TABLE OF CONTENT
Title page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Table of content v
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Background
of the study 1
1.2 Statement
of the problem 8
1.3 Objectives
of the study 9
1.4 Research
question 10
1.5 Significant
of the study 10
1.6 Scope
and limitation of the study 11
1.7 Definition
of term 11
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 Literature
Review 13
2.1 Definition
of mass media 13
2.2 Review
of related literature 30
2.3 Historical
background 42
2.4 Effect
of ownership on media content 44
2.5 Theoretical
framework 47
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 Research
methodology 54
3.1 Research
design
54
3.2 Population
of the study 55
3.3 Sample
size and sampling procedure 55
3.4 Research
instrument 56
3.5 Collection
of data 56
3.6` Data
analysis procedure 57
3.7 Restatement
of research question 58
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 Data
analysis and interpretation 59
4.1 Introduction 59
4.2 Data
analysis of respondents 59
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 Summary,
recommendation and conclusion 70
5.1 Summary 70
5.2 Recommendation 73
5.3 Conclusion 74
References 76
Questionnaire 78
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
According to Head and Sterling (1982)
the term media “are those means of communication that use technology to reach
large parts of the population almost simultaneously with the kind of news and
entertainment that ordinary people can afford to pay” (Laaro, 2004).
Invariably, the mass media are an important component of mass communication in
disseminating symbolic content to a large interogenous and widely dispersed
audience.
The history of journalism in Nigeria
can be treated from the 1920s on the independence in 1960. The press became an
industry, profession on a social force for libration of the Nigeria people. The
multiple dimension of the press attracted the first set of laws by government
against it. These laws over time became a fundamental element in the
development of the relationship between the media and government in their joint
enterprise of forging the countries democratic process.
The role of the modern press pioneers
such as the Late Nnamdi Azikwe and the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, among others
was to push forward and entrench the role of press as “the watch dog” of
Nigeria’s nascent interest.
The media is grouped into print and
broadcast media. The print media include: Newspaper, magazine, journals, book,
pamphlets, etc. while the broadcast media consist of radio and television. The
establishment of Iwe Iroyin fun awon egba ati Yoruba” by Reverend Townsend in
Abeokuta in 1959 marked the birth of newspaper in Nigeria.
The initiative later gave rise to the
establishment of newspaper outfits like that of Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe in 1931;
named “West Africa Pilot” Azikwe’s paper pioneered a general protest against
attainment of independence in 1960. The new Nigeria’s Newspaper Limited was
established by the then government of the Northern region on 23rd October
1966. The first copy of the papers was issued on 1st January 1966.
Before the establishment of new Nigeria newspaper, the Northern Nigeria
government has established a Hausa Newspaper in Zaria called Gaskiya Ta Fi
Kwabo in 1965. They simultaneously printed newspaper which enhanced the wise
spread of newspaper in Kaduna and Lagos. As at today, Nigeria has various Newspapers
ranging form the Nigeria tribune established 16th Novembers 1949.
The punch, the Vanguard, the sun, this day tceters, at present, Nigeria has a
number of different language newspapers ranging from Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo,
Itsekiri and so on.
The radio on the other hand started
in Nigeria on 1936 through the distribution of programme emanating from the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London as part of its overseas
service to Lagos, Kano and Ibadan under the arrangement referred to as
radifussion. Similarly, in 1959, the Western Nigerian Broadcasting Service
(WNBS) was established by Chief Obafemi Awolowo as the first Television station
in Nigeria in 1962, The Western region government took full control of the WNBS
by buying over, all the shares held by the overseas radiffusion Ltd.
Today Nigeria has thirty six states
with each aspiring to set up her own television station in 1976; television
stations started becoming colour programme.A new chapter opened in the history
of T.V broadcasting in Nigeria with the federal government take over all
televisions service in 1978. May state government have however, established
more television and radio stations since then and have been competing favorably with the federal government
stations.
In a democratic society, the media is
referred to as the fourth estate of the realm; this means that after, the
executive arm, legislative, judiciary, the media comes next. Edund Buke made this ascertain at one of the
proceeding of the British parliament after he had mentioned the three well
known estates of the realm, the lords spiritual, the lords temporal and the
common. He pointed to the press gallery and added “and younger sits the fourth
estates, more important of them all”. President J.F Kennedy’s remark on the
American press that the president reigns for four years but journalist govern
forever, also confirmed the fact that the media is a partner in progress with
the government and not a tool. The broad function of the media are to act as watch-dog over the
government, safeguarding the rights of the individual and reporting events
accurately, objectively and without bias or prejudice.
However, media ownership tends to
have influence on their performance as the “fourth estate of the realm” the
degree of freedom of the government owned media cannot be compared with those
of private-owned media deliberately avoid criticism of government action and
play down stories capable of exposing government secret events when the public
interest requires that such story be told to the public. The Nigeria Television
Authority (NTA) for example will never transmit any report revealing the
secrets of the federal government. The private media even through not entirely
free from this faults expose bad acts of especially the government.
Government-owned media are purposely
set to give maximum publicity to the government activities and any journalist
who does not want to lose his/her job must keep to that policy. This policy
also operate in Osun State where the Gold Fm must not Criticnce the government
of the day when t he interest of the public is at stake. A good example of when
government Rauf Aregbesola refused to show up at the commissioning of the state
high court where the vice president was present. The government deliberately
ignored the event based on some political crisis between the people’s Democratic
Party (PDP) and the Action congress of Nigeria (ANC). Gold FM did not criticize
the governor for dishonoring the vice-president in their news content. This is
one of the reasons that propelled the researcher to embark on this research
work to find out influence of ownership on the performance of Gold F M Ilesha,
Osun State.
However, it was gathered that the station may love done this deliberately to get favor from the state government of course; they need financial muscle to survive.
EFFECT OF OWNERSHIP ON PROFESSIONALISM IN THE MEDIA INDUSTRIES (AN APPRAISAL OF NEWS CONTENT OF GOLD FM ILESHA)
