CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
In
this part of
the world,media ownership first began with the activities of colonial
missionaries.with the establishment of “lwe lrohin”,Henry Townsend had a
platform with which he could communicate with the community.Thus began the
advent of newspaper in Nigeria,in 1859.
The other set of people
to have engaged in mass media were the Nationalists namely:Herbert
Macauley,Nnamdi Azikiwe,and Obafemi Awolowo,to mention but a few. In this
colonial era,newspapers like the African pilot were established to advocate for
self-rule in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. While the Nationalists engaged in
massive mobilisation and orientation through these early media,the colonialists
made use of the media to propagate their policies,to galvanise support for the
second world war,and to engage in massive
propaganda,depicting their race as superior to the black race. then in
1959,the then premier of western Nigeria, Obafemi Awolowo established the
western Nigeria Television (WNTV). Thus began the interest of the Nigerian
Government in mass media. Soon enough,immediately after
independence,state-owned television and radio stations began to spring up in
every part of the country.
Consequently,in
1992,the Babangida regime effected the deregulation and democratisation of the
broadcasting sector in Nigeria,along side the annulment of the 12 june 1993
presidential election. The deregulation of the broadcast media brought to an
end government’s monopoly of the broadcast media and the emergence of
independent broadcasting stations. The annulment led to greater political
awareness and the presence of a commited courageous press.
The history of the media
in Nigeria has always been characterised by two major forms of ownership, thoes
owned by the government and thoes owned by private individuals. In the case of
government ownership,the media are
completely financed and supervised by the government like:Nigeria Television
Authortity(NTA),Federal Radio Coporation of Nigeria(frcn),Voice of Nigeria(VON),the various states owned radio
and television;while the private owned media are financed and controlled by
private individuals like:Ray power Fm,Africa Independent Television(AIT),Galaxy
Television,Channels Television,etc. These forms of media ownership are all
driven by separate agenda. The government media houses are used mainly as
instruments of propaganda for the government,while the private media owners are
driven by different motives,which could be profit making,agenda setting,to win
influence which can be later translated into political and business gains,etc.
(Uche Nworah,Freelance Writer)
Undoubtely,and
as it has been frequently suggested,stations owned by the government are bound
to be pro-government. The saying,”He who pays the piper,dictates the
tune”greatly applies here. You cannot possibly bite the hand that feeds you.
Nigeria Television Authority (NTA),Federal Radio Coporation of Nigeria(NTA),Voice of Nigeria(VON),and other
government owned stations cannot air anything that antagonises or do not support the government policies
and actions. In fact,such stations are frequently used as tools for propaganda.
They never see anything bad in the government. Most often,they become the
mouthpiece of the state-instruments of publicity. A lot of people now prefer to
watch and listen to news from AIT,Channels,Ray Power Fm,Solid Fm,etc.than from
NTA or NTA,because they believe that NTA or NTA
does not portray truth in their news item,especially when such news
items concern the government.
Apart
from the effects given above,there is one that is very common today.
Although,state-owned (public) media organisations have their flaws,they have
their good sides. Government-owned media houses are not profit oriented and
therefore,do not pay overt attention to such programmes that will generate
income. Private media organisations,on the other hand,are established for
profit-making. As is evident today,most private stations give more time to
programmes that are seen as gold mines. Reality Tv Shows ,musicals,and paid
programmes carry the day.(Imhoagene Richard,a freelance writer).
Objectivity
is a significant principle of journalistic prrofessionalism. Journalistic
objectivity is fairness, disinterestedness,factuality,and non-partisanship. The
BBC,even though is a British government-owned media outfit would never give
undue advantage to the British government against the British citizens. In a
sharp contrast,however,with the NTA the
story is diametrically different. The government and government alone comes
first. For instance,the BBC covered in all its ramifications,the protest on the
streets of london and other parts of tha country. People,in fact,relied more on
the BBC than Sky news,a privately-owned media organisations for authentic news
of events in that country. In Nigeria,however,an average educated Nigerian in
Nigeria or anywhere in the world would rather tune a foreign channel for an
unbiased news of events about
Nigeria than tune to NTA.
We
believe that NTA according to its motto can only,”uplift and unite” Nigeria by
telling the nation the truth and not half truth,innuendoes and outright lies.
We believe it will not harm the funding of NTA if they tell Nigerians the
truth. What a fortunate incident that president Goodluck Jonathan signed into
law the Freedom of Information Bill,which serves as an advantage to NTA to
extricate themselves from the “non-existent strangehold” of the government at
this critical period of our nation’s life.
1.1.1
BRIEF
HISTORY OF NTA ENUGU
Nigerian
Television Authority is the pioneer broadcast organisation in Nigeria. It was
introduced to Nigeria by the British on December 19,1932,when BBC signals were
relayedto receivers through the rediffusion system. In 1951,the Nigerian
Broadcasting Service(NBS) was inaugurated mainly to relay theBritish
Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) programmes.
The Nigerian
Broadcasting Corporation was established by an Act of parliament No.39 of 1956
and began operations as a statutory corporation on 1st April,1957. The NBC was
in operation until 1978 when the Nigerian Television Authority came into being
by virtue of Decree No.8 of 1979 with retrospective effect from 1st April 1978.
Through this Decree,the Federal Government dissolved the NBC and handed over
twenty of its stations to state governments. NTA has five national stations which include:NTA
Abuja(Headquarters),Enugu,lbadan,Kaduna,and Lagos National Stations,but all
together it has 32 FM stations pan Nigeria.
Of which NTA Enugu is a
national station with other FM stations controlled by it in the south-south and south-east zones of the country. Fm
stations .controlled by it are:Treasure Fm-port Harcourt,Purity Fm-Awka,Unity
Fm-Abakiliki,Heartland Fm-owerri,Pacesetter Fm-Umuahia,Creek
Fm-Yenagoa,Atlantic Fm-uyo,and Paradise Fm-calabar.NTA Enugu broadcast its
programmes in English and lgbo language.
1.2
STATEMENT
OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
The
influence of the government is seen in the unflinching support government media
organisations give the government of the day,and this is the problem under study.
Government
owned media make their
reporters dance to their
wimps and caprices,always promoting their activities,evenwhen they don’t
deserve it.
The
problem of this study is not just to see the effects of government ownership on
media objectivity,but to see if anything can be done to avoid the influence of
government on its media,and NTA Enugu falls prey to this problem.
1.3
OBJECTIVES
OF THE STUDY
The primary objective of
this study is to check the effects of government ownership on media objectivity.
Specific objectives are as
follows:
a)
To determine if NTA Enugu fully or
partially dance to the wimps and caprices of the government.
b)
To determine if NTA Enugu can do anything to avoid
government’s influence on their news and programmes.
c) To determine how government ownership of NTA Enugu
affects its news and programmes objectivity.
d) To offer suggestions
on how government owned media should be handled to achieve better results.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
STUDY
This
study on the effects of government ownership on media objectivity is
significant in a number of ways:
Firstly,this
study will add to literatures on the effects of government ownership on media
objectivity.
Secondly,this
research undertaking is significant for the suspicion the mass audience has for
messages disseminated from government owned media.
Thirdly,it
will help provide adequate insight to meet the changing demands in the dynamic
media environment of our society,thereby helping media managers to make a
better management policies.
Finally,it
will equally serve as a veritable reference tool for future researchers who may
be interested in ascertaining how objective NTA Enugu is as a government owned
media.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
We
the researchers posed the following
questions to guide the conduct of this study,which we hope if answered will
proffer solutions to this problem.
a)How does NTA Enugu fully or partially dance to the
wimps and caprices of the government?
b)What could NTA Enugu do to avoid government’s influence
on their news and programmes?
c)To what extent does government ownership affects NTA
Enugu’s news and programmes objectivity?
d)What are the possible ways NTA Enugu can use to
achieve better results?
1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
Ho:NTA Enugu do not fully or partially dance to the wimps and
caprices of the government.
Hi:NTA Enugu fully or partially dance to the wimps and caprices of
the government.
Ho:NTA Enugu cannot avoid government’s influence on their
news and programmes.
Hi:NTA Enugu can avoid government’s influence on their
news and programmes.
Ho:There is no significant way Government ownership
affects NTA Enugu’s news and programmes’ objectivity.
Hi:There are significant ways Government ownership
affects NTA Enugu’s news and programmes objectivity.
Ho:There are no possible ways NTA Enugu can use to
achieve better results.
Hi:There are possible ways NTA Enugu can use to achieve
better results.
1.7 DEFINITION
OF TERMS
EFFECTS:conceptually,effect
is a change produced by an action or cause. It also means a result.
Operationally,effect
refers to the result(s) of government ownership on media objectivity. It also
means the outcome of NTA Enugu’s news/programmes as a government owned media.
GOVERNMENT:conceptually,it
is the governing body of a nation,state or community.
Operationally,it
refers to when the governing body of a nation own,finance,supervise,manage and
control the media.
OWNERSHIP:conceptually,it is the legal right
to the possession of a thing.it is the act of having and controlling property
or the activity of managing or exerting control over something.
Operationally,ownership
refers to NTA Enugu being owned by the government of Nigeria. It is completely
financed and supervised by the government.
MEDIA:conceptually,
it means the print(newspapers,magazines,and journals) and broadcast(television
and radio) use to convey information to the public.
Operationally,it
means NTA Enugu as a radio media house used as an instrument of propaganda for
the government.
OBJECTIVITY:conceptually,it
means not influenced by personal feelings or opinions,actual,not dependent on
the mind for existence.
Operationally,it
refers to NTA Enugu being fair,disinterested,factual and non-partisan in its
news coverage and reporting.
INFLUENCE:conceptually,it
means the power to produce an effect,especially on character,beliefs or
actions,a person or thing with this power.
Operationally,it
means NTA Enugu as a government owned medium,using
its position as the governing body to decide on what the medium should or should not broadcast.
1.8 SCOPE OF
STUDY/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The
scope of this study covers all the activities or programmes broadcast by NTA
Enugu,to determine how objective they are. We also want to find out whether
their staff enjoy press freedom.
Due
to lack of fund and time made available for this study,we could not carry out
the study broadly as initially intended. This is to say that the research was
carried out at a time
the researchers were faced with lots of financial demands,hence we could not
broaden the scope of our study.
1.9
ASSUMPTIONS
a)NTA Enugu fully or partially dance to the wimps and
caprices of the government.
b)Based
on the fact that this station is government owned,it cannot avoid government’s influence on its news and programmes.
c)There are significant ways government ownership of NTA
Enugu can affect their news and programmes objectivity.
d)There are possible ways NTA Enugu can use to achieve
better results.
REFERENCES
1. Okoye,Josephat Ikechukwu (2009):New
Perspective on the
Nigeria press
History,Enugu,San Press Ltd.
2. Mazi
Iduka:An article on Nigerian Tribune Newspaper on Thursday,19th april 2012.
3. Uche,Luke
uka(1989): Mass
media people and politics in Nigeria,New Delph concept publisher company.
4. Okunna, stella
chinyere:Teaching Mass Communication.A multi dimensional approach,Enugu,New, Creation Books..
5. Oxford
English Minidictionary.
6. Imhoagene
Richard: An ariticle written on January 12,2013.