CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
The term mass media according to the definition given by Head and Sterling (1982:22), “mass media are those means of communication that use technology to reach large parts of the population almost simultaneously with the kind of news and entertainment that ordinary people can afford to pay”. According to La’aro, (2004:1), the mass media are an important component of mass communication in disseminating symbol content to a large heterogeneous and widely dispersed audience. The media is grouped into print and broadcast media. The print media include: newspapers, magazines, pamphlet, books, et cetera, while the broadcast media consist of radio and television. The establishment of “Iweiroyin fun awonegbaati Yoruba” by Reverend Henry Townsend in Abeokuta in 1859 marked the birth of newspaper in Nigeria. The radio on the other hand, started in Nigeria in 1936 through the distribution of programmes emanating from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) In London as part of its overseas services to Lagos, Kano and Ibadan under the arrangement referred to as Rediffusion. Similarly, in 1959, the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service (WNBS) was established by Chief ObafemiAwolowo as the first television station in Nigeria and in Africa.
In a democratic society, the media is referred to as the “Fourth Estate of the Realm”. This means that after the Executive arm, Legislative, Judiciary, the media comes next. Edmund Burke made this assertion in one of the proceedings of the British Parliament after he had mentioned the three well known estates of the realms, the lords spiritual, the lords temporal and the commons. He pointed to the press gallery and added, “And yonder sits the Fourth Estate, more important of them all”. President J.F Kennedy’s remark on the American press that the president reigns for four years but journalists govern forever also confirmed the fact that the media is a partner in progress with the government and not a tool. The broad functions of the media are to act as watch-dog over the government, safeguarding the rights of the individual and reporting events accurately, objectively and without bias or prejudice.
However, media ownership tends to have influence on their performance as the “Fourth Estate of the realm”. The degree of freedom of the government-owned media cannot be compared with those of private-owned media. Many research works for instance have shown that government owned media deliberately avoid criticism of government action and play down stories capable of exposing government secrets event when the public interest requires that such story be told to the public. The Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) for example will never transmit any report revealing the secrets or criticizing any action of the Federal Government. The private media even though not entirely free from this fault, Buhari certificate forgery by the news magazine.
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