3.3 Analysis
3.3.1 Defining Active Faults Using Alignments of Similar Focal Planes
1.0 Introduction 2.0 Objectives 3.0 Main Content
3.1 Media Departmentalisation
3.2 Departments in Print Media Organisation 3.3 Departments in Broadcast Media Organisation 4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-Marked Assignment 7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0 INTRODUCTION
News by its very nature is time-bound. Any delay in getting it to the public as fast as possible makes it stale. This peculiar nature has made the job of media men very demanding. To meet up with the demand, media organisations usually divide their jobs into units, segments or departments where each job is handled by specialists that are best fitted for it. This unit examines those units or departments in media organisations, the persons that work there and the kinds of jobs they do.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
discuss the various departments in media organisations (print and electronic)
discuss the nomenclatures of the persons that work in each department and the kind of jobs they do.
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 Media Departmentalisation
When we talk about media departmentalisation, we mean the various units or sub-units or divisions or segments in media organisations that function together to attain the organisational goals. Many people usually wonder how on earth it is possible for newspapers and magazines to turn out their publication judging from the volume of work that go in the production of every edition.
In the broadcast media, it is even more serious matter as timeliness is more of a necessity in radio and television. Be that as it may, the fact remains that this is made possible through the efforts of many professionals who work in several departments. Such persons may include but not limited to reporters, editors, engineers, artists craftsmen, administrators, etc. They work with the principles of division of labour in such a way that each job and departments are manned by persons that are best fitted for it. It is this division or grouping of media activities into sections division or units to achieve organisational goals that are referred to as media departmentalisation (Ogunsiji, 1989; Aina, 2002).
3.2 Departments in a Typical Nigeria Newspaper Organisation
A typical newspaper organisation has the editorial department, production department, advertisement department, circulation department, personnel and maintenance department and news and current affairs department.
Editorial department: This is the nerve centre of a newspaper organisation. The department is in charge of newsgathering; news processing and news packaging activities. The major officers include:
reporters, sub-editors, chief sub-editor, news editor, features editor, layout editor, editorial page editor, sports editor, picture editor, foreign page editor, women’s page editor and managing editor or editor-in-chief.
Others are Editor-in-chief, editors, editorial page editor, chief sub-editor, and news editors, etc.
Advertisement department: The adverts department is in charge of canvassing advertisements and the placement of advertisement in the newspaper. Of course, advertisement is the livewire of every newspaper organisation; as such the department is usually headed by an experienced advertisement manager who is a good salesperson.
The advertisement department is in charge of generating the money for the sustenance of the newspaper organisation. In other words, the department keeps the newspaper organisation running through the generation of income.
The advertisement manager heads this department. In a large organisation, two other individuals called the deputy advertisement manager and assistant advertisement manager assist him or her. Under these officers are numerous advertisement executives who canvass regularly for advertisements. There are also advertisement clerks who keep records of incoming advertisements.
Production department: This is another important department in a newspaper organisation. It has responsibility for typesetting news stories, doing the paste-up, making a plate for each page of the newspaper, and printing the newspaper.
Circulation department: The circulation department is in charge of ensuring that the newspaper gets to the hands of the readers. This department is very important because the circulation of a newspaper goes a long way in determining the amount of advertisements it gets.
The larger the circulation, the more advertisers will be willing to advertise in the paper.
Personnel and maintenance departments: These departments play another vital role in a newspaper organisation. They see to the existence and smooth-running of a newspaper organisation. The personnel department is responsible for the recruitment, discipline and firing of staff members. The maintenance department ensures that all the various component parts of the newspaper organisation are functioning and properly maintained so that organisational goals are attained. This department called administration department in some newspaper organisations. Where such is the case, it also houses the accounts and the public affairs sections.
3.3 Departments in the Broadcast Media
The following departments are available in most broadcast media organisations.
Programmes department: This department is sub-divided into two:
programmes and production sections. The programmes department is in charge of programming while the production unit is made up of producers who produce programmes and presenters that do the presentations. We also have cameramen, lighting men, audio/sound men, constructors and graphic transmission directors, audio mixers and vision mixers in the case of television.
News and current affairs department: This department sees to the generation and presentation of news items and current affairs material.
Engineering department: Here, we have the engineers and technicians that ensure that broadcast signals are transmitted to the audience.
Administrative department: This department sees to staff recruitment, training, promotions, firing, etc.
Marketing/commercial department: This department is in charge of income generation for the organisation.
Finance department: Sees to financial matters such as preparation of budgets and reconciliation of income and expenditure, etc.
4.0 CONCLUSION
In this unit, we have extensively discussed the departments in media organisations (print and broadcast). All these departments work hand in hand in the attainment of organisational goals.
5.0 SUMMARY
Our efforts in this unit have been to identify those key units, departments and individuals that keep media organisations existing.
Thus we have identified among others, the editorial department, commercials department, production department, programmes department, news and current affairs, administrations department, engineering, accounts, circulation, etc.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. What is media departmentalisation?2. Discuss extensively the various departments in both print and broadcast media, showing the persons involved and the kind of jobs they do.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Aina, S. (2002). Modern Media Management. Nigeria: Ebensun Publishers.
Ogunsiji, M.A. (1989). Introduction to Print Journalism. Lagos: Nelson Publishers.