AN EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF NEWS COMMERCIALIZATION IN ETINAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
In recent times, the term “privatization” and “commercialization” have gained prominence in the vocabulary of communication practitioners in Nigeria. The electronic media of radio and television have been of most concern to many people with regards to the commercialization policy. The print media of newspaper and magazine as observed by Wilson (1997) have from their early beginning in Nigeria, been set up as partly commercial and services-oriented organs to actively engage in commercial activities.
Before the introduction of commercialization policy, radio and television broadcast organs have been essentially government–owned public enterprises with minimal commercial interest. However, the hash economic situation in the country (Nigeria) has created an unparallel pressure on government to explore alternative means of funding these electronic media which has been the exclusively preserve of states and federal government; Wilson (1997).
Hence, in 1988, the federal military junta promulgated Degree No.25. The Degree enunciated the privatization and commercialization of government parastatals. Under the degree the worth of all government agencies were to assessed their viability ascertained and advice on whether such agencies be out rightly sold to the public to make them self sustaining by strict commercialization or partially subvert them until they become self sustaining. The NTA was one of such agencies of government envisaged by the Decree to be commercialized.
According to Nwanze (2003), a performance agreement was signed between the federal Government, the technical committee on privatization and commercialization (TCPC); and the NTA. Nwanza further explains that the agreement placed the responsibility of funding, rehabilitation and replacement of NTA’S obsolete equipment on government. This means that NTA as well as AKBC television are partially commercialized.
Onoja (2009) asserted that news commercialization is a situation whereby stations begin to raise revenue by charging fees for news reports they should normally carry free.
Frankly speaking, news commercialization seems to be common among television stations today. It has become a regular occurrence in our television stations that during news casting viewers are often presented with obituaries of known and unknown Nigerians as well as wedding ceremonies and the dignitaries who witnessed the events. It is against this background that this study on the impact of television news commercialization in Etinan Local Government Area was carried out.
Etinan Local Government Area is one of the 31 Local Government Areas in Akwa Ibom State. The Local Government Area is bounded in the North by Uyo Local Government Area, in the south by Onna Local Government Area, in the West by Nsit Ibom Local Government Area to ensure that the people of the local government feel the presence of government, the area is divided into 11 political wards and four court areas are Mbioto Court Area, Eniong Court Area, Etinan Court Area and Ikot Akpatembom Court Area. Etinan is one of the local government areas in Akwa Ibom State which have access to the mass media of newspaper, magazine, television, radio and traditional means of communication. However, the people of the area have limited access to newspaper and magazine due to its high cost.
They rather rely mostly on the television and radio media which contents these days are highly commercialized. It is also factual that they depend on those two media for their daily news which seriously impacts on their lives. But the question remains, what is this news that impacts positively on the lives of Etinan people?
According to Wilson (1997:22), news is any event, idea or opinion that is timely, that interest or affects a large number of people in a community and that is capable of being understood by them. Against this background, one may ask: is our television news today really event, ideas or opinion that is timely t hat interest or affects a large number of people in Etinan local Government Area? In what way has television news commercialization impacted on the people of Etinan Local Government Area? But what are the positive or negative impacts of television news commercialization on the people of Etinan Local Government Area? It is against this background that this study was conducted.
1.3 Objectives of the study
The objectives of this study were to:
- find out if television news commercialization policy is applied in all cases
- find out the ways in which television news commercialization has impacted on the people of Etinan Local Government Area.
- find out if television news really portray ideas or opinions that affects the people of Etinan Local Government Area.
- find out the rational for commercialization of television news.
1.4 Research questions
The following were the research question
- Is television news commercialization policy applied in all cases, especially as it affects issues and events of Etinan Local Government Area?
- In what ways has television news commercialization impacted on the people of Etinan Local Government Area?
- Does television news portray ideas or opinions that affect the people of Etinan Local Government Area?
- Why do television stations commercializes the news?
1.5 Significance of the study
Media houses adopt various measures to break-even such is the commercialization of the services, including news, but what happens to the public as a result of this policy?
The significance of this research study lies in the fact that it will help to find out if news from television station available to the people of Etinan Local Government Area actually portray ideas or opinions that affect them. These findings will therefore help media practitioners especially those in television to re-assess their commercialization policy with regards to news
This study is also significance as it will X-ray the ways in which television news commercialization has impacted on the people of Etinan Local Government Area.
Findings from this study will help government at all stakeholders in the mass media sector to take appropriate measures that will help in cushioning the negative effects of commercialization of television news on the people in the rural areas.
1.6 Scope of the study
The study focused on the residents of Etinan Local Government Area. It intends to assess the impact of television news commercialization on Etinan local government area of Akwa Ibom State.
1.7 Delimitation and limitation of the study
This study is delimited to television news commercialization. Also this study was confronted by enormous factors that cumulatively limited this research. Foremost were funds, the amount of money required for this research was too exorbitant. This un-avoiding poses tremendous problem to the researcher. The researcher also encountered problem in raising both secondary and primary data. Secondary data were gotten from text books and the processes were intricate, whereas the respondents developed cold feet and non-challant attitudes in responding questions.
Time frame was relatively insufficient. The researcher needed more time to effectively conclude the research.
1.8 Definition of terms
Some of key terms used in this study shall be explained or defined as follows:
Evaluation: Has to do with studying the worth, the importance or the truth of something giving the advantages and the disadvantages
Impact: This term as used in this study means the state of influence or the strong negative or positive effect or phenomenon has no somebody. Impact is used in this study to express the effect of television commercialization on the people of Etinan Local Government Area.
Media Commercialization: This refers to the deliberate policy of charging for the service rendered by the mass media for the sustenance of the operations of media establishment. It is a stray into an ethnical jungle by media houses in desperate money rent. It is buying and selling of news.
