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THE IMPACT OF NEWS COMMENTARIES ON RADIO LISTENERS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The term broadcasting is amenable to equivocations and ambiguities. For purposes of clarity, broadcasting has been operationalised in this text from three all encompassing perspectives.

From the communication perspective, as contained in the communication Act of 1934, broadcasting means “the dissemination of radio and television signals intended to be received simultaneously by the public directly or by an intermediary such as relay stations”. On the other hand, it could also be defined from an engineering perspective as the

encoding of information into a given channel of communication system in the electromagnetic spectrum by modulating the energy either through AM or FM. It could also be seen as the super imposition of audio/video electrical energy on to the side bands of much high frequency radio carrier waves.

Commonsensically, broadcasting means approximately the physical scattering of information or messages intended to be received by an audience.

An analysis of the mass media messages and the audience will show that there are social interactions and functions which occurred among them in a nexus of mediating factor, Klapper (1978) mass communication changes within the broad social system called society. It is as a result of this fact that societies, structures, institutions, values and attitudes undergo continuous changes to catch up with modernity and what it has to offer. As a result, individual members of the audience identify, exploit, maintain and sustain functional communication channels to serve as a means and agent for surveillance, cultural transmission, agenda setting, cognition and opinion leadership.

1.1 Background to the Study

The broadcast industry, which consists of radio and television like their print counterparts has many functions to carry out in the society. Harold Lasswell, a communication scholar identified some as, surveillance of the environment, correlation of the different parts of the society and transmission of cultural heritage from one generation to the other.

Furthermore, McQuail et al (1992) dove tailed the role of the media within the framework of “individual functionalism”.

Many years ago, there was no competition on the part of broadcast stations about their market (audience). This was due to the monopoly of the broadcast industries then by government stations. But since the granting of license to private broadcasting stations, there has been proliferation of broadcast stations in Nigeria and Rivers State in particular. In Port Harcourt city alone, there are about seven radio stations viz: Radio Rivers 99.1FM, Ray Power 106.5 FM, Rhythm 93.7 FM, Family Love Station 97.5FM, Garden City Radio, Cool FM and Wazobia are here too. The proliferation made the audience the “chief” and broadcasters the “subject”.

Apparently, the programmes department of the stations went to “war” of winning the market (audience) in order to lure advertisers to the station which is the revenue base of the stations.

News commentary must have come as a sequel to the aforementioned. Commentary is derived from a Latin word “commentarium” which means a notebook or explanation. It also means a comment, remark or critiqued note.

In his book, “Radio Journalism”, Mikhail Minkor says commentary means “review and explanation of public and political facts and events, its strength is contained in a competent, correct selection and interposing of the facts” with critical assessment of events which guides the listeners’ reaction and works upon their minds along certain lines.

Gelsthorpe (2002) sees commentary as:

An elevated form of communication which deals on topical issues concerning society, silently demanding a positive change in one sector or another. This is why it is said to be the voice of the station.

Radio Rivers 99.1FM Port Harcourt, airs a commentary everyday at the end of the news broadcast at 6am in the morning called “the news at dawn” and at the end of their news bulletin by 6pm called “the globe at six”. Their commentary goes a long way in helping the audience to understand an issue of public importance. For instance, it was in one of their news commentaries that the people where educated/wised up on the intention of the State Government to ban the use of commercial motorcycle in Port Harcourt. Even the demolition exercise was also commented about by the station.

The fulcrum of this work is therefore to evaluate and determine audience assessment of news commentary on Radio Rivers 99.1FM while Port Harcourt city shall be the peripheral domain of this research.

The researcher will strive to know how the people of Port Harcourt perceive news commentary, if the programme serves them the functions of mass media as enumerated in the

opening paragraphs of this work. In all, people will be tested to know if they like or loathe the programme.

1.1.1 Brief History of Radio Rivers 99.1 FM Port Harcourt

Radio Rivers is a wholly government owned radio station. It is own by the Rivers State Government. The instrument that brought the station is the “Rivers State of Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation Edit No 11 of 1971.

Radio Rivers was established to aid Rivers State Government have a medium of mass communication that

would guard against unlawful infringement of the liberties and rights of the individuals.

The station has the following departments viz:

News and current affairs
Commercial
Engineering
Programmes
Traffic
Security and
Administration

The station’s major raw material is the ‘newscast’. The station is funded by the State Government through grants etc. and internally generated revenue. This is generated through advertisement, commercial job.

The advertisement rate is determined by area of coverage (listenership). But the station has made an effort to attract advertisers through the reduction of low advertisement rate, sending out of advertisement personnel etc.

The vision of the station is to operate as a fully commercial outfit and to inform the people on government

policies.

Some of the general managers that have been in the station are: Ekiye Morris, Mr. Omodu Morgan, Tadore M. etc.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The proliferation of radio stations in Port Harcourt has placed radio station managers on the alert and this call for the production of good programmes. In order to ascertain the place of news commentary, (i.e.) if it is in the locus of good programme or the other way, is the reason the researcher carried out this study.

Therefore, the basis for this study was to find out how much time the audience in Port Harcourt city spend listening to Radio Rivers 99.1FM.

The introduction of news commentary has been hailed by many where as, others counter such. The supporters of news commentaries believe that commentaries aid them to understand the important issues and also make them know how the station perceives such issues.

Whichever way one looks at it, one thing seems obvious: news commentary has an effect on the understanding level of the audience on crucial and controversial issues. However, the extent and direction of this effect is yet to be empirically determined. For it is difficult to determine the extent to which these commentaries affect the understanding of crucial news items.

There will also be an examination of the audience, so as to know what the audience want and derive during news casting. What use is the programme to them? These are some of the questions to which this study seeks to proffer answers.

1.3 Objective of the Study

The following are the objectives of this study:

To ascertain audience perception of news commentary on Radio Rivers 99.1FM.
To evaluate audience assessment of news commentary as an informative and educative programme.
To determine the extent to which audience understand issues commented on by the station.
To determine the place of a news commentary in broadcasting.

1.4 Research Questions

As a basis upon which this study is conducted the following research questions are relevant:

How does the audience perceive news commentary on

Radio Rivers 99.1FM?

How do the audiences assess news commentary on

their audience?

Do news commentaries contribute to audience

understanding of controversial issues?

To what extent do the audiences listen to news commentaries on Radio Rivers 99.1 FM.

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study when completed will be beneficial to Radio Rivers and advertisers cum production/manufacturing companies.

Radio Rivers 99.1FM will be able to know how effective a news commentary is and will adjust where necessary.

More so, this study will give the advertisers the opportunity to assess the audience of Radio Rivers 99.1FM and thus, lead to effective advertising.

Finally, the study would be useful to people wishing to carry out research on similar topics.

1.6 Theoretical Framework

The mass communication theory that is best for this study is the uses and gratification theory.

The theory was propounded by Katz in 1970 and it is concerned with how people use media for the gratification of their needs. It believes that people choose what they want to see or read and the different media compete to satisfy each individual’s need.

In this theory, the audience perceive same news item in a different ways because of the audience member believe, custom and ideology. It is individual perception, retention etc that shows what the audience make of a news item.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

The constraints of this study as in most academic research of this nature are time factor, financial constraints and finally, lack of literature.

1.8 Operational Definitions of Works

Some terms used here, require clarification as to their contextual meanings:

Audience:	All the people who listen to Radio Rivers 99.1 FM.
Assessment:	An opinion or judgment of the audience about Radio Rivers.
News:	The report of current ideas, events or

situations that interest news consumers. It is

the timely account of an interesting event which the public must know because it is important as it helps them to live their lives meaningfully.

Commentary: This is the review and explanation of public

and political facts and events. Its strength is contained in a competent, correct selection and interposing of the facts.

News commentary: This helps the listeners to understand

news items deeply through the analysis of such news items or issues, thus, paving way for winning over public opinion on an event at a point in time. It can come inform of news analysis, news reports, news digest, and news commentary. This is the editorial of the air, it gives the voice of a radio station on an issue of importance.

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