Impact Assessment Of The New Media On The Effectiveness Of The News Agency Of Nigeria

1.2  Statement of the Problem

News agencies have been one of the reliable news sources for media organizations ranging from print to electronic media. They have been a silent reporter who is rarely acknowledged in the actual news report by the media.

The news agencies have remained in business as they have large subscriber bases (media organizations) that pay a prescribed fee to gain access to news copy for their news reports.

New media especially social media have created new possibilities of reaching audiences as well as clients all around the world. This also means that news distribution itself has to face a new environment: Readers, listeners and viewers are not passive consumers any more but actually engage with news sources.

Despite the speed new media and  social media offers to news agencies as regard delivery of copy to their subscriber bases, it also pose a challenge of  continued relevance for the agencies, because the new media especially social media enable citizen journalist to upload news as they break online at no access cost to the media organization.

However, it is important to know that news agencies are still in business today despite this new media explosion. So, how can news agencies use the new media and social media and yet maintain their core business of selling news on a subscription basis.

It is based on the aforementioned that this research work will examine the impact of new media/social media on the effectiveness of news agencies, paying particular attention to the News Agency of Nigeria.

1.3  Objectives of the Study

With the above stated problem of the study, the following objectives would guide the execution of this research work.

I. To establish if news agencies utilize new media/ social media.

II. To know how the news agencies use the new media /social media.

III. To determine whether the activities of new media / social media have any effect on the subscribers’ base of news agencies.

IV. To ascertain the extent to which news agencies organizations generate news from new media/ social media platforms.

1.4  Research Questions

In completing this research work the following question will be answered.

I. Do news agencies utilize new media / social media?

II. How do the news agencies use new media / social media?

III. What effect does the activities on new media / social media have on the subscriber base of news agencies?

IV. To what extent do news agencies generate news from new media/ social media platforms?

1.5 Significance of the Study

This work will attempt to add to existing knowledge about the topic being discussed, thus promoting research and learning.

This work will also reveal to news agencies as well as media organizations how to effectively utilize the new media for optimal performance.

Media scholars, professionals and students can also get an insight to the nature of the news agencies and media organization as well as how they utilize the new media in their respective businesses.

1.6 Scope of the Study

This work will focus on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to represent news agencies. The work will examine how new media especially social media have affected the activities of NAN. The coverage of this work will be limited to newspaper organizations in Nigeria.

1.7 Limitations to the Study

Access to online resources which are major sources of literature review stood as a big challenge to this work. Combination of this research work and academic work is another limitation to the researcher who is a student at the time of conducting this research. This work had little library material and reviews to constitute the secondary data for the work. Finance is a major challenge this work faced as every online source of information and mobility to human sources require money.

1.8 Operational Definition of Terms

News agency: is organization that gathers, writes, and distributes news from around a nation or the world to newspapers, periodicals, radio and television broadcasters, government agencies, and other users.

New media: are all modern media and communication devices that allow interactive forms of communication via the Internet.

Impact: it is the effect or influence new media / social media has on news agencies.

Assessment: a detailed examination of the effect of new media / social media on news agencies

Social media: is the social interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.

News media: any organization that produces and disseminates news for public consumption.