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INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY AND CHANGES IN MASS MEDIA PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

The Information Society or Information Age is a new phenomenon since 1950 which brings with its new challenges as we seek to integrate an expanding universe of print and multimedia sources into our daily lives. The two terms often are used to describe a cybernetic society in which there is a great dependence on the use of computers and data transmission linkages to generate and transmit information. By contrast, our familiar reference frame of an industrial society relied on machines to augment human physical labor to produce goods and services. Now, through a process of continual change, geographic barriers are being dissolved, businesses are more interconnected, and relationships between workers and workplace are changing more rapidly. In the twentieth century there has been a radical transformation in the role of information in society as well as in the technology used in its production and dissemination.

The mass media are all those media technologies that are created to reach a large audience through mass communication. Broadcast media (also known as electronic media) transmit their information electronically and comprises of television, radio, film, movies, CDs, DVDs, and other devices such as cameras and video consoles. Alternatively, print media use a physical object as a means of sending their information, such as a newspaper, magazines, comics, books, brochures, newsletters, leaflets, and pamphlets. The organizations that control these technologies, such as television stations or publishing companies, radio stations and even online stations are also known as the mass media or new media. The importance and role of technology in the media process cannot be over emphasised as since the evolution of technology, visible changes have been recorded in the success of the media. A medium can come in various forms like print, broadcast or digital. The last decade has brought some important new technologies for the mass media. In 1991, the first usable portable computers were developed. Around the same time, “mobile” phones started to make their entry. In 1994, the internet became commercially available. Within two years, “everybody” had heard about the internet, and after another two years the number of available web sites had nine-doubled to more than 20 million different sites. From being a tool for the American military and educational institutions, the Internet has become a commodity service, freely available to anybody who wants to use it.

Notwithstanding, with ICT, information spread, infinitely becomes faster and cheaper and readily available. Before now, there was a significant time lag separating the point when an event took place, and the time when the news may be publicly made available. But, ICT, has helped bridge the time lag between when an event took place and the time it is made available to the public. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a generic term used to express the convergence of telecommunications, information, broadcasting and communications. According to Rodriguez and Wilson (2000) ICT is seen as a set of activities which facilitate and enhance the processing, transmission and dissemination of information by electronic means. ESCAP (2000) also perceived ICT as techniques people use in order to share, distribute, and gather information for communicating through computers and computer networks. Promoting Information and Communication Technology as an integral part for enhancing timely news delivery in the broadcast industry was articulated by Samadar (1995) he submitted that ICT is a tool for facilitating the creation, storage, management and dissemination of information by electronic means. Meanwhile, Marcelle (2000) did not only see ICT as a complex entity but an application and services used for the production, distribution, processing, transformation of information with the aid of ICT tools. Nevertheless, Ogunsola and Aboyade (2005) are of the opinion that ICT came into being as a result of related technologies clearly stated by their functional usage in information access and communication is centralized through the Internet. As far as the digital age is concerned, the benefits accrue from ICT is enormous. One of the sectors that has benefited immensely from the use of ICT is the broadcast industry. With the use of ICT, news processing and news reporting is immediate, timely, and helps reduce the space constraints ‘the death of distance’. The use of ICT has revolutionized news processing, news packaging, and news reporting through the use of ICTs. There is no doubt that the employment of ICT in the broadcast industry is to enhance and improve news delivery as timely as possible. To buttress this, Adigwe (2010) cited Soforowa (2009) when he noted that ICT is seen as the integration and utilization of computer technologies for the purpose of disseminating information to a target destination or consumer without the constraint of time and space.

Information and Communication Technology in broadcast news gathering is on the increase by reporters and editors because of its benefits being recognized at every point of the entire supply chain of news. Technology development and the use of ICTs in broadcast industry have improved news reportage. According to Wikipedia encyclopedia “Information technology (IT) or Information and communication(s) technology (ICT) is a broad subject concerned with technology and other aspects of managing and processing information, especially in large or enterprise organizations.” This gave rise to the fact that ICT can be used not only to communicate but also to convey messages. To this end, ICT refers to as mechanisms or tools that are used to convey, distribute and manipulate information in order to improve it value. According to Geetika et al (2008) Information is perceived to be the primary input as well as the final output of a broadcast industry, because it converts raw information into categorized, defined and useful pieces of information. Similarly, for timely dissemination and easy access to information, Samah et al (2009) cited Noor (2006) that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is that components that aid the accessing, recording, arranging, manipulating and presenting data or information using tools and software. More importantly, in terms of cost of production Adigwe (2010) pointed that ICT facilitates news processing and reporting thereby ensuring immediacy and timeliness of news content to its audience. Hence, the study tends to identify information communication technology and changes in mass media production and distribution.