THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL OF ANAMBRA BROADCASTING SERVICE (RADIO) ON MEDIA OBJECTIVITY

THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL OF ANAMBRA BROADCASTING SERVICE (RADIO) ON MEDIA OBJECTIVITY

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).