB.Van).

Similarly, many FM and TV station in the country are yet to be fully equipped with the state–of–the–art facilities. The few available studios are stocked with obsolete equipment resulting in constant breakdown.

Again, the modern lithographic machines and printing machines have gone digital, thereby, eliminating time waste. The machines print faster, collate, count and do other necessary findings. Colour separation is also done on digital equipment as against the previous analogue ones. Thus, making print journalism less clumsy and more interesting.

With the ICTs, photography has ascended to heights that were not previously imagined. In the past, the darkroom was used in developing pictures for news stories or broadcast journalism; today, photo-cropping is done electronically with the use of computers. Also, there are now digital cameras in various sizes, which replace the analogue ones. There are inbuilt digital cameras in mobile phones in today‟s society.

The Nigerian mass media are catching up gradually with these explosive information and communication technologies. For instance, the NTA, MBI, AIT Channels, Silverbird and a few other TV stations in the country have gone satellite. Some of them have adopted a system similar to CNN and BBC World in their news broadcast. With the aid of the new equipment, two newscasters from two different locations far apart could be brought on screen simultaneously (split screen) and discuss with each other briefly before one is faded out. Though the method is not as perfect as that of the advanced media organizations, but it is commendable.

However aside from the NTA, AIT, MBI, Channels, Silverbird, and a few other stations, many TV stations in Nigeria continue to run on low-quality equipment, which results in the extremely poor quality of their transmission.

Additionally, several television stations in the nation continue to record shows like talks and interviews with only one camera, which is typically a VHS camera. This can be seen in how quickly the camera pans from one discussion participant to the next or from the interviewer to the subject of the conversation. According to Enahoro (2002:66), it is as follows:

At the moment, a Panasonic camera mounted on a Philip tripod with a Beltec microphone on an Aiwa amplifier linked by Thompson wire is all that is visible and a Sony headphone.

Again, most TV stations in the country still rely on physical delivery of stories from their correspondents in distant places instead of sending them through the Internet, the cell phone or the satellite. This makes many stories to be stale. For instance, during the January 27, 2002 Ikeja bomb blast, it was reported that most of the television stations in Lagos were still running dry commentaries of the mishap three hours after the event as Egbuchalam (2005) in Terngu and Ende Ternenge

(2007:281) recounts:

On the evening of the Lagos bombing, a listener in Lagos asked the anchorman on a phone-in program why his station was broadcasting the bomb blast from three hours earlier without any actuality photographs. Their cameramen were already at the Ikeja cantonment site, they responded, and they would bring the film back later. The aforementioned assertion and the BBC World live reports on the.

The terrorist assaults on September 11th at New York’s World Trade Center and the interment of Pope John Paul II in Rome, Italy, leave a lot to be desired.

Preliminary investigations reveal that many radio stations in the country especially the state-owned stations are yet to be equipped with the state–of–the–art facilities. Many of them do not have computers fitted with MP3 software and CD writes. Many still operate studio equipment manually instead of using the console. Again, many of their transmitters are obsolete thereby resulting in constant breakdown. Unlike the FRCN and the big private FM stations such as Ray Power 100.5, Cool FM, Rhythm FM and Radio Continental, many state–owned radio stations do not broadcast correspondents‟ reports directly from the venue of an event. They do not broadcast for 24 hours.  The reason perhaps is that they do not posses the technology to do so.

There are still some state radio stations stuffed with cartridge machines, reel–to– reel machines, turntables and cassette players. While in the real digital modern studio, one expects to see CDs, VCDs, DVDs, computers fitted with MP3 software and CD writes.

Preliminary investigations also revealed that in the print media, many Nigerian newspapers have introduced online news services courtesy of the web technology. The online services make it possible to access the newspapers worldwide.

News outlets like

All of the periodicals The Sun, Thisday, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Daily Independent, The Newswatch, and Tell have online access. They provide summaries of the full text versions of their material to subscribers. Nonetheless, the lack of satellite technologies that allow newspapers to be published simultaneously in several locations continues to represent a significant difficulty for newspaper distribution and circulation in the nation.

The aforementioned findings demonstrate that most of the current technologies are still drastically underutilized, despite a relative increase in the employment of several new ICTs in the Nigerian mainstream media.

Therefore, the researcher plans to assess critically the degree of new technology adoption and implementation in Nigerian mainstream media, with a particular focus on NTA and The Guardian magazine. The two major media outlets in the nation were specifically chosen to provide balanced representation of private and public ownership, print and electronic media, etc.

1.2  Statement of Problem

The development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has significantly altered the media landscape globally. The media is seriously embracing and utilizing the many opportunities offered by the new ICTs for more efficiency, higher quality, faster production, and delivery of more dependable and cost-effective service in a number of nations, particularly in the Western World.

Yet, preliminary research reveals that the majority of Nigerian and African print and electronic media have not yet fully caught up with the trend. Just “few few countries in Africa have started the ICT policy formation process, while in many, the mechanism still falls short of the required standard,” according to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) (ECA, May,1999).

The issue of adopting foreign technologies to meet local demands is one that Nigerian mass media must likewise deal with. Once more, there are still significant infrastructure gaps, particularly in the energy and telecommunications sectors, as well as in the education of media professionals to use some of these new, high-tech operating instruments. Thus,  According to Mbachu (2003), referenced in Ogah (2007:197),

According to the most recent global trends in technology and mass media, Nigeria’s mass media will continue to lag behind unless the nation ends its cycle of economic stagnation and advances to a higher level of development, which will ensure that its citizens enjoy a higher standard of living and act as a powerful stimulant for the creation and use of new technologies.

For the time being, it is sufficient to say unequivocally that this study’s issue is not determining the value of ICTs in contemporary mass media. The new ICTs are obviously very relevant in the media, as is well recognized. The more pressing challenge is to objectively ascertain how much these pertinent technologies are used in the two media under scrutiny (NTA and The Guardian Newspapers). This is crucial since earlier research indicates that there is already a digital divide between those who have access to information and those who do not.