THE IMPACT OF ICT ON NEWS PROCESSING: A STUDY OF AIT AND NTA IFEANYI ADIGWE LAGOS STATE UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

ABSTRACT

Information and communication has swept the world with powerful force affecting the society. Supported in its entirety by the communication technology, information spread vastly become faster and cheaper. The media through which information is disseminated also gets varied in types, further revolutionizing the information era. In the past, there is a significant time lag separating the point when an event took place and the time when the news may be publicly available. This study attempts to investigate the impact of information and communication in news process; a study of AIT and NTA. It is presumed that the radical changes brought in the realm of information through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution has affected immensely the broadcast more than any other industry. In the same way, the level of adoption and absorption of Information and Communication Technology are being carried out in broadcast industry by bringing efficiencies in all the functional wings including production, editorial and marketing so as to gain competitive advantage. We cannot but say that ICT facilitates the creation, storage, management and dissemination of information by electronic means. This study uncovered some of the numerous benefits and challenges associated with the use of ICT in news processing in broadcast industry. This study employs diffusion of innovation theory and technological determinism theory as the theoretical framework. This study concludes that ICT has created opportunities for widespread electronic delivery of news. Furthermore, the Internet can be viewed as both an opportunity and a threat to the news industry. However, not only are there technology barriers that news organizations need to overcome to deliver news electronically, but there are also problems of employee attitudes toward new technologies and resistance to change, and above all, the implication of this in the society will lead to an overall shrink in the need for human correspondents