SCHOLARS PERCEPTION OF NEWS COMMERCIALIZATION ON BROADCAST MEDIA CONTENT
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SCHOLARS PERCEPTION OF NEWS COMMERCIALIZATION ON BROADCAST MEDIA CONTENT
Abstract
This study looks into scholars’ perceptions on news commercialization on broadcast media content. We used the following objectives: To determine journalists’ perceptions of news commercialization, to investigate the extent to which news commercialization influences objectivity, fairness, balance, and truth in reporting, to investigate the forms of news commercialization that are visible among journalists, and to determine whether news commercialization encourages brown envelopes.
The researchers used Taro Yame’s technique to sample 200 Journalists, who formed the sample frame. A questionnaire was utilised to collect data. The surveys were distributed to 200 journalists. The researchers filled out and retrieved all of the supplied questionnaires.
The collected data was presented in tables, with frequency counts and simple percentages utilised for analysis and interpretation. The findings demonstrated that news commercialization affects objectivity and balance in reporting.
The survey also indicated that low compensation, personal avarice, and corruption are among the reasons why news commercialization thrives.
Chapter one
Introduction
Background of the study.
The media, whether broadcast or print, has lost credibility by gradually reducing journalism’s social obligation to an income-generating business. In Nigeria, the media is becoming increasingly commercialised, raising concerns about the integrity of the mass media sector.
The social responsibility thesis contends that, while the press acts as a free industry, as provided by libertarian ideology, it must be accountable to the society in which it operates.
According to this view, the mass media can raise issues of public concern. Our mass media today does not appear to serve this societal obligation, since problems that set the agenda for national progress are sacrificed for “naira and kobo”.
This abuse in practice has attracted the attention of mass communication experts and other stakeholders, who now call for a reinvention of our media contents to make the media realise their potential as vehicles for national development (Asogwa & Asemah (2012)
According to Udomisor and Akutus (2013) and Nnorom (1994), as cited in Ekwo (1996:63), news commercialization is a phenomenon in which broadcast media report or analyse news with a commercial message from an unidentified sponsor, giving the audience the impression that news is fair, objective, and socially responsible.
As a result, only organisations and individuals with money to spend can acquire access to the media during news hours for a set charge.
Onoja (2009) defines news commercialization as “a situation in which stations begin to raise revenue by charging fees for news reports that should normally be carried free.” This suggests that broadcast stations are intended to bundle and generate news for free, rather than for profit and advantage.
Chioma (2013) regards news marketing as “a tactful strategy through which the media relegates its responsibility of surveying the society.” Johnson (2001, p. 2), referenced in Okigbo (1997), contends that one of the most fundamental shifts in journalism practice today is balancing the cost of high-quality journalism versus corporate profit.
By implication, broadcast media is intended to serve the public by providing news and entertainment rather than profiting from it. As Kenneth and Odorume (2015) stated, “broadcast media organisations should exist to serve the public interest.
However, current journalistic practice in Nigeria appears to be plagued by the scourge of news commercialization. What this means is that only the wealthy will have their thoughts disseminated to the public, relegating the common to the margins. Media organisations are unquestionably required to protect the public interest of their audiences.
McManus (2009 Pp. 219 & 220) defines news commercialization as ‘any activity intended to raise profit that interferes with a journalist’s or news organization’s best attempt to maximise public understanding of those topics and events that influence the community they profess to serve.
‘Furthermore, Nwodu (2006) in National Open University of Nigeria (nd p.28) defines news commercialization as “the deliberate presentation of sponsored information to unsuspecting media audiences who perceive these information as conventional public interest-oriented news.”
Against this backdrop, news commercialization could refer to packaged, manufactured, and disseminated information by a sponsor who pays a media organisation.
It could also be a message/information/concept/thought paid for by an undisclosed sponsor, whose idea is broadcast to a big diverse audience via a media organisation in order to influence or affect their thinking.
According to Ekeanyanwu and Obianigwe (2012, p. 517), the commercialization of news by journalists and media organisations has a significant impact on the objectivity and balance of reporting. ”
Monetary gifts may pressurise a journalist into doing what the giver wants, rendering the journalist unable to report objectively on events and issues involving the people who give such gifts.”
This means that a journalist who sells his conscience for money under the guise of news commercialization will end up altering his reporting to suit the buyer of his conscience.
The phrase “He who pays the piper dictates the tune” comes into play here. News commercialization is thus likened to a wheel, whereas brown envelope journalism is the fuel that allows the wheel to survive.
Based on this context, the researcher wishes to explore scholars’ perceptions of news commercialization in broadcast media content.
Statement of the Problem
Many people are unaware that news is broadcast on radio and television for reasons other than its value. In the journalism profession, there are criteria for making news assessments that determine whether events, ideas, people, and so on are newsworthy.
However, such criteria are now giving way to a system in which “important developments, especially in the countryside, are pushed aside by unimportant, even trivial news items concerning urban events and activities of personalities” (Mac Bride report 1980).
Critics have noted distortion of news, uneven reporting, and the expanding public’s refusal to believe media news (lack of impartiality) as important issues inherent in the usage of the FRCN and NTA for news and other information.
Objectivity has been defined differently by different researchers, but it always revolves around “the state of quality of not being influenced by personal bias, prejudice, feelings, and opinions.”
Objective news reporting is free of conclusions, judgement, and slanting. New journalism is not entirely a professional practice in which the practitioner has become solely independent.
That equates to mindless feelings and emotionlessness. As a result, objectivity is maintained in relation to the existing system, which primarily includes news commercialization by the FRCN and NTA.
Censorship and, possibly, gatekeeping issues are linked to the monetization of news institutes for the editor. It influences editorial judgement because articles that an editor would not have used will be used because they were paid for.
Even the format in which the reporter would have been written will no longer be used for the same reason. They will want to influence and convey the story in favour of the client, proving the saying “he who pays the piper dictates the tune.”
The media’s societal duties, particularly those of broadcast media, have been substantially diminished, implying that media access is limited to the highest bidder.
This approach, known as “commercialization of news” as opposed to advertising in the media, is the most recent but worrisome trend in Nigeria’s media business, dating back to 1988 (Uchenna Ek). Page 61 of Mass Media and Marketing Communication (1996).
The objectives of the study
The study’s aims are:
To determine the perception of journalists on news commercialization.
To investigate the extent to which news commercialization impacts objectivity, fairness, balance, and truth in reporting.
To investigate the kinds of news commercialization that are evident among journalists.
To determine whether news commercialization encourages brown envelopes.
Research Question
What is journalists’ opinion of news commercialization?
To what extent has news commercialization affected objectivity, fairness, balance, and truth in reporting?
What types of news commercialization are prevalent among journalists?
Does news commercialization encourage brown envelopes?
Significance of the Study
The media’s societal duties, particularly those of broadcast media, have been substantially diminished, implying that media access is limited to the highest bidder.
This approach, known as “commercialization of news” as opposed to advertising in the media, is the most recent but worrisome trend in Nigeria’s media business, dating back to 1988 (Uchenna Ek). Page 61 of Mass Media and Marketing Communication (1996).
The study is important because it will look into how credible and objective radio and television reporting is. It will also allow Sudanese people to fall asleep while listening to radio or television news.
Furthermore, it may allow the government to reschedule its commercialization policies. The study will be extremely useful to the media in ensuring that they are following the professional code of conduct, particularly when elaborating on a paid-for story.
Scope of the Study
The study’s scope includes scholars’ perspectives on news commercialization in broadcast media content. This cannot be successfully discussed without taking into account the demographics of NTA and FRCN.
Definition of Terms
Commercialization is a type of dourness resulting from sales. Where money is earned through sales. A situation in which the broadcast media generates revenue from news by selling air time rather than airing it in accordance with acknowledged news values.
Credibility is defined as something that can be believed operationally. Acceptance of the audience to believe the news content of broadcast media.
Objectivity means not being swayed by personal feelings, ideas, or biases. A condition of being influenced by personal feelings or bias.
Scholar: a person who has pursued extensive studies in a specific field.
Perception is the organisation, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and comprehend the supplied information or environment.
Broadcast media refers to traditional types of media, such as television and radio. Technically, the word ‘broadcast media’ can refer to the internet, as well as Bluetooth marketing and other types of location-based communication.
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