COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY AND MEDIA PRACTICE IN NIGERIA (A case study of AKBC News Gathering and Delivery)

Abstract

This research basically looks critically at computer technology and media practice in Nigeria focusing on Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation news gathering and delivery. Computer technology including the internet which is embedded with some facilities or applications like: email, social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube) etc search engines (google, yahoo,bing) etc webcasting (podcasting, video streaming, narrowcasting, wedcasting), online news and blogging etc others are electronic news gathering and lots of software and hardware such as video and audio editing software and hardware that have changed the conventional face and practice of mass media like: radio, television, newspaper and magazine not only in Nigeria but across the globe. Survey research method was adopted and simple random sampling technique was also use to select 120 respondents in which questionnaires were administered and 100 copies were retrieved. Findings show that 65% of the respondents are computer literates with at least 36.2% of them have a personal computer but others have some advanced mobile phones (Smartphone, Blackberry, iphone, ipad) etc. Also, 78% of the respondents also agreed that modern technology is enhancing AKBC news gathering and delivery. Similarly, because of the need to get hooked always to the internet 95% of the respondents said they used cyber café owned by their station. 60% agreed that computer technology has influence the performance of journalists to a larger extent. Data were analysed using frequency and percentage method. It is recommended that seminars and workshops should be organized regularly for the media practitioners in order to grow as technology grows.