NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGY USE PATTERNS IN NEWSROOMS- A STUDY OF SELECTED BROADCAST STATIONS IN SOUTH EAST, NIGERIA
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Background to the Study
Broadcast media thrived globally before the coming of the internet and new media as a very significant medium for news, information, entertainment and social development although there were other media attempts before its advent. Globally, telegraph and print media have become common before radio’s arrival followed later by television, internet and then, the new media amidst economic and sociopolitical issues across countries. An insight on communication technology and broadcast media at the global terrain is therefore, an important starting point to examining the use patterns of new media technology in the broadcast newsrooms. 2 1.1.1 Global Electronic Communication Technologies: The Telegraph The Telegraph is a significant landmark in communication history and the maiden model of communication that could be transported from a large distance. The first electrical telegraph instrument was built in Germany in 1833 and in 1844 Morse established a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore. Radio and television were acclaimed to have developed from the telegraph as “contemporary media age can trace its origins back to the electrical telegraph” (Lule, 2012, p.15). The electronic revolution in communication came with the development of the telegraph, telephone, and radio. Peters (Jensen, 2010) credited the telegraph with giving communication a recognition from the last half of the nineteenth century as ‘a general category of human activity’(p.4) as before this time, letters and periodicals took hours, days and even months to arrive at their destination making most information irrelevant. The advent of the telegraph initiated a change in the communication process as messages were transmitted instantaneously and more effectively. The immediacy in communication was provided by the telegraph (Starkey, 2008) which revolutionized long-distance communication system. Bittner (1989) explains the technology works through mechanical transmission of short and long sounds-dots and dashes which represent the letters of the alphabet, which a skilful telegraph operator could easily “send or receive 20 words per minute, although only those centers equipped with telegraph lines could send and receive messages” (p. 5). In fact, the functions of the telegraph then were similar to roles performed by the internet, computers and mobile phones of today, which shows that technology can be refashioned to suit communication purposes. The advent of the telegraph initiated more developments in the process of communication and "encouraged scholars and other commentators to think of the diverse practice of social interaction in the flesh, via wires and over the air…” (Jensen, 2010, p.4). The developments in telegraphs brought about patents in radio, prints, television, telecoms, Internet, new media, and media convergence as we are experiencing today. This affirms McLuhan (1964, p.1) assertions on the essence of technological development that, “the message of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs.” Since the telegraph gave birth to the electronic media of communication as we have them today, including new media technologies and mobile media technology, it can be regarded as the life-wire of communication technology. 1.1.2 Development of Radio: A Global Perspective Radio was the next electronic media to emanate from the development of telegraph following wide experimentations by early patents because of some limitations of the telegraph. There are diverse accounts as regards the beginning of radio globally, though each points to telegraph as contributory to 3 its origin. William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone developed the first commercial service electric telegraph which began operation in England in 1838 (http://earlyradiohistory.us/sec002.htm). Radio started operationally with Samuel Morse's (American Morse Code) electromagnetic telegraph in 1844 (Baran, 2009, p. 193-194). The electromagnetic telegraph was widely adopted throughout the United States, while a more consistent version was developed in Europe, known as Continental Morse Code. The global use of radio with the American Morse Code system implies that a single standard telegraphic code was needed in order to avoid confusion. The advent of the Continental Morse (International Morse) however, overtook the former radio communication attempts (http://earlyradiohistory.us/sec002.htm). The actual radio technology however, started in 1864 with patent by James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish Mathematician, and physicist who theorized that when electricity passes through a wire it gives off invisible waves under certain conditions. Many other people also contributed to the development of radio across the globe: Heinrich Hertz, a young German proved Maxwell's theory in 1887; while Professor Popov, a Russian Scientist experimented with wireless transmission around 1895. Thereafter, Guglielmo Marconi an Italian inventor through his "wireless telegraphy,"(http://earlyradiohistory.us/) in 1895 through 1899 successfully transmitted wireless signal in a radiotelegraphy experiment across two miles (Spiker, 2004). Even in its infancy, the Federal Communication Commission affirms that Guglielmo Marconi’s radio apparatus was widely believed to have contributed to the survival of over 700 people in the Titanic disaster in 1912. They would have perished if ships at sea were still using carrier pigeons to transmit over large distances (FCC. gov). Lee DeForest and John Ambrose Fleming in 1906 developed the vacuum-tube transmitter which allowed for amplification and detection which led to the first transmission of voice and music (Spiker, 2004, Bittner, 1989, Lule, 2012). Several other inventors from different parts of the world contributed to further development of the radio, including Nikola Tesla, Amos Dolbear, Harold Power, Charles David Herrold, Reginald Fessenden and William Crookes, Oliver Heavyside, Edwin Howard Armstrong, Ernst Alexanderson, Philo T. Farnsworth, and David Sarnoff. Baran (2009) and Bittner, (1989) agree that, Reginald Fessenden in 1906 used Alexanderson’s Alternator to become the first to transmit a programme of speech and music while Edwin Armstrong in 1930 initiated frequency modulation which led to the invention of a new kind of radio called FM radio (Whetmore,1985). Edwin Armstrong also patented other broadcast technologies called regeneration, and the superheterodyne circuit, which is a means of receiving, converting and amplifying weak, high-frequency electromagnetic waves. This further enhanced the development of the radio and its inventions, considered by many to provide the foundation for cellular phones (FCC. Gov). 4 Apparently, radio has served the purposes of information and entertainment right from the early days to date. Amplifying vacuum tubes revolutionized radio receivers and transmitters by mid-1920s and with the advent of voice broadcasting and US government takeover of the industry in the World War 1, radio matured quickly (Bittner, 1989). Early radio was used for military communication, but soon the technology entered the home. However, with more developments in technology, radio continued to spread across nations until it got to Africa and Nigeria in 1932 through the colonial government as discussed in chapter two. 1.1.3 Development of Television: A Global Account The evolution of television started alongside the radio as inventors conceived the idea of television long before the technology to create it appeared. Early pioneers speculated that if audio waves could be separated from the electromagnetic spectrum to create radio; television waves could equally be separated to transmit visual images (Lule, 2012). As in the radio, the invention of the television was the result of the works of many individuals in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Individuals and corporations competed in various parts of the world to deliver television which superseded previous technologies. The concept of television can be traced back to 1839 when Alexandre Edmon Becquerel, a French Physicist, discovered the electrochemical effects of light (Bittner, 1989, p. 112). In fact, several technological developments set the stage for television during the late 1800s. Bittner (1989); Lule (2012); and Baran (2009) concur that the cathode ray tube and the scanning disk are two key technical developments in the late 1800s that played a critical part in the evolution of television. The cathode ray tube (CRT), invented by German physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun in 1897 was the forerunner of the television picture tube. It had a fluorescent screen that emitted a visible light (in the form of images) when struck by a beam of electrons. In fact, the two types of primitive television systems: mechanical systems and electronic systems evolved from the cathode ray tube and the scanning disk (Lule, 2012). Mechanical television was the first type of television invented through the efforts of many scientists. Between 1843 and 1846, Alexander Bain introduced the facsimile machine for facsimile transmission systems for still photographs which pioneered a method of mechanical scanning of images. Frederick Bakewell demonstrated a working laboratory version in 1851. Willoughby Smith discovered the photoconductivity of the element selenium in 1873. In 1876, George Carey, a Boston civil servant, “envisioned the complete television systems, putting forward drawings for a “selenium camera” that would enable people to “see by electricity” a year later” (Lule 2012, p.383). 5 Another key television invention of the 1880s was the mechanical scanner system invented by German inventor Paul Julius Gottlieb Nipkow patented in 1884. The scanning disk was a large, flat metal disk that could be used as a rotating camera. Bittner (1989) observes that "Nipkow transferred the light passing through each hole into electrical energy and transmitted this electrical energy through wires to a receiver that also had a synchronized disc connected to a transmitter"(p. 112). In the mechanical process, when the disk is rotated, the light passed through the holes, separating pictures into pinpoints of light that could be transmitted as a series of electronic lines. The number of scanned lines equalled the number of perforations, and each rotation of the disk produced a television frame (Lule, 2012, p. 383). Nipkow's scanning disk served as the groundwork for further experiments on the transmission of visual images for several decades. Boris Rosing a Russian scientist in 1907 used both the CRT and the mechanical scanner system in an experimental television system (Lule, 2012, p. 383). John Logie Baird a Scottish inventor also employed the Nipkow disk in his prototype video systems in the 1920s when amplification made television practical (Wikipedia.org, p.2). The technical disadvantages of the mechanical television system is low resolution that cause fuzzy images; and “the use of a spinning disk limited the number of new pictures that could be seen per second, resulting in excessive flickering” (Lule, 2012, p. 388). In essence, mechanical television produces only small images and was the main type of television until the 1930s. The next breakthrough in electronic television came in the 1920s and was credited to Vladimir Zworykin, a Russian immigrant and Philo Farnsworth, an American. In 1923 Zworykin patented the ‘iconoscope television pickup tube' a new device that used electrons to detect and transmit pictures, instantly and this ended television's mechanical era (Bittner, 1989, p. 113). Electronic television was first successfully demonstrated in San Francisco on September 7, 1927, through a system designed by Philo Taylor Farnsworth that scanned images with a beam of electrons, which is regarded as the direct ancestor of modern television (Baran, 2009). The world’s first television station WRGB (formerly called W2XB) started in 1928 by the General Electric facility in Schenectady, New York (Wikipedia.org, p.3). Television broadcasting began as early as 1928 in Washington, DC when the Federal Radio Commission authorized inventor Charles Jenkins to broadcast from W3XK, an experimental station in Maryland ( Lule, 2012)). In the 1930s, however, regular analogue television broadcasting began in some parts of Europe and North America. By the end of the decade, there were roughly 25,000 all-electronic television receivers in existence worldwide, the majority of them in the UK (Wikipedia.org/). 6 Television thereafter, rapidly replaced radio as the new mass medium following the World war. It changed from radio formats developing new types of shows, including the magazine-style variety show and the television spectacular during its “golden age” in the 1950s (Lule, 2012, p.388). Unlike today, early television program formats were based on network radio shows as newscasters simply read the news as they would do during a radio broadcast; while the network relied on newsreel companies to provide footage of news events (Lule, 2012). The media terrain changed during the early 1950s, as television programming branch out from radio broadcasting, borrowed ideas from theatre to create acclaimed dramatic anthologies such as Playhouse 90 (1956) and The U.S. Steel Hour (1953) as well as producing quality news films to accompany coverage of daily events (p. 388). In fact, the technological advancements in television progressed after subsequent experimentation by scientists and inventors to develop from electronic television to colour television in 1954. The production of television news was achieved using analogue media technologies just as in radio until the advent of the internet and digitalization. Meanwhile, improvements in definition, the advent of colour pictures and subsequent developments increased the vividness of the perception and the range of television use. Digitalization subsequently, initiated the introduction of different type of television, including terrestrial television, smart television, internet television, cable television, 3D television, HDTV and satellite television among others. Television was eventually introduced in Nigeria in 1959 with WNTV Ibadan being the first in Africa as noted in the next chapter. The internet advent of 1969 and digitalization thereafter, lead to the introduction of mobile technologies, social media and recently, new media technologies which completely turned around the news media. The new media technologies are technologies of the new media that offers the users a different experience incomparable to the analogue system. It introduced most technological trends in digital broadcast equipment such as digital cameras, digital editing suites, digital recorders, and digital transmitter among others which changed the newsroom culture of broadcast media industry. Some new media technologies enable video conference, mobile chats, mobile interview, audios, videos and graphics to be displayed on the screen screen-touch or remote-controlled devices employed in programme transmission by foreign news channels. In essence, the introduction and application of new media technologies in media practice holistically affected contemporary practices in broadcast newsrooms in such areas as news gathering, processing, editing, publication, analyzing and storing of data or information in mass media. The global impact of the new media is so obvious and highly evident in the rate of adoption of new media technology in Nigeria. Anim (2013) reported ITU’s observation in 2012 that there were more than 6,630,200 Facebook users in Nigeria “that outstrips the daily circulation of all newspapers in the 7 country- which is well under 300,000- in staggering fashion”(p. 13). According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Broadband Commission Report titled The State of Broadband 2014- Broadband for All, in 2013 Nigeria had a mobile broadband penetration rate of 10.1 percent occupying the 93rd position in the global ranking; and equally ranked 101st position in the worldwide percentage of individuals using the Internet. However, on the percentage of individuals using the Internet in developing countries, the country’s ranking rose to the 54th position, that is 38.0% (ITU Report 2014) as against 63rd position or 32.9% in 2012 (ITU Report, 2013). A report on ThisDay online newspaper equally indicates that Nigeria has no fewer than 154.1 million mobile subscribers as at February, 2017 with a teledensity of 110.9% (Okonji, 2017). This implies that so many people are actually using some new media technologies in the country to a great extent. At the global level, “social media and messaging apps became more central to more people in 2015. Facebook reached a billion users a day for the first time, Instagram broke through 400 million users and despite its difficulties, Twitter still reaches around 350 million active users each month” (Newman, 2016, p.24). Today, there is a growing dependency on smartphone globally as the 2017 Reuters Institute Digital News Report shows that, on average across 36 countries, 46% of smartphone user's access news from the bed and 32% in the bathroom or toilet. Countries like the US have even "reached the tipping point with smartphones now preferred by as many people as computers for news" (Newman, 2018, p.37). One can rightly claim the existence of a continuous information and technological intensification across the world today. Although some Nigerians use new media technology with an increased access to the Internet as testified to by the above reports notwithstanding, the extent of this use by the broadcast newsrooms and in journalism practice has not been adequately ascertained. Media industry in sub- Saharan Africa seem to be slow in adjusting to the Internet and the global ramifications produced by the new media technology unlike journalists in the Western World who are already accustomed to the tremendous growth in new media technologies. This elucidated the need to also explore the hindrances to effective use of new media technology in the region; and make recommendations on how to fill up the gaps in technology use patterns- between the third world and the Westerners. Hinged on the premise that the digital divide is no longer a matter of who has access to technology; emphasizes should be on adoption and availability. The gap between those who are able to utilize technology effectively and those who lack the skills and the knowledge needed to do so should therefore, principally be considered concomitantly (Bonfadelli, 2002). Recent merger of new media technologies also culminated into media convergence, which is “the coming together of the media” (Fagerjord, 2010, p. 188) or “the coming together of computing, 8 telecommunications and media in a digital environment” (Pavlik & McIntosh, 2013, p. 8). It has equally become central to newsroom activities in developed societies and has been shown to increase effective communication. Today, with the application of media convergence, media organizations, “no longer distribute content solely through traditional channels, but instead deliver it via the Internet, satellite, and a host of other digital technologies (Pavlik and McIntosh, 2013, p. 14). In what Jenkins (2006, p. 19) described as the migratory behaviour of media audiences, convergence enables audience members to search for information or entertainment in any medium and from any source. New media technologies have greatly changed media use patterns in print and broadcast newsrooms around the world caused by sudden increase in information and communication technologies. But the argument that “you cannot transmit on the analogue platform to digitized nations, if you must remain competitive you must acquire the latest technology to be relevant” by Dokpesi (Agbenson, 2011, para 16) is a truism in the light of the state of new media use in Nigeria. On production and other operations of the media before the ICTs revolution, Ekhareafo, Asemah & Edegoh (2013, p.5) pointed out that print media operation was cumbersome and likewise broadcast news production. They agree that ICTs have simplified the complicated process of journalism as journalists now type their news reports on the computers, send to the news editor who will recall them on his/her computer and do all vetting on the computer. The sub-editors also recall the available news report on their computers or Videos Display Terminal (VCTs) and handle the editing and all the formatting work right on the computer. The above authors further note that modern lithographic machines and printing machines are digital, thereby eliminating time wasted. The machines print faster, collate, count and do other necessary finishing. In addition, the question of whether old media technologies are driven out of existence by new media technologies has long generated debates in academic and scholarly research with no definite answer. This being the case, a key concern of the current study becomes that of finding out the extent to which there is media convergence in broadcast newsrooms as well as the extent to which the above picture of the prevalence in the use of new media technologies both in broadcast practices and in individual use is reflective of practices in broadcast journalism and broadcast newsrooms in South East Nigeria. The study, thus explored the intersections of new media technologies, media convergence, journalism, media practice and technology use in order to enhance an understanding of the impact of new media technology for broadcast media newsroom practices. The study did this by examining the extent of use of new media technologies by broadcast media industries in South East, Nigeria to produce media contents, news and current affairs programmes, and so on in their bid to remain relevant in a fastchanging technology-driven world.
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