Core Success Factors

78 Proverbs: proverbs are widely used in oral societies and represent tribal wisdom and knowledge. For instance, Gabriel Dunia has published two volumes of his book titles (Ekpita Ivie, Proverbs of the Ibie People) containing well over 200 traditional proverbs and their meanings as used by the Ibie people¹⁸⁹ of Auchi. These proverbs serve as behavioural code and control, express folk humour as well as give practical advice. They centre on prudence in speech, the worth of hard work, the good in patience and perseverance as well as the values in dignity of name and honour.

Oral cultures emphasize the power in the spoken word, which has been downplayed or relegated by the written word. It gives identity and security that can include singing, dancing, theatre and play, and proves the power in the word. Florentino Hornedo, in his work on the Ivatan in the Northern Philippines, classified oral traditional into two; non-sung oral traditions, which would include riddles, proverbs, legends, tales and humorous anecdotes, jokes and tall stories and the sung oral traditions, which comprises working songs, lyric folk and other song types.

Means of communication which largely depended on the spoken language has undergone a radical change and a new dimension with the advent of the modern means of communication:

Radio, television, newspaper and internet. In this sense, communication can combine the various forms of communication, namely spoken, written, and virtual in one appliance. What may be missing is the non-verbal communication which is somewhat replaced by the use of icons, emoticons and smileys. Two examples of Newspaper and Internet shall be discussed next.

3.5 TWO MAJOR CONTEMPORARY MEANS OF MASS COMMUNICATION

79 In Asia, there are early traits of semblance of newspaper in the ordinary sense of the word.

For example, in China, early government-produced news sheets, called tipao, circulated among court officials during the late Han dynasty (second and third centuries AD). Between 713 and 734, the Kaiyuan Za Bao("Bulletin of the Court") of the Chinese Tang Dynasty published government news; it was handwritten on silk and read by government officials. In 1582 there was the first reference to privately published news sheets in Beijing, during the late Ming Dynasty.

In the later part of the 16^th century and particularly due to increased cross-border interaction especially in early modern Europe, there was the rising need for information. Consequently, in 1556, the government of Venice first published the monthly Notizie scritte (news writing). These were handwritten newsletters and used to convey political, military, and economic news quickly and efficiently to Italian cities (1500–1700) — sharing some characteristics of newspapers though usually not considered true newspapers.

However, none of these publications fully met the classical criteria for proper newspapers, as they were typically not intended for the general public and restricted to a certain range of topics.

Similarly, the German-language Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien, printed from 1605 onwards by Johann Carolus in Strasbourg, is often recognized as the first newspaper. At the time, Strasbourg was a free imperial city in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation; the first newspaper of modern Germany was the Avisa, published in 1609 in Wolfenbüttel.

A newspaper is a regularly scheduled publication containing news, information, and advertising, usually printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint.¹⁹⁰ By 2007 there were already 6, 580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a day. Newspapers typically meet four criteria: Publicity: Its contents are reasonably accessible to the public; Periodicity: It is published at regular intervals; Currency: Its information is up to date; and Universality: It covers a range of topics.

Most traditional newspapers also feature an editorial page containing editorials written by an editor and columns that express the personal opinions of writers. Contents of a newspaper may generally include editorial opinions, criticisms, persuasions, obituaries; entertainment

190 Wikipedia.org, 2014, „Newspaper“, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper#Definition. Accessed on 07.01.2014.

80 features such as crosswords, Sudoku and horoscopes; weather news and forecasts; advice, food; reviews of movies, plays and restaurants; classified adverts, editorial cartoons and comic strips. The newspaper is basically funded by paid subscriptions and advertising.

The history of newspaper in Nigerian dates back to 1859, when in Abeokuta Anglican Reverend Henry Townsend (1815-1886, from England) published ‘Iwe Iroyin fun Awon Ara Egba ati Yoruba’ (The Newspaper for the Egbas and Yorubas). The newspaper was the first to be published in what is now known as Nigeria. It was a bilingual newspaper since it was published both in Yoruba and English. This newspaper spearheaded the attack on slavery. In 1863, the second newspaper was published. It was edited by Scottish Robert Campbell (1829-1884) and was called ‘The Anglo African’. It carried both local and national news, while its editorials were dedicated to the appraisal of the problems of the time. The blossoming of the Nigeria Press started 17 years later in the exigencies of socio-political and economic activities. The first newspaper of this period was by Nigerian-born Andrew Thomas, who came out with ‘The Lagos Times’ on 10th November 1880. This bi-monthly newspaper was used to aggregate public opinion on topical issues. Fifteen months after, Blackall Benjamin began the publication of “The Lagos Observer”. This was followed closely by The Eagle, which made its debut on March 31, 1887. Nationalistic sentiments and struggle erupted with the establishment in 1906, of the colony and protectorate of Southern Nigeria as well as the reports of the amalgamation of North and South in 1914. This led to the emergence of the new set of Nigerian newspapers. Johnson Brothers started “The Nigerian Chronicle” in 1908, while Kukoyi Ajasa started “The Nigerian Pioneer”. He aroused a lot of criticism because his newspaper was seen as a mouthpiece of Fredrick Lugard’s administration. In 1926, the Nigerian Printing and Publishing Company started “Nigerian Daily Times”. The first editor of Daily Times was Ernest Okoli whose newspaper, “The African Messenger”, was taken over by the government due to its dwindling financial fortune. “The West African Pilot” of Dr.

Nnamdi Azikwe later joined in 1936 and this brought about an increase in nationalistic consciousness. Its news reports were mainly anti-colonialism and it championed nationalist struggles. Chief Obafemi Awolowo established “The Nigerian Tribune” in 1946. The newspaper strengthened the anti-colonialism campaigns through its critical analysis of the problems of the time. However, in the present day Nigeria, a host of other newspapers are now in circulation. Some of these are: The Vanguard Newspaper, The National Concord, The Punch, This day, Comet Newspaper, Daily Sketch, The Monitor, Alaroye, The Guardian, The

81 Post Express, among others.¹⁹¹

In Nigeria, the newspaper industry has witnessed tremendous changes over the last decades.

Between 1859 when the first newspaper, “Iwe Irohin”, was published in Abeokuta and 2009, Nigeria had on its newsstand, in the intervening period of a hundred and fifty years, 103 newspapers and 59 magazines. Of course, the figure is not static. While some of the titles are still surviving and indeed thriving many more have been rested. Prominent among the titles that have weathered the storm are The Tribune, The Punch, The Guardian and The Vanguard group of newspapers. However, a notable feature of newspaper publication in Nigeria is the relative ease with which many of the titles go into oblivion. For instance, of the 103 newspapers that were mentioned above, less than ten survived for more than two decades. A combination factors no doubt account for this. Prominent among these are the nature of ownership, economic, political, social and even technological developments.¹⁹²

Traditionally, investment and growth in the newspaper sector has been sporadic. One reason is the tradition in Nigeria of the media being used as a political tool, with some wealthy politicians feeling that ownership of a paper is a way of making their voices and political agendas heard. Once the agenda is thought to have been realised, or perhaps not realised, there is a tendency for such politicians to turn their backs on the paper, which is why some newspapers die off prematurely. Another linked problem has been that many papers are not run as businesses and are expected to turn a profit or break even; instead they are kept alive through the continued expenditure of their politician-owners. The advent of civilian rule and a more democratic dispensation appear to have changed this pattern of instability to some extent. There has been a growth in newspaper investment by ‘non-politician’ investors willing to put the money in and allow media professionals to work with a measure of independence.¹⁹³ Amongst the popular and most widely read national newspapers in Nigeria include, The Punch, The Daily Sun, The Guardian and The Vanguard amongst others.

191 Emmanuel Babalola, 2002, “Newspapers as Instruments for Building Literate Communities: The Nigerian Experience”, in: Nordic Journal of African Studies 11(3): (2002), pp.405-406. Online resource:

http://www.njas.helsinki.fi/pdf-files/vol11num3/babalola_02.pdf. Accessed on 21.02.2014.

192 John Bamidele Ige, 2013, “Imperative of Total Newspapering for Survival in Nigerian Newspaper Industry”, in: Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, vol. 2, No.8, March, p.88. Online Resource:

http://www.arabianjbmr.com/pdfs/OM_VOL_2_(8)/10.pdf. Accessed on 21.02.2014.

193 African Media Development Initiative, 2011, “Nigeria Context”,

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/pdf/AMDI/nigeria/amdi_nigeria7_newspapers.pdf. Accessed on 13.04.2011.

82 3.5.2 INTERNET

The internet today plays the double role of information gathering as well as a medium for self-expression, particularly for the younger generations. Simply defined, the Internet, derived from the word “internetwork”, is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (www) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail.¹⁹⁴.

Today, almost every other branch of media such as the telephone, television, Audio, newspapers use the internet. New forms of interactions have been formed and developed and advanced such as instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking.

The origin of the internet can be traced back to the 1960s when the United States military as well as some individuals undertook the research to develop a ‘fault-tolerant’ and distributed computer network. It was a technology whose advent by the US military was spurred by the USSR sputnik on October 4^th 1957, the first launch of the earth satellite. In reaction, the US department of defence established on 7^th February, 1958 the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) in order to regain technological lead. It became popularised in the 1990s when it was commercialised. As at 2009 an estimated quarter of the earth’s population use the internet.¹⁹⁵

However, the reality is that internet in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular is still on the low side. In 2013, only 15.6% of Africa’s 1billion population had access to internet. And Africa constitutes only 7% of the world internet users.¹⁹⁶

Inspite of the growth of the use of internet in Africa, she still lags behind other continents in the number of users. These can be attributed principally to the challenges still facing Africa such as absence of requisite infrastructure (telephones, computers and electricity), lack of

194 Wikipedia.org, 2015, “Internet”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet. Accessed on 07.10.2013

195 Ibid.

196 Internet World Stats, 2013, “Internet Users in Africa-2014”, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm.

Accessed 07.10.2013.

83 training, low incomes, high costs of connectivity¹⁹⁷, illiteracy and lack of commitment on the parts of African governments to invest in this sector. Table below gives a summary of internet penetration in Africa and the rest of the world.

Table 2: Internet Usage Statistics for Africa

INTERNET USERS AND POPULATION STATISTICS FOR AFRICA

AFRICA REGION

Population (2012 Est.)

Pop. % of World

Internet Users, 30-June-2012

Penetration (%

Population)

Internet

% Users

Facebook

31-Dec-2012

Total for Africa 1,073,380,925 15.3 % 167,335,676 15.6 % 7.0 % 51,612,460

Rest of World 5,944,465,997 84.7 % 2,238,182,700 37.7 % 93.0 % 924,331,500

WORLD

TOTAL 7,017,846,922 100.0

% 2,405,518,376 34.3 % 100.0 % 975,943,960

Source: Internet World Stats¹⁹⁸

In Nigeria, there are 48,366,179 internet users, which is 28.4% of its population (170,123,740) and that is 21.8% growth rate compared to only 200, 000 as at the year 2000AD. Nigeria alone represents 28.9% of all the internet users in the entire continent of Africa.¹⁹⁹

Nigeria, in recent years has overtaken Egypt as the country in Africa with the greatest population of internet users of 48million.Others are (in million): Egypt(30), Morocco (17), Kenya (12), South Africa (9), Sudan (7), Tanzania (6), Algeria (5), Uganda (4.4) and Tunisia (4.2).²⁰⁰

197 The average cost of internet connectivity in Africa varies from country to country but in Nigeria, for example, the monthly cost would be put at 50€ (N10,000, Nigerian Naira), , while a one hour use of a cyber café will cost between 0.50€ and 1€ (N100-N200, Nigerian Naira). This is far too expensive for the average Nigerian who lives on less than €2(N400, Nigerian Naira) a day.

198 Internet World Stats, 2013, “Internet Users in Africa-2014”, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm.

Accessed 07.10.2013.

199 Internet World Stats, 2013, “Internet Users in Africa-2014”, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm.

Accessed 07.10.2013.

200 Ibid.

84 Nigeria’s high presence in internet could be attributed, in part, to the fact that more than 50%

of Nigeria’s population is young as shown below.

Age structure of Nigerians as at 2012:

0-14 years: 43.9% (male 38,232,053/female 36,483,243), 15-24 years: 19.3% (male 16,757,436/female 16,018,589), 25-54 years: 30% (male 25,123,834/female 25,945,571), 55-64 years: 3.8% (male 2,981,187/female 3,520,154), 65 years and over: 3% (male 2,325,682/female 2,735,991).²⁰¹

However, it is worth noting that although there are more Nigerians using the internet, the number of Egyptians (12,173,540million) using the social network site “Facebook" doubles those of Nigeria with 6,630,200million users, an indication that the Egyptians have greater interests in social-networking than Nigerians.²⁰²

The Internet, unlike other media of communications, is hardly defined by place. In other words, questions such as: Where is the internet ‘published’? Who is the CEO of the ‘Internet Company’?, could be asked. But simply, the internet is available to everyone with the correct hardware and connection. Although, one may need connection, one does not need access. As Steve Jones puts it, “the internet is not in one place more than it is in another. Where a piece of information is when it is on the internet is a little hard to describe. It is on some computer somewhere (maybe even on one’s own), but it is available anywhere the internet is.”²⁰³

Thus access to the internet and its contents are without charge, which makes its regulation quite different from that of its counterpart, Print and electronic media such as Television and Radio, for example. In short, the collapse of distance between the source and the receiver is unique to human experience and creates a setting in which consensus on issues in relation to ownership is difficult to achieve. The table below gives a comparative overview of Nigeria’s Media accessibility and consumption.

201 Index Mundi, 2013, “Nigeria Age Structure”, http://www.indexmundi.com/nigeria/age_structure.html.

Accessed 14.11.2013.

202 Ibid.

203 Steve Jones (Ed.), 1999, Doing Internet Research: Critical Issues and Methods for Examining the Net, London, p. xxiii.

85 Table 3: Overview of Nigeria’s Media accessibility and consumption.

Source²⁰⁴: Press Reference.com.