CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION TO MASS MEDIA
Since no communication, no society is a popular saying widely accepted. Scholars have argued that, a society of living is a society of where communications exist. Hence the mass media aimed at dishing out information to :a large heterogeneous audience. According to Goke Ratifu. (2011), Mass media is the advance method of giving information to a large group of people with different backgrounds. The agent of mass media includes; radio. Television and the print informate educate and entertain. There are relatively galvanized modern functions of the mass media. Cited in Goke Raufu (2011)
- Surveillance of the society or the environment
- Persuasion
- Opinion moulding
- Transmission of social heritage
- social mobilization and
- Con-elation and co-operation of facts and opinions
Also section 21 of 1979 constitution as reflected is section 22 of 1999 constitution says that:
The press, radio, and television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the responsibility of the government to the above extracts highlight the importance of the mass media to the government and the governed tagging the mass media as the watch-dog.
According to an erudite scholar, Goke Raufu (2011: 43) the advent of print medium in Nigeria. In his x-rays of the press, it all started in the! Wholly authoritarian society of 15m century in Europe and was brought to Nigeria in 1846 by the Presbyterian mission. It was based Calabar with the major function of producing pamphlets.
Eight years later, specifically in 1854, printing took a professional dimension when Rev. Henry Tow send fitted up a printing press and inaugurated a printing school in the mission compound, Ake Abeokuta. Nigerian press is a century and a half old with Abeokuta as its cradle. The first newspaper in Nigeria: Iwe Iroyin Fun Awon Ara Egba Ati Yomba- was published on December 3, 1859, at Abeokuta, which located in present day Ogun State by Rev. Henry Tow send, and Anglican Missionary.
Also, according to Goke Raufu (2011) the paper was aimed at propagating religion and promoting mass literacy. As such, it became bi-lingual when an English language supplement was added to the publication on March 8, 1867 before it finally disappeared from the newsstand later same year. After the demise of Iwe Iroyin, popular newspaper failed to show up on the newsstands until 1880s. The period between I867-1880s is regarded as the blank period in Nigeria press history.
He however divided the history into parts such as; the print under missionary, colonial masters, the military and the civilian era.
BROADCAST MEDIA IN NIGERIA
By the fourth decade of 20 century- (1930) Nationalist Movements were being heard in some parts of the British colonies in Africa. In Ghana anti-colonialist propaganda had started to generate a headly type of nationalism that prompted the 1934 sedition law.
Before that decade, the British colonialist had depended on the print media for publicity and propaganda but in 1932, they added radio to their arsenal of information dissemination. By that year, radio had been assuming the status of a mass medium and was in fact supplementing the print medium in Europe and North American. Radio broadcasting was first introduced to Nigeria in 1932 as a relay of the British Empire Services, It operated with the establishment of a relay station in Victoria Island, Lagos which disseminated broadcast information to major towns in Nigeria via the wired-wireless otherwise known as radio fussion.
Broadcasting started per-se in Nigeria in 1956 with the establishment of what came to be known as Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) incorporated under law and operated under the policies of the Federal Ministry of Information. The provisions of this law ‘1956 Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation ordinance.
Seemed unrestrictive at first glance for, it stated that the corporation could; “carry out all such activities as may appear requisite, advantageous or convenient” and could erect, maintain wire distribution services u but in practice, the NBC was used to propagate the policies of the colonial government. Section 29(1) of the ordinance stated that the corporation shalli
“whenever so requested by an authorized officer in the services of the Federation or an authorized police officer broadcast government programme at the corporation own expense.
1.2 BASIC OF NEWSPAPER AND TELEVISION OPFTC ATTON.
A newspaper organization has two principal divisions, which are Subdivided into four major departments (see Akinteleye 1987 ; 51-54)
The two divisions are the shop and the office’. The shop handles the 1 mechanical production of the newspaper e.g lithography, plate making, printing of the papers, etc. the office comprises those sections doing most of the ‘paper work, e.g editorial matters like news, features, column writing etc. and other activities like advertisement, pictures and cartoon processing.
Akinfeleye (op cit), carves out for departments from the two divisions above. They are:
The Editorial Department
The Mechanical and/or Production Department
The Commercial/Advertising Department
The Administration/Personnel Department.
Theoretically, the circulation section belongs in the commercial/Advertising
:
Department, but experience has shown that many newspaper organizations have granted some autonomy to this section, with reporting relationship to the General Manager (Marketing or Commercial services). It will therefore be treated as a separate department here.
Editorial Department: This is the department that oversees newsgathering, news processing and news packaging activities. Since news is what sells the newspaper and also gives it its uniqueness, the department deploys all its human capital towards its production.
According to Sonaike (1987 :36)? the editorial department is made up of: the •newsroom, sub-desk or copy desk, editorial boardroom, the features section and the library (i.e the morgue).
Mechanical/Production Department: These nre the overseer of the production of the newspaper. They handle lithography, plate making and the actual printing and collation of the newspaper.
The Advertisement Department: This is the department that generates income for the newspaper organization by selling advertisement space to individuals and organizations who need them.
The advertisement manager heads this department. In a large organization, two other individuals called the deputy-advertisement manager and assistant advertisement manager assist him/her.
Administration Department: This department comprises the administration, personnel, accounts and the public relations sections. It is the first and the last port of call for all newspaper staff. For example, at recruitment stage, every staff pauses through it and does same while leaving either on retirement, resignation or dismissal.
BASICS OF TELEVISION OPERATION
A curious viewer at home would wonder what and how audio and visual got into the purchased box plugged into the power socket that; educate, inform and also entertain. This however will prompt shedding mare light on basics of television operation, (Adeosim, Lekan and Goke 2011) i.e. how television works.
Starting from the scrap, a standard television station will have a studio. The studio will comprise of; microphones, cameras, preview monitors and most importantly acoustically built walls that will stop any sound from penetrating and at the same time going out. There are numerous cables that connect all the equipments in the studio to Master Control Room (MCRY According to Adeosun, Lekan and Goke (2011) in the MCR, there ate; the audio console, vision mixer, Omega keyboard, preview monitors, video and audio cassette players and numerous television used in monitoring proceedings.
Interestingly, the microphone does for sound what the camera does for the picture. The microphones are connected to the audio console and console is connected to the amplifier. Very high sensitive microphones are used in a relatively standard studio that can pick any decibel of sound. The audio console comprise of; numerous controls, switches, and press buttons that all constitute to effective and almost natural beaming sound.
Camera, as said earlier, does for picture what the microphone does for the sound. Though in a normal television station, there is more than one camera. Therefore, the cameras coupled with the camera preview monitors are connected to the vision mixer. The vision mi;-*sr, which aiso comprise of; controls, switches, press-buttons and a gear which is used in deciding should a programme go on air or not. Like the audio console, the vision mixer is also connected to the amplifier. There are two big cables from the amplifier to the transmitter. These cables carry the audio and the visual aspect from the MCR. The two big cables run atop the tower mounted on a hill outside the studio. The cables are referred to as travel path. The primary function of the transmitter is to boost the strength of the TV signal and broadcast it, in the form uf electrical wave.
The final stage connected by a wave guide (duet wire) running from transmission house to the base of the transmitter tower up to where the antenna is located also known as the combining unit.
According to Adeosun, Lekan and Goke (2011): the television receiver (TV set) has been designed to convert the television electrical wave in the air into, picture and sound, to achieve this, the TV now requires antenna or aerial, though, some situations where the set is very close to the broadcasting television transmitter, TV reception is possible without an antenna. The antenna is a very, important part of the TV receiver set and comes in various forms and shapes so as to accommodate a wide variety of conditions under which the TV set is expected receive pictures and sound.
Worthy of mentioning, there are experienced personnel handling; various
Aspects in a TV organization. All these people are sub-divided to constitute a department which is guided with principles and the zeal to achieve their stipulated objectives. In an average television organization, these departments are common.
They are; administrative, finance, marketing, engineering, news and current affairs and programmes departments.
ADVANTAGES OF NEWSPAPER IN DISSEMINATING INFORMATION
The advantages of newspaper are that it is more accessible to a number of people. Not everyone has access to computers and cannot retrieve news from the internet.
Newspapers are cheaply available and they are found everywhere which
means that they are readily available, making it very convenient. Also, the newspapers that we know are very user friendly, as they contain lots of information rolled up into one-bits on food, fashion, politics and many others. Other than that, newspapers are also generally easy to recycle after reading. Many other advantages that other mediums do not have are it mobility. People going to work may not carry notebook computers with them all the time, and even then, they might not have broadband.
ADVANTAGES OF TELEVISION IN DISSEMINATING INFORMATION
Television creates such a spell on children and in some cases it also affects the elder’s goal. They actually lose their own opinion they fed whatever is being shown on television is correct and should b-, practiced a: such, in such situation it is the responsibility of the broadcasts to show what say to be shown or, the fifl television. U Television has shrunk the distance of the world. You can watch what is happening sever?! Thousand miles? away from you. So in totality it is information from all over the world, and it is *ro aad enjoyment with convenience.
ADVANTAGES OF NEWSPAPE
Newspapers going digital is that the lack of consumers paper are receiving, is making it hard for the businesses to stay in the game (Farchi, 2008).
Newspapers that have been ground for years are going out of business because their customers are getting their news from the internet and not having to pay for the physical paper. They are shutting down entire print processes due to a. lack in funding.
Another disadvantage of newspaper includes:
Not intrusive
Poor print quality
Difficult to convey emotion
Circulation is decreasing
Excitement.
Television on the other hand is the potential for self use by leaders to address their people over the heads of their representatives, assemblies, civil servants and ministers thus out flanking normal organs of government. It also hinders reasoned discussion because it provides superficial information that favours imagery and immediacy over discussion. Television stations are bedeviled with broken down spaces, especially with the current trend of proliferation of the nation’s market with inferior products imported from some countries. The cost of
producing local programmes is far higher than the cost of processing, foreign programmes etc.
1.5 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
Newspaper: This can be defined as an unbounded scheduled publication containing different news worthy materials. Such as news story, features, photography, cartoons, advertisement and other information that agreed with the organization’s in-house policy and focus.
Television: Television is a way of broadcasting pictures and sound inform of programmes that people can watch.
Mass Media: Is the advance method of giving information to a large heterogeneous audience. It includes: radio, TV, and prints; newspapers, magazine, periodicals and paper books.
Broadcast; Broadcasting can be defined as the dissemination of information, ideas, attitudes and opinions through the use of air-waves.
Print Media: Print media can be defined as a medium that disseminates printed matters.
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