A STUDY OF THE APPLICATION OF GATE-KEEPING CONCEPT IN AKWA IBOM STATE BROADCASTING CORPORATION (AKBC) NEWS BROADCAST

A STUDY OF THE APPLICATION OF GATE-KEEPING CONCEPT IN AKWA IBOM STATE BROADCASTING CORPORATION (AKBC) NEWS BROADCAST

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

  • Background to the Study

The communication process occurs instantaneously in closed, intimate settings or over great periods of time in large public forums, like the internet. Human conveys information through a variety of methods: speaking telephones, emails, blogs, TV, art, hand gestures, facials expressions, body language and even social contexts.

However, all forms of communication the same basic elements: a speaker or sender information, a message and an audience or recipient. The sender and recipient must also share a common language or means of understanding each other for communication to be successful. As such a study of communication of ten examines the development and structure of language including the mathematical languages used in computer programming.

In today’s globalized, media driven world, communication studies have become more exciting than ever. Radio and television are means of communication. They can educate, entertain or inform the public worldwide. These media send electronic transmission that manifest themselves on receiving devices as either sound or, in television, a combination of sound and images. The have the fundamentals role of informing their publics objectively about the happenings in their communities, countries, and the world. They bring development into focus and provide the means by which products are advertised. They have the duty of campaigning for desirable civic projects and eliminating undesirables conditions.

Radio and television, like communication, are an indispensable tool of development in modern society. The media helps in informing, educating, entertaining the audience of what is going on around their environments. Without communication or information, life would have been static. There would be no growth, no enlightenment and total ignorance would have enveloped man.

The Akwa Ibom broadcasting Corporation (AKBC), which is the case study is one of the broadcasting media organization situated in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

The study therefore, sought to examine the gate keeping processes of AKBC, to determine how effective are the criteria used in selecting and rejecting news items of the corporation

 

1.2   Statement of the Problem

Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation (AKBC) was established        to discharge certain functions to the state and the people of         Akwa Ibom State which include the gathering, processing and           dissemination of news and programme that will educate,       entertain and inform the public.

For the past two decades, the AKBC has been serving the         informational needs of the government and the people of the state.   But this notwithstanding, one still observes that. As a government owned broadcasting station, the possibilities of the AKBC covering the many events in the state seem an uphill task. On several occasion, the citizens have had cause to complain about AKBC’s  inability to satisfy its public in political, economic, social, cultural, development, developmental and technological news.

Construction realities are presented with a lot of ethnocentric prejudice coming into play and it becomes increasingly too difficult to differentiate the truth from lies and from objectivity. Some broadcast stations go into the length of keeping quiet over events that could be useful or draw public sympathy to other nations. All these are the result of someone’s action or inaction, usually referred to as gate-keeping.

Could it be that the variables used by AKBC gate keepers are fraught with biases and subjectivity?

 

1.3   Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study were to;

  1. identify who keeps the “gate” of AKBC news;

 

  1. find out what factors influencing them in choosing certain kinds of information to the exclusion of others. Or whether the decision to select is based on personal idiosyncrasies;
  2. determine the extent of government pressure on AKBC in the selection of news using the decree establishing it as a backdrop and
  3. find out whether management have a specific policy governing the scope and length of news coverage?

 

1.4    Research Questions

The following research questions were posed to guide the        study to its conclusions.

  1. Who keeps the “gate” of AKBC News?
  2. What are the factors influencing them in choosing certain kinds of information to the exclusion of others?
  3. What is the extent of government pressure on AKBC in the selection of news items using the decree establishing it?
  4. Does management have a specific policy governing the scope and length of news coverage

 

1.5    Significance of the Study

This study, it is hoped, should ascertain if the influence of ownership and control of affects it in the coverage of social, economic, political, development, technological and cultural news of Akwa Ibom State.

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