Incommunication in nigeria by festus adesonaye abstract despite the prevalence of mass media institutions and paraphernalia in nigeria, the nigerian masses still remain marginalized and denied their right to communicate through the conventional mass media. This study explores some of the issues in media ownership and control in nigeria. From the introduction of radio in the gold coast in 1935 and television in 1965 till the airwaves were liberalized in 1996, radio and television were controlled by the colonial and then the postcolonial state. Concentration of media ownership also known as media consolidation or media convergence is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. And for almost seventy three years after the debut of iwe irohin, newspaper dominated the nigerian mass media scene until 1932. Chief components of any strategy are shaping the legal enabling environment, strengthening constituencies for reform, removing barriers to access, training, and supporting capitalization of media. Media ownership and elections ownership has an enormous bearing on the nature of a media outlets elections coverage or, for that matter, any political coverage.
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. Brown envelope journalism in nigeria is a practice whereby monetary inducement is given to journalists to make them write a positive story or kill a negative story. The issues of media ownership and control can never be overemphasized due to the dwindling situations surrounding media practice in nigeria. The mixed ownership government and individuals managing one media firm is, at best, not pronounced.
The result is continuous dilemmatic practices, whereby the medias position as bastion of democracy is consistently negotiated. The concern therefore is examining and analyzing patterns of media ownership in nigeria in a bid to draw useful conclusions. Introduction in nigeria broadcasting started in the year 1933 when the british colonial government established a radio broadcasting station in lagos. It is fact that a government owned broadcast station would not want to broadcast anything that would jeopardize or tarnish the image of the government. In october 1963, nigeria altered its relationship with the united kingdom by proclaiming itself a federal republic and promulgating a new constitution. Program content is entirely made up of issues directly or indirectly relevant to the life of the community. The nigerian mass media has a long and proud history of freedom. The situation took a dangerous turn in 2012 when media organizations were deliberately targeted in these attacks, ostensibly as a result of unfavorable media coverage of the groups activities. It is a common practice in nigeria and many journalists do know that it is unethical. Problems of mass media in nigeria and developing nations.
Unfortunately, in nigeria, the environment within which the media operates visavis the ownership structures has continuously posed stoic challenges to its expected roles. It argues that the media ownership climate in nigeria is very cloudy, and not conducive for optimum operations, especially for. Nigerias media scene is one of the liveliest in africa. And this kind of media can only be possible where the media is free and uncensored or deregulated. Geography nigeria is the most populous country in africa and accounts for over half of west africas population.
The media is said to take the coloration of where the practice is being carried out i. Feb 23, 20 evaluation of the media ownership and control in digital age the history and development of mass media in nigeria dates back to the era of reverend henry townsend who established iwe irohin in 1859. The constitution of nigeria 1999 also followed the same trend of the colonial masters inspecifying a particular section justifying the media regulation in the country. The supreme court in the case of elegushi v oseni 2005 14 nwlr pt 945 at 348 aptly stated the five types of legal land ownership in nigeria and they are as follows 1. The index measures the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18, given the risks of poor health and poor. Best practices are detailed for each of these issues. State radio and tv operate at federal and regional levels. This is due to the majority ownership and control of the broadcast media by the government.
To ensure that community need is what is reflected in the programs, a lot of. Media ownership and control versus press freedom in a. Evaluation of the media ownership and control in digital. The media is said to take the coloration of where the. Jun, 2014 the supreme court in the case of elegushi v oseni 2005 14 nwlr pt 945 at 348 aptly stated the five types of legal land ownership in nigeria and they are as follows 1, by traditional evidence. Media ownership patterns the ownership of the mass media namely. Government, indepth interview, media, news, politicians, private officials 1. Newspapers media ownership in nigeria started in private hands ever before government got interested in mass media. The impact of government ownership and control of anambra. The name is derived from cash inducements hidden in brown envelopes and given to journalists during press briefings. All 36 states run at least one radio network and a tv station. I want to stop other people using photos that i uploaded on a social media website5 i want to create a new artwork from an image i found on the internet6 who owns the in. This will help establish a correlation among media ownership, media freedom and professionalism. It had, for a long time, enjoyed monopoly on the nigerian airspace until the emergence of private stations.
Evaluation of the media ownership and control in digital age the history and development of mass media in nigeria dates back to the era of reverend henry townsend who established iwe irohin in 1859. Nta, ogtv, abs, statesman newspaper etc and those owned by private individuals the news, silverbird television, ait, the sun, this day. The nigerian media nigeria is a developing country with a fairly wellestablished media industry uche, 1989. This is due to the structure of mass media ownership and. Law of contempt, law of defamation, law ofpublication, national broadcasting commission act, and so on. Even if ownership of the media is one of the main concerns when it comes to assessing media pluralism, the concept of media pluralism is broader as it touches many aspects, from merger control rules to editorial freedom, the status of public service broadcasters, the working conditions of journalists, the relationship between media and politics. It argues that the media ownership climate in nigeria is very cloudy, and not conducive for optimum operations, especially for private media. The nigerian mass media started out with the publication of iwe iroyin. Media ownership control and democratic development in nigeria.
Lecturer ii, department of mass communication, elizade universiy, ilaramokin ondo state, nigeria. Abuja has been the capital of nigeria since december 12, 1991. It was an effective tool in the hands of the proponents of democracy, to mobilize the ragtag and the bobtail against the smoking guns of the military to return them to their natural habitat. Between 1991 and now, the media throughout this continent, bar only a few countries, has altered significantly with the rise and rise of commercial press, broadcasting and internet. The history of the media in nigeria has always been characterised by two major forms of ownership, those owned by the government e. The media bureau plays a key role in promoting innovation in the media marketplace, as it develops, recommends, and administers the policy and licensing programs relating to the media industry, including cable television, broadcast television, and radio. Media ownership regulation in australia parliament of australia. As a system of government, democracy is nurtured by a fair, vibrant and effective media. The situation took a dangerous turn in 2012 when media organizations were deliberately targeted in these attacks, ostensibly as a result. Ghana has had a long tradition of state ownership and control of the media, dating back to preindependence times.
From available data, we have discovered that much is not actually done to sincerely address this menace being done to the mass media in nigeria. Pdf exploring the issues in media ownership and control. Media ownership is sometimes seen as a simple reflection of political conditions. Pdf the influence of media ownership and control on. Programming content of nigerian broadcast media 79 table 1.
Since most of the mass media outlet in some of these developing countries are owned by government, rich and influential people in the society, then with no. In carrying out this study, the researcher employed survey method in which she used questionnaire to gather her data. The survey method was used to get analyzable response from the audience of ebonyi broadcasting corporation ebbc abakaliki. The human capital index hci database provides data at the country level for each of the components of the human capital index as well as for the overall index, disaggregated by gender.
Media ownership in colonial nigeria was dominated by missionaries, colonial administrators, nationalists, political parties, politicians and private foreign or ganizations. Pdf this study explores some of the issues in media ownership and control in nigeria. Sep 30, 2019 nigeria s media scene is one of the liveliest in africa. Trends of ownership and control of media in south africa version 3. The impact of ownership on these was largely reflected.
The role of the nigerian media in the antigraft programme of the current regime will now be analysed and evaluated. This study assessed the influence of media ownership and control on media agenda setting using nigeria as a case. Media and political communications in nigeria s first republic there were mixed party and nonparty media, governmentowned and controlled media, politicalparty newspapers and the press of private concerns, during the first republic, 19601966. The african ejournals project has digitized full text of. The influence of the social media on the nigerian youths. The study made use of secondary sources of data collection i. It is available through sky digital in the uk on channel 202. This represents the very first news media that was published in nigeria and it was published in the southwest.
Government broadcast media ownership pattern and media. Media ownership 2006 research studies archive 73107. State and government owned media are under direct state or ruling party control and may therefore tend toward favouring incumbent parties or candidates. This study examined the influence of the social media on the nigeria youths.
Patterns of ownership and accessibility to information and media. Most western european democracies, for example, had a state. It is instructive to note that stv topped the list with 36. Ownership pattern, media, nigeria, democracy, broadcast. The role of ethricity and religion will be the study mostly on their interference in the coverage if nigeria media in politics and human rights levels. The commission used the evidence collected in these studies, as well as the comments, to guide and support its decisions in the 2006 ownership proceeding. The pdf file you selected should load here if your web browser has a pdf reader plugin installed for example, a recent version of adobe acrobat reader if you would like more information about how to print, save, and work with pdfs, highwire press provides a helpful frequently asked questions about pdfs alternatively, you can download the pdf file directly to your computer, from where it. Removal of the media specific foreign ownership rules in the broadcasting services act 1992 and the newspaperspecific foreign ownership restrictions in the foreign investment policy under foreign acquisitions and takeovers act 1975. Exploring the issues of media ownership and control in nigeria.
The media can never be separated from nigerias long walk to democracy. There is a grain of truth in this, but it is clear that the reality is much more complex. The core method of data collection in this study was indepth interview. Implications for democratic governance in the fourth republic of ghana by mohammed s. The influence of media ownership and control on media agenda. Copyright notice digital images, photographs and the internet. Pdf exploring the issues in media ownership and control in nigeria. Media ownership and its influence on editorial policy includes abstract and chapter one, complete project material available media ownership and its influence on editorial policya case study of announcer newspaper owerritable of contentschapter oneintroduction 1. The influence of media ownership and control on media agenda setting in nigeria international journal of humanities social sciences and education ijhsse page 38 3.
The influence of media ownership and control on media. It was an effective tool in the hands of the proponents of democracy, to mobilize the ragtag and the bobtail against the smoking guns of the military. Media and political communications in nigerias first republic there were mixed party and nonparty media, governmentowned and controlled media, politicalparty newspapers and the press of private concerns, during the first republic, 19601966. Abstract this paper examines the impact of ownership structure on the financial performance of listed insurance firms in nigeria. Influences of media ownership patterns on media freedom and professionalism in nigeria abstract this paper examines the patterns of media ownership in nigeria. Proposals by foreign interests to directly invest in the media sector, irrespective of size, would remain. Since 1999 nigeria has been practicing democratic governance. This uncovers the role of media ownership and coverage of human rights issues as concerning nigeria. The onus of the paper is to examine the diverse patterns of media ouinership con trol and democratic deuelopment using the nigerian situation as a case inpoint. Distribution of aired programmes by television station station percentage ait 28.
Implications of ownership structures on media professionalism. Community needs, not the wishes of the government or the whims of media personnel drive the program content. It also handles postlicensing matters for satellite services and releases public reports on the data collected from the industry. Contemporary research demonstrates increasing levels of consolidation, with many media industries already highly concentrated and dominated by a very small number of firms. Evaluation of the media ownership and control in digital age. The foregoing shows that the nature of media ownership in nigeria is principally dual there is private ownership and government public ownership. The problem under investigation is the media coverage of human rights issues in nigeria. Trends of ownership and control of media in south africa. With the deregulation of the nigerian media through, the deregulation of broadcasting decree no.
In addition to the benefit of deregulation in nigeria, the ownership of broadcast media stations by individuals craves way for true democracy. The sampling methods employed include the cluster sampling and. It analyzes the impacts of ownership patterns on media freedom and professionalism. Pdf exploring the issues in media ownership and control in. To a large extent, broadcasting has fared better since 1992 especially in the areas of production quality, use of new technologies, coverage and reach as well as accessibility to wider segmentsof the society. It also handles postlicensing matters for satellite services and releases public reports on the data collected from the.
And the findings showed that while significant value is attached to mass media ownership patterns and structures by audience, there is, at present, predominantly a negative ownership influence on credibility of most. The findings further showed that the current media ownership pattern and the level of media control in nigeria actually hinder the media from independently setting societys agenda. According to preliminary results of the 2006 census and subsequent estimates, the most populous cities in nigeria are lagos about 8 million, kano 3. The study uses panel data for seventeen 17 firms for the period 2001 2010 10 years. And for almost seventy three years after the debut of iwe irohin, newspaper dominated the nigerian mass media scene until 1932 when radio. The impact of ownership structure on the financial. For example, the print media in nigeria can hardly make enough impact on the entire populace especially those in the rural areas of the nation. Programming content of nigerian broadcast media 77 more as government mouthpiece than an independent out. Different laws regulating themass media in nigeria include law of sedition.
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