ABSTRACT
There is a common saying with regards to mass media
control in Nigeria and elsewhere, which has become a cliché, that “He who pays
the piper dictates the tune”. This
means that the owners of a mass media channel controls what the medium
broadcasts and how it broadcasts it. This research aims at examining the extent
at which broadcast media are used as propaganda machinery by state government
using Lagos State Television, Lagos as a case. Survey research method was
adopted in this research coupled with questionnaire as research instrument. A
total of 150 questionnaires were printed and distributed within Lagos state and
particularly in LTV and out of 150 administered 140 copies of questionnaires
were returned. Frequency and percentage of data analysis was used in analyzing
the collected data.Opposition groups do not have access to state broadcasting
media in terms of covering their activities and programmes especially during
the electioneering period. Also, it was established that state government
involvement in censoring the contents and outputs of the state broadcast media
is high. Similarly, many of the respondents preferred
private broadcast media to state broadcasting programmes because LTV is not
friendly to state government’s opposition groups. It is recommended that journalists
working in state government owned media stations should realize that they are
serving the public and not the state chief executive alone, and so must pay
adequate attention to social responsibility principle of the press while state
government should always press professionals to do their job without fair or
sanction.
