THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN TRANSMISSION OF LIVE PROGRAMS ON TELEVISION

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

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has opened up new and robust ways of sending and receiving information at global level. Any type of information including voice and video is sent to the diverse publics, who equally have variety of choices. Thus, the development of any nation is tied to efficient information dissemination. In Nigeria, television broadcasting started in 1959 with the establishment of the Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) by the opposition leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Later on, the government took over the station and fully controlled it. Subsequently, regional stations were opened to propagate government policies and programs. The television industry in Nigeria continued to grow in terms of viewership and number with over fifty national television stations and twenty five private ones. Thus, existing documents on digitization of television broadcasting industry and related literature were used as the main source of information

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

The emergence of new media technologies and the imaginative applications of these new technologies and older technologies make it possible for the society to be more informed. It also makes information processing, delivery, storage and retrieval easier. As the world strives towards globalization, the new media technologies are believed to be a great facilitator of this move. Nsude (2004:102) believes that the human family is disunited and fragmented into nations and cultures with conflicting interest and perceptions and there is need therefore for a more united world. Throughout history, new media and new forms of media delivery have continually appeared. Today we have witnessed the arrival of a global community brought about by advances in communication technologies. This has invariably brought to fore the concept of globalization. Marshal McLuhan, a Canadian Scholar, who foresaw the effect of 12 technological change in communication, said that the human society has been restored to a „global village‟. The concept of global village assumes that “communication technology” now work like the nervous system in the human family. Messages could be sent and received with surprising speed. This therefore has shrunk the world into a smaller place not because of a contraction in landmass, but due to the marvels in communication technologies. Baran (2009:314) citing McLuhan states: The media permit us to experience the world with a scope and depth otherwise impossible. Media, then, are extension of our bodies. Just as clothes are an extension of our skin, permitting us to wander farther from our warm caves into the cold world; just as the automobile is an extension of our feet, enabling us to travel farther we could ever walk; television extends our vision and hearing, and computers extend our central nervous system. With television we can see and hear around the world, beyond the galaxy, into the future, and into the past. Computers process, sort, categorize, reconfigure, and clarify. The new media technologies play functional roles and make tremendous contributions to the day to day running of the broadcast industry and society. Each advance in communication increases our power to convey and record information, and each has played a role in prompting significant changes in our culture and society. It is difficult to digest fully the influence of one medium before another comes on the scene. Prior to the arrival of new media technologies, broadcasting equipment has been mechanical or analogue in nature. These mechanical states of the equipment hinder effective production and dissemination of news and information. Even the transmission of broadcast signals was often affected by wave interference, hedges and unclear signals. The reception of signals was largely limited to the carrying capacity of the transmitter. The arrival of the computer has had enormous influence in the production process in the broadcast industry. The computer has put tremendous speed on news reporting and editing making the process almost instantaneous. This process lays a strong emphasis on accuracy as Agba (2001:3) citing Swinton (1974) observes, “You cannot catch up with an error in an era of satellite circuits and high speed wires” in today‟s 13 cyberspace, high-tech age, the computer has reduced, if not completely removed, the difficulties in the production of media products through the electronic system. For instance, in the past, the production and distribution process in a broadcast industry involved clear definitive steps and employed manual labour. Today, studies have revealed that broadcast industry especially in Europe and North America not only gather information but also have their stories written using computers. In January of 2009, the Nielsen Company reported that the average American had spent more than 151 hours per month watching television over the last three months, plus seven more watching programs they had recorded (Nielsen 2009, 1). In a 30-day month, that works out to just over five hours of television per day – making TV-watching the third-most-common use of our time, below only work (9.5 hours) and sleep (6.8), and by far the most dominant use of our leisure time (National Sleep Foundation 2008). Given the sheer quantity of time we spend watching television, then, it follows that the way we watch – that is, the way we spend more than a fifth of every day – must have an impact on the patterns of sociality we enact in our daily lives. And at present, the way we watch is changing – from home-based consumption of broadcast or cable programming on standard television set1 to geographically indeterminate consumption of streaming television programming through internet-connected computing devices. Although the same 2009 Nielsen study found that Americans spend a comparatively miniscule average of 2.8 hours per month watching video online – less than 2% as much time as we spend watching broadcast or cable – the popularity of streaming television viewing is rising. Though the number of hours spent viewing streaming video may still be low, Nielsen reports, the number of viewers for such video sites is much more substantial: over 123 million individuals as of late 2008 – about 43% as many as reported watching standard television over the same period. And this trend emphatically extends to online network-TV viewing in particular: one network streaming site, Hulu, reported that in less than one year, its usage jumped by a factor of five – from 63 million videos served in April 2008 to 308 million in February 2009 (Kilar 2009) – making it the sixthmost-popular online video site on the web as of last December (Learmonth 2008). Given these trends, it is worth considering what effect such novel technologies for watching television might have on the social dynamics that have grown up around standard modes of viewing, even as the content being viewed remains largely constant. As Joshua Meyrowitz argues in No Sense of Place, the differential social spaces surrounding media consumption can impact social life in simultaneously subtler and more dramatic ways; as he puts it, “Electronic media affect us…not primarily through their content, but by changing the ‘situational geography’ of social life” (Meyrowitz 1985, 6). Meyrowitz, is much more than the sum of its programming: the technology of transmission itself creates a context for social action and interaction. Building upon these concepts, Meyrowitz goes on to elaborate an architectural analogy for media analysis, asserting that, media, like physical places, include and exclude participants. Media, like walls and windows, can hide and they can reveal. Media can create a sense of sharing and belonging or a feeling of isolation and exclusion. Media can reinforce a ‘them vs. us feeling or they can undermine it (Meyrowitz 1985, 7). Following this logic, the structures of electronic media like television, in combination with the spaces that surround them, shape behavior and social life by demarcating a particular range of possibilities for action. In this sense, Meyrowitz’s architectural analogy strongly echoes the concept of affordances and constraints introduced first by J.J. Gibson in 1977, and particularly the later elaboration of these concepts offered by Donald Norman in his Design of Everyday Things: namely, that “Affordances suggest the range of possibilities, constraints limit the number of alternatives” when presented with any given object (Norman 1990, 82). Affordances and constraints, for Norman, are essentially tied to one’s perception of them, and are thus influenced not only by an object’s physical attributes, but also by the cultural conventions attached thereto. For example, Norman notes that A chair affords…support and, therefore, affords sitting. A chair can also be carried. According to Agba (2001:47) technology is integral to a global marketplace wherein media companies and individual media come together and compete across national boundaries in a fashion unheard of only some years back. Broadcasting as a branch of mass communication has witnessed a landmark transformation into a field of vigorous competition with vast liberalization of infrastructure, information can now be digitalized, transported, stored, retrieved, modified and distributed. High speed digital electronic highways serve as the common technology through which these pieces of information are transported. With the introduction of new media technologies, the broadcast media have penetrated deeply into the basic fabrics of our social institutions in the society by beaming 14 out information and programmes that meet and satisfy the needs and aspirations of their listener and viewer. In the words of Bittner (1989:37) Technology has aided the media to move from the experimental stage, to the present stage where they now exert great influence on world events. With the introduction of new technologies in broadcasting, such as the Internet, satellite cable system, fibre optics to mention but a few, journalism practice across national boundaries has taken a drastic turn for the better. Technology has aided both the print and broadcast media to establish a strong presence in the Cyberspace. This brings us to the concept of technological convergence. By technological convergence we mean the continuous development in media technology aimed at bringing about a blend in technologies in the process of message delivery. Okoro (2006:37) citing Folkerts et al states that in this process, technological changes not only create new forms of media but also cause formally distinct media forms such as newspapers to blend or overlap functions with the new media, as is now the case with news on television and the internet. Ilo (2000) in Okoro (2006:37) agrees that this convergence is rooted in technological innovations in microelectronics, telecommunications and the computer. In this mode, all kinds of data, irrespective of their origin can be manipulated and integrated through digitalization on the basis of their common informational structure. With this development they will become instrument for the dissemination and propagation of local Nigerian news and culture across Nigeria borders and thus, maintaining a strategic presence on the information superhighway.

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

It is saddening that despite the startling developments in media technology, TV broadcasting in Nigeria is yet to assimilate the new innovation or imbibe the realities of modern broadcasting. The advancement in media technology can only be said to be achieving the desired ends when they readily and continuously influence positively the operations of the Nigerian broadcast media. What this translates to, is that the success or otherwise of all these technologies can only be measured in terms of the extent to which they bring improvement on the accuracy, speed and transfer of message and redefine the concept of broadcasting to an enviable height. The use of new media technologies can only be said to be effective when the media professionals and audience benefit from the technologies through improved quality of programmes. The problem still remains as to how to assess the extent to which the new media technologies have influenced the television transmission of live programs on air.

• OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to ascertain the impact of information technology in transmission of live programs on television with emphasis on silver bird television. But to aid the completion of the study, the researcher wishes to achieve the following specific objectives;

1. To ascertain the impact of information technology in transmission of live programs on television
2. To investigate the role of information technology on video quality in a live stream programs

• To ascertain the relationship between information technology and the speed of live event reporting on silver bird television

1. To investigate the effect of ICT on the quality of live transmission programs on Silver bird television
   • RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the completion of the study;

H₀: information technology does not have any significant impact in transmission of live programs on television

H₁: information technology does have a significant impact in transmission of live programs on television

H₀: ICT does not have any effect on the quality of live transmission programs on Silver bird television

H₂: ICT does not have effect on the quality of live transmission programs on Silver bird television

• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is believed that at the completion of the study, the findings will assist in the formulation of home-grown and functional ICT policy that will place the Nigerian broadcasting industry to world standards. It will avail the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) with full information in its quest for the phasing out of analogue broadcasting equipment by the year 2020. It will give direction on how to gradually transform from the present analogue state of broadcasting in Nigeria and embrace a broadcasting environment that is driven by modern Information and Communication Facilities as obtainable in western countries. It will stimulate further research on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and new media technologies as they affect the broadcasting or media industry in Nigeria

• SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study covers the impact of information technology in transmission of live programs on television with emphasis on silver bird television. But in the cause of the study, there were some factors which limited the scope of the study which were beyond the control of the researcher;

FINANCE: Due to the nature of office and business within the scope, the researcher spends a lot of money on visiting, traveling from one location to another, from one office to the other and even had to repeat a visit more than three times to seek for information, all these involves money considering the financial constraint of the researcher and limited resources available to her.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION: Many registered and non-registered staffs of Nigeria Television Authority of Enugu state were reluctant to give out or provide information about the research, since they believe that sources of information technology is something very confidential and therefore could not open up to the researcher.

INADEQUATE RECORD KEEPING: Some of the respondents visited were unable to present complete and comprehensive records of their business .while some were not keeping proper records of their business activities and as such could not give adequate and correct information on the effect of vat on their businesses rippling on the economy of Nigeria.

TIME: Time constraint has been another vital limitation and obstacle towards effective realization of the main objectives of this study. Time was really not on my side since I have to combine the little time left with my academic work and preparation.

• OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

Broadcast: This is the business of sending out radio and television signals over a distance, to a large heterogeneous audience by means of airwaves.

Broadcast Media: This is that electronic media or channel that uses the airwaves which enables signals and information to be transmitted to a large and diverse audience.

Convergence: According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (7th ed.).Convergence means to move towards a place from different direction and meet.

Digital: According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (7th ed.). Digital means using a system of receiving and sending information as a series of the 24 numbers, numbers one to zero, showing that an electronic signal is there or is not there.

Globalization: This means international integration. It can be describe as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society. This process is a combination of economic, technology, socio – cultural and political forces. www.wikipedia.org.

Internet: According to the wikipedia. org the internet also known as the “Net” or the “Web” can be easily understood as a “network of networks”.

Live streaming

Live stream services encompass a wide variety of topics, from social media to video games. Apps such as Facebook Live, Periscope, and include the streaming of scheduled promotions and celebrity events as well as streaming between users. Sites such as Twitch.tv

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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