CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Mass media are very important tools of communication, through which information is passed to even the farthest end of the society. They enable us to communicate with each other by helping us to overcome the barriers of time and space. They perform both primary and secondary functions for the society.
The media of mass communication are divided into the electronic (broadcast) and print media. The print media involves mainly magazine and newspaper; they are informers which provide retrievable, researched, in-depth and interpretative news stories of events.
The broadcast media comprise of the radio and television, it has not been as enterprising as it should be. This is due to the majority ownership and control of the broadcast media by the government.
Concisely put, broadcast is a society wide type of message dissemination, which involves the transmission of ideas, words, sounds, pictures and values in the form of signals through the airwaves to a target audience. Broadcasting is an activity of a branch of the media of mass communication called the electronic media that use transmitters and airwaves in the transmission of news and information to their heterogeneous audience.
Ownership is a critical factor for the content of any medium. This implies that there is a connection between ownership and the content and nature of a medium. The nature of ownership itself is determined by the character of the owner, his interests and the vision he has for the medium. Character here indicates whether ownership is private or public, private oriented or non-profit oriented. Interest refers to the economic (business) concerns and political persuasion of the owner. And vision here, means the idea of the owner about what a medium should be or do and his understanding of the practices and goals of journalism.
All these go a long way to determine the interest of the medium and its coverage of certain issues. McQuail (2000) contends that the belief that ownership ultimately determines the nature of media is not just a Marxist theory but virtually a common sense axiom summed up in Alttschull‟s (1984) “Second law of journalism: the contents of the media always reflects in interests of those who finance them.
The disposition of an owner is to his interests and vision for the medium would also, to an extent determine his view of the theory of social responsibility which sees “media ownership as a form of public trust or stewardship, rather than as an unlimited private franchise” McQuail (2000).
Agba, a communication expert presents further analysis of third world system as a system were ownership and control of the media is typical of communist or socialist countries in which the media are owned publicly and controlled by the dominant political party and also a centralized control, privately owned system.
He explains that media are owned by private organizations and individuals but are firmly controlled by government. This system is operated in Nigeria and many African countries.
In Nigeria, government control can be direct or indirect. There is strict control of the mass media through police and military intervention and harassment. In most countries of the third world, broadcast media are owned by government and consequently easy to control.
The media system that exists in a society is directly related to the political system prevalent in the society. The political system determines the exact relationship between the media and the government. The political system in place also determines the relationship between the media and the people. It also affects the flow of information in the country in which it operates.