CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of he Study
The role of the broadcasters and the broadcast media as agents of rural and national development, especially at the information dissemination level is now generally recognized and accepted by experts and policy makers. What seems quite unresolved in many developing countries is how best to utilize the potentials of the broadcasters and their media to achieve developmental objectives (Nwosu, 1990:119). In Nigeria, there are three main types of media ownership namely; government ownership, private ownership and partnership. In the case of government ownership, the government establishes controls and finances the media outfit, private ownership is when an individual or a group of persons establish, control and finance the media outfit in partnership both the government and private individuals are into some sort of co-ownership regarding the establishment, financing and controlling of the media house.
There is a symbiotic relationship between the media and the society. It is in the interest of the society to have strong and robust mass media as it is in the best interest of the media to uphold the values and protect the interest of the society from which they derive their impulse, support and patronage. No media institution can survive if it is perceived to be working against its own society (Onukaba 2005:3).
It is the duty of any media institution to keep the public aware of what is going on around them by providing accurate, factual and timely information at all times. It is also the duty of the media to warn and alert the public about  impending dangers to interpret events or provide information needed by the public to make every day decision that will make them participate actively in the political, economic and social activities of a community and to assist the public in determining current trends.
Media institutions are also expected to use their products to educate, entertain, modify public opinions, reinforce attitudes and set agenda for the society. In many societies, people depend on the media to know where to find jobs, where to shop, where to eat, seat out, who to note for etc it is therefore, safe to say that the influence of the media extends to every aspect of human life and society.
But for media institutions to be able to play these roles effectively, they are expected to uphold the values of objectivity, fairness, justice, accuracy, balance, moderation and decency. The reason governments have often given for their involvement in the media is that the private ones cannot be trusted to faithfully uphold these values of the profession. They accuse them of fostering unrealistic expectations among the populace, heightening anxieties about conditions in the country, mongering etc. of course, these are general criticisms against all media institutions, whether private or public. State media institutions are set up ostensibly to address these weaknesses of the private media as well as to bring government programmes and policies closer to the people and promote peaceful co- existence among the different groups in the society in which they operate. But they are usually limited by their methods of operation (Onukaba, 2005:5).
The “battle cone” seems to be drawn between those who argue unflinchingly that the best way to use the broadcast as a facilitator of development  in the third world is to have them owned and controlled by the government and those that believe that the best result will be achieved by making the electronic media dominantly a private sector affair. It is on this fact that the researcher’s topic finds it footing, hence “the comparative study of the performance of government owned and privately owned broadcasting media organization” (a study of FRCN and Ray Power Radio).