The political economy of deregulation and commercialization of radio broadcasting in nigeria, 1992-2017: an assessment of access, participation, content and peacebuilding
- Autores: Geoffrey Njoku
- Directores de la Tesis: José Manuel Pérez Tornero (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ( España ) en 2018
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Samy Tayie (presid.), Laura Cervi (secret.), Juan-Carlos Suárez-Villegas (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Comunicación y Periodismo
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TESEO
- Resumen
This work analysed the effect of deregulation and commercialisation of the broadcast media in Nigeria since 1992. Concretely it focuses on radio stations, the nature of their programming decisions and what informs them. It studies the effect of deregulation on three dimensions: a) Production and distribution of Programmes. The broadcast industry manufactures and distributes content, so when a deregulation policy is applied to communication industry, the immediate effect is on content production and how this content is distributed in order to remain in business and maximize profit.
b) Pubic services function of these programmes in relation to development communication/journalism, education, peacebuilding, amelioration of hate speeches both online and offline, culture and social cohesion. In the early beginnings of radio broadcasting, attempts were made to make it a public service for citizens’ enlightenment, entertainment and education. British broadcasting was a pioneer of this tradition. This tradition remained for a long time before the policy of deregulation swept across the world. This work analysed how deregulation and commercialisation may have affected the contribution of radio as Nigeria faces one of its biggest problems today: hate speech, ethnic and religious violence, radicalisation and terrorism.
c) Access and participation for a broad range of segments in society, the rich, the poor, marginalized groups, women and others. In what ways have access and participation been constricted or improved for these groups as a result of deregulation and commercialisation of radio? It looked at hate speech in Nigeria, analysing its forms, dimensions and magnitude. It also, proposes strategies that could be used to ameliorate its impact. While legislation and regulations are potential strategies to consider, It argued that, even in this digital era, radio in Nigeria is still a powerful and popular medium in countering hate speech in the country, and if properly deployed, radio can be a potent tool in countering hate speech offline and online, although it would need to adapt programming for the new media generation to achieve this goal. Through the convergence of new media forms, radio can contribute in the battle against hate speech.
The conceptual frameworks and models that guided this analysis of deregulation and commercialization of broadcasting is a number of key ideas and theses on the literature of the political economy of communication as well as McQuail’s the Democratic Participants Theory.
It used the qualitative methods of in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis.
The study found that there is some development and peacebuilding content on radio post deregulation but not enough. Only 37 broadcast hours out of 1008 hours of four radio stations’ broadcast hours in two weeks were devoted to development and peacebuilding content. Peacebuilding content was a paltry 8 hours of 1008 hours. It also found that there are instances of hate speeches on radio, post deregulation occasioned by the drive for profit and the privately-owned radio stations are, due to the quest for profit, more prone to disturb the peace and escalate violence.
But for the convergence between radio, cell phones and social media, access and participation would not have increased. There is more access for the poor and marginalized groups but not enough participation. The situation could have been worse without the emergence of cell phones, despite the multiplicity of radio stations. Higher levels of participation are not happening to any group without money. You can only produce your own programmes and broadcast them at the time of your choosing if you pay for them.
Despite improved access and participation for the poor, they do not contribute to the weightier issues of national development and governance, on the contrary, their participation is limited to whimsical, trivial and mundane issues like sports, riddles and jokes. It found a social class induced banalization of content and the notion of access and participation.
