CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
The public service media in Nigeria aims to produce high quality content, make it available across widely used devices and platforms, and reach all audiences. The means of attaining this however, has meet with some challenges over the years. The place of modern day new media technology makes it impossible to imagine our contemporary society without them. This is so because; the new media brings us together in variety of ways that would have been thought as impossible (Sehl,Cornia, & Neilson 2016). For instance, a few generations ago, it took several hours for a message to be transmitted from Nigeria to North America. Today however, information can be transmitted in seconds. Surmounting one of the greatest challenges to information posed by distance with the internet today, means that people can communicate and access information anywhere in the world regardless of where they are located in the globe. The mass media industry in Nigeria has come a long way. The Nigerian media has, at various times and fora been described as one of the most vibrant in the world and undoubtedly the most vibrant in Africa. The reason for this allusion is not far-fetched. Even from colonial times, the Nigerian media has taken up the task of disseminating information positively influencing the trend of governance and shaping public opinion toward nation building and good governance. As the fourth estate of the realm, the Nigerian media was at the vanguard of nationalism and the struggle for independence from the colonial government of the British imperialists. The press also assumed the role of the opposition party during various military incursions into governance in Nigeria. At the risk of losing their lives, Nigerian media practitioners fought successive military rulers and their overbearing and corrupt practices and wanton plundering of the nation’s resources and reserves. The media is a complex non-state actor whose activities have been made even more complex by massive advancement in technology. From the primitive gong of the village town crier, the leaf-lettering of anti-colonial movements, the bold headlines of the national dailies, the crystal clear news footages of the cable television networks, to the internet blogs, no one can seriously ignore the impacts of today’s mass media. What exactly constitute the media, what roles does the media perform, what is the character of the media, what is the average composition of a media organization in Nigeria, how is it managed, which management style inapplicable to which? These are the fundamental questions that will form the basis of our discourse today. However, the way the media functions in every society is contingent upon a host of variables which combine to define and shape its character. Perhaps, a historical and definitional understanding of the media in Nigeria can help.