Resultant Spectral Imagery

The researcher adopted one instrument of quantitative research method: questionnaire; and two instruments of qualitative research method: In-depth Interview and Participant Observation as data collection instruments for this study. They are the preferred data collection procedures for the study based on the research objectives. One of the main advantages of combining participation observation with In-depth Interview is that it allows the researcher to develop a comprehensive picture of the interviewee's backgrounds, attitudes, and actions on their own terms (Schutt 2009). On the other hand, the secondary data were compiled from several sources, including books, journals, conference papers, websites, papers, magazines, internet and official publications.

3.4.1 Quantitative Design- Survey

To generate quantitative data on new media technology use pattern in newsrooms in broadcast stations in South East, Nigeria, the survey research methodology was used. The sample for this research design constitutes of broadcast practitioners working in the newsrooms in selected radio and TV stations.

Nine broadcast stations were purposively chosen to stand for the entire population of broadcast stations in the South East, Nigeria. Two stations comprising one government-owned and one privately owned station each were taken from each of the four states of Enugu, Anambra, Imo, and Abia totalling eight stations. But one government broadcast station was selected from Ebonyi state because at that point there was no licensed private radio station in the state and this resulted in the number of selected station been nine. The selected nine stations had a sum of 215 newsroom staff that were studied in a census study. This decision was taken because the size is manageable for a work of this kind and grounded on the demand for thorough research. The selected nine stations were Madonna FM, Okija; Anambra State Broadcasting Service (ABS) Anambra; Dream FM, Enugu; Enugu State Broadcasting Service (ESBS), Enugu; Hot FM, Owerri; Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), Owerri;

Rhema FM, Aba; Broadcasting Corporation of Abia (BCA), Umuahia, Abia State; and Ebonyi Broadcasting Corporation (EBBC), Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.

3.4.1.1 Measurable Variables

The questions contained in the questionnaire design were grouped into different divisions based on some of the theoretical issues identified in the survey. Most of the questions except for a few open-ended and some multi-choice ones were close-open-ended on a five-point likert scale. The independent variables included gender, age, social status, qualification, nationality, number of years on the job and marital condition. Some of the dependent variables measured included:

1. Broadcast media use of a particular new media technology that was measured by the type of technology available in the station; the ability of the practitioners to utilize a particular technology at the workplace and, the usefulness of technology to the news business.

2. Media practitioners' extent of use of new media technologies in broadcast media houses in South East, Nigeria that was measured by the regularity of use of new media technology at the workplace; and new media technology extent of importance in news production.

3. Media practitioner’s usage pattern of new media technology that was measured by the level of use of the new media technology in the news and editorial processes; and the dominant features of new media technology that enables its use in the newsroom.

4. Media practitioners' most popularly used new media technology platform that was measured by the extent of the trendiness of new media technology; the most preferred social media platform for

news business; extent of use of User Generated Content (UGC) in news production; and, level of use of news blogs in the news business by the selected stations.

5. Factors affecting media practitioners' use of new media technologies that was measured by types of hindrances encountered during use of new media technologies in the workplace; and the degree of importance placed on the utilization of new media technologies by the individual practitioners.

6. The disposition of media practitioners towards the use of new media technologies that was measured by the level of compatibility between the media practitioners and new media technologies, and media practitioners level of positive disposition towards the use of new media technologies in selected newsrooms.

3.4.2 Qualitative Design: In-Depth Interview

In-depth interview, which is a qualitative research method, was employed as a methodology in the study. In-depth Interview was used to effectively investigate the use pattern of new media technologies in each newsroom in South East, Nigeria. The choice of interviewees was done in the selected broadcast stations in South East Nigeria. One respondent each was purposively chosen from each station for an equal representation in the selected area. Thus, an aggregate of nine respondents constituted the sample size of this methodology. The selected stations are Dream FM, Enugu; Enugu State Broadcasting Service, Enugu; Madonna FM, Okija, Anambra; Anambra Broadcasting Service;

Imo Broadcasting Corporation, Owerri; Hot FM, Owerri; Broadcasting Corporation of Abia; Rhema FM, Aba, and Ebonyi Broadcasting Corporation. The selected sample size constituted of the senior staff members and heads of various news departments whom the researcher deemed fit to answer the research questions.

The data collection method used for this was a lot of open-ended questions administered using aide-memoire in an unstructured form to each of the nine respondents in the selected nine stations at different points during the study. The researcher visited each station to seek consent and book appointments with them prior to the actual study period. The tape recorder was used to record the interviews assisted by jotting on paper by the researcher and the responses were later transcribed. The major themes in the aide-memoire structure for the interview centered on the type of broadcasting operations in the station; the most used new media technology; the extent of use of such technology;

the type of popularly used new media technology; the factors affecting use of new media technologies in selected stations and; the level of disposition of the media practitioners in each station towards the use of new media technologies. All these subjects provided data that answered research questions 1, 4, 5 and 6 formulated for the study. An aide-memoire structure (Minichiello, Rosalie, Eric, & Loris, 1995) was used to direct the researcher in the course of the interview on the objectives of the study so as to produce more consistent and structured data across different interviewees.

3.4.3 Qualitative Design- Observation

Participant Observation, a qualitative method was applied to study the newsrooms of the selected stations in South East, Nigeria. This methodology was selected in order to discover the manner media practitioners in selected newsrooms use new media technologies and to reveal the extent of this use.

This methodology was deemed appropriate in this study so as to complement the data received from the survey and In-depth interview. The researcher thus used participant observation method to observe newsrooms activities in the selected stations for a period of three months. The nine stations studied through In-depth Interview were also selected for the observations. The selected stations are Dream FM, Enugu; Enugu State Broadcasting Service, Enugu; Madonna FM, Okija, Anambra; Anambra Broadcasting Service; Imo Broadcasting Corporation, Owerri; Hot FM, Owerri; Broadcasting Corporation of Abia; Rhema FM, Aba, and Ebonyi Broadcasting Corporation. The nine stations were purposively selected from each of the five states based on the criteria mentioned earlier in section 3.3 (sample and sample procedure), and their newsrooms activities observed for a period of seven days for each station. The researcher kept records of each observation day in an Observation Diary. The observation was done for seven days in each newsroom with an adequate concentration on the newsroom, editing room, news studio, across the broadcast stations and technical/control rooms of every broadcast station. The observation method provided additional data used in substantiating research questions 1, 2, 3 and 4 with the added advantage of discovering the extent and differential in new media technology use in each station in the South East.