BROADCAST MEDIA AS PROPAGANDA MACHINERY BY STATE GOVERNMENT

Abstract

There is a common saying with regards to mass media control in Nigeria and elsewhere, which has become a cliché, that “He who pays the piper dictates the tune”.  This means that the owners of a mass media channel controls what the medium broadcasts and how it broadcasts it. This research aims at examining the extent at which broadcast media are used as propaganda machinery by state government using Lagos State Television, Lagos as a case. Survey research method was adopted in this research coupled with a questionnaire as a research instrument. A total of 150 questionnaires were printed and distributed within Lagos state and particularly in LTV and out of 150 administered 140 copies of questionnaires were returned. Frequency and percentage of data analysis was used in analyzing the collected data.Opposition groups do not have access to state broadcasting media in terms of covering their activities and programmes especially during the electioneering period. Also, it was established that state government involvement in censoring the contents and outputs of the state broadcast media is high. Similarly, many of the respondents preferred private broadcast media to state broadcasting programmes because LTV is not friendly to state government’s opposition groups. It is recommended that journalists working in state government owned media stations should realize that they are serving the public and not the state chief executive alone, and so must pay adequate attention to social responsibility principle of the press while state government should always press professionals to do their job without fair or sanction.