COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND RADIO STATIONS PREFERENCE FOR ASSESSING NEWS AMONG YOUTHS

CHAPTER ONE

1.0       Introduction

1.1       Background of the Study

            More than a century ago, communication between countries involved physical presence. Once, a reporter had to run as fast as possible back to the newsroom after interviewing and tried to beat the competition to print. With the advent of the digital age the role of the journalist changed.

            The inception of information communication technology such as the internet has made it possible to find out about events without actually being there. Journalists can report news across the world over the internet.

             Throughout history, developments in technology and communication have gone hand-in-hand, and the latest technological developments such as the internet have resulted in the advancement of the science of communication to a new level. The process of human communication has evolved over the years, with many path-breaking inventions and discoveries heralding revolutions. The invention of pictographs or the first written communication in the ancient world brought about written communication. These writings were on stones, and remained immovable.

            The invention of paper, papyrus and wax, culminating in the invention of the printing press in the 15th century made possible transfer of documents from one place to another, allowing for uniformity of languages over long distances. Lawal, A.T. (2005). The latest revolution is the widespread application of electronic technology such as electronic waves and signals to communicate, manifesting in the electronic creation and transfer of documents over the World Wide Web (www.wikipediacom)

            Social media which are forms of electronic communication have become the highest activity on the internet. They refer to social networking websites developed to specifically to help people share their views and stay in touch with their friends, relatives and well- wishers. 

            The site was popular for a while but it suffered from technical difficulties and fake profiles and began losing members. Some of those members went to MySpace, which had actually started  in 1999 but became better known in 2003.Its roots are a little muddy because it received financial and logistical support from another company called e-Universe, and most of the early users were e-Universe employees but Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe are given credit for much of the innovations and success of the site which built up to 115 million users worldwide. Members post bios, photos, blogs, videos, and other things that strike their fancy, and some TV programmes to air on MySpace. In 2005, Rupert Murdoch‟s News Corporation (parent of Fox Broadcasting) bought MySpace for 580 million dollars.

Similarly, Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as “tweets”. Olayinka, S. O. (2014)

 1.2       Statement of the Problem

            Social media have certainly changed the way journalists work, how stories are developed and disseminated. Social media or online journalism places far more power in the hands of the users allowing the reader to challenge the traditional role of information dissemination. Traditional media have been forced to adopt the new media from wider reach and accessibility.