Broadcasting As Engine Room For Development

Development is the process of moving the world, of engaging in the task of self improvement with the available, not only for all aspects of a person’s development but also for aspects of a nation’s development. Following this, the broadcast media are the most vital instrument for influencing the masses to either consume or conserve.
It is increasingly recognised that broadcasting has an important role to play in development as a widespread tool of information transfer, as a method to improve governance, as an important economic security in its own right and as a potential access point to new information and communications technologies.
In developing countries an issue which does not appear on television or radio does not even exist. Here in the developing world, the question is: to what extent can broadcasting be as engine room for development in educating the masses?
Communication is the most vital factor in building and developing nations. Following this, national development in any society cannot be achieved without widespread education for children and adults. Every spheres of life will remain static without well packaged information. Information to a large extent is an asset; a resource, a commodity with social economic and political consequences.
Education is recognised as the most potential instrument for development. Through education, people assimilate fundamental values and develop new ones. Certain prescribed goal are realised in areas of economic growth, health cares, political and social awareness, political stability, self-reliance, national identity, among other things.
The mass media, particularly the electronic or broadcast media, become a powerful and effective instrument achieving these national goals.
Broadcasting is the transmission of signals through electronic agent wares which convert audio and video signals in a form in which they can be received in the audiences’ homes. Broadcasting can facilitate social development. It can be used to promote and build the living standard of a society or nation through the information in form of programmes they produce and disseminate to their audience.
Broadcast media include radio and television. Radio is broadcasting which appears to the auditory and visuals senses.
Nigeria is a giant nation strongly backed up by a collective will to develop and forge ahead. The responsibility of carrying the people of the nation along its development journey falls on the broadcast media.
It is believed that Nigeria nation has not less than 250 ethnic groups with different social cultural backgrounds. This calls for a medium that can cross coasters, break through all barriers and make developmental impact on the audience. For there to be unity and national development, there must be effective communication.
Has the broadcast media really helped in advancement and national development? Over the years, lots of studies and researches have been carried out and consequently many books written and published in order to discover the answer to the above question. Efforts have been made to find out the relationship between the media and advancement in national development. Today it is accepted that educational programmes as the last broadcast media produce some effect in the audience in the areas of development, especially the rural dwellers, who hold the key to national development in every nation.
Development can only be achieved when there is a high level of literacy in community. With the advancement of technology in broadcasting field, there tends to be a growing awareness among societies.
Therefore, there is a belief that the people’s perceptions and understanding of media messages are considered high. People embark on industrialisation as a result of mass media influence. The world is ever changing thus the general public wants to be informed or rather, educated on some necessities of life, especially those who were not opportune to be enrolled into the various institutions of learning.
The broadcast media which is the electronic media are the most prominent and significant means for development. They are younger than oral and print media being mainly the products of twenty century. Radio appears to be more powerful. It stands out as having the greater power of reaching the diverse people of the Nigeria nation. Radio, as a medium of development, has wider scope of coverage and as a commonly used medium makes greater impact on the audience. Radio is a mechanical medium of communication whose reception, according to Okonkwo (1991), is aural. It makes use of sense of sound and hearing to convey its message to the audience.
Radio programmes play a vital role in National Development. They bring up entertainment programmes that serve as a purpose in the communication of development topics or issues especially radio drama. This offers creative opportunities for broadcasters to raise, frame or discuss development issues. Entertainment is considered a means to an end with dedication programmes designed to engage audience in the sustainable development agenda.
Entertainment programmes provide knowledge and information about development topics, raising awareness or meeting the practical needs of certain groups in society (eg teenage girls, ethnic minorities or those art of work).
The role of the broadcasting in promoting good governance in Nigeria cannot be over emphasised. Despite the constitutional provisions, as well as the enormous financial resources, and huge potentials of the country, including the social and economic policies that have been implemented by successive administrations, good governance continues to be elusive to Nigeria.
In an attempt to enthrone good governance in the country, recent democratic administrations organised good governance tours, where officials of the Federal Ministry of Information alongside journalists from various media houses, inspected the progress of work on the projects executed by the different agencies of the Federal and the State governments. The objective of the tour is for the media to assess the performance of elected public office holders at both the Federal and State levels.
The Nigerian Constitution in Section 22 made provision for such an exercise where it stated interalia, “The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times become free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people.” This links the media to the establishment of good governance.
All aspects of good governance are facilitated by a strong and independent media within a society. Only when journalists are free to monitor, investigate and criticise the public administrations policies and actions can good governance take hold which brings development.
Independent media are like beacon that should be welcomed when there is nothing to hide and much to improve. The media allow for ongoing checks and assessments of the activities of government and assist in bringing public concerns and voices into the open by providing a platform for discussion.
Freedom of the media allows for the formation of a public sphere in which a wide range of debates can take place and a variety of viewpoints be represented. The citizenry can thereby use the media to express their assent or dissent or explore aspects of issues not considered through official channels. Government has a responsibility to allow the media to contribute to the participation process, especially in areas where face -to-face participation is not possible. This will foster good governance and development.
Good governance is an essential framework which serves as a means of achieving wider goals such as social and political development, alleviation of poverty and protection of the environment. Without good governance, social, economic and political progress is difficult to attain and impossible to guarantee. In fact, it is the bedrock of any modern democracy. Promoting good governance is not an easy task as it is much more involving than organising elections and appointing people into the public offices. A free and critical broadcast media is essential to the growth and development of any democracy.
Tasie is of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

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