CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Media need to be recognized as an important vehicle responsible of acquainting the citizens with well-defined national goals by informing them of their role, expectation and obligation. Media practice is public interest oriented. It is the means through which government, institutions, organization and all others in authority are held accountable to and by the public. It means that the content of the media influences people’s thought and feelings and the world at large.
However, the alteration of the nature of communication experience in the society by the media, with the new technologies has become conspicuous. People attitude to the traditional media of televisions, music, radio, film and print has also changed due to the dynamic nature of the applied technology in their preference and delivery. Relative in the diaspora can interact with each other in cyber space (the digital world of communication).
In essence, the media and emerging technologies are bringing news ways of sending ideas, feelings, opinions, thoughts and information, new ways of hearing about the world, its identities and the future advance in the technology and their services have facilitated global information flour, which have fulfilled Marshal McLuhan’s global village concept, where ones neighbor is no longer the fellow who lives next door. He would be in a remote part of the hemisphere separated from one only on time and distance but also be differences in language, culture, norms and value. What happens to ones known by the other within a split second (Agba, 2001:7) 2

Information technology is any artifact manipulated by man to aid him communicate personally, massively and above all, timely information and communication technology (ICT) have enhanced global neighborhood in terms of medially in communication and information dissemination around the globe Nodu (2004:32)
According to Okunna (2004:20) wherever we think of information or communication technology, our minds fly to the world of computer, satellite, fax machine, fibre optics, digital networks and ultimately the internet network. She explains further that they are variously called New Communication Technology (NCT) which makes possible Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and have given rise to the information high way or information super high way. All this have to do with the online world, which Hibson in Okunna called Cyberspace.
Agba in OkunnaC.S. (2004) explains that NCTs refers to the technology which impacts directly on the manner in which the media receive the information prepare for distribution and distribute in it. Agba also attributes these new firms and processes of communication with greater speed, greater reach, clearer vision and capacity for two way flow of information.
Many newspaper houses in the western states like the TV and Radio also engaged in satellites publications in different cities across the country and beyond. Dominick (1993:184) gave example of such papers as the international herald tribute. Washington post, USA, today international world paper, the financial times of London, the economics and the wall street journal.
Satellite publication is not currently available in Nigeria, thus, the provision of the early editions and late edition of the same newspapers. If one buys a newspaper of National circulation in the overt, Edo or Delta States and one buys another copy of the same newspaper on the same 3

day as soon as the consumers crosses the Niger bridge into East, the difference in their content become evident. While one is early edition, the other is in late edition.
In addressing the relevance of Technologies, Owuamalam (2005:12) canvasses that the information high way, known as the internet, shows how maturity in the 21st century has transformed journalism to a state of art profession, where novices in the new technology seems to be left at the feet of relegated to the dungeon of intellectual abyss through either ignorance or inefficient compliance to the technology opportunities of the century, Owuamalam concludes.
Information technology is not in itself a medium but a social force, bringing changes to the media world. It has affected the publishing process like copywriting, reporting, editing, page making and filming. The internet and computer have facilitates journalist practice in contemporary times. The internet is one of the most prominent factors which has given credence to the statement that the world is a global village (McLuhan, 1974:100).
Nwabueze, (2005:163) defines internet as an interconnectivity of computers and some other devices like mobile phones which exchange information with the aid of telephone lines. The screen of any computer, connected to the internet, is a magic carpet. It transports a newer round the world in a few minutes without moving an inch.
Some print publications now use the net to coordinate activities of their reporters, pages are even planned in some out stations and send through the net to the head office where such pages are made part of the newspapers to be published. Most printed publication are produced regionally, but daily by specially designed production. Computers which are able to receive data either by phone lines, micro waves or satellites from where they are printed automatically Ikpe and Ibekwe (2006:67).