CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

A century and half ago communication between countries involved physical

presence. Once a reporter had to run as fast as possible back to the newsroom after

interviewing and tried to beat the competition to print. With the advent of the digital age the

role of the journalist changed. The inception of information communication technology such

as the internet has made it possible to find out about events without actually being there.

Journalists can report news across the world over the internet.

Throughout history developments in technology and communication have gone hand-

in-hand and the latest technological developments such as the internet have resulted in the

advancement of the science of communication to a new level. The process of human

communication has evolved over the years with many path- breaking inventions and

discoveries heralding revolutions. The invention of pictographs or the first written

communication in the ancient world brought about written communication. These writings

were on stone and remained immobile. The invention of paper papyrus and wax

culminating in the invention of the printing press in the 15

th

century made possible transfer of

documents from one place to another allowing for uniformity of languages over long

distances. The latest revolution is the widespread application of electronic technology such as

electronic waves and signals to communication manifesting in the electronic creation and

transfer of documents over the World Wide Web (www.wikipediathefreeencyclopedia.com)

Social media which are a form of electronic communication have become the highest

activity on the internet. They refer to social networking websites developed to specifically

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help people share their views and stay in touch with their friends relatives and well-

wishers.According to Wikipedia social media represents a shift in how people discover read

and share news information content which brought about the democratization of information

transforming people from content readers into publishers.Social media are also internet sites

where people interact freely sharing and discussing information about each other and their

lives using a multi-media mix of personal words pictures videos and audio (Bruce and

Douglas; 2008 p.27). In order to broaden our knowledge on the topic of study a brief history

of social media will be discussed below.

In the early 1990s chat rooms and bulletin boards were forms of social media; in that

they helped people connect with others and share interests.A little laterdating sites hooked

together those looking for partners and Classmate.com.let people connect with people they

had known in high school and college.In the early 2000s a site called Friendster was set up

where people invited their friends to join and in turn those friends invited other friends.The

site was popular for a while but it suffered from technical difficulties and fake profiles and

began losing members.Some of those members went to MySpacewhich had actually started

in 1999 but became better known in 2003.Its roots are a little muddy because it received

financial and logistical support from another company called eUniverse and most of the early

users were eUniverse employees but Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe are given credit for

much of the innovations and success of the site which built up to 115 million users

worldwide. Members post bios photos blogs videos and other things that strike their fancy

and some TV programmes to air on MySpace. In 2005 Rupert Murdoch‟s News Corporation

(parent of Fox Broadcasting) bought MySpace for 580 million dollars.

A competitor to MySpace Facebook was started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg while

he was a student at Harvard University; it grew up rapidly about 2007. At first Facebook was

solely for college and high school students but Zuckerberg opened it to everyone and like

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MySpace it encourages all types of member postings (Lynn Gross 2010). Apart from the

above mentioned social media toolsthere are also others. These include; Twitter YouTube

BlackBerry Messenger Flickr Word Press Blogger Badoo Live Journal Wikipedia Type

Pad Second Life Lulu and many others. All these social media appear in many forms

including blogs and microblogs forums and message boards social networks wikis virtual

worlds social bookmarking tagging and news writing communities digital storytelling and

scrapbooking data content image video sharing podcast portals and collective intelligence.

Journalism on the other hand is the deliberate and conscious efforts to gather

information collating and analyzing data for the purpose of informing educating and

entertaining the people with a view of making an appropriate decision (Qasim Akinreti;

2007). Journalism is also an investigation and reporting events issues and trends to a large

audience. Though there are many variations of journalism the ideal is to inform the intended

audience about topics ranging from government and business organizations to cultural

aspects of society such as arts and entertainment. The field of journalism include; editing

photojournalism and documentary (www.Wikipediathefreeencyclopedia.com).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The impact of social media in today‟s world of communication especially journalism

cannot be over-looked. Since its arrival social media have certainly changed the way

journalists work how stories are developed and disseminated. Social media have had positive

impacts without doubt but there are also concerns about their impact on productivity and the

disruption it could have on journalists‟ working patterns. Social media have created a

dependency among those working in the media and many are unable to do without them.

Social media have become journalistic lexicon and it seems sourcing information has

overtaken self-promotion as a primary social activity. While journalists are growing more

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sophisticated in their use of social media and are for instance using a great variety of tools to

source for news some journalists are less positive about some of the ways social media affect

their journalistic activities their engagement with their audience their productivity and the

quality of their work. Based on these contrasting views the question this research seeks to

answer is; how have social media affected the journalists in Makurdi metropolis with regards

to their journalistic duties?

1.2 Objectives of the Study

The study had the following objectives:

1. To know if journalists in Makurdi metropolis are exposed to social media networking

tools.

2. To find out the type of social media tools journalists in Makurdi metropolis prefer.

3. To determine whether social media have enhanced the productivity of journalists in

Makurdi metropolis.

1.3 Research Questions

1. To what extent are journalists in Makurdi metropolis exposed to social media

networking tools?

2. What type of social media tool do journalists in Makurdi metropolis prefer?

3. How have social media enhanced the productivity of journalists in Makurdi

metropolis?

1.4 Research Hypothesis

H1: There is significant difference between journalists in Makurdi metropolis who use social

media networking tools and those who do not.

1.5 Scope of the Study

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This study is focused on journalists in Makurdi metropolis and not necessarily

conclusive for journalists in other parts of Nigeria. Since journalists share common

characteristics and skills data generated from this study and the result obtained thereof can

be applied to all journalists.

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study will be of immeasurable importance to journalists media organizations

news agencies editors lecturers and students in the field of journalism and mass

communication as well as other researchers who will want to embark on same study as this.

The study will help journalists to source useful information using social media

networking tools as well as provide them with a guide on how to write online stories. It will

also help journalists to interact with their audience and identify their information needs. The

study will also help journalists who have rarely embraced social media to do so in order to

increase their productivity.

1.7 Operational Definition of Significant Terms

A. Social media: The term social media refers to the Internet-based social networking

websites developed to specifically help people share their views and stay in touch

with their friends relatives and well wishers.

B. Media: media in this study are Facebook Twitter YouTube and other social media

networking tools which journalists use to disseminate information to a large

heterogeneous audience.

C. Journalism: this is the practice of writing editing and disseminating information to

the public.

D. Modern journalism: it is a term used to describe the new era in journalism where

internet and computers are used in almost every journalistic activity.

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