Impact of community broadcasting on the social lives of Nigerian youth : A case study of abeokuta

south in ogun state

ABSTRACT

This research exercise is on the impact of new media on the social life

of Nigerian youth; in Abeokuta South in Ogun State. The research

study adopted the media systems dependency theory as the

theoretical framework for this study. The method used for this study

was survey research method, with the population of 1640 students

and a sample size of 311 students. The study revealed that over 68%

of Nigerian youth log in on social media at least four to six times in a

week and that over 80% of the youth believed that there is influence of

social media on youths' use of traditional mass media in Nigeria and

that over 48% of the respondents agreed that to some extent social

media has enhanced youths* interaction on social media. The study

conclude that community broadcasting media have provided an open

arena of awareness for the youth of Abeokuta South.

 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The history of human communication began with the oral or
spoken tradition. Through the course of history, the dissemination of messages
progressed from simply the oral tradition, to script, print, wired electronics, wireless
electronics and finally digital communication. The greatest change in message
dissemination in recent history occurred with the introduction of computers and the
Internet in the early 1990s. Since then, this drastic change of communication medium
has significantly affected humans' perception of the media, the usage of time and space,
and the reachability and control of the media (Guo-Ming, 2012).

In the present age of digital communication, time has been compressed by

reducing the distance between different points in space, and the sense of space has
led people to feel that local, ^national, and global space becomes obsolete (Harvey,
2010). In addition, the reachability of digital media can now extend to all people, instead
of a limited audience. This is significant because without the confinement of time and
space, the control of message production and dissemination is
no longer a privilege possessed only by church, state, and government, but instead,
equally shared by all individuals (Guo-Ming, 2012).

The broadcasting media, that resulted from the invention, encapsulated the
characteristics of the new or traditional media, and extended the potentials arid
possibilities into which both the "old" and "new" media could be put into use. Tokunbo
and Felix (2013) noted that the broadcasting media, promoted by Internet technology,
exhibit an integration and convergence of the existing media to extend the frontiers of the
possibilities of the media of communication, The new media, which hallmarked the
integration and convergence of computer and telecommunication technologies,
revolutionized the face of human communication especially in the 21st century . The new
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information Technology "provides near limitless possibilities of increasing the quantityand

enhancing the quality, speed, and availability of information in a complex but increasingly
interdependent world (Soola, 2010).
.ft
According to Tokunbo and Felix (2013), the broadcasting media, propelled and
driven by the state media houses, provide platforms for social interactions between and
among the residents in such a manner that no older platforms/media can boast of.
Ignatius, Alice and Lucky (2014) opined that by their nature the community broadcasting
media have peculiar characteristics that make them probably more appealing to the
audience than the conventional media. The veracity of this assertion could be
perceived in the paceof the growth of the social media sites over the few years of
their emergence. He gave the example of NBC National Broadcast Commission in
Abeokuta, Station Office, which is the acclaimed most popular channel among the media
houses reached over one million users in a space years of its existence as a medium of
communication in the society. The medium attained a "total of 1.23 billion users" in just
a decadeof its birth (Ignatius, Alice and Lucky, 2014). Other media sites have similar
significant number of users within their short span. This level of wider spread of the
media among the people has never been seen in any other earlier means of
communication.
The invention of the community broadcasting media in modern communication
is rapidly changing the whole mass media landscape and communication enterprise in
the universe presently. This very development brought by technologies is affecting the
means of assembling, delivery or dissemination and reception of mediated messages
today (Ignatius, Alice and Lucky, 2014). These new means of interactions have greatly
changed the media uses by the audience, the journalists and the mainstream media's
relation with the audience. The social media have altered the basic processes involved in
news gathering and dissemination in the world. With that, the audience pattern of news
consumption especially
with regard to the contents of the traditional mass media is envisaged to be affected.

However, the positive impact of the broadcasting media is greatly among youth as
its allowed youth to make friends beyond the borders of their community. According to
Chimela, Ovute and Obochi (2015), social media have provided an open arena where the
youths are free to exchange ideas on various trending issues. In support of this fact,
Chinwe and Uche (2014) noted that as social media is quickly becoming prime political
battlegrounds for several political contenders, it has changed young people's political
outlooks and participatory behavior in Nigeria, This is because it has a democratic
potential that opens for new forms of political participation and conversations. Socially,
the broadcasting media have contributed in making an average Nigerian youth to know
more about the different tribes in Nigeria (Ignatius, Alice, and Lucky, 2014). Therefore, the
focus of this study is on the Impact of community broadcasting on the social lives of
Nigerian youth; looking into the credibility of community broadcasting on
the youth of Abeokuta south in ogun state.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
With the prevalence of the new media technologies, there is a
change in the media choice of the youths globally, Nigeria inclusive. A
researcher like Broddason (2016) gives credence to the above view by
noting that, "there is general agreement among media and communication scholars
that a monumental shift is occurring in the media and communication habits of young
people." The rate at which they cling to the use of social media is quite alarming, this
leaves people in doubt whether the new channels of communication would utterly
displace or at least reduce the youths' patronage of the mainstream media.

Presently, the youths' much reliance and choice of the social media is not hidden
at all. Invariably, these new media's ability to exert influence on the use of the
conventional media is an unarguable reality. According to Aja (2011) "traditional media
organizations such as radio, television, newspapers and magazines seem to have lost
prominence and their audience..." Their news and information, as the European
Society of Professional Journalists (2014) observes, are being increasingly
circumvented by users who use alternative media sources.

From the foregoing, the mainstream media's losing of grip on the youths' and the
general usage of the prior existing channels of communication is an envisaged
phenomenon. This kind of expectation is usually nursed by the people with the
introduction of a new means of public interaction. That perhaps informed why
Broddason (2016) argues for instance that "there is some suggestion of television being
replaced by the "new media."

However, amidst all sociological benefits, social media have regrettably contributed
to moral degeneration and decadence among youths in several countries, including
Nigeria. This, no doubt, stems from the gross obsession with and abuse of these social
networking sites. Due to the increase in social media web-sites, there seems to be a
positive correlation between the usages of such media with cyber bullying, online sexual
predators and the decrease in-face-to-face interaction. Likewise, social media seem to be
influencing youths' lives in terms of exposing them to images or alcohol, tobacco, and
sexual behaviors (Kaplan, 2010).

Therefore, the challenge now is that the influence of social media on youths' uses of
conventional mass media in Nigeria is hitherto buried in obscurity. Another problem is
finding out whether the social media usage enhances the youths' interaction with the
country's leaders. Also, it is important to systematically ascertain other purposes which
the social media accomplish for the youths. These outlined points are the problems which
this study has empirically investigated and provided answers to them.

CHAPTER 2

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The mam objective of this study remains on impact of community Broadcasting

media in

social life of Nigeria youth, while other specific objectives include:

1.To ascertain the influence of community broadcasting media on youths' use of
traditional mass media in Abeokuta South, Nigeria .
2. To determine whether broadcasting media usage enhance the youths' interaction
with Political leaders in Abeokuta South.
3. To examine the influence of community broadcasting media to the social
behaviour of Abeokuta South youth.

2.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. To what extent is the influence of social media on youths' use of
traditional mass media in Nigeria?
 2. To what extent does social media usage enhance the youths' interaction with
Nigerian leaders?
3. To what extent is the influence of new media to the social behaviour of Nigerian
youth?

2.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This work will concentrate on the credibility of community broadcasting on social

media amongst the Youth in Abeokuta South.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is expected that the output of this research will benefit the youth
and the community development of Abeokuta South, Ogun as will show the level of the
youth' use of community broadcasting media. This shall help them to understand how
best to sustain the youth attention on using community broadcasting networking. Also
this work will be of immense benefit to the field of Library and information sciences as it
will be on addition to existing literature, and shall also add to the available academic
literatures on new media of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic.

Also the findings could be used by academic advisers and counselors proffer
professional advice to the institution authorities on how to regulate the social network
usage among undergraduate students.

Again, the findings of this study would provide facts that will enable the ministry of
communication technology to know what arises
from youth' use of the community broadcasting media. This will help the ministry , to know
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how to control and regulate the broadcasting media in Abeokuta South.

Finally, this work would be beneficial to future researchers who can now readily
lay their hands on the result of this work by making use of The research report.

CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter details the various methods, techniques and the procedures adopted
by the researcher in the process of carrying out the study. It entails the research design,
source of data, area of study, population of the study, sampling technique, and
description of research instrument, validity and reliability of research instrument, method
of data analysis.

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

In the process of this study, the survey method was adopted with
the use of questionnaire as research instrument. The survey method i.e. Questionnaire is
the most appropriate for a research work that will sample the opinion of the people in a
specified problem. According to Udeagha (2013), in a survey research design the
scientific sample is studied to gather demographic information or sociological facts as well
as psychological information, opinion and attitude.

As a matter of fact, survey method is useful in obtaining data in a population which

might be too large to be subjected to direct observation. Isaac (2010) stated that survey is
particularly versatile and practical,
especially for the administrator, in that they identify present conditions and point to
present needs. Survey does not make decisions for the administrators, but they can
provide him with information on which to base sound decisions.

What informs the researcher's use of the survey method was that it gathers both
factual information and the opinion of respondents, hence the relationships among
given variables will be determined. Therefore, the results were best organized from a
survey research because it gave the researchers the chance to study human beings in
their natural surroundings and what they want. With the sample properly done, it will
produce a result which could be generalized on the larger population.