AN ASSESSMENT OF INTERNET COMPLIANCE NEWS GATHERING BY JOURNALISTS IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
This study assessed internet compliance by journalists in news gathering in Southeast Nigeria. The technological determinism, the uses and gratification and the diffusion of innovation theories supported the work as theoretical frameworks. The study adopted two research designs- survey and interview. The population of the study comprised 665 registered Journalists in south-east Nigeria as estimated by the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) south-east chapter. A total sample size of 241 was drawn using the National Australian Calculator online version 20 (235 survey design and 6 interview design).A total of four research questions were raised and a structured questionnaire and an unstructured interview schedule were used to gather data. The reliability of the questionnaire instrument which showed a reliability coefficient of 0.9 was ascertained using the Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Data was analysed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 16.0. Tables, pie-charts and bar-charts were used to present the data. Findings showed that: (1)the extent of differences in journalists’ internet knowledge that is related to journalists’ work related internet compliance is significant,(2)the extent to which work-related factors such as type of media and journalistic activities are related to differences in internet compliance among journalists in south east Nigeria,(3)Journalists in the south east perceived the internet as useful to their journalistic tasks and this perceived utility influenced their compliance, and finally,(4) there was high internet availability and access among journalists in the southeast and that availability and access influenced journalists’ internet work related compliance. It was recommended that journalism departments in Nigeria would have to rethink the way journalism is being taught, since the internet knowledge and compliance would be a major requirement for practicing after class room training.