CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction

The modern age of communication is generally considered to date from the

invention of printing. While this assumption is legitimate, two reservations must

be made. First, it is important to note that the technique of multiple production by

printing images appeared almost 21st C with the publication of newspapers, books,

posters, etc. Secondly, the impact of this invention was at first more particular in

promoting the spread and proliferation of knowledge and ideas (through books)

than in developing mass information (Unesco,1980:6). More recently, the rising

electronic media became an important feature in the emergence and growth of

communication media which to a large extent is electrically driven. Therefore, as

modern societies accelerate development of new resources, technique and

technological devices in communication, particularly for transmitting and

receiving signals and messages, the invention of these electronic media became a

feature of life in the society. It offers it audiences with entertainment, information

and education in a cheap and convenient form.The media,especially television and

film make a powerful impression by enabling viewers to see events as they

actually occur and at same time shape the popular perception of realities including

the realities of distant societies (Fiske, 1987:13). It is therefore observed that the

advent of media and their presence in our daily lives have been one of the major

features of the contemporary world.

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The term media is often used interchangeably with mass communication.

Mass communication is seen to comprise the institutions and techniques by which

specialized groups employ technological devices, press, television, radio etc. to

disseminate symbolic contents to large heterogeneous and widely dispersed

audiences, (Janowif, 1968). Underlining this definition, mass communication is

taken to mean, the means of transmitting information from the sender to the

receiver as well as passing knowledge and experiences of an individual or group to

another. Mass media on the other is seen as the organised technologies which

make mass communication possible, that is, the dissemination of information,

knowledge, and idea to large groups (McQuail 1994:10). Marshal McLuhan sees

the media more broadly as “extension of the organisation outside itself”. This in

effect means that media extends the human capacity to share and process

information in the form of data, images, ideas and even feelings and therefore

transmit to the receiving audience.

The successive development of media forms affects virtually every

dimension of human social and personal life, as well as human ecology and

creating new forms of cultural expression. In essence, they have the ability to

create and shape perceptions and ideas (Greame,1993:46). So media no longer act

simply as devices, organised institutions or neutral carriers of ideas, but are also

the source of the ideas and meanings. (Steven, 2003:17).        There     are     many

media forms in contemporary society. These include: radio, television, internet,

newspapers, cinema, the new media of mobile phones etc. However, among all

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these forms, there are several characteristics they hold in common. They are:

producers and distributors of news, entertainment and information. They engage in

the handling of sophisticated technology of recording, distribution and reception.

They distribute their news to very large and socially diverse audiences whose

individual members are usually unknown to each other. The institutions are not

simply companies or government agencies but complex organisations with