Proliferation Of Radio Stations And Its Implication For Media Performance

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Control of the electronic media is both internal and external, since there is nucleus of interdependence and co-existence. There is a common saying with regards to mass media control in Nigeria and elsewhere, which has become a cliché, that “He who pays the piper dictates the tune”.  This means that the owners of a mass media channel controls what the medium broadcasts and how it broadcasts it.

In Nigeria, there are three main types of media ownership; namely: government ownership, private ownership and partnership.  In the case of government ownership, the government establishes, controls and finances the media outfit, private ownership is when an individual or a group of persons establish, control and finance the media outfit, in partnership, both the government and private individuals are into some sort of co-ownership regarding the establishment, financing and controlling of the media house.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the media and the society.  It is in the interest of the society to have strong and robust mass media as it is in the best interest of the media to uphold the values and protect the interest of the society from which they derive their impulse, support and patronage.  No media institution can survive if it is perceived to be working against its own society. (Onukaba, 2005:3).

It is the duty of  any media institution to keep the public aware of what is going on around them by providing accurate, factual and timely information at all times, it is also the duty of the media to warn or alert the public about impending danger, to interpret events or provide information needed by the public to make every day decisions or that will make them participate actively in the political, economic and social activities of a community; and to assist the public in determining current trends and making sense of our increasing complex world.

Radio is one of Nigeria’s leading media channels, with a capacity to reach tens of millions daily.  Radio station are also expected to use their products to educate, entertain, mould public opinions, reinforce attitudes and set agenda for the society.  In many societies, people depend on the media to be able to know where to find jobs, where to shop, where to eat out, who to vote for etc.  It is safe to say that the influence of the media extends to every aspect of human life and society. But for radio station institutions to be able to play these roles effectively, they are expected to uphold the values of objectivity, fairness, justice, accuracy, balance, moderation and decency.

Deregulation  of the media house, its control and recruitment of its principal staff have formed the influential factors consequent upon the programme quality of the media house since the owner(s) of the media house usually determine the aforementioned factor. As opined by Folake 92022) the media ownership has in some ways influenced the media programmes and this has posed problems to journalism as a trade. In this case, the broadcast media have to function in tune with the whims and caprices of the owner(s).  Nothing runs the broadcast media practitioner down as having the option of either following the dictates of the owners or face the bitter music of being sacked. Ownership influence on programme content has made many broadcast media outfits to collapse in operations and has also made them to lose their audience grip.  This is mostly true of private  owned broadcast media. To this end, the research examines the impact of ownership structure on the objectivity of private station in Nigeria using Ray Power FM 100.5 , Alagbado (private radio), Eko FM, 89.7 Ikeja (state radio) and  FRCN 6090 Lagos (Federal radio) as reference point.