Influence Of Social Media Blogging On The Professional Journalism Practice In Nigeria

This study was carried out on the influence of social media blogging on the professional journalism practice in Nigeria using Journalists in Makurdi as a case study. The study was carried out to know if journalists in Makurdi metropolis are exposed to social media blogging tools, find out the type of social media blogging tools journalists in Makurdi metropolis prefer and to determine whether social media blogging have enhanced the productivity of journalists in Makurdi metropolis. The survey design was adopted and the simple random sampling techniques were employed in this study. The population size comprised of Journalists in Makurdi. In determining the sample size, the researcher purposefully selected 160 respondents and 141 were validated. Self-constructed and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected and validated questionnaires were analyzed using frequency tables, and mean scores. While the hypotheses was tested chi-square statistical tool. Furthermore, the study revealed that Journalists in Makurdi use social media blogging tools: news sourcing, news gathering, news dissemination, obtaining peoples opinion. Therefore, it is recommended that the government should invest more in creating the needed infrastructure for the media practice to thrive. This will put a check on the incidences of fake news in the society. To mention but a few.

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

A century and half 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 stone, and remained immobile. 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. The latest revolution is the widespread application of electronic technology such as electronic waves and signals to communication, manifesting in the electronic creation and transfer of documents over the World Wide Web (www.wikipediathefreeencyclopedia.com)
Social media which are a form of electronic communication have become the highest activity on the internet. They refer to social networking websites developed to specifically help people share their views and stay in touch with their friends, relatives and well- wishers.According to Wikipedia, social media represents a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information content which brought about the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers.Social media are also internet sites where people interact freely, sharing and discussing information about each other and their lives, using a multi-media mix of personal words, pictures, videos and audio (Bruce and Douglas; 2008, p.27). In order to broaden our knowledge on the topic of study, a brief history of social media will be discussed below.

In the early 1990s, chat rooms and bulletin boards were forms of social media; in that they helped people connect with others and share interests. A little later, dating sites hooked together those looking for partners, and Classmate.com. let people connect with people they had known in high school and college. In the early 2000s, a site called Friendster was set up where people invited their friends to join and in turn, those friends invited other friends. 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 eUniverse, and most of the early users were eUniverse 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.

A competitor to MySpace, Facebook was started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg while he was a student at Harvard University; it grew up rapidly about 2007. At first Facebook was solely for college and high school students, but Zuckerberg opened it to everyone and like MySpace, it encourages all types of member postings (Lynn Gross, 2010). Apart from the above mentioned social media tools,there are also others. These include; Twitter, YouTube, BlackBerry Messenger, Flickr, Word Press, Blogger, Badoo, Live Journal, Wikipedia, Type Pad, Second Life, Lulu, and many others. All these social media appear in many forms including blogs and microblogs, forums, and message boards, social networks, wikis, virtual worlds, social bookmarking, tagging and news, writing communities, digital storytelling and scrapbooking, data, content, image, video sharing, podcast portals and collective intelligence.

Journalism on the other hand is the deliberate and conscious efforts to gather information, collating and analyzing data for the purpose of informing, educating, and entertaining the people with a view of making an appropriate decision (Qasim Akinreti; 2007). Journalism is also an investigation and reporting events, issues and trends to a large audience. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience about topics ranging from government and business organizations to cultural aspects of society such as arts and entertainment. The field of journalism include; editing, photo journalism and documentary (www.Wikipediathefreeencyclopedia.com). The stand point is the there is a synergy between social media use in journalism by the people and traditional media. In recent times, conventional media relied on eye witness accounts to get information about event especially during election period. The contributions imbedded on the social media are replicated on the journalism.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The impact of social media in today‟s world of communication, especially journalism cannot be over-looked. Since its arrival social media have certainly changed the way journalists work, how stories are developed and disseminated. Social media have had positive impacts, without doubt, but there are also concerns about their impact on productivity and the disruption it could have on journalists‟ working patterns. Social media have created a dependency among those working in the media and many are unable to do without them.
Social media have become journalistic lexicon and it seems sourcing information has overtaken self-promotion as a primary social activity. While journalists are growing more sophisticated in their use of social media, and are for instance, using a great variety of tools to source for news, some journalists are less positive about some of the ways social media affect their journalistic activities, their engagement with their audience, their productivity and the quality of their work. It is against this background that this study seeks to examine the influence of social media blogging on the professional journalism practice in Nigeria.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to examine the influence of social media blogging on the professional journalism practice in Nigeria. The following specific objectives guide the study.

To know if journalists in Makurdi metropolis are exposed to social media blogging tools.

To find out the type of social media blogging tools journalists in Makurdi metropolis prefer.

To determine whether social media blogging have enhanced the productivity of journalists in Makurdi metropolis..

1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study.

To what extent are journalists in Makurdi metropolis exposed to social media blogging tools?

What type of social media blogging tools do journalists in Makurdi metropolis prefer?

How have social media blogging enhanced the productivity of journalists in Makurdi metropolis?

1.5 Research Hypothesis

H1: There is significant difference between journalists in Makurdi metropolis who use social media blogging tools and those who do not..

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study will be of immeasurable importance to journalists, media organizations, news agencies, editors, lecturers and students in the field of journalism and mass communication as well as other researchers who will want to embark on same study as this.

The study will help journalists to source useful information using social media networking tools as well as provide them with a guide on how to write online stories. It will also help journalists to interact with their audience and identify their information needs. The study will also help journalists who have rarely embraced social media to do so in order to increase their productivity.

1.7 Scope of the Study

This study is focused on journalists in Makurdi metropolis and not necessarily conclusive for journalists in other parts of Nigeria. Since journalists share common characteristics and skills, data generated from this study and the result obtained thereof, can be applied to all journalists.

1.8 Limitation of the Study

Like in every human endeavour, the researcher encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. Insufficient funds tend to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection, which is why the researcher resorted to a limited choice of sample size. More so, the researcher simultaneously engaged in this study with other academic work. As a result, the amount of time spent on research will be reduced.

1.9 Definition of Terms

Journalism:

This is the practice of writing, editing, and disseminating information to the public.

Modern Journalism:

It is a term used to describe the new era in journalism where internet and computers are used in almost every journalistic activity

Ethics:

This is the standard set by an organization for check the excessiveness its members and it goes with sanctions.

Influence:

This is the impact of independent variables on dependent variables under a subject of study.

Participatory Democracy:

This is the activities of citizens in engaging in democracy by making suggestions, opinions and criticism.

Social Media:

This are new media platforms or sites use by people for social networking and social interaction.

Technologic Devices:

These are mobile devices like smartphones and cameras which have reporting capacity.

1.10 Organization of the Study

The study is categorized into five chapters. The first chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problem, objective of the study, research questions and hypothesis, the significance of the study, scope/limitations of the study, and definition of terms. The chapter two covers the review of literature with emphasis on conceptual framework, theoretical framework, and empirical review. Likewise, the chapter three which is the research methodology, specifically covers the research design, population of the study, sample size determination, sample size, abnd selection technique and procedure, research instrument and administration, method of data collection, method of data analysis, validity and reliability of the study, and ethical consideration. The second to last chapter being the chapter four presents the data presentation and analysis, while the last chapter(chapter five) contains the summary, conclusion and recommendation.

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