CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

    In Nigeria, the media organisations are owned by different categories of groups and personalities. Hence, media organisations in Nigeria have diversities of reasons for operation. Therefore, the owner of a media organization will influence editorial policy.

    The history of the media in Nigeria has always been characterized by two major forms of ownership, those owned by the government and those owned by private individuals. These two forms of media ownership are all driven by separate agenda. The government media houses are mainly used as instruments of propaganda for the government while the private media owners are driven by different motives, which could be profit making, agenda setting, to win influence which can be later translated into political and business gains, etc.

    The mass media organization serves as a variety of functions depending on individual’s interest and societal needs. But in general terms, the media organization is mainly to inform. Other major functions as stated by Lasswell (1948) include surveillance of the environment (policing and alerting members of community to dangers and opportunities in the environment), correlation of parts of society in responding to the environment and transmission of the societal heritage from one generation to the next.

Before Nigeria gained her independence, it was obvious that most media organisations were owned by government such as Daily Times of Nigeria, African Messenger, Gaskiya and many others. During this period, is was generally believed that owners of these media organisations (the government) never give room for the press to perform their watchdog functions as many of the information disseminated in those days were mostly to support the activities of the ruling government. In respect of this, there was a quest for issuance of more licenses to private media organisations.

After independence, a lot of politicians began to establish private media organization. As a result of this, the press was generally controlled by politicians. According to GokeRaufu (2003), during the first republic, Newspaper proprietors, most of whom were politicians controlled the press so much that journalists became sycophantic propagandist for their employers. They threw professional ethics overboard, forgetting the watchdog role of the press.

In the 21st century that we are now, most media organizations are controlled and established by private individuals both politicians and non-politicians while their motives will either be propaganda or profit making. In this respect, how can journalism as a profession are fully practiced if workers in these media organizations have target to meet in order to satisfy their boss for their job to be safe? In this regard, this research is out to look at how owners of media organizations could influence professionalism and what will be the effect of this on journalism.

1.1                                     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

    Considering the level of corruption in Nigeria, the high number of journalists seeking for job and the rate at which media organizations are being established in the country, especially the print media organizations, one would say journalism as a profession will not be fully practiced ethically. Also, the motive of media owners in making profit or for political purpose will go a long way in determining how workers of these organizations would practice the profession. Because of this, journalists nowadays are no more objectives rather they are being biased not minding what the end result will be.