CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
According
to Head and Sterling (1982) the term media “are those means of communication
that use technology to reach large parts of the population almost simultaneously
with the kind of news and entertainment that ordinary people can afford to pay”
(Laaro, 2004). Invariably, the mass media are an important component of mass
communication in disseminating symbolic content to a large interogenous and
widely dispersed audience.
The history
of journalism in Nigeria can be treated from the 1920s on the independence in
1960. The press became an industry, profession on a social force for libration
of the Nigeria people. The multiple dimension of the press attracted the first
set of laws by government against it. These laws over time became a fundamental
element in the development of the relationship between the media and government
in their joint enterprise of forging the countries democratic process.
The role of
the modern press pioneers such as the Late Nnamdi Azikwe and the Late Chief
Obafemi Awolowo, among others was to push forward and entrench the role of
press as “the watch dog” of Nigeria’s nascent interest.
The media
is grouped into print and broadcast media. The print media include: Newspaper,
magazine, journals, book, pamphlets, etc. while the broadcast media consist of
radio and television. The establishment of Iwe Iroyin fun awon egba ati Yoruba”
by Reverend Townsend in Abeokuta in 1959 marked the birth of newspaper in
Nigeria.
The
initiative later gave rise to the establishment of newspaper outfits like that
of Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe in 1931; named “West Africa Pilot” Azikwe’s paper
pioneered a general protest against attainment of independence in 1960. The new
Nigeria’s Newspaper Limited was established by the then government of the
Northern region on 23rd October 1966. The first copy of the papers
was issued on 1st January 1966. Before the establishment of new
Nigeria newspaper, the Northern Nigeria government has established a Hausa
Newspaper in Zaria called Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo in 1965. They simultaneously
printed newspaper which enhanced the wise spread of newspaper in Kaduna and
Lagos. As at today, Nigeria has various Newspapers ranging form the Nigeria
tribune established 16th Novembers 1949. The punch, the Vanguard,
the sun, this day tceters, at present, Nigeria has a number of different
language newspapers ranging from Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Itsekiri and so on.
The radio
on the other hand started in Nigeria on 1936 through the distribution of programme
emanating from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London as part of
its overseas service to Lagos, Kano and Ibadan under the arrangement referred
to as radifussion. Similarly, in 1959, the Western Nigerian Broadcasting
Service (WNBS) was established by Chief Obafemi Awolowo as the first Television
station in Nigeria in 1962, The Western region government took full control of
the WNBS by buying over, all the shares held by the overseas radiffusion Ltd.
Today
Nigeria has thirty six states with each aspiring to set up her own television
station in 1976; television stations started becoming colour programme.A new
chapter opened in the history of T.V broadcasting in Nigeria with the federal
government take over all televisions service in 1978. May state government have
however, established more television and radio stations since then and have
been competing favorably with the
federal government stations.
In a
democratic society, the media is referred to as the fourth estate of the realm;
this means that after, the executive arm, legislative, judiciary, the media
comes next. Edund Buke made this
ascertain at one of the proceeding of the British parliament after he had
mentioned the three well known estates of the realm, the lords spiritual, the
lords temporal and the common. He pointed to the press gallery and added “and
younger sits the fourth estates, more important of them all”. President J.F
Kennedy’s remark on the American press that the president reigns for four years
but journalist govern forever, also confirmed the fact that the media is a
partner in progress with the government and not a tool. The broad function of
the media are to act as watch-dog over
the government, safeguarding the rights of the individual and reporting events
accurately, objectively and without bias or prejudice.
However,
media ownership tends to have influence on their performance as the “fourth estate
of the realm” the degree of freedom of the government owned media cannot be
compared with those of private-owned media deliberately avoid criticism of
government action and play down stories capable of exposing government secret
events when the public interest requires that such story be told to the public.
The Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) for example will never transmit any
report revealing the secrets of the federal government. The private media even
through not entirely free from this faults expose bad acts of especially the
government.
Government-owned
media are purposely set to give maximum publicity to the government activities
and any journalist who does not want to lose his/her job must keep to that
policy. This policy also operate in Osun State where the Gold Fm must not
Criticnce the government of the day when t he interest of the public is at
stake. A good example of when government Rauf Aregbesola refused to show up at
the commissioning of the state high court where the vice president was present.
The government deliberately ignored the event based on some political crisis
between the people’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action congress of Nigeria
(ANC). Gold FM did not criticize the governor for dishonoring the
vice-president in their news content. This is one of the reasons that propelled
the researcher to embark on this research work to find out influence of
ownership on the performance of Gold F M Ilesha, Osun State.
However, it
was gathered that the station may love done this deliberately to get favor from
the state government of course; they need financial muscle to survive.
1.2 STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM
The mass
Media in Nigeria especially the government owned have been accused of dancing
to the whines and caprices of the various government owing them. This has
greatly affected their performance in the society as the fourth estate of the
realm serving as watch dog against the government.
The purpose
of this study therefore, is to examine the influence of the federal government
on the performance of Gold FM Ilesha.
1.3 OBJECTIVES
OF THE STUDY
·
To show how ownership pattern of media organization affect
their professional performance.
·
To know whether broadcast media content are subjected to
censorship before they are broadcast for the public.
·
To examine the effect of influence of ownership on the
staff of broadcast media house.
1.4 RESEARCH
QUESTION
Does the
ownership pattern of media organization affect professional performance?
Are the
media broadcast contents subject to censorship before they are broadcast to the
public?
Does the
influence of ownership on the media have any effect on the staff?
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
This study
will be significant to:
vRegular users of the media like advertisers, sponsor, Ngos
etc.
vScholars, academic and analysis who study and comment
about the media.
vFuture researcher.
1.6 SCOPE
AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The scope
of this research study will cover programmes and news department of Golf FM
Ilesa.
The
research study is limited to Gold Fm Ilesa because of the limited time within
which in should be carried out coupled with inadequate fund to finance the
research work. These factors will make it difficult to cover all the areas
relevant to this study.
1.7 DEFINITION
OF TERM
Influence: Power to have an effect on the way
someone or some thing develops, behaves or think without using direct force of
commands.
Ownership: The act of having or possessing
something as one’s own.
Media: Those means of communication that
used technology to reach large part of the population almost simultaneously
with the kind of news and entertainment that or ordinary people can afford to
pay.
Professionalism: The high standard that you expect
from a person who is well trained in a particular job.