IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON MASS MEDIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Information and communication technology is perceived to be a force to be reckoned with in the 21st century because it has caused and continues to cause major changes in the way we live. In the electronic media, ICT has ignited and provoked radical and drastic changes that have affected and revolutionised the broadcast industry, most especially in the immediacy and timeliness of news. Information and communication technology not only facilitates and enhances the creation, processing, sharing, and dissemination of information in the broadcast industry, but the immediacy and timeliness of news are of high priority.

Notwithstanding, with ICT, information spread is infinitely faster, cheaper, and readily available. Before now, there was a significant time lag between the point when an event took place and the time when the news may be publicly made available. But ICT has helped bridge the time lag between when an event takes place and the time it is made available to the public. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a generic term used to express the convergence of telecommunications, information, broadcasting, and communications. According to Rodriguez and Wilson (2000), ICT is seen as a set of activities that facilitate and enhance the processing, transmission, and dissemination of information by electronic means. ESCAP (2000) also perceived ICT as techniques people use in order to share, distribute, and gather information for communicating through computers and computer networks. Promoting information and communication technology as an integral part of enhancing timely news delivery in the broadcast industry was articulated by Samadar (1995), who submitted that ICT is a tool for facilitating the creation, storage, management, and dissemination of information by electronic means.

Meanwhile, Marcelle (2000) did not only see ICT as a complex entity but as an application and service used for the production, distribution, processing, and transformation of information with the aid of ICT tools. Nevertheless, Ogunsola and Aboyade (2005) are of the opinion that ICT came into being as a result of related technologies, as clearly stated by their functional usage in information access and communication, which is centralised through the Internet. As far as the digital age is concerned, the benefits accrued from ICT are enormous. One of the sectors that has benefited immensely from the use of ICT is the broadcast industry. With the use of ICT, news processing and reporting are immediate, timely, and help reduce the space constraints, ‘the death of distance’. The use of ICT has revolutionised news processing, news packaging, and news reporting. There is no doubt that the employment of ICT in the broadcast industry is to enhance and improve news delivery as timely as possible.

To buttress this, Adigwe (2010) cited Soforowa (2009) when he noted that ICT is seen as the integration and utilization of computer technologies for the purpose of disseminating information to a target destination or consumer without the constraint of time and space. Information and communication technology in broadcast news gathering is on the rise among reporters and editors because its benefits are being recognised at every point of the entire supply chain of news. Technology development and the use of ICTs in the broadcast industry have improved news reporting. According to the Wikipedia encyclopaedia, “information technology (IT) or information and communication technology (ICT) is a broad subject concerned with technology and other aspects of managing and processing information, especially in large or enterprise organizations. This gave rise to the fact that ICT can be used not only to communicate but also to convey messages. To this end, ICT refers to mechanisms or tools that are used to convey, distribute, and manipulate information in order to improve its value. According to Geetika et al. (2008), information is perceived to be the primary input as well as the final output of a broadcast industry because it converts raw information into categorised, defined, and useful pieces of information. Similarly, for timely dissemination and easy access to information, Samah et al. (2009) cited Noor (2006), who defined information and communication technology (ICT) as components that aid in accessing, recording, arranging, manipulating, and presenting data or information using tools and software. More importantly, in terms of cost of production, Adigwe (2010) pointed out that ICT facilitates news processing and reporting, thereby ensuring the immediacy and timeliness of news content for its audience.

The term information and communication technology (ICT) refers to forms of technology that are used to transmit, store, create, share, or exchange information. This broad definition of ICT includes such technologies as radio, television, video, DVD, telephone (both fixed line and mobile phones), satellite systems, computer and network hardware and software, as well as the equipment and services associated with these technologies, such as videoconferencing and electronic mail (Wikepedia, 2009).

In the same way, high-technology approaches to news processing have set in motion an evolution in the strategies of news gathering in the first half of this decade. Central to these new approaches is the use of computers. Williams and Sawyer (2003:3) pointed out that a computer is “a programmable, multiuse machine that accepts raw facts and figures, manipulates them, and processes them into information that we can use, such as summaries, totals, or reports.” Its purpose is to speed up problem solving and increase productivity.

Laurantine (2011), citing Bermiger (2005:4), viewed information and communication technologies as the nervous system of contemporary society, transmitting and distributing information and interconnectivity, a myriad of independent units”. Operationally, Laurantine (2011) sees ICTs as digital devices that either notify of the hardware or software for transferring information. Indeed, the emergence of ICT as mechanisms of control for the industrial revolution is pivotal in almost every sphere of the production, distribution, and dissemination of manufacture and finished products. (Laurantine cited Berniger 2005:4)

In the past few decades, information and communication technology have transformed the world in all spheres of life. Its potential for reducing manual operations and fostering growth in the media has increased rapidly. To strengthen this assertion, Adigwe (2010) cited Okoye (2000), who noted that computer technology has enhanced news processing and reporting. With the Internet, journalists can now click on relevant sites to source foreign or even local news for subsequent broadcast news. Indeed, the importance of information and communication technology as a tool for news processing cannot be overemphasized. The use of ICTs in the broadcast industry has revolutionised and enhanced news processing. Access to information is fundamental to empowerment, and recognising the impact of increasing digital convergence on media has created an enabling environment for ensuring people’s access to information through the adoption of this technology.

Statement of Problem

Going by global trends, which foretell an increase in employment and the deployment of ICTs in news processing, in order to achieve better efficiency and accuracy and speed up the operations of news processing, Arguably, the employment of ICTs in the newsroom and in news processing activities will increase costs, as money would have to be invested into acquiring both hardware and software. However, when information and communication technology is discussed, it puts people out of jobs. The reverse is often the case. This technology takes over mechanical assignments and frees individuals for more intellectually productive work. Similarly, if this technology will achieve its overall objective, there is a need for faster and more accurate means of solving manual operations of data processing and better storage devices for information and data as provided by ICTs. The complexities of modern technology have produced great mathematical, scientific, and engineering problems and, hence, enhanced news processing and reporting. The Nigerian broadcast and print media, like other aspects of life and human endeavour in the country, have embraced information and communication technology to some extent. In this vein, this study tends to investigate the challenges facing media organisations with a view to finding out the effect of the use of information and communication technology in news processing and reporting. Also, this study will identify the constraints on the use of ICTs in news processing.