CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Before we delve into the main theme of the
topic it will be worthwhile to get acquainted with the key word of the topic,
which is communication. After knowing what communication is, we then can get
further to know the meaning of the mass attached to it ie mass communication.
There is no of communication though is as old as life itself; still remains one
of the most important activities of man since the earliest days. Life and
willing are premised on man’s ability to communicate. Thus there is no
particular laid down definition of mass communication. Several authors have
attempted their own definition through different perspectives but generally
have arrived at virtually the same meaning. Communication evolved as a
result of the persistent natural human love to promote unity some time and at
other times conflict, from this arises the traditional definition of
communication as a process or art of transmitting information, ideas and
attitudes from the a source to a destination (age etal-1988). The concept of communication
has its basic idea transfer transmission or exchange it something from one
person to another. Chinyere Okunna is her book, introduction to Communication
(1994) stated that to communicate, basically means to share ideal information,
opinion’s feeling or experience between people that means communication allows
message from flow with way and results to sharing of experience! More
recently Jayawara (1971) defined communication as an interaction process
through which persons or group relate to each other and share information,
experience, and culture. From the above definition it could be seen that
communication is important in the development of any country since it deals
with the sharing of information, experiences and culture, which are the basic
for development. In other hand mass means many are involved at the same time of
the sharing. Now let us attempt a definition of mass communication, its
brief history and the communication processes. John Bitner in his mass
communication. An introduction second edition saw Communication “as deadline of
the investigative journalist, the creative artistry of documentaries, the
bustle of a network newsroom, the whir or computer the hit record capturing the
imagination of millions the radio disc jockey setting the pace of morning show,
and the advertising executive planning a campaign. It is radio, research,
recordings resonators and ratings. It is television, talent, telephone and
tabloids. It is satellites, story boards system and segues. It is all these and
more but not new and dynamic”3 According to Eric Rothenbuhier Communication is
a term use in a variety of way, which depute potential for confusion are
usually clear from the context. These include
1) Reference
to the activities to mass media as a group
2) The use of
criteria of a concept, massiveness to distinguish among media and their
activities and
3) The
construction of questions about communication as applied to the activities of
the mass media significantly only the third or these uses does not take the
actual process of communication for granted. Communication is often used
loosely to refer to the distribution of entertainment arts, information and
messages by television, radio, newspapers, magazines movies, recorded music and
associated media. For clearer perception of what Communication is let us see
through the definition Chinyere Stella Okunna, in her introduction to mass
communication. She said “A basic way to define Communication is to say that it
is the processes of transmitting information ideas and attitudes to many people
usually through machine. It is the scientific study of mass media, the message
they produce, (Information, ideas, attitudes), and the audience responses
(people) they transmit these message to. In Communication the source may be one
person, but most time it’s a group of people. Actually we are not new to mass
communication, in view of that, we shall skip the channels of Communication and
delve right into the course of research which attempts to discover the
relationship of these Communication components for sharing of information,
ideas and attitudes to a developing country like Nigeria. Let us know a little
about the country under review-Nigeria. Nigeria as we all know is a third world
country of Africa. It is one of the largest countries in West Africa and as is
the case with developing countries, it has diverse ethic and tribal problems.
From the afore stated definition and what was derived from them, the need for Communication
in the development of a developing nation like Nigeria cannot be over
emphasized. Basically if not for any other thing we need it to reform
our society, to share experiences, information, and diversify and unify our
cultural values and attitudes. Another significant of Communication is a
developing country, is that; it helps in all sectors of the economy. It is as
well as educating and informing the masses or populace on these areas. Among
the basic roles of Communication or rather mass media in a developing country
as well as seen later in the book are
1) Servicing
the political system by providing information
2) Enlightening
the public so as to make it capable of self-government.
3) Providing
entertainment.
4) Safeguarding
the rights of individuals by serving as a watch dog against government.
Conclusively, the best objective, aim and role of Communication to a developing
country like Nigeria can best be achieved through ruralization of the media and
Communication processes. Education of the rural ties can equally help in the
realization of these objectives. Furthermore, there should be fewer
restrictions on the Communication practitioners and Communication itself. A
strong body should be organized to regulate the activities of mass
communication. It is equally worthwhile to include in this concluding
part of the introduction that political elites have a very vital role to play
in any of this developmental stages especially when it is related to the
society in which it operates as well as the type of government in control of
the press and the theories the press monarchical feudalism, capitalism,
totalitarian, social responsibility theories.
1.2 OBJECTIVES
OF THE STUDY
This
set of objective was to guide us in the conduct of this research and to limit
us to the scope of the objective and these objectives are enumerated below.
1) First
to identify the possible roles or Communication in developing countries
especially Nigeria.
2) The
second objective is to know how effective these roles are towards development
of the developing countries.
3) Our
third objective is to use Nigeria as our case study because it is a typical
example of a developing country. With the result we get from Nigeria. We then
can generalize it to other countries of the third world.
4) We
believed that there must be some factors that would help role of Communication to
be achieved. To identify these factors was one of our set goals.
5) Equally
we believed that there could be some problem inherent in Nigeria Communication practice.
Therefore we made it our objective to identify these problems of limitation. 1.3 RESEARCH
QUESTION
1) Has
Communication been playing their role in Nigeria?
2) Has
Communication helped Nigeria to achieve any development?
3) If
yes in question above then in what ways
4) What
are the effects of Communication in the rural area?
5) Has
Communication failed in its development roles?
6) Does Communication
face limitation in Nigeria.
7) What aspect
of Communication has been playing its roles?
8) Can
you compare Communication in developing countries with Communication in
developed countries?
9) What is
your view of Communication in Nigeria by the year 2007?
1.4 HYPOTHESIS
H1:
The Communication been playing their role in Nigeria H0: The Communication
has not been playing their role in Nigeria.
H2:
The Communication helped Nigeria to achieve any development.
H0:
The Communication do not helped Nigeria to achieve any development.
H3:
Communication has effect on the rural area
H0:
Communication does not have effect in the rural area.
1.5 CONCEPTUAL
AND OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
ü Limitation- Apart from usual
definition of limitation as the problem of a particular country. It also enable
in this research work to ascertain the limitation. Investigation also has
different characteristics to Nigeria media to uncover hidden facts to broaden
knowledge. ü Limitation- it talks about the problems encountered
during this process. These problems may slightly effect dependability of the
result of the project. ü Development- this is a country or society’s
development in area of machines and equipment that help in the easy procession
of thing that were done crudely before. ü Development- because of
dialetic/linquistic heterogeneity and language different hidden a lot.
ü Survey- this sampling or poling of people to obtain information
through questionnaire. ü Survey- we encountered problem of getting
the view of an entire population and that was why our sampling was done
randomly. ü Scope- The scope of this study range from the roles Communication
play in these developing countries to the problem associated with this concept.
ü By scope- we mean areas that the book covers, the people it was
made and for what reason. ü Design- For convenience and time we used
the people in the Enugu metropolis, most of who were student, in our research.
ü Design- By design we mean, the area within which we were able to
sample to represent the entire population.
1.6
ASSUMPTIONS
It is assumed that federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria carries news and
features that stimulate social changes. It is also assumed that the media
possess a similarity of psychological as well as other disposition with the
rest of the print media that operate in the country. It is also assumed that
they have equal roles to society both moral and otherwise.