THE ADVENT OF MODERN COMMUNICATION GADGETS: IMPLICATIONS FOR NIGERIAN JOURNALISM

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Of The Study

communication is so central to human existence and all human activities that it would be fool hardy for any group or nation to put it in the background in its economic, political, social and other activities infact, we are bold to say that communication is the most ustal factor in building an orgnised, unsted and progressive nation; the without it, there will be no national entity and no effective solution to national problems and national development.  All these can be confidently said because of the obvious fact that all human activities take place in cross-five of information flow and communication, whether in inter-personal, group, local, state national or international level.

Man was created to be gregarious and because of these qualities, they have always had to fall back on one another in interaction recognized as human communication.

This refers to the process of transmitting message, idea and attitudes and creating meanings between two and more people usually through the natural facilities of the human voices, sensory organ,s facial expressions, body manipulations and lately machine-assisted channels or devices.  Even now, the import and importance of communication in our modern and sophisticated society cannot be over emphasized.

The awarness for these necessifies introduced mass communication into the world.  It is a process by which a complex organization with the aid of one or more machine produce and transmit message directed at large, nitrogenous, diversified and scattered audience.  It is also the act of communicating to mass audience through the use of mass media such as books, newspapers, magarines, films, radio, television and computers to mention but fees, that the field of journalisma in Nigeria have used as a medium to get information across the audience.  Communication had been in existence all the while but it was never a kind of mass involvement because the world them lacked advanced equipments or gadgets that could carry these messages and information to many people at the same time (mass effect).  The great discaceroes and inmouations of communication gadgets from early 30’s to date has changed communication from primitive kind to modern (mass) kind.

Mass communication gadgets is as old as mass communication itself because the nation of getting people involved in communication in mass would have remained in the background if the gadgets were not modern minced or advanced technological.  Mass communication started with Johannes Gutenberg invention of the printing press.

This invention led to prolofication of the print materials such as books, newspapers and magazines, through these media more people were reached as it concerns communication.  The electronics media communication came on the scene with the invention of such gadgets as radio and television.

1.2 Statement of the problem

The media in Nigeria, both print and electronic, are grappling with the problem of poor quantity and quality of the local news content, which in this study refers to information about Nigeria generated for Nigerians, despite the novel  opportunities and prospects that new media provide. The problem has resulted into overreliance on international news agencies (see De Beer, 1996 and Arya, 2001, for example), whose content is foreign and is not about Nigeria and generated for Nigerians.

The problem of poor local news content, which the Nigeria ICT (2003) policy acknowledges, can be effectively solved by taking full advantage of new media, whose most tools are available free of charge online and can be used by local journalists in the country to source, process, share and get feedback on the local

content, only that they learn and adopt their associated technologies properly. As practically all news media outlets in Nigeria are unable to station reporters in all parts of the expansive country, new media offer opportunities for generating, processing, sharing and getting feedback on the local news content. However, the actual reality on the ground with regard to the use of new media towards this end remains largely unknown. To address this problem scientifically, an empirically grounded research was conducted to establish how local journalists in Nigeria use or engage with new media, as an effective way of sourcing, processing, sharing and getting feedback on the local news content.

1.3 Objectives Of The Study

The past findings on this issue by various groups have given us greater misprisions and has called to challenge our curious minds.  We have therefore taken up the challenge to share in the glory contributing towards thronging more light on the advent of modern communication gadgets with the following objectives.

1. To gain a clear understanding and accurate accounts of the past as it concern communication gadgets.

2. To gain clearer perspective of the present as it concern communication gadgets.

3. To be able to give adequate companism between the abetment mean of communication (gadgets) and the modern ones.

4. The implication of modern communication gadgets for Nigerian journalism.

1.4 Research Questions

The study sought to answer the following questions:

1. How do local journalists in Nigeria use new media for sourcing, processing, sharing and getting feedback on the local news?

2. To what extent do local journalists in Nigeria use new media for enriching the local news content?

3. Which emerging journalistic practices in Nigeria are linked to the use of new media?

1.5 Significance Of The Study

Due to the valuable and irretrievable use of the mass media and communication devices in all departments of life, one cannot over emphasis the significance of this study.  Being a kind of historical study, it would lead to the integrated narration or description of past ovents or facts concerning all technological devices fashioned to aid communication.

This study is a contribution to already existing work on the course (advent of modern communication gadgets, and its implications for Nigerian Journalism.  Every researcher who is likely to embark on any kind of research on this course would find this study very useful.  This study would also be useful to communication students – it would explain adequately the advent growth and modernization of communication gadgets.

Generally the study can be assimilated by all lovers of history with scientific mind of discovery and understanding situations, cases and implications.  At the end of this study; the background growth and modifications of the modern communication gadgets would be carefully treated.

1.6 Delimitation And Limitations Of The Study

Resources, in terms of time and funds, were among the major limitations of the study. As stated earlier, Nigeria has about eleven major media outlets that have national coverage which employ 660 journalists that the researcher would have involved in the study. However, due to time and budgetary constraints, that was not feasible. Similarly, due to limited time and resources, the study focused on the new media use vis-à-vis journalism practice in general, not on specific media outlets.

There were a number of problems associated with questionnaires and interviews as data collection methods. Often, respondents were unable to recall some information due to nervousness related to being involved in a research study or confusion about questions. This is evidenced by failure to respond to some questions, as discussed in detail in Chapter Four. Some respondents purposely provided incorrect answers to questions. On the whole, data collection was often complicated by the respondents’ inability to express their true feelings, and perceptions on the research problem. However, multiple methods applied and similar questions asked using different wording helped in mitigating this problem.