The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mass Communication

  • Mass Communication

    Communicate with yourself and you will develop a strong self-confidence and personality. Communicate with a few other persons and you will become influential. But, what happens when you communicate with a mass audience? Wait for it, that’s what we shall discuss today. Mass communication is a lot more than the course you merely study in school. The theory of it may help you pass examinations, but the application of it is simply beyond your wildest imagination.

    Let’s start simple. The word “mass” in this context means a large number. Therefore, we can simply define mass communication as the communication between a source and a mass audience through an impersonal medium. The medium is impersonal because there is no direct contact between the source and the receivers, and since it reaches a great crowd of people, it is referred to as a mass medium. Have you watched television lately? If you have, you have come in contact with a mass medium. Have you listened to radio or read a newspaper? If you have, then you are familiar with the mass media. While these are not the only ones, they are generally referred to as the traditional media. But what exactly is your business with all these? To answer your question, let’s check out some elements of mass communication:

    •It has heterogeneous audience: mass communication, through the aid of the mass media, has the ability to reach divers people in different locations. When a programme is on TV, there is no limit to the gender, race or social status of those who can watch it. Same goes for radio, newspaper or magazine. In fact, if you don’t want something to be seen by the general public, you better not put it in the media. Someone mentioned to me that his parents mustn’t know that he was into music, yet he wanted to appear on TV and be seen across the nation! When you are in the media, everyone who has access will know you. Consequently, if you want your business or activities to be seen by a vast number of people, mass communication is a good idea.

    •It is larger than life: if you see your neighbour or your close friend on TV, he/she suddenly increases in your estimation. As a matter of fact, you may even start to tell everyone around that you know that person on TV. That is because the mass media make ordinary things seem big. Can you now imagine what you will do if your own face should appear in a newspaper! I can bet that you will keep a copy of it for life. You may even call all your loved ones to get a copy. Because of the number of people who have access to it, information in the media tends to spread fast. Let me give you another example. This very article you are reading now seemed ordinary on my computer. Several people saw me writing it but it didn’t catch their attention at all. But after it has been published by this highly reputable newspaper, it suddenly became a subject their interest. That is because the mass media magnify messages.

    •It aids credibility: there is this general feeling that everything you listen to, watch or read in the media is credible. We wait to hear the announcement of public holidays from the media. We believe what we hear about other parts of the country or the world from the media. We even believe that celebrities (actors or musicians) are really the way they are portrayed in the media. Whether we like it or not, the mass media have the aura of credibility around them.

    •It breaks through barriers: information placed in the mass media can get to places that the source may never dare to venture into. For instance, a politician may not be liked by members of an opposing party, but that does not stop his/her campaign messages on TV, radio or newspaper from coming into their very homes or even into their bedrooms. While you may display aggression towards a source if he/she is physically present, the most you can do to a media message is to refuse to expose yourself to it, but one way or the other, the information still gets to you.

    It makes you famous: to develop a strong personality, use intrapersonal communication. To become influential, use interpersonal communication. But to become famous, the only option you have is mass communication. Think of your favourite musician. Would you ever have known him/her if not for the media? How many times have you actually come in physically contact with him/her? For such a musician, doing without the mass media is like performing on a stage without light or sound- an exercise in futility for sure. Have you ever listened to some celebrities’ interviews and they claimed that they had been active for several years, but you only heard of them recently? They are not deceiving you; the time they got media attention was the time you became aware of them. Mass communication is very powerful, use it smartly.

  • Photo: Unilag Mass Comm students visit The Nation

    Photo: Unilag Mass Comm students visit The Nation

    First year Mass Communication students of University of Lagos on Friday visited The Nation on study excursion organised by the Mass Communication Students Association (MCSA) of the institution.

    During the visit they were received by The Nation’s Editor, Online, Lekan Otufodunrin who briefed them on the operations of the company and conducted them round the various departments.

     

  • ‘What Nigeria should learn from South Africa’

    ‘What Nigeria should learn from South Africa’

     

     

    A Nigerian professor of mass communication, Abiodun Salawu was recently appointed Mazisi Kunene Chair at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. In this online interview with Lekan Otufodunrin, Professor Salawu speaks on his plan for his new assignment and experience teaching and living in South Africa.

     What is your reaction to your appointment as the Mazisi Kunene Chair at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa?

    I am delighted to have been appointed into the Chair. I was actually invited to the position by the university. I was in the United States attending a conference when I received the e-mail inviting into the position. I never saw the advert. The university had been advertising the position since 2010. If I had seen the advert, I wouldn’t have felt that I qualified for the job. Why? This is because one of the requirements for the job is that that the applicant should be a speaker of one or more Nguni languages. Nguni languages comprise isiZulu, isiXhosa, isiNdebele and isiSwati. I don’t speak any of these languages. In fact, at the interview which I attended for the job, I asked them why they sought me out for the job, they refused to tell me. What I could only guess was that they must have known about my work in indigenous language media in Africa. To me, the Chair appointment serves as recognition of my work in that area and I appreciate the University of KwaZulu-Natal for that.

    What do you hope to accomplish during your tenure as Chair?

     I hope to promote the works of Mazisi Kunene and creative writings in African languages in general. Special attention will be paid to oral poetry which is a genre that late Professor Kunene is known for. We will also invest our energy into research on African language media, either it is the print, broadcast or the internet. All these media will also be studied in relation to their application for development purposes. All these we hope to achieve through postgraduate students research, seminars, workshops and conferences. We hope to have a quantum of publications on the issues mentioned.

    You are supposed to focus on African oramedia and the modern media using African languages is there a future for African languages?

     There is future for African languages as long as the speakers of the languages still live. Even though we are in the age of globalisation, diversity is still imperative. Language is the single most characteristic of any people. So, as long as we do not want to lose our identity, we cannot wish away our languages. Any language can be used for anything as long as we are ready to develop it. In Ethiopia today, Amharic is the dominant language, over and above English language. It is the major language of government, business and the media.

    What is your view of how new media is used in Africa?

    There has been a huge penetration of new media in Africa and it is still rising. From the simple mobile phones to the most complex of the new media technologies, Africans are doing reasonably well. It is hoped that the use could be better with more broad bandwidth and better adoption of the innovation by more people. Many people are still not into the culture of the internet, but we do hope there will be a change for the better. I am particularly glad that quite a reasonable number of people, particularly the youth, are on the social media.

    Why did you relocate to South Africa?

    I relocated to South Africa because of the better infrastructures in the country. Today, it has the best infrastructures on the continent; certain aspects of these, some people call world class. The research environment is also an attraction. There are motivations and facilities for research.

    What is the difference between being a lecturer in South Africa and Nigeria?

    This goes back to my last statement. The infrastructures and facilities are there to enable you do your work without much hassles. Colleagues in the Sciences appreciate this better as they require certain equipment and facilities in their laboratories to do their work. For us in the Humanities, we appreciate more the abundant online resources that we have to do our work. Provision of basic office facilities is also appreciated.

    What do you miss about Nigeria?

     I miss the culture of our people. I miss the culture of respect for elders, of appreciation of good deeds, of communalism and of industry. I miss listening to high standard Yoruba on certain radio/television programmes and movies. I also miss our foods –amala, ewedu, yam, fried plantain etc.

     Have you experienced any form of xenophobia during your stay in South Africa?

    I won’t say I haven’t, but in a subtle way. Such things do not really bother me much because I know there is xenophobia, tribalism, racism all over the world. As long as we are different in one form or the other, there will always be discrimination. I believe there is a kind of xenophobia that is pervasive everywhere in the world – people would definitely want to protect the interest of their own against the ‘outsiders’. Even in Nigeria, an Igbo man may not have priority over a Yoruba man in a Yoruba community. The same goes for a Yoruba man in Igbo land or a Hausa man in Urhobo land and on and on. The only times it becomes a problem is when it takes the form of violence, that is when resentment against the outsiders is expressed in violence. That was what happened in South Africa in May 2008 when a number of foreigners were killed. This has remained a dent on the image of the country and that tag of xenophobia has remained till today. Apart from this, I believe we also need to avoid any kind of xenophobia that is scandalous. There is a limit to which one can go in sacrificing merit for ethnic affinity or whatever.

    How would you describe living in South Africa?

    It is a more organised living.

    What has Nigeria got to learn from South Africa?

     It is not for no reason that certain South African universities remain the top universities in Africa. Nigeria can learn organisation of higher education from South Africa. Research is a priority in South Africa and there is huge provision of funds to facilitate, motivate and incentivize it. Many of our colleagues in Nigeria do not have (regular) opportunities to attend international conferences, but this is what an average lecturer in South Africa takes for granted.

    We can also do better with little or no disruption in our academic calendars as a result of staff strikes. Since I came here, I have not heard of staff (either academic or non-academic) going on strike. May be, we can just say such is rare here. Of course, there are grievances but they hardly result into industrial actions. I guess we need to find a way of managing conflict in our public institutions. This requires sincerity. The campuses in South Africa are much more peaceful than our own campuses. The fear of student cultism is remote. Even when students go on strike, it is not usually prolonged; and the grievances may be about lack of study loans. There was a time when students at University of Fort Hare demonstrated and one of the things they were demonstrating about was lack of internet in their residences.

    Nigeria may also learn appreciation of indigenous languages from South Africans. It is still a paradox to me that peoples who were subjugated for decades under apartheid system refuse to surrender their languages. The long period of colonization affected some other aspects of their culture but really not their languages. In fact, universities here make use of African languages of their respective domains in their corporate symbols – websites, letterheads, signboards etc. This, I believe, is due to the national language policy which Nigeria can benefit from.