IMPACT OF DIGITIZATION OF THE BROADCASTING MEDIA IN NIGERIA

CHAPETR ONE

INTRODUCTION 

1.1        Background of the study

1.2        Statement of problem

1.3        Objective of the study

1.4        Research Hypotheses

1.5        Significance of the study

1.6        Scope and limitation of the study

1.7       Definition of terms

1.8       Organization of the study

CHAPETR TWO

2.0   LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPETR THREE

3.0        Research methodology

3.1    sources of data collection

3.3        Population of the study

3.4        Sampling and sampling distribution

3.5        Validation of research instrument

3.6        Method of data analysis

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

4.1 Introductions

4.2 Data analysis

CHAPTER FIVE

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Summary

5.3 Conclusion

5.4 Recommendation

Appendix

Abstract

This study is on impact of digitization of the broadcasting media in Nigeria. The total population for the study is 200 staff of NTA, Enugu state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made editors, news correspondents, broadcasters and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies

 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

Unlike many other inventions throughout history, the history of the television credits many inventors instead of just one. In this case, there were many inventors working on the idea of watching pictures on the screen. The earliest proposal was in 1908, in a paper by A.A Campbell-Swinton which postulated the use of Cathode rays. The First Practical demonstrations of television, however, were developed using electromechanical methods to scan, transmit, and reproduce image. As electronic camera and display tubes were perfected, electromechanical television gave way to all-electronic systems in nearly all applications. The beginnings of mechanical television can be traced back to the discovery of the photoconductivity of the element selenium by Willoughby by Smith in 1873, the invention of a scanning disk by Paul Gottlieb Nipkow in 1884 and John Logie Baird’s demonstration of televised moving Images in 1926. (Wikipedia, 2010). A 23 year old German University student, Paul Nipkow proposed and patented the first electromechanical television system in 1884. Although he never built a working model of the system, variations of Nipkow’s spinning – disk “image pasteurizer” for television became exceedingly common, and remained in use until 1939. Constantine Perskyi coined the word television in a paper read to the International Electricity Congress at the international world fair in Paris on August 25, 1900. Perskyi’s paper reviewed the existing electromechanical technologies, mentioning the work of Nipkow and others. However, it was not until 1907 that developments in amplification tube technology, by Lee Deforest and Arthur Kom among others, made the design practical. The first demonstration of the instantaneous transmission of still Sillhoutte images was by Georges Rigrioux and as a Fournier in Paris in 1909, using a rotating mirror – drum as the scanner and a matrix of 64 selenium cells as the receiver. In 1911, Boris Rosing and his student Vladimir Zworykin created a television system that used a mechanical mirror – drum scanner to transmit, in Zworykin’s words, “very crude images” over wires to the “Braun Tube” (Cathode ray tube or “CRT”) in the receiver. Moving images were not possible because, in the scanner, “the sensitivity was not enough and the selenium cell was very laggy”. On March 25, 1925, Scottish Inventor John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of televised silhouette images in motion, at Selfridge’s Department store in London. AT & T’s bell Telephone laboratories transmitted halftone still images of transparencies in May 1925. On June 13 of that year, Charles Frances Jenkins transmitted the silhouette image of a toy windmill in motion, over a distance of five miles from a naval radio station in Maryland to his laboratory in Washington, using a lensed disk scanner with a 48-line resolution. However, if Television is defined as the live transmission of moving images with continuous tonal variation, Baird first achieved this privately on October 2, 1925. But strictly speaking Baird had not yet achieved moving images on October 2. His scanner worked at only five images, per second, below the threshold required to give the illusion of motion usually defined as at least 12 images per second. By January, he had improved the scan rate to 12.5 images per second. Television Broadcasting in Nigeria started with the initiative of the first Western Region premier Chief Obafemi Awolowo who on October 31, 1959 launched television broadcasting at Ibadan the head quarters of the region. The Western Region went into partnership with the Overseas Rediffusion Limited. The Western Nigerian Radio vision services limited were created with the responsibility of radio and television broadcasting under one management. Nigeria as the giant of Africa has to her credit, the first television outfit in Africa, the Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) on NTA Ibadan. The emergence of what is known today as Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) was borne out of the sheer desire to cater for the crying needs of variegated audience in terms of News gathering, packaging and transmission; this became the second oldest station after (WNTV) resuming transmission on 1st October, 1960. The Degree No 24 of 1977 caused all existing television stations in the country to be taken over by the federal government and then led to a change of name to Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). However, television broadcasting in Nigeria since inception has been transmitting through analogue television which uses complete waves to transmit pictures and sounds. The major drawback of this is that location plays an integral factor, disabling, distorting images and audio on Television in rural areas (Kombol: 2008, P. 13). Over the years, television transmission had grown from strength to strength. It moved from monochrome (black and white) to colour transmission and today we talk of Digitization. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) a United Nations Organization body responsible for co-ordinating the use of Telecommunication among nations in its 17th plenipotentiary conference in Turkey, ratified a treaty engendering the digitization of broadcast in every member state before 2015. In consonance with the above Treaty and with the intent to beat this deadline, the national Broadcasting Commission which is Nigeria’s broadcast regulatory body gave an ultimatum to Nigeria broadcast firms to digitalize its operations before 17 June 2012 or stand licence revocation. Three years ahead of the global deadline, the date was however shifted because it is seen all over that the broadcasting industry was not fully prepared for the digitization to kick off. A new date was then issued by the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission where Mr. Yomi Bolarinwa, Director General, national broadcasting commission announced to the whole world that Nigeria will achieve the digitization of its broadcast stations by June 17 2015. It is unarguable to state that to be in the leading position in today’s highly technological and competitive media industry the world over, Nigeria must strive to acquire and utilize state of-the-art information and communication technologies in its daily news, programme transmission etc. Anything short of this will spell doom for such media organization. According to Anaeto et al (2008, P. 6) Information Communication Technology has been the converging platform for different word of media communication, information machine and technologies and equipment i.e. Radio, Television, Computers, satellites, Fibre optic Cables, phones, Facsimile machine etc. Consequently, the acquisition, utilization and application of information communication technology in media practice today make the world activity less cumbersome, faster and error proof. The foregoing views is in tenderm with realistic scholarly position’ adopted by Maid (1996, P:13), who posits that new information, communication technologies have revolutionized information gathering, processing, storage, retrieval and transmission, making information available even more widely, rapidly and less expensive. They do not only gather, process and disseminate information, they can also arrange, marshall and select information rapidly. Inspite of the above merits, the truth still remains that acquisition and application of these advanced media, technologies by media outfits in Nigeria especially the government owned stations in their gathering, packaging and transmission equipment is still insufficient. Indeed, the recent survey carried out in a bid to ascertain the current state of acquisition and utilization of ICT facilities by NTA Enugu Channel 8, which is the study of this project, clearly depicts that the station has not fully embraced this trend in the overall packaging and transmission of News and programmes. Ibeh (2009), Deputy Director Engineering, NTA seems to agree with the foregoing viewpoint when he stated that although the station has technologies in the packaging and transmission of its news programme, yet such sophisticated communication equipment are still inadequate. The above view point throws more light to challenges and hindrance of digitization of media broadcast which is a progeny of information communication technology. It also presupposes that in spite of the much touted technological improvement, there are still gaps in the media world especially in developing countries like Nigeria.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Generally the advent of digital broadcast media will bring remarkable, exciting changes to broadcasting. Consumers will have many more choices from broadcast television, from sharp high-definition television programming and multicasting of niche-audience channels to new information services and computer-interactivity. Broadcasters will have new opportunities to develop innovative programming and services, along with new revenue streams and market franchises. DTV will help broadcasting evolve and compete in the new media environment, while ensuring that public interest needs are still met through over-the-air broadcasting. However, in the Nigeria the switch to digital television in the year 2012 is just very near. Abbas (2010) observes that it is coming on the heels of similar ‘self set’ deadlines of mostly European and African countries like Britain, Sweden, France, Kenya and South Africa among others. What remain so problematic are the likely challenges and successes of this new transition in Nigeria. This is the issue the study seeks to address

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objectives of the study are;

• To examine if transition from analogue to digital broadcasting have an impact on broadcast industry in Nigeria.
• To know the challenges that transition from analog to digital pose for the broadcast station in Nigeria.
• To examine whether digital broadcasting service in the country has enhanced broadcast production.
• To examine if digital transmission increase the number of available channels to audience.
• To study the important that digitalization will bring to broadcast audience.
• To study the efforts that National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has put in place to achieve digitalization of broadcast media before 2015 deadline?

1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

For the successful completion of the study, the following research hypotheses were formulated by the researcher;

H₀:  there are no challenges that transition from analog to digital pose for the broadcast station in Nigeria

H₁: there are challenges that transition from analog to digital pose for the broadcast station in Nigeria

 H₀₂: digital transmission do not increase the number of available channels to audience

H₂: digital transmission increase the number of available channels to audience

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study is significant because it will help the audiences especially Nigerians to strongly believe that digitalization of broadcast industry in Nigeria because its prospects cannot be overemphasized. The study is also significant in decent that television and radio are so powerful that it can influence and change the attitudes and values of those who are exposed to it. The work will benefit the media houses and media manger on the need to move from analogue to digital.  Media, mass communication, journalism students will see reason to upgrade their skill and experience. Government at the national level will also find this material relevant to note the reason why Nigeria must not left out.

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study covers impact of digitization of the broadcasting media in Nigeria. The researcher encounters some constrain which limited the scope of the study;

1. a) AVAILABILITY OF RESEARCH MATERIAL: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study
2. b) TIME: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study.
3. c) Organizational privacy: Limited Access to the selected auditing firm makes it difficult to get all the necessary and required information concerning the activities

 1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

For the purpose of this project, there are terminologies used in the project and definition of their meanings. This is also done to ensure understanding of the project work and to avoid double meaning to the readers especially Nigerians.

Digital Television Transition: The digital television transition is a process in which analog television broadcasting is converted to and replaced by digital television. This primarily involves both TV stations and over-the-air viewers; however it also involves content providers like TV networks, and cable TV conversion to digital cable (Wikipedia, 2010).

Broadcasting: Is a process of disseminating information through electromagnetic waves to a large proportion of users (audience).

NBC: Nigerian Broadcasting Cooperation

BBC: British Broadcasting Cooperation

VON: Voice of Nigeria

1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows

Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), historical background, statement of problem, objectives of the study, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlights the theoretical framework on which the study is based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.  Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study

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