Browsing by Author "Ojebode, A."

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Audience Research Methods for Campus Radio Stations
(Institute for Media and Society and Panos Institute West Africa, 2010) Ojebode, A.; Onekutu, P.; Adegbola, T.
Broadcast media policy in Nigeria: across many dispensations
(Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication St. Augustine University of Tanzania, Mwanza, Tanzania, 2010) Opubor, A.; Akingbulu, A.; Ojebode, A.
"The present article traces the adaptation of media and communication institutions to the political, economic, ethnic and cultural realities of Nigeria from the colonial (very British) dispensation, to the military and finally to the civilian in the last ten years. The form of the adaptation very largely reflects the political interests of the group in power, but there has always been a negotiation with more prominent interest groups. Ironically, the military, though it defended its interests, tended to be less politically partisan than the civilian governments. The major weakness in Nigerian communication policy making is the absence of strong continuous public involvement and consistent private sector and civil society participation. Typically, a small group of unrepresentative experts prepares the documents and there is little transparent consultation with the public. This produces some adaptation, but with a media system that protects the reigning political power. "
Community radio advocacy in democratic Nigeria: lessons for theory and practice
(Board of Regents of the University of Wisconcin System, 2009) Ojebode, A.; Akingbulu, A.
"This article describes the challenges of working toward an enabling policy and legal environment for community radio in Nigeria. Given the acute development problems it faced and years of autocracy, expectations were that when Nigeria became a democracy, it would immediately deploy all tools, including community radio, to enhance development and participation. Theorists suggest that democracy should be accompanied by enlarged opportunities for expression occasioned by, among others, the removal of the restraints imposed on media ownership by autocrats. But ten years into democracy, Nigeria has yet to allow the establishment of community radio stations. The article identifies five phases of the advocacy for community radio and how it has reached a deadlock. Enlarging the opportunities for expression, in this case through licensing community radio stations, has proved to be as difficult in Nigeria during democracy as it was in the military period. This has lessons and challenges for theory and advocacy. "
Contested Terrains: Journalists' emergent and official memories of the struggle for democracy in Nigeria
(2013) Ojebode, A.
Studies of collective memories have focused on large-scale armed struggles and natural disaster ignoring, to a large extent, collective memories of unarmed resistance and civil uprisings. In the process, little is known about the nature and development of collective memories of such uprisings. As an attempt to address this gap, the study focused on collective memories of the struggle for democracy in Nigeria, an unarmed uprising that resulted in the arrests, incarceration, torture and even death of many citizens and journalists. From textual analysis of sixteen speeches of President Obasanjo given over a period of eight years; analysis of essays written by 200 college students on their memories of the struggle for democracy, and analysis of interviews with the militant journalist who were in the forefront of the struggle for democracy, the paper identified convergences and divergences in the official, journalists’ and emergent memories of the struggle for democracy. Whereas the three collective memories agreed that the struggle was a bitter and painful one, official memories differ from journalists’ and emergent memories on the heroes victims and villains of the struggle. Official memories also differ from others on the use to which the memories of the struggle should be put: while the official position is that the memories of the struggle should be forgotten and efforts devoted to nation building, others insist that the past should be properly remembered with blames and praises given to whomever they are due. The paper highlighted the memory contest that ensued between governments on the one hand, and journalists and young citizens on the other. The paper concluded that memories of unarmed resistance and civil uprising can be as much contentious, politicized and deployed as a weapon as those of armed large-scale conflicts. There was a strong suggestion that emergent memories of the struggle are being influenced by journalists’ memories
Cultural functions and dysfunctions of media in Nigeria
(D-Net Communications, Norway, 2010) Ojebode, A.
The possible influence of mass media on culture has attracted remarkable scholarly efforts which have understandably left in their trail series of hanging questions. Right from Wright’s influential theorization on the issue of media and culture, researchers have often returned a low score for the media. But studies which have adopted a comprehensive, stakeholders’ approach to the study of media and culture are few. Through a qualitative approach, this study attempted to examine the assessment of Nigerian media as cultural agents by stakeholders—audiences, producers, culture experts and cable vendors. Interviews and focus group discussions showed that the media in Nigeria promote cultural growth as they transmit cultural skills to newer generations and facilitate intra-national cultural contact through intercultural education. As they transmit cultural values, they also indirectly set the standard but the media alone cannot be expected to standardize culture. In their bid to please their audiences so as to be on the good page of the advertiser’s book, the media permit foreign programs thereby permitting cultural invasion. Backed by the advertiser’s money, the audiences have become a rather strong factor in the cultural programming decisions which producers make, and if blames are to be apportioned for cultural dysfunctions, the audiences therefore have a share.
Engaging development: environment and content of radio broadcasting in Nigeria
(Institute for Media and Society and Panos Institute West Africa, 2007) Ojebode, A.; Adegbola, T.
Ethical dilemma revisited: PBO newspapers and the professional elbowroom of the Nigerian journalist
(Intellect Limited, 2013) Ojebode, A.
"Focusing on politician-businessperson-owned (PBO) newspapers, the study examined how loyalty to the owners’ multiple interests has reduced the professional elbowroom of the Nigerian journalist. Through in-depth interviews and textual analysis, the study found that journalists in PBO newspapers are extremely constrained on the kind of stories they write and how. Caught in the conflict between professionalism and pandering to the owners’ layers of political and economic interests, many journalists submit, while some rebel. The narrowed elbowroom is a reason for many of the ethical violations among Nigerian journalists. "
The failure of radio to communicate knowledge of sickle cell disorder in N igeria
(Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication St. Augustine University of Tanzania, Mwanza, Tanzania, 2010) Umana, E.; Ojebode, A.
"The study aimed to find out how much residents in Akwa Ibom knew about the sickle cell disorder. In a survey of 300 people, we discovered that only few people (32.9%) had adequate or fairly adequate knowledge of sickle cell disorder (SCD); only about 45% were definite that they would not marry a carrier if they too were carriers. Radio, the most important source of health information for about 73% of our respondents and though praised for health education and information in Nigeria, says nothing about SCD. Workers in the radio station were themselves not aware of the prevalence of, or they felt incompetent to educate their listeners about, SCD. It is our belief that these people know little or nothing about SCD because radio says nothing about it. There is need for non-media forces to call media attention to and in fact use media to educate people about SCD in Nigeria. Nigeria government also must show commitment to SCD education. "
Indigenous communication for post-conflict healing and reconciliation: lessons from post war Northern Uganda
(2015) Ojebode, A.; Owacgiu, J. A.
Low patronage of development radio programmes in rural Nigeria: How to get beyond the Rhetoric of participation
(Routledge Informa Ltd, 2008) Ojebode, A.
Although the concept of participatory development communication is decades old, many years of autocratic military rule has robbed African scholars and media practitioners of the context needed to explore the full participatory potentials of the media. With eight years of democracy and heavy development burdens, Nigeria is ripe for assessment with regard to the role of its media in engendering participatory development. From a small-scale study, this paper discovers that while radio stations expend tremendous time and energy producing and airing development programmes, the listeners in the selected rural area mostly avoid such programmes and spend their time and batteries on a strange genre of programmes tagged ‘bizarre occurrence’ programmes. This implies that the listeners are not properly taken into account, let alone involved in the production of these development programmes. This is clearly contrary to the tenets of participatory development communication and democracy. The paper suggests ways by which radio can become a more participatory medium with its mission, focus and products consistent with the democratic dispensation.
Media diversity with and without a policy: a comparison of the BBC and Nigeria's DBS
(Broadcast Education Association, 2009) Ojebode, A.
Discussions of media diversity have taken for granted the assumption that diversity is properly maintained only when there is a well articulated diversity policy with human and material resources to implement it. This article seeks to find out what it is like to manage diversity where there is not a diversity policy. To do this, it compares Nigeria's Delta Broadcasting Services (DBS) which does not have a diversity policy, with the BBC which had an elaborate policy with extensive resources for implementation. The study finds an inbuilt diversity consciousness among DBS staff whereas at the BBC diversity is driven by policy and even pressure. At both stations, fear of different kinds propels the determination to reflect diversity, and both stations face fairly similar problems in managing diversity, among which is the challenge of balancing diversity with competence in staff recruitment. The key lesson is that, depending on the context, diversity is not better achieved by official policies and targets, than without them.
Media globalisation and the responses of the Nigerian broadcast media
(Department of Political Science and Sociology, Babcock University, 2004) Ojebode, A.
The globalisation of the media of mass communication has been praised for being one of the major catalysts for the spread of democracy and development especially in the developing world. But discussions of the impact of media globalisation have by no means been homogenous. There are strong arguments that rather than being beneficiaries, democracy and development have been victims of the globalized media world. As a result, nations and institutions are responding to media globalisation with caution. This paper examines the possible impact of global media on Nigerian democracy and development. It attempts to categorise the responses of the Nigerian broadcast media to media globalisation as reflected in how they handle products of global media. Four such categories were discovered: acceptance, replication, metacasting and blackout. The paper discusses the implications of these for our democracy and development.
Mobile phone deception in Nigerian: deceivers' skills, truth bias or respondents' greed?
(World Scholars, 2012) Ojebode, A.
"The use of mobile phones to deceive and defraud in Nigeria has received widespread comments and complaints but not empirical investigations. Guided by Buller and Burgoon’s interpersonal deception theory, this article examined the strategies employed by deceivers, the dimension of lies told and why mobile phone deception works among Nigerians. This it did through interviews with victims and near-victims of deception, focus group discussions with users, and participant observation. Mobile phone deception falls into two broad categories: impression-related deception and deception for monetary fraud. The strategies employed by mobile phone deceivers are the same as those employed in face-to-face deception. Mobile phone deception in Nigeria succeeds widely not so much as a result of poverty, greed or truth bias. The success of mobile phone deception is largely the result of deceivers’ skills, the overall mobile phone environment in Nigeria and certain socio-cultural characteristics of Nigerians. Studies of mobile telephony should be driven by perspectives that take socio-cultural milieu into consideration. "
Mono-method research approach and scholar–policy disengagement in Nigerian communication research
(Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018-03) Ojebode, A.; Ojebuyi, B. R.; Oladapo, O. A.; Oyedele, O. J.
Moving beyond numerals: a meta-analysis of research methods and theoretical application in media gatekeeping studies
(Halygraph (Nigeria), 2011-06) Ojebuyi, B. R.; Ojebode, A.
This study investigates trends in media gatekeeping research, specifically in terms of research methods and theoretical application. Through a meta-analysis, 128 media gatekeeping-related studies purposively drawn from communication-based journals (published between 2000 and 2008) were content analysed. The findings reveal a progressive drift from quantitative method (38.3%) towards qualitative method (57.0%): a deviation from previous submissions that communication researchers prefer quantitative method to qualitative approach (Berg, 2001; Abawi, 2008). However, results confirm the previous findings that majority of communication studies are not theory-driven (Kim and Weaver, 2002) as only 44(34.4%) of the articles examined had theoretical frameworks. The study encourages more theoretical applications and synthesis of methods in media gatekeeping research.
Nigeria's freedom of information act: provision, strengths, challenges
(Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication St. Augustine University of Tanzania, Mwanza, Tanzania, 2011) Ojebode, A.
It took well over ten years to pass the Freedom of Information bill into law in Nigeria. It also took the bill three journeys to the National Assembly. This article connects the reluctance of the concerned authorities to pass the bill to the age-long struggle in Nigeria (and elsewhere) between the press, citizens and civil society on the one hand and the government on the other, with the former trying to widen the circumference of government activities that should be made public and the latter trying to shrink the same. The article traces the journeys of the FOI Act, and examines its provisions, first attempts at applying it and the challenges to its full implementation
Nigerian former guerrilla journalists ten years into democracy: reformists and revolutionaries
(Govan Mbeki Research and Development Centre, University of Fort Hare, 2011) Ojebode, A.
The question of what happens to activists and resisters after their battle has been lost or won has been asked in many different contexts but answered in a few. In the context of the guerrilla journalists in Nigeria who confronted the military and endured severe brutality in their fight for democracy, that question has not been answered. Ten years after Nigeria returned to democracy, this paper sought to answer that question. Through interviews with nine former guerrilla journalists and an examination of some of their contemporary writings, the paper discovered that the journalists in question were disappointed with the practice of democracy in Nigeria. Their disappointment emanates from their perception that the evils which they fought against during the military era still persist, and that some of the enemies of democracy who allied with the military are the ones paraded as heroes of democracy today while guerrilla journalists pale into oblivion. The disappointment is not helped by the financial and other difficulties facing some of these journalists. They have thus retained some of the old adversarial journalism methods. While some hoped that the Nigerian democracy would stabilise, others thought the solution to the Nigerian problem lay in some drastic events such as a revolution. The paper discusses the implications of this for the practice and study of the media and democracy in Nigeria.
Nigerian mass media representation of women in agriculture and agribusiness: a case of status mis-conferral
(2006) Ojebode, A.
The study set out to examine the extent of the coverage given by the mass media to women in agriculture and agribusiness in view of statistics indicating that women constitute an overwhelming proportion of the people in that sector. Based in Nigeria, the study analysed the content of 282 stories on the agricultural pages of two selected national newspapers, 187 pictures illustrating some of the stories and 48 agricultural broadcasts from two radio stations. The study revealed that though in reality women formed about 80% of the labour force in agriculture, less than 20% of the people featured in mass media content on agriculture were women. In all sections of the agriculture sector, even in trading, women are portrayed as being in the minority. The study concluded that the mass media, in exact opposition to what obtained in reality, conferred on the men the status of the major operators in the agricultural sector and on women the status of the insignificant minority. In other words, the status of active role players rightfully deserved by women was given men and vice-versa, hence the term status misconferral. Advancing likely reasons for this, the paper proposes policy adjustments that could be made to correct the situation.
Nigerian silent majorities
(2009) Ojebode, A.; Akinleye, L.
"In the clamour for a new world information and communication order (NWICO), extensive scholarly attention has been given to international disparities and their effects. But national and domestic issues have only been mentioned, when at all, in passing. This article attempts to investigate the possibility of there being a domestic dimension to the world imbalance. The daily news bulletins of four Nigerian broadcast stations were monitored for three months and analysed. The result shows that a very minute proportion of news (7.1%) deals with rural areas and rural issues. Even this little fraction is one-way information to and not from rural people. About one-third of the rural news is decontextualised. All these point to the need to tackle the quest for a new order on the home front as well. "
Overview of theory and research in communication and language arts
(Ibadan University Press, Ibadan, 2019) Ojebode, A.; Oladapo, O. A.; Oyedele, O. J.; Adegoke, L. A.; Elegbe, O.