MAKURDI—THE Head of Department of Mass Communication, Benue State University, Professor John Sambe, has identified technological backwardness as one of the factors militating against the effective operation of media houses in Nigeria. Sambe who delivered a paper entitled: "Empowering the Communication System for the Challenge of Building a Virile Political System in Nigeria" at the opening of the Benue State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ Press Week, explained that technological backwardness has continued to count heavily against the processing and dissemination of information from the media houses.
He said "globalization has caught us napping, exposing us to a globalized society with a global economy that is increasingly dependent on the creation, management and distribution of information resources" Sambe lamented that in the midst of advancement in the sphere of information technology which has yielded innumerable soft and hardware that aid fast acquisition and distribution of information, Nigeria’s communication systems have remained glued to obsolete equipment. According to him, the Nigerian situation has been made worse with the wholesome dependence on foreign manufacturers of transmitters and even pin when it comes to machinery. The university don also said another impediment to the effective dissemination of information in Nigeria is executive meddlesomeness. "At present, most of the news that the mass media turnout originate from government sources.
Ordinarily, this dominance in representation could have translated to improved public understanding of how affairs of states are administered but unfortunately, most of the interface between the mass media and governments in the country bears some trademarks of manipulation and exploitation of the media by government officials to the detriment of the public", he pointed out.
While stating further that ownership influence has affected the level of public access to information, Professor Sambe noted that top level officials of government have virtually pocketed government owned media institutions completely, thereby tele-guiding their operations.
He stressed that operators of private media houses continually occupy themselves with chasing profits or using the media as propaganda machinery to fight perceived enemies.
