CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Broadcasting is a global phenomenon. As an essential aspect of any nation’s social and cultural life, its significance cannot be over-emphasized. Combining audio vision and motion, the broadcast media effectiveness is communicating information with speech and accuracy to the heterogeneous audiences has been proven over the years. Moreover, the broadcast media have helped the individual to share ideas not only within his immediate environment but also beyond his social milieu. So that by means of broadcasting the individual can partake of ideas and experiences that can enrich his life and help him live in a complex dynamic and human society.

            However, in Nigeria for several decades following the inception of broadcasting in 1957 (Obazele, 1996), the industry led a sheltered life shielded from the words of free market forces as successive regimes ensured that the sector remained an exclusive monopoly of the central government. Even the 1979 constitutional provision for the establishment of private electronic media could not change the trend. Whereas the print media had much earlier experienced liberalization, the broadcast media remained as earlier stated an exclusive preserve of government. It could be argued that perhaps government, initial monopoly of the industry may not be unconnected with seeming potential of broadcasting on a tool for social change and engineering which as such ought not to be left in the hands of just anyone. Again, it is probable that private entrepreneurs would emphasize on orientation towards exclusive communication rather than consideration for national interest. This may be another reason for governments grip on the industry over the years.

            Be that as it may, the much expected deregulation materialized in 1992 when the Babangida regime promulgated decree 38 which liberalized the industry and also established the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). This decree (38) of August 24 (1992) empowered the NBC to regulate the entire broadcasting industry, both public and private.

            The advertisement (usually abbreviated to TV commercial, advert, ad or ad film) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization or individuals, which conveys a message, typically to market a product or service, advertising revenue provides a significant Portion of the funding for most privately owned broadcasting stations. The vast majority of television advertisements today consist of brief advertising spots, ranging in length from a few seconds to several minutes (as well as program – length infomercials). Advertising agencies often use humor as a tool in their creative marketing campaigns. In fact, many psychological studies have attempted to demonstrate the effect of humor and their relationship to empowering advertising persuasion. Animation is often used in advertisements. The pictures can vary from hand-drawn traditional animation to computer animation. By using animated characters, an advertisement may have a certain appeal that is difficult to achieve with actors or mere product displays. Animation also proofs the advertisement from changes in fashion that would date it. For this reason, an animated advertisement (or a series of such advertisements) can be very long running several decades in many instances. Advertisements of this sort here been used to promote a wide variety of goods, services and ideas since the dawn of broadcasting.

            The demand for advertisement by organization and business owned bodies can be traced to the fact that many television advertisements feature songs or melodies (“Jingles”) or slogans designed to be striking and memorable, which may remain in the minds of television viewers long after the span of the advertising campaign. Some of these ad singles or catchphrases may take on lives of their own, sparring gags that appear in films, television shows, magazines, comics or literature. These long lasting advertising elements may be said to have taken a place in the pop culture history of the demographic to whom they appeared. However, the demand for advertisement has been the elementary clew of the private broadcasters which found it as a strong source of revenue for the continuous management of the organization.

            At the heart of the problem of the media and democracy is the problem of the control over the production and dissemination of news. However, other aspects of the media and communication, including movies, novels, music theater and television are also critical for public debate and democracy. While everyone acknowledge that a “free” press ambiguity about precisely what the word “free” means. The standard view is that the “free” press means a press that is free from government control, and this in turn means a free market press. A free market press serves the interest of a tree society, the reasoning goes, because market competition will guarantee an open arena for the exchange and dissemination of ideas.

            The simple and obvious fact that owners of broadcasting companies or station have the power to control the content of what the media produces. “In commercial media, Robert Machesney writes “owners hire, fire, set budgets and determine the overarching aims of the enterprise. Journalists, editors and media professionals who rises to the top of the hierarchy tend to internalize the values, both commercial and political, of media owners” the owners of media companies may of course, abdicate that control or delegate such control to the people they live. In principle they could give complete autonomy to editors and reporters to determine the character of the news. But since owners and corporate executives generally have political views on the salient issues in the press and since they have the right to influence the operation of the firms they own, they typically exercise broad control over the character of news reporting.

            News reporting patterns were found to be connected to the type of ownership independently owned broadcasting station had more stories that require more reportorial efforts and used more enterprises news sources than chain-owned (Fredgley and Niebauer, 1995). A study by Olien, Tichenor and Donohue (1998) found a strong correlation between the type of ownership and coverage (frequency and proportion) of non-local business. Presumably “News” to a greater or lesser degree, should reflect some element of the real world – or “facts”. That is, we can assume that a major factor in news content is the noteworthy extents that, in some objective sense, actually happen. Indeed, media coverage of the economy, in a general sense, tends to reflect actual changes in certain economic indicators though coverage of positive and negative events may be asymmetric (Soroka, 2006). However, other factors quite outside of the economy, may affect the manner in which information is portrayed, or framed. The fact that a given event occurs does not mean that a given “news” will be reported on that event, or if the event or if the event is reported, that will be presented in a manner that weighs certain information in the same manner as another broadcasting station. In short, there is a process between “FACTS and COVERAGE” that affects whether the given fact is reported and also the manner in which it is reported a process which leads Hackett (2000) to refer to some media as having “blind spots” and acting as “filter”. The process may indicate many factors through one important factor is ownership of the media outlet and the interest or biases of that ownership.

            To fully grasped the perceived influence of ownership and advertisement on the output of a broadcasting firm, it is important to first define both terms. When it comes to news, there is no universally accepted definition various scholars have offered definitions based on their understanding of the concept of news.

            Mitchell Charnley, as quoted by Ogunsiji (1989, P. 23), defined news as “the timely report of facts or opinions that hold interest or importance, or both for a considerable number of people” Charnley’s definition emphasizes four major characteristics of news viz: that it must be timely about facts or opinions that hold interest or importance to a considerable number. Interest in this definition is the fact that news should be fresh, concerning occurrences or opinions, and that it should be of interest or of importance to many people. This means that an editor might drop a story, which through timely, has little interest or importance to just a few persons.

            Comprehensive as it seems, this definition does not address the question of news gathering, would the item be considered news worthy, for instance, if the reporter in the process of news gathering was not accurate?

            On their part Hulteng and Nelson as cited as Ogunsiji (1989) define news as “news in anything that interests you that you didn’t already know”. Relying on the strength of brevity. The authors stress “interest” and ignorance” of the issues at stake. It seems to be restricted to definition of news among individuals, including gossips and rumours as no reference was made to the mass media and the efforts of the professionals who work in them.

Okwechime (2006, P. 14) sees news as: “news or fresh information, tidings or reports of a recent event. NEWS must also be topical up to date, important, unusual current and significant. It is an impersonal objective, factual and accurate report of an event with the purpose of informing, educating and entertaining the audience of the medium”

            On the other hand, advertise has also been defined in various ways by various scholars, a few definitions are sampled below:

            Advertising has been described by Wells et al (2000) as any technologically displayed, printed, written and spoken idea, openly sponsored by the advertise and at his or her expense, for the purpose of influencing votes, sales, opinions, and endorsements. Arens (1999) also states that it is a paid non-personal communication of ideas, about goods and services, sponsored by an identified person through the channels of communication technology such as:

i.          Internet (e.g. pop ups; electronic mails etc)

ii.         Electronic billboard (large displays that provide text and graphic messages, similar to those found in sports stadia)

iii.        Telephone

vi.        Television

v.         Radio; and

vi.        Videocassettes

            All these are done to persuade, influence and stimulate the consumer buying behaviour, (Arens, 1999, p. 8).

            Similarly, Anderson (1998, p. 17) notes that these communication technology channels are: “the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of information can be vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical”. To this extent, therefore, one can state that these channels have helped to improve advertising messages greatly by expanding and extending the means, mode and medium by which goods and services are brought to the knowledge of the consumers. No wonder, Kotter, (1997) submits that these communication technology channels have changed the way organizations, companies, individuals and marketers produce, package and sell their products. This, such advertising means can be used to build up a long term image for a product in order to trigger quick sales. This, clearly, demonstrates that communicating advert messages through these channels makes the information effective and efficient, scattered consumers simultaneously, who may all respond in a similar way.

History of ITV, Benin

Private ownership of broadcasting stations in Nigeria came into being in 1992 when broadcasting was deregulated in August that year with promulgation of the National Broadcasting Commission, Decree No 38 of 1992, section 22 of the decree repelled the provisions which confers exclusive monopoly of ownership of electronic media on the state. Thus, private and independent ownership of electronic media became legalized in Nigeria after almost 60 (sixty) years of government monopoly of broadcasting.

            According to Lasode (1994:114) section 38 of the 1999 constitution titled right to freedom of expression and the press which endorsed the private ownership of broadcasting stations stated “That every person shall be entitled to own establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of information, ideas and opinions and impact ideas and information without interference, provided that no persons other than Government of the Federation or of a state or any other person, or body authorized by the president shall own, established and operate television or wireless broadcasting station for any purpose whatsoever”.

            Although this provision fully covered private participation in the broadcasting industry, no Nigerian government took the initiative until the broadcasting liberalization policy of General Ibrahim Babangida administration, when promulgated decree No 38 which officially established the Natural Broadcasting Commission (NBC). No sooner was this decree promulgated then NBC issued fourteen (14) licenses for private operators, thus came about the independent television (ITV) Benin.

            ITV Benin took over the arrives on 27th March, 1997 radically changing the horizon of broadcasting industry in Nigeria. The founding father, Sir Chief Dr. Gabriel Osawaru Igbenedion. The Esama of Benin kingdom, Honourary Romanian Consule to Edo and Delta States; who after a careful study of the broadcast industry in Nigeria, yearned for an enhancement of the choice available to viewers to a level comparable to what obtains in developed countries of the world.

            Having obtained the much needed Franchise the station went straight to work by rendering up to standard skeletal broadcast services under the umbrella of Independent Television Network (ITN), a cable outfit.

            In no time a thousand five hundred feet (1500) mast was credited and as pair of ten kilowatts capacity transmitting was also delivered to the station, transmitting on channel twenty two (22) in the ultra high frequency (UHF) band.

            Since its inception, ITV Benin has been operating smoothly. Thereby gaining commendation from NBC in 1998. The commission after due consideration also approved the ultra-high frequency (UHF) transmitting on channel forty-two (42), the Franchise for ITV to transmit its programs in the Federal capital territory (FCT) Abuja. To add to its achievements, the station has also gained its affiliation with the Cable News Network (CNN).

Statement of the Problem

Since perceived influence of ownership on news and advisements amount to the screening of the content of media news package, it therefore means that media organization cannot transmit all the news events or news stories available to it on a daily routine.

            In media circles, it is often believed that owners and advertisers exert some influence. This study will examine the veracity of that assumption. The study will clearly attempt to find if needed media owners and advertisers have any influence on media outputs and if they do, to what extent?

            The problem therefore is to ascertain how ownership of news and advertisement affects the output of a broadcasting firm, in order to validate this, ITV Benin is used as a study.

Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this study are as follows:

1.         To determine the influence of ownership on news and advertisement

2.         To find out if advertising revenue is necessary for structural sustainability

3.         To check the list of factors that determine the cost of advert

4.         To ascertain how ITV Benin reacts to news that directly affects its owners

Research Questions

1.         What influence does ownership have on the news content of a broadcast station?

2.         How has influence of ownership on news enhanced the quality of news package?

3.         Is advertising revenue necessary for structural sustainability of ITV Benin?

4.         Is advertisement the major source of revenue for private broadcasting stations in ITV Benin?

Significance of the Study

This study is significant in a number of ways:

1.         The findings will be of great importance to mass commutation students and the general public.

2.         It will further afford ITV a room to improved on the short comings in news content development and package

3.         The findings is expected to spur scholars of mass communication what might be interested to conduct research in the areas of ownership.

Scope of the Study

The scope of this study is on the perceived influence of ownership on news and advertisements processes in the organization and production of news stories and advert placement to which ITV Benin have been taken as a major area of assessment.

Definition of Terms

Broadcasting

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio or visual mass communication medium, but usually one using electromagnetic radiation (radio waves). The receiving parties may include the general public.

Influence

In this study, influence is defined as anything that affects the thinking or perception.

Advertising

This study, adopts the definition of advertising offered by Rosenberg (1977). The process of buying media space or time in order to promote a product, services or ideas.

News

In this study, news is considered as a timely account of an event or occurrence.

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