IMPACT OF PRIVATE BROADCAST MEDIA ON NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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IMPACT OF PRIVATE BROADCAST MEDIA ON NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
ABSTRACT
This study focuses on the impact of private broadcast media on national growth. The study employed the AIT and Ray Power curricula as case studies. As part of a study on media effects, the Survey Design was used to determine people’s perceptions and ratings of the various parts of the stations’ programmes as they relate to their developmental requirements.
The study’s population consisted of residents from Port Harcourt’s two Local Government Areas (Port Harcourt City and Obio/Akpor), which formed a sort of cluster. A sample size of 300 was randomly selected, and the data collection instrument was provided to them.
Several conclusions were drawn from the acquired and analysed data. These findings can be summarised by saying that, while the stations are doing well in terms of meeting the development needs of their target areas
there is a great need for adequate collaboration between these stations and their target areas on the one hand, and between these two and both the government and corporate concerns on the other.
This will go a long way towards promoting true and sustainable development. Only when this is done can the media be said to be effectively performing their roles of teaching, informing, and entertaining their audiences in these areas.
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The three primary roles of the mainstream media are to educate, inform, and amuse the public.
Many experts have not only opined, but also appear to have concluded, that the mass media plays an important role in executing the aforementioned activities, which contribute significantly to the development of a self-conscious and self-sustaining population.
Believing that an educated, informed, and entertained population is the foundation for any genuine progress, there is no denying that broadcast media remains vital for any development endeavour to be worthwhile.
Carther and Kenny (2003.1) support the above assertion by observing that broadcasting has an important role to play in development—as a widespread tool for information transfer, an important economic sector in its own right, and a potential access point to new information and communication technology.
The information paper on an Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) (2003.1) supports the aforementioned position by observing that there is a clear consensus that broadcasting may play a critical role in affecting development outcomes in Africa.
How can this be accomplished and the desired payouts distributed? The paper contends that broadcast stations, and indeed broadcasters, have a primary role to play, and thus challenges African broadcasters and their partners to place issues of poverty and development at the forefront of the broadcast agenda, to keep these issues in the spotlight, and to demonstrate that broadcasting can tangibly influence development.
This implies that by bringing poverty, illiteracy, and other social handicaps to the forefront, broadcasting stations are setting the way and contributing significantly to societal development efforts.
According to Udeajah (2004:13), electronic media of mass communication are extremely crucial for political, economic, and educational growth in all societies.
Development is a consequence of the information available to the population of any culture; nevertheless, information is useless unless it reaches the audience who will put it to practical use.
The extent to which this available information is used is determined by when and how the target audience receives it, as well as their level of comprehension.
This is another way of agreeing with Laswell’s postulation that the most convenient and easiest approach to understand communication is to answer the following questions:
Who?
Says what?
To whom?
In what channel?
What Effect?
Amoako (2003: 12) correctly observes that we now live in an information age, in which the ability to acquire and share knowledge is regarded as critical to economic growth and development.
In this regard, we believe that through sustained advocacy based on accurate and contextualised content, an active and proactive media can help bring about positive development outcomes in Africa.
According to Jaboru (2002:11), broadcast media plays a crucial role in promoting development by providing information that leads to knowledge, which is necessary for progress.
An information-literate population has a better chance of raising its quality of life than one that is not; thus, a UNESCO book on the Asia Media Summit concludes (2005:1) that broadcasting is critical to development.
After decades of government control over broadcast stations in Nigeria, the Babangida administration deregulated this critical industry in 1992. With this development, Nigeria’s broadcast industry underwent a burst of multiple bubbles in the shape of private stations.
This development resulted in a slew of privately owned stations licenced to add more beauty, colour, and charm to the broadcast industry, gratifying Nigerians’ hunger and demand for a more robust, competitive, and superior broadcast sector.
Daar Communications Limited is one of the privately owned enterprises that received approval from the military administration to enter the private broadcasting market. From the stables of this firm grew two stations: Africa Independent Television (AlT), the television arm, and Raypower 100FM, the radio arm.
In 1994 and 1996, these twin stations struck the Nigerian airwaves with higher-quality broadcasts in Lagos. Following their success in Lagos, and the type of licence awarded to them, they went on to establish Nigeria’s second broadcast network, following the Federal Government-owned Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN). This resulted in the live streaming of its stations in Abuja, Kaduna, and Kano.
In 2003, they expanded their influence to Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria’s oil capital and the focal centre of the south-south geopolitical zone, by launching radio and television stations there.
According to Udeajah (2004:363), the purpose of AlT, for example, is to emphasise development issues while methodically promoting the decrease of stress and friction in order to attain global harmony.
According to Ugwu (2000.34), Raymond Dokpesi, chairman of Daar Communications Limited, stated at the station’s inception that Africa Independent Television and other ancillary stations were a significant step forward in bridging the growing gap in the world information order, which had previously left Nigeria and Africa vulnerable to western propaganda and viewpoints.
This position appears to imply that the establishment of these stations will not only contribute to Nigeria’s development (via their target communities), but will also place these in their proper context and project them to the rest of the world.
With almost three years passed, one is tempted to wonder how much the private stations have impacted the lives of their target communities in terms of overall development. The crux of this research is an attempt to answer this question in terms of potential concomitant offshoots.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Deregulating the television sector is not a goal in itself, but rather a means to certain important ends. Licencing and establishing private broadcast stations is not the end.
These policy activities or intentions can only be said to be effective if they have a positive and ongoing influence on the lives of their intended audiences.
This means that the success or failure of all of these can only be judged in terms of the amount to which they result in tangible developmental outcomes that benefit both individual recipients and the nation as a whole.
To what extent have the Dear Communications outfits in Port Harcourt been successful in meeting the aforementioned objectives? How have they contributed to significant individual and societal growth in the lives of their target population? What educational, entertaining, and information development have the target people and communities reported?
How do the people (audience) estimate the development impact of the stations? The specific problem of this study is to address the question: what roles have the two study stations played in encouraging the development of their respective target areas?
1.3 Objectives Of The Study.
The primary goal of the study is to investigate the impact of private broadcast media on national growth.
This study has the following guiding objectives:
To determine the impact of Ray Power/AlT on the Development of the audience.
To examine the audience’s thoughts on how the two Stations have enhanced their knowledge and other abilities in relation to their development.
To identify the areas of strengths and weakness of these stations with a view to suggesting areas to be worked upon.
1.4 Research Questions.
The research questions listed below will lead this investigation.
What is the respondents’ awareness of the existence of the two study stations, and how frequently do they listen to/view them?
Which stations’ programmes foster development goals, and how have they influenced the respondents’ overall development?
How do respondents rank the stations’ overall performance in terms of developmental needs?
What areas do respondents want the stations to improve in?
1.5 Significance of the Study
This research is noteworthy in the following respects.
Perhaps this is the first scientific investigation of how the stations affect the development of their target areas in this portion of Nigeria.
This study is also part of media-effect research, which emphasises the importance of constantly evaluating the effects of broadcast stations on their target audiences.
This study is also crucial since it will provide scientifically verifiable feedback data on the strengths and weaknesses of the study stations’ programmes, which will be an important tool for improving content, presentation, and other aspects.
These and other incidental derivable benefits will undoubtedly contribute to the existing literature and data in the field of mass communication in general, and the electronic sub-stratum specifically.
1.6 Limitations of the study
This study may be restricted by a paucity of materials in this area, as private broadcast stations are very new/young in Nigeria. Furthermore, the audience’s diversity will make study sample selection, instrument administration, data collecting, analysis, and interpretation more difficult.
Finally, as an individual endeavour combined with the hard economic realities and demands of modern Nigeria, financing and other logistics may provide some significant challenges. Nonetheless, inventive solutions will be developed to overcome the majority, if not all, of these restrictions.
1.7 Theoretical framework.
To orient and align any investigation within its right framework, existing ideas must serve as the pivot around which the study revolves. The development media theory serves as the study’s foundation and fulcrum.
This notion originated with the UNESCO International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems.
Agbo (2003:25) asserts that the development media theory is a fresh contribution to the current ideas. To him, this addition resulted from the realisation that none of the previous theories fully explained the functioning of the media in the world’s developing countries.
According to him, the need for such a theory stems from the fact that these developing countries face unique circumstances (indices) that make applying older theories challenging.
The primary premise of this theory is that the press system of developing countries, in particular, should recognise, promote, and publish or broadcast stories that help and complement the social-political and economic development of the society or country in which they operate. They are required to collaborate with the government and social institutions to achieve rural and national goals in their respective countries.
Taking this a step further, one may state without fear of contradiction that the press (which includes private broadcast stations) must be not just co-creators of development efforts, but also true and devoted agents of development in their respective sectors.
Agbo (2003:25) summarises this by stating that the development media theory is based on the belief that the press is a powerful tool that can be used to create development in every community.
Based on McQuail’s (1987) works, he concludes that this theory, among other things, should be capable of and actually harnessing positive development tasks with established national goals
the need for objective restriction or control to ensure that the media and their roles are in tandem with the development needs of their target areas (society), and the need for an international alignment or cohesion among developing societies with regards to news and information.
Translated from a development perspective, the media elicits a favourable or negative reaction from the target audience for all content given. As a result, if the information in issue is development-oriented, development or lack thereof must be attained at the conclusion of the procedure.
Another theory relevant to this study is the development media theory. According to Okoro and Agbo (2003:25), this idea arose from the failure of current theories to account for the operations of the media in developing countries.
This is due to the idiosyncrasies and indicators of these developing nations, which make it difficult to apply existing theories appropriately and adequately. They outlined the following:
– Limited supply of vital communication infrastructure.
– Limited availability of required professional skills
– Limited cultural production resources.
– Limited access to literate media audiences.
– An overreliance on the developed world for technology, skills, and cultural products.
While agreeing with the preceding postulations, Konkwo (1997:179) states that the mass media is used in this theory to promote social and economic growth with the goal of establishing national integration.
The Democratic-Participant Theory is the final theory that will provide theoretical guidance for this investigation. According to Okoro and Agbo (2003:27), this idea is based on the belief that the current bureaucracy, as well as commercial and professional predominance in the media, must be torn down in order to ensure easier media access for all users and consumers.
According to them, this hypothesis is a byproduct of people’s dissatisfaction with media systems that have been hijacked by elites, resulting in them (media systems) becoming overconcentrated and monopolised by this new group of individuals.
In other words, proponents of this theory prefer pluralism over centralism, and horizontal communication over “top-down” communication.
Although not fully legitimised or integrated into any media institution’s working rules, they determined that this is the normative theory of the future.
The importance of this theory in this study may be seen in the current demand for a more collaborative and audience-participation approach to programming design, planning, organisation, and evaluation.
This is due to the fact that if communication is to travel horizontally, it must be a continuous cross-flow of information with no permanent sender or receiver.
1.8. Conceptual Framework
A good understanding of fundamental concepts in any research goes a long way towards enlightening readers’ perspectives and fostering improved comprehension.
Broadcasting appears to be a straightforward and widely understood idea. This issue stems from the fact that it has undergone numerous improvements and adjustments since the late nineteenth century, including changes in the quality and amount of information, professional instruments for distributing it, and organisational checks. However, assuming that it is well understood or conceptualised by the vast majority may be erroneous.
From a semantic standpoint, the Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines it as cast or spread in all directions; made public by means of radio or television; of or relating to radio or television broadcasting…, the art of sending sound or images by radio or television.
According to Udeajah (2004.3), the term broadcasting refers to the concept of distributed dispersion to an anonymous, indefinite destination made up of listeners and watchers.
Broadcasting is the practice of electronically transmitting information (which can be audio or both audio and video) to diverse audiences via air waves. Broadcasting can be viewed as a purely technological procedure.
However, this viewpoint may be deceiving and not entirely accurate. Aside from the technological process component, broadcasting includes various other intervening characteristics such as purposefulness, instantaneity, topicality, and versatility.
Because every information originating from the broadcast house/personnel must serve certain predefined and other purposes, it is critical that the content, technique, style, and channel of conveying such information be effectively controlled and managed.
Without intending to digress from the scope of this section, three types of broadcast station ownership have been identified as being used in numerous nations. These are owned by the state or government, private individuals, or communities.
The government continues to play an important role in all of the aforementioned ownership forms because it is responsible for granting licences, allocating frequencies, monitoring, and controlling these stations.
In the context of this study, private broadcast stations are defined as those that are wholly owned, operated, and managed by an individual or group of individuals while still being constantly monitored, supervised, and controlled by the government, either directly or through regulatory agencies. Private broadcasting stations are self-sustaining and therefore profit-oriented.
According to the media rights watchdog, community broadcasting is completely public service in character, grassroots, low-cost to acquire, operate, and maintain, and can be identified with by their host communities.
Development is another key term in the study topic that must be addressed in its proper conceptual context. As with any other social science idea, this phrase has been susceptible to various hues, scopes, and depths of interpretation.
This definitional difficulty stems from the fact that, because beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, the areas of interest of those presenting these many definitions influence the meaning assigned to it.
In response to this predicament, scientists and researchers have attempted to define development using sociological, educational, psychological, economic, agricultural, technological, and other perspectives. A brief look at some of these definitions can help shape the concept such that it is appropriate for our research.
Boafo (1991:2) elaborates on Inayatullah’s works, stating that development refers to “change towards patterns of society that allow better realisation of human values, that allow a society to have great control over its environmental and political duties, and that enables its individuals to gain increased control over themselves.”
He also reports Kleinjans’ concept, which states that development is ultimately not a matter of technological or gross national product, but of acquiring new information skills, growing a new awareness, and extending human development.
According to Rogers (quoted in Nwabueze, 2005:3), development is a widely participative process of social transformation in which a society seeks to achieve social and material advancement for the majority of people by giving them power over their surroundings.
Development thus entails the creation, introduction, or provision of necessary possibilities for full exploitation of the human gift, with the ultimate goal of improving man’s lot or control over his affairs and surroundings.
All of this ultimately leads to better living conditions, stronger and more active participation in his world, and, most significantly, a greater and better understanding of himself, his environment, and his potentials through conscious and organised efforts.
When development is viewed through the lens of goal, process, planned integrated process, end, and means to an end, it becomes clear that the underlying goal is a shift from what is to what ought to be, a positive movement towards the perceived ideal state of things.
This viewpoint is why most people believe that development should be people-centered rather than project- or extraneous variable-centered. To put it another way, development should work with, rather than for, people.
Because man is the topic rather than the object of development, several international agencies such as the United Nations, UNESCO, UNICEF, FAO, WHO, World Bank, and others have established various targets, goals, methodologies, and benchmarks for development in any community.
All of these concepts, approaches, aims, and so on are centred on man, his environment, and the enhancement and management of his existence.
This means that in order to be in line with development, any broadcast station must ensure that the content, context, and distribution mechanisms of her programming are not just people-oriented, but also people-based and collaborative. This necessitates a collaborative approach to project creation, development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
These programmes can focus on a specific aspect or the entire scope of human life. These include health, education, politics, skill development, the economy, agriculture, popular engagement, social mobilisation, culture and tradition, cultural preservation and mission, arts, trade, and crafts, among others.
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