1

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my parent, Professor Raufu Adebiyi Adebisi and Hajia

Kudirat Ibrahim Adebisi, you both are shinning stars in my life and have

contributed in no small measure to my success. Mere words are not enough to

express my sincere appreciation. May Allah bless and protect you.

2

Acknowledgement

I thank the Almighty Allah (SWT) the most beneficent, the most merciful for

giving me the health, wisdom and wherewithal to write this book.

My foremost acknowledgement goes to my supervisors Dr. S. Salau and Alhaji

R.A.A. Shittu, who despite their busy schedule found time to go through my drafts

patiently, masterly and thoroughly.

I am immensely grateful to Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, Hajia Raheemat

Oloyede and Professor Mojisola Oduola for their support, encouragement and

prayers in ensuring I finish this work.

Special thanks to my loving husband, Jamil Salau, who is instrumental in so many

ways to my progress in life. Your ever friendly disposition and love restored my

confidence in this task and made some difficult times bearable. Thank you for

being everything and more.

The impact of my wonderful siblings, Lukman, Hafis, Rukkayat and Suleiman,

who have always been part of the struggle throughout most of my life is

discernible. Thank you for your support and words of encouragement through it

all. May God bless you all.

My profound gratitude goes to my in-laws Aunty Maryam, Aunty Saratu, Uncle

Salman, Uncle Sadiq, Usman, Suleiman (jr) and Halima. Also very important is

Hajia Magajiya Balarabe for her usual advise, succor and motivation.

My sincere appreciation also goes to my lecturers Madam L.S. Adamu, Dr. Shola

Adeyanju, Dr. Mahmud Umar, Dr. John Okpoko, Mr Cosmos Eze, Mr Ibrahim

Jimoh, and all other lecturers in the department for providing me the requisite

knowledge that got me this far.

3

I am grateful to all staff of The Department of Mass Communication, University of

Ilorin, especially, the immediate past Head of Department (HOD), Dr. A.L. Azeez

and Mr Razaq Adisa for encouraging me towards this special task.

I also acknowledge all the authors from whom I drew inspiration and whose works

were cited in this book. There are so many of them that I cannot mention in this

brief acknowledgement. However, they all have been appropriately noted in my

reference.

Finally, I appreciate all those who may have contributed to the making of this book

either directly or remotely and who I have omitted in this acknowledgement.

Thank you all.

4

5

Table of Contents

Contents

Dedication……………………………………………………………1

Acknowledgement…………………………………………………..2

Table of contents…………………………………………………….5

List of Figure………………………………………………………..8

List of Tables………………………………………………………..9

List of Appendix…………………………………………………….10

Definition of Key Terms……………………………………………11

Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Introduction………………………………………………….13

1.2 Background to the Work……………………………………15

1.3 Statement of Problem………………………………………..16

1.4 Research Questions…………………………………………...18

1.5 Objectives of the Work………………………………………..18

1.6 Significance of the Work………………………………………19

1.7 Delimitation of the Work………………………………………19

1.8 Limitations of the Work..………………………………………19

6

Chapter Two: Literature Review

2.1 Introduction………………………….……………………21

2.2 Concept of ICT/ New Media………………………………22

2.3 The Digital Revolution…………………………..………..23

2.4 Communication Context…………………………………..26

2.5 Mobile Media (“Third Screen”)……………………………28

2.6 The Evolution of Mobile Telephone System………………29

2.7 Global System for Mobile Communication………………..32

2.8 Overview of Nigeria’s Telecommunication Sector…………34

2.9 Short Message Service/ Text Messaging …………………...41

2.10 News………………………………………………………….51

2.11 Theoretical Framework ………………………………………56

Chapter Three: Methodology

3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………62

3.2 Research Design…………………………………..……………62

3.3 Method of Data Collection.…………………………………….62

3.4 Instrument for Data Collection…………………………………63

3.5 Study Variables…………………………………………………..64

3.6 Population of the Study………………………………………….65

7

3.7 Area of the Study………………………………………………..65

3.8 Sampling Technique…………………………………………….67

3.9 Sample Size ……………….…………………………………….67

3.10 Validity and Reliability………………………………………….69

3.11 Data Analysis Technique……………………………………….70

Chapter Four: Data Analysis, Presentation and Discussion of Findings

4.1 Introduction……………………………………………………..71

4.2 Data Analysis……………………………………………………71

4.3 Discussion of Findings…………………………………………..79

4.4 Perspectives of students on using Text Messages for

Political News Dissemination……………….……………………82

Chapter Five: Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Summary …………………………………………………………..85

5.2 Conclusion………………………………………………………….86

5.3 Recommendations from the Study………………………………….87

5.4 Recommendations for Further Studies…………………………….89

References………………………………………………………………..90

Appendix 1……………………………………………………………….99

8

List of Figure

Figure

1. Illustration of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) ……58

9

List of Tables

Tables

1. Sex of Respondents………………………………………..…………71

2. Age of Respondents ……………………………………………….....72

3. Respondents’ Response on Ownership/Access to GSM set……..…..72

4. Respondents’ form of ownership of /access to GSM set……….……73

5. Respondents accessibility to GSM……………………………………73

6. Responses on reading, listening to or watching traditional mass

media…………………………………………………………..……….74

7. Responses on frequency of reading, listening to or watching

traditional mass media ……………………………………………. 74

8. Responses on where respondents get their news from…………… 75

9. Reponses on awareness of news through GSM text messages…….. 76

10. Responses on reception of GSM text messages containing political

news…………………………………………………………………….77

11. Respondents’ opinion on using GSM text messages to transmit

news…………………………………………………………..……..…..78

12. Responses on preference for source of political news………………….78

10

List of Appendix

Appendix

1. Questionnaire……………………………………………………….99

11

Definition of Key Terms

The following terms have been defined based on their usage in the book:

1. Students- These are youths between the age of 18 to 35 years in tertiary

institutions in Zaria and Ilorin

2. Use- The different activities students employ GSM text messages for.

3. Text messages – Also known as Short Message Service (SMS). These are

alphanumeric political message about any political activity in Nigeria received via

a mobile phone including how news is delivered to audience using the GSM

mobile platform.

4. Political news – These are hard and serious news about any political event,

person or party in the country. They are news relating to civic administration or

government and not text messages of political advertisement by politicians

canvassing for votes.

5. News channel- This is the platform upon which youths get their information

about current events from.

6. Levels of access- This is the amount of opportunity youths have to a source or

channel of information.

7. Traditional news sources- these are the old media of mass communication

which were in existence before the proliferation of the new media. Examples of

these traditional news sources are television, newspapers, radio, magazines and so

forth.

12

8. Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM)- This is the mobile phone

service used by youths to receive text messages as well as the physical mobile

phone itself.

13

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1 Introduction

The emergence of new communication technologies heralds a new era in

communication of all kinds. However, uncertainty and speculation still surround

their potentials and the nature of their impact. Questions and arguments abound as

to whether these new technologies hold positive or negative consequences for

human society.

These questions are particularly of interest to the field of mass communication

because it has always required technology to broaden its reach and expand its

influence. From primitive to modern societies, the story of mass communication

has been that of changes brought by improvements in technology (Mbachu, 2003).

These new technologies have revolutionized information gathering, processing,

storage, retrieval and transmission, making information available ever more

widely, rapidly and less expensive. They have direct impact on the manner in

which the media receive their information, prepare it and distribute it globally. The

Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) is one of these technologies.

GSM came to Nigeria in January 2001 shortly after Olusegun Obasanjo was voted

into power as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This marked a

watershed in the history of communications in the country. Since this experience,

which is popularly referred to as the “GSM Revolution”, mobile phones have

become a popular interactive technology in Nigeria, offering both young and old

opportunities to communicate through voice and text messages. However, inspite

of the fact that voice calls are common, text messaging has become a popular

14

means of communication because it is cost effective and it affords the users the

opportunity to define themselves stylistically in this novel context (Taiwo, 2010).

Text messaging, also known as Short Message Service or SMS for short, is one of

the subscriber services offered by the GSM operators. Branston and Stafford

(2006) point out that SMS is a service available on most digital mobile phones that

permits the sending of short messages between mobile phones, other handheld

devices and even landline telephones. It was originally designed as part of the

GSM digital mobile phone standard, but now available on a wide range of

networks, including 3G networks.

Ganiyu and Akinreti (2011) citing Drugmore claims “…the bedrock of mobile

media technology in Africa today is the Short Message Service (SMS). This can be

seen in Nigeria where, already, some newspapers are offering services via the

SMS” (p.132). Possibly, the introduction of mobile news might be considered as

one of the most innovative techniques to increase news dissemination especially to

students; however its use has not been fully explored.

Notably, the process of newsgathering and reporting has changed all over the

world because of innovations in technology. GSM is the latest communication

technology that has shaped and is still shaping the process of news gathering and

reporting under the current democratic dispensation in the country (Popoola,

2003). Thus as noted by Wilson and Gapsiso (2009), it is obvious that mobile

phone and other ICTs have transformed information gathering, processing and

dissemination. However, some of these technologies like the internet and

sophisticated mobile phones are relatively new dimension of information gathering

and dissemination especially in a developing country like Nigeria where these

technologies have not gained ground as it has in developed countries like the USA,

15

Britain, Germany, and France etc. It is in line with this, that this book looked at the

use of text messages as a means of disseminating political news to students in

Zaria and Ilorin. It also surveyed their opinions and examined their responses to

issues pertaining to this work.

1.2 Background to the Work

Throughout history, telecommunications have had transforming effects on the

people who use them and the societies in which they live. The story of the

infrastructure is the story of how great civilizations create the means to

communicate at a distance- the essence of telecommunication. Efforts to overcome

the limitations of the early phones led to inventions that make telecommunications

possible today (Adamu, 2011).

Accordingly, the telephone, since its invention, has always been a useful tool for

the journalist. Even in the days, when it could only be found in offices or in a few

elite homes, it was an important feature of any newsroom, which journalists used

to not only file and receive stories, but also to get in touch with contacts, or to get

tips from contacts who would phone in to the newsroom with important news tips

or breaking stories (Ganiyu & Akinreti, 2011).

However, the advent of mobile phone has revolutionized not only how journalists

use the telephone to get news but also how media audiences receive or access the

news. Today, the mobile phone is a multimedia tool used for multimedia and

online journalism. It is no longer a simple mechanism for sending and receiving

voice messages as the fixed landline. Just as you can receive and send voice, text

and data on mobile phones, so also has it uses changed in journalism.

These changes are important as perceived in some statements like one made by

Vartan Gregorian, the President Carnegie Corporation of New York. He discerns

16

that journalism has come to a crossroad, a time in history when it cannot continue

as it was. There are too many new ways now that news is delivered and so much

information being communicated (Brown, 2006). Thus, there is an aching need for

journalists to use new approaches to news distribution in Nigeria, especially to

students. Text messages are believed to be one of these new approaches.

Students have been known to break away from conventional practices in society

and SMS breaks away from the conventional means of news transmission available

in Nigeria today. However, an outright assumption that they will embrace SMS as

a new channel of political news dissemination will be erroneous. Hence, this work

looked at the acceptability of this new phenomenon by students.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

According to Brown (2006), the practice of journalism is changing in ways that

challenge the historic function of the news business and raise fundamental

questions about the practice of the profession in future. He maintains:

There is a dramatic revolution taking place in the newsbusiness today and it isn’t about TV anchor changes, scandals at storied newspapers or embedded reporters. The future course of news, including the basicassumptions about how we consume news andinformation and make decisions in a democratic societyare being altered by technology –perceptive youngpeople no longer wedded to traditional news outlets oreven accessing news in traditional ways (Brown 2006,pp.42-55)

In line with Brown’s statement, Mindich (2004) explained that, what has changed

is that young people globally no longer see a need to keep up with the news. In

short, the future of the news industry is threatened by the movement of young

17

people away from traditional sources of news. This is evident in a survey of youths

launched by Carnegie Corporation of New York and carried out by Frank N.

Magid Associates in May 2004. The goal was to assess where youths get their

news today and how they think they will access news in the future. One of the

major findings of the survey of news-related habits of the demographic age of

youths is that there are fundamental changes driven by technology and market

forces. Data indicate that this segment of the population intends to continue to

increase their use of the internet/ new media as a primary news source in the

coming years. Newspapers and national television broadcast news fared poorly

with the youths (Connell, 2006). Though the scenarios above might seem dated,

there are strong indications this trend is still the same today.

The survey above is just one out of many examples of research that show the

seeming lack of interest in traditional news sources by youths. Hence, given this

state of affairs with the negative consequences on political awareness of youths

and widespread availability of GSM, a research on the viability of text messaging

as a source of news to students in Zaria and Ilorin is important. This necessitates a

work of this nature. This work therefore seeks to know the acceptability of text

messages for news dissemination to students, as well as to investigate the extent of

interest if there is still any in traditional mass media in this part of the world

because these group of people who are also the leaders of tomorrow need to be

aware of political matters in the country. Students were chosen for this work

because they are known to accept new technological ideas in society quickly and

GSM text messages are one of such. In agreement, Elvis (2009) asserts that mobile

phone SMS service has developed rapidly since its introduction and is very popular

throughout the world, especially amongst young urbanites as it allows for voiceless

communication, useful in noisy environments.

18

These young urbanites are mostly students. Thus, at the end of the work, it is

expected that the acceptability of text messages as a political news channel by

students will be determined.

1.4 Research Questions

a. What are the levels of access to mobile phones by students in Zaria and

Ilorin?

b. What are the sources of news for students in Zaria and Ilorin?

c. What is the attitude of students to traditional mass media sources of news?

d. Are students aware of GSM text messages as a channel of news?

e. What is the opinion of students on use of text messages as a channel of

political news?

1.5 Objectives of the Work

The study has the following objectives:

a. To find out the use of text messages as a news channel to students in Zaria

and Ilorin.

b. To determine the acceptability of text messages as a political news channel

to students in Zaria and Ilorin.

c. To ascertain if students in Zaria and Ilorin have access to mobile phones.

d. To know the opinion of students in Zaria and Ilorin on news dissemination

through text messages.

e. To examine the uses of text messages as a channel of political news to

students in Zaria and Ilorin.

19

1.6 Significance of the Work

Many books like this focuses on how journalists can explore the use of GSM for

news dissemination. However, this work looks at its uses from the perspective of

the audience, with particular reference to students in Zaria and Ilorin. Hence, this

book will be of importance to media organizations by enabling practitioners know

if text messages will be useful tools for political news dissemination to students

and if so, they could possibly think of how these uses can best be explored.

Also the book is of importance because, like every academic work, it seeks to add

to existing body of knowledge by providing relevant literature for researchers who

may want to carry out related studies and also showing data on receivers’ (youths)

perspectives of this form of news dissemination.

1.7 Delimitation/Scope of the Work

This work covered 300 students of selected tertiary institutions in Zaria and Ilorin

metropolis in Kaduna and Kwara States respectively. In addition, it was limited to

only the text message service offered by GSM.

1.8 Limitations of the Work

A major limitation of this work was that, the researcher and the research assistants

had to take time to explain to a lot of respondents the difference between text

messages containing a political news item (which is the focus of this work) and

text messages containing political advertisement which is becoming a trend in

Nigeria in recent times.

In addition, although the culture of texting is thriving among young Nigerians,

scholarly hardcopy publications on the use of text messaging in Nigeria are still

20

few and far between, thus posing a major challenge for the researcher in terms of

accessing Nigerian based literature to be reviewed for this book.

Furthermore, the fact that respondents for this work were not located in the same

state but in two different states also posed a major challenge due to the fact that the

researcher had to travel to both states to administer the questionnaires.

21

Chapter Two

Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are generally perceived as

basic tools for making and sustaining relevance in modern society. Their

unprecedented impact today has left every profession exploring ways to

appropriately use them in their various professional endeavours. Journalists, like

other professionals have found mobile phones and other ICTs relevant for their

professional practices of information gathering, processing and dissemination

(Wilson & Gapsiso, 2009).

The mobile phone is one of the numerous ICTs breakthroughs in Nigeria. A mobile

phone (also known as cell phone, wireless phone or cellular telephone) is a short

range, electronic device used for mobile voice or data communication over a

network of specialized base stations known as cell sites. In Nigeria, these mobile

phones are popularly called Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM).

However, GSM is the globally accepted standard for digital cellular

communication (http://www.iec.org). It is the name of a standardization group

established in 1982 to create a common European mobile telephone standard that

would formulate specifications for a pan-European mobile cellular radio system

operating at 900MHz.

Today GSM is popular globally. Acknowledging this fact, Jain (as cited in Wilson

& Gapsiso, 2009) writes, “the mobile phone is rapidly becoming an important

device- the one device that seems to have it all and likely to become even more

indispensable than it is now” (p.106). This could be due to the numerous services it

offers to subscribers. In addition to the standard voice function of a mobile phone,

current mobile phones may support many additional services and accessories, such

22

as Short Message Service (SMS) for texting, email, packet switching for access to

the internet, gaming, bluetooth, infrared, camera with video recorder and

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) for sending and receiving photos and

videos.

2.2 Concept of ICT/ New Media

The idea of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become quite

pervasive in modern society. The world is now powered by unprecedented ICTs,

advances that have brought changes and increasing competition amongst nations

and corporations and it is influencing people’s lives in various ways. According to

Wilson and Gapsiso (2009), the growing digitization of global activities has left

every profession striving for relevance in today’s wired world. Professionals have

found ICTs suitable for use in enhancing practices in their fields of endeavour.

ICTs are generally perceived as the basic tools for survival in modern society. The

extent of their availability and use, as well as their impact on journalism practice

has continued to be of interest, as it has transformed and added challenges to the

profession.

The idea of New Information and Communication Technologies (NICTs) has to do

with the combination of telecommunication and computer technologies in relaying,

retrieving and storing information. It is the convergence of computer and

telecommunications technology. Gandy as cited in John (2007); Chile (2006) share

this meaning of NICTs when they noted, “…the marriage of computers and

telecommunication is the material force in the new technology of communication”

(p.64). ICTs refers to such gadgets as computers, internet, micro-processors, video

phones, facsimiles (fax), tele-text, digital broadcast systems, video discs, optic

fiber, satellites, micro wave, relay (transmission) system, transponders, digital

23

telephones, Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) among others.

These are scientific and technical- based gadgets, which support activities involved

in the creation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information; including their

methods of manipulation, management and application

ICTs are regarded as one of the greatest scientific and technological developments

in the world that have affected most profoundly, the activities of man. They are

said to be introducing us to new tools, which we will use in serving our ancient and

modern needs, as well as show us how to do it better. The field of mass media has

also been affected by the penetrating influence of ICTs. Without doubt, ICT has

affected the quality and quantity of news gathering and distribution.

NICTs have revolutionized the production, distribution and consumption of ideas,

information and entertainment (Ogar, 2009). They are an indispensable part of the

contemporary world. In fact, culture and society have to be adjusted to meet the

challenges of the knowledge age (Yusuf, 2005). As part of ICTs, mobile phones

are gradually taking hold in Nigeria as mobile phone telecommunications

companies compete for subscribers. They are seemingly present almost

everywhere in the country as Kombol (2009, p.44) notes, “Phone calls and text

messages can be sent and received even from remote villages”

2.3 The Digital Revolution

Digital technology, as defined by Dominick (2009, p. 68) is “…a system that

encodes information – sound , text, data, graphics, video- into a series of on-and-

off pulses that are usually denoted as zeros and ones. Once digitized, the

information can be duplicated easily and transported at extremely low cost.” This

is the revolution taking over the world today.

24

In his book Being Digital, as cited in Connell’s (2006) Journalism’s Crisis of

Confidence: A Challenge for the Next Generation. A Report of Carnegie

Corporation of New York, Nicholas Negroponte, Director of Massachusetts

Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Laboratory, summed up the digital revolution

as the difference between atoms and bits. A typical example is the difference

between traditional paper mail and a text message. In the traditional system, a letter

must be placed in an envelope with a postage stamp and given to the Postal

Service, whose employees sort it, transport it, and deliver it a few days later to the

recipient. A text message needs no paper, no postage, and no delivery by postal

carriers. It is a series of bit of information that travel electronically and is delivered

in seconds rather than days. With text messages, messages can be copied a

thousand times and sent to a thousand different people much more quickly and

cheaply than with paper mail. This digital revolution is also evident in cases where

traditional mass media like newspapers make use of the internet for their messages

rather than the conventional newspaper.

This shows that the digital revolution is having a profound impact on the mass

media. Now the traditional mass communication media are learning to exist in both

atoms and bits. Notably, this digital revolution is seen as a revolution for students.

However, this line of thought has changed. The digital revolution is no longer a

revolution for the students- it is their life. Access to powerful information

processing and storage tool is no longer earthshaking. Today’s students do most of

their research online, store their music and photos digitally, communicate via

instant message and e-mail, and entertain themselves with video games, digital TV,

iPods , and DVDs. Consequently replacing traditional mass media news

dissemination (atoms) with new mass media news disseminations (bits) to students

would not be out of place.

25

2.3.1 The New Media Migration: A Revolution in News and in Public

Discourse.

The dramatic shift in how young people access news raises a question about how

flow of information will interact in the years ahead. Not only is a large segment of

the population moving away from traditional news institutions, there has also been

an explosion of alternative news sources. Some have been assembled by traditional

news organizations delivering information in print, on television on the radio as

well as via the internet and mobile devices. Others include the thousands of blogs

created by journalists, activists and citizens at large.

International editors and publishers have warned that nontraditional

communications- such as cell phone text messages- are rapidly outflanking radio,

television, and print media because of their immediacy and proximity to the public.

(www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdewk/is_200405/ai_n9519940). Rodman

(2010) agrees “…headlines are now delivered to cell phones and handheld

computers through RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, each of which contains

a description and link to the related web page” (p.118).

Similarly, CBS News President, Andrew Heyward writes “...how news executives

today deal with the ways news is consumed, in the form of an image here, an

instant message there, a cell phone text message headline or a web portal story,

will say a great deal about the future of news as we know it”. Clearly, young

people do not want to rely on the morning paper on their doorsteps or the

dinnertime newscast for up-to-date information; in fact, they want their news when

it works for them (Connell, 2006).

26

The only conclusion to be reached after noting these trends is that no future

generation of new consumers will fit into earlier profiles since their expectations

and their habits have changed forever-and technology is a big part of this

transformation. Albeit, the distribution challenge only gets more complex with

time, but new means for reaching new audiences continue to develop. For instance,

different ways of a product reaching new audiences continue to develop, people

can watch programme from news or cable station on their cell phones made

available to them via cellular carriers.

Whether the industry is reacting fast enough to these dramatic changes is another

question altogether. “By and large, the major news companies are still turning a

blind eye to what is happening because it’s challenging and they need to consider

radical change,” says researcher Rusty Coats, Director of New Media at Minnesota

Opinion Research, Incorporated. (MORI). He suggests that maybe big papers

“need to own cellular services.”

2.4 Communication Context

There are three common communication contexts in mass communication. The

first and perhaps the most common situation is interpersonal communication, in

which one person (or group) is interacting with another person (or group) without

the aid of a mechanical device. The second, is the machine assisted interpersonal

communication which combines characteristics of both the interpersonal and mass

communication situations and the third major communication context is mass

communication which is the process by which a complex organization with the aid

of one or more machines produces and transmits public messages that are directed

at large, heterogeneous, and scattered audiences (Dominick, 2009). GSM belongs

to the machine assisted interpersonal communication setting.

27

2.4.1 Machine Assisted Interpersonal Communication/Technology Assisted

Communication.

This is a form of communication context which combines characteristics of both

the interpersonal and mass communication situations. In a machine-assisted

setting, one or more people are communicating by means of a mechanical device

(or devices) with one or more receivers. Examples of machine-assisted

communication are Public Address System (PAS), loudspeakers, Automated Teller

Machines (ATM), telephones, cell phones, hand speakers and so forth. According

to Dominick (2009), “one of the important characteristics of machine – assisted

interpersonal communication is that it allows the source and receiver not to be

separated by time and space. The machine can also extend the range of the

message by amplifying it and/or transmitting it over large distances”. (p.8) The

GSM for example, allows two people to converse even though they are hundreds,

even thousands, of miles apart.

The source of the machine-assisted setting can be a single person or a group or

people who may know the receiver or do not have firsthand knowledge of the

receiver. Messages vary widely in machine-assisted communication. They can be

tailor-made for the receiver or limited to a small number of predetermined

messages that cannot be altered once they are encoded. Messages in this setting

can be private or public and relatively cheap to produce. The receiver can be a

single person, a small group, or a large group (like students in Zaria and Ilorin).

Receivers can be in sight of the source or out of view. They can be selected by the

source (as with a phone call) or self- selects themselves into the audience.

Feedback can be immediate or delayed.

28

Of the three communication context, Dominick (2009, p.3) predicts, “in the future,

machine – assisted communication will become more important. New mobile

media, such as cell phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and laptop

computers, will become more and more popular and continue to expand the scope

and impact of personal communication”. This is one significant prediction upon

which this study derives its strength.

2.5 Mobile Media (“Third Screen”)

Communication via the media is not something new. Human beings have used

various technologies to preserve messages in time or send them over distance for

thousands of years. Despite their speed and audience size, today’s mass media

perform the same function as their more primitive predecessors. (Lawal, 2008)

However, much of modern mass communication involves people looking at

screens. For the past couple of decades, the two main screens have been the TV

screen and the desktop computer screen. Now a parade of small screens has joined

the lineup: the screen on a cell phones, Blackberry, androids, iPad, Personal Digital

Assistant (PDA), iPods or laptop computers. The emergence of these small screens

(also known as third screen) has encouraged the emergence of a new trend: Mass

Media have become increasingly mobile. Thus, Dominick (2009) observes:

The examples of this trend are everywhere. TVnetworks, magazines, and newspapers can sendtheir content to phones, PDAs, and laptops. Manycell phones and PDAs can access the internet. Laptops can connect to the internet without wires. Consumers can subscribe to services that send TVshows to their cell phones. Newer models candouble as MP3 Players. Individuals can downloadentire novels to their phone. The movies havebecome mobile as well. (p.24)

29

In Nigeria, the cell phone/GSM is the most popular of this new trend. It has gained

and is still gaining repute as a medium through which messages can be sent and

received. Adamu (2011), affirms that cell phones have completely replaced

landline phones in Nigeria as they acquire exciting new capabilities , including the

capacity to take pictures, play music and download video from the internet and

receive television and radio broadcasts over advanced cell phone networks.

These new mobile media share common characteristics, some of which are:

- They depend on wireless technology.

- They are portable, making it possible for people to access information

from anywhere.

- They are interconnected, making it possible for people to hook into the

internet or the worldwide phone network.

- They are blurring the distinction between mass and interpersonal

communication.

These mobile media have drastically transformed the live of students. A walk

around a campus or on a busy main street shows students talking on cell phones or

sending e-mails or text messages on their phone. Even in airport waiting lounges or

bus stops, one cannot but notice them labouring over laptop computers or

Blackberry phones. This indicates that the next wave of communication technology

is breaking over students.

2.6 The Evolution of Mobile Telephone System

The concept of cellular service is the use of low-power transmitters where

frequencies can be reused within a geographic area. The idea of the first cellular

network was brain stormed in 1947. From that time (1947) until about 1979,

30

several different forms of broadcasting technology emerged (Gapsiso & Wilson,

2009).

Consequently, the design of cell-based mobile radio service was formulated in the

United States of America at Bells Labs in the early 1970s. However, the Nordic

countries were the first to introduce cellular services for commercial use with the

introduction of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) in 1981 (http://www.iec.org).

In 1982, the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications

Administrations (CEPT) created the Groupe Spécial Mobile (GSM) to develop a

standard for a mobile telephone system that could be used across Europe

(http://www.gsmworld.com/about-us/history.html). At that time (the early 1980s),

most mobile telephone systems were analogue rather than digital, like today’s

newer systems. One challenge facing analog systems was the inability to handle

the growing capacity needs in a cost-efficient manner. Thus, from 1982 to 1985,

discussions were held to decide between building an analogue or digital system.

After multiple field tests, the digital system was adopted for GSM. The advantages

of digital system over analog system include ease of signaling, lower levels of

interference, integration of transmission and switching, and increased ability to

meet capacity demands.

Meanwhile, cellular systems began in the United States with the release of the

Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) system in 1983. The AMPS standard

was adopted by Asia, Latin America, and Oceanic countries, creating the largest

potential market in the world for cellular.

The next task was to decide between a narrow or broadband solution. In May

1987, the narrowband Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) solution was

chosen. TDMA is a technique where a single GSM RF (Radio Frequency) carrier

31

can support up to eight mobile subscribers simultaneously (Tiamiyu, 2010). In the

same year (1987), a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by 13

countries to develop a common cellular telephone system across Europe

(www.news.zdfnet.co.uk/leader). Finally, a system created by SINTEF led by

Torleiv Maseng was selected (www.ntu.no/gemini/2005).

Later on in 1989, GSM responsibility was transferred to the European

Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and phase I of the GSM

specifications were published in 1990. The first GSM network was launched in

1991 by Radio Linja in Finland with joint technical infrastructure maintenance

from Ericsson (www.press.nokia.com). By the end of 1993, over a million

subscribers were using GSM phone networks being operated by 70 carriers across

48 countries (www.emory.educ/BUSINESS). It was predicted that by 2011,

Mobile subscribers will surpass 5 billion worldwide (that's over 70 percent of the

world population) and it is still growing rapidly, led by China and India

(www.mobithinking.com).

2.6.1 Mobile/Cellular Radio Network

GSM is a cellular network, which means that mobile phones connect to it by

searching for cells in the immediate vicinity. Tiamiyu (2010) affirms that, mobile

telecommunication (Radio) networks are based on cellular technology. Cellular

system involves dividing a large service area into regions called “cell”. Each cell

has the equipment to switch, transmit and receive calls from any subscriber located

within its radio coverage area.

There are five different cell sizes in a GSM network—macro, micro, Pico, femto

and umbrella cells. The coverage area of each cell varies according to the

implementation environment. Macro cells can be regarded as cells where the base

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station antenna is installed on a mast or a building above average roof top level.

Micro cells are cells whose antenna height is under average roof top level; they are

typically used in urban areas. Pico cells are small cells whose coverage diameter is

a few dozen meters; they are mainly used indoors. Femto cells are cells designed

for use in residential or small business environments and connect to the service

provider’s network via a broadband internet connection while umbrella cells are

used to cover shadowed regions of smaller cells and fill in gaps in coverage

between those cells.

2.7 Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM)

Throughout the evolution of cellular telecommunications, various systems were

being developed without the benefit of standardized specifications. This presented

many problems directly related to compatibility, especially with the development

of digital radio technology. The GSM standard was intended to address these

problems.

Global System for Mobile Communications, originally from (Groupe Spécial

Mobile) is the most popular standard for mobile telephony systems in the world.

The GSM association in promoting industry trade organization of mobile phone

carriers and manufacturers estimates that 80% of the global mobile market uses the

standard (www.gsmworld.com/newsroon/market-data).The GSM is used by over

4.3 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories

(www.gsmworld.com/about/index). Its prevalence enables international roaming

arrangements between mobile phone operators and providing subscribers the use of

their phones in many parts of the world. GSM differs from its predecessor

technologies in that both signaling and speech channels are digital, and thus GSM

is considered a second-generation (2G) mobile phone system. This also facilitates

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the widespread implementation of data communication applications into the system

(www.prenewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories).

However, according to Tiamiyu (2010), GSM had moved from 2G to 2.5G and

now 3G network. The 2.5G is a stepping stone between 2G and 3G cellular

wireless technologies. 2.5G systems were introduced to enhance the data capacity

of GSM and mitigate some of the limitations imposed by 2G Network. The term

“second and half generation” is used to describe 2.5G –systems that have

implemented a packet switched domain in addition to the circuit switched domain.

It does not necessarily provide faster services, because bundling of tie slots is used

for circuit switched data as well. 2.5G provides some of the benefits of 3G and can

use some of the existing 2G infrastructure in GSM networks.

The third generation of mobile phone systems is the 3G, they provide both a packet

switch and a circuit-switched domain from the beginning. It requires a new access

network, different from that already available in 2G systems. 3G wireless cellular

phones include digital speech plus high-speed data and global roaming.

Presently, there is an improvement on the 3G network with the introduction of 4G.

In telecommunications, 4G is the “fourth generation” of cellular wireless

standards. It is a successor to the 3G and 2G families of standards. In 2008, the

ITU-R organization specified the International Mobile Telecommunications

Advanced (IMT-Advanced) requirements for 4G standards, setting peak speed

requirements for 4G service at 100 Mbit/s for high mobility communication (such

as from trains and cars) and 1 Gbit/s for low mobility communication (such as

pedestrians and stationary users). A 4G system is expected to provide a

comprehensive and secure all-IP based mobile broadband solution to laptop

computer wireless modems, smart phones, and other mobile devices. Facilities

34

such as ultra-broadband Internet access, IP telephony, gaming services, and

streamed multimedia may be provided to users.

The ubiquity of implementation of the GSM standard has been an advantage to

both consumers, who may benefit from the ability to roam and switch carriers

without replacing phones, and to network operators, who can choose equipment

from many GSM equipment vendors (www.focus.ti.cin/does/pr). GSM also

pioneered low-cost implementation of the Short Message Service (SMS), also

called text messaging, which has since been supported on other mobile phone

standards as well. The standard includes a worldwide emergency telephone number

feature.

2.8 Overview of Nigeria’s Telecommunications Sector

The deregulation of the telecommunication industry in 1999 was a revolution that

created the need for new mobile services. This is because the monopoly hitherto

enjoyed by the Nigerian Telecommunication (NITEL) did not pay off as

consumers could not enjoy quality services. Further challenging this situation is the

global need for new mobile services (Bradner, 2002; Wag Staff, 2002) cited in

Worlu (2011).

Before 1999, Nigeria’s number of phone lines per thousand people (both wired and

wireless) was less than 3% of Nigerian population. However, with the

liberalization of the telecom market, Nigeria has become one of the biggest and

fastest growing telecom markets in Africa with still huge further growth potentials

in all sectors. The country continues to be one of the fastest growing markets in

Africa with triple-digit growth rates almost every single year since 2001. It passed

Egypt and Morocco in 2004 to become the continent’s second largest mobile

35

market after South Africa. Nonetheless, 8 years later Lange (2012), states that

Nigeria has overtaken South Africa to become the continent’s largest mobile

market with now close to 100 million subscribers.

This remarkable growth may not be unconnected to the fact that, according to

Tiamiyu (2010), the Nigerian telecom market offers a clear and exciting

opportunity for many operators. By the end of 2002 the Nigerian telecoms services

market was worth some 1.1 billion dollars and experienced annual growth of 37%,

driven predominantly by the explosion in mobile telephony.

Nigerian GSM operators’ statistics as at January 2005 goes thus: MTN-3.9 million,

defunct VMOBILE (Now airtel) - 2.5 million and GLO- 1.9 million. Now there

have been additions of Starcoms, Etisalat and Visafone. However, of all these

networks MTN still has the largest number of subscribers. Ogendengbe, Odukoya

and Nkadi (2008) affirms that, as at September 2007, the group (MTN) had over

54 million subscribers within the 21 countries it operates and MTN Nigeria

remains the largest contributor to the group’s operations.

Today, the Nigerian Communication Commission’s (NCC) latest statistics on

telecommunication in the country showed that the number of active telephone

subscribers in the country stood at 99.14 million as at the end of March 2012

(Nurudeen, 2012).

2.8.1 Growth of GSM in Nigeria

In the year 2001, the Nigerian Communication Sector took a new dimension. The

Global System for Mobile Communication popularly known as GSM was

introduced and Nigerians embraced it with both hands. GSM came as a welcome

development in Nigeria, because the world is now globalized and information

36

technology is one factor that is responsible for that. The country has demonstrated

its readiness to join the League of Nations in the track of economic prosperity

associated with communication technology (Kazon, 2011).

Thus, growth of GSM in Nigeria, known as the GSM revolution, began in August

2001 and changed the face of information and communications technology in the

country. Since the mobile launch, mobile telephony has rapidly become the most

popular method of voice communication in Nigeria. Growth has been so rapid that

Nigeria has been rightly described in various fora as “one of the fastest growing

GSM markets in the world”. Indeed these developments have been truly explosive.

According to Wilson and Gapsiso (2009), the introduction of GSM “…was a

defining moment in the history of Africa’s most populous nation, which had waited

for several years to acquire this very important means of communication”.

Hence, Kombol (2009) assume that one of the reasons for the success of mobile

networks in Nigeria may be the inefficiency of fixed telephone lines in the country.

Over the years, Nigerians have suffered from epileptic telephone services often

disrupted by vandals or rainstorms. Thus, mobile networks present a unique

opportunity of connection without wires, yet efficient and reliable.

Moreover, the prepaid billing system used by mobile networks in Nigeria stalls

accumulated bills and makes the service affordable to average Nigerians who

would ordinarily not afford the service. In addition, unlike earlier years when

service for fixed telephone lines were restricted to urban areas, rural areas are

covered in the service of mobile telephone companies in Nigeria.

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In affirmation, Kazon (2011) writes:

The percentage of Mobile Telecommunicationsubscribers in Nigeria is over 90% and thispercentage clearly shows how much we haveaccepted GSM as our way of communication. GSM has no doubt impacted positively on the livesof Nigerians considering the fact that it enableseffective communication not only in cities but alsoeven in rural areas. Nigerian GSM subscribers cannow use their mobile phones to do many thingsincluding making voice calls, sending shortmessages services (text) and other high level ofservices like, transmitting (sending) and receivingstill and line images, watching live events fromany part of the world etc(www.gamji.com/artrl6000/NEWS6446.html)

Although, the percentage of mobile telecommunication subscribers might not

really be over 90% by 2011, it is not a hidden fact that there are very significant

numbers of subscribers in Nigeria. According to statistics from the Nigerian

Communication Commission (NCC), compared with just about 450,000 working

lines from the defunct NITEL in 2001, by August 2004, the GSM operators had

recorded over 7 million subscribers.

Equally, Gray (2004) as cited in Kombol (2009, p.48) observes, “… mobile

subscribers in Nigeria rose from 25,000 in 1999 to 9.1 million in 2004. The

penetration of mobile phones in Nigeria increased from 0.5 percent in 1999 to 8

percent in 2004.” Likewise, Ndukwe (2005) as cited in Kombol (2009) adds that

by 2005 there were 16 million telephone subscribers in Nigeria. Challenging these

arguments, The National Bureau of Statistics (2006) notes that, in Nigeria there

were 18,587,000 mobile phone lines in 2005. Nonetheless, Ogendengbe, Odukoya

and Nkadi (2008) find that in 2006, there were 31.1 million mobile phone

38

subscribers in Nigeria and at least 45 million subscribers in 2007. Accordingly

Taiwo (2010) write that, as of October, 2008, Nigeria had 59 million active mobile

phone subscribers and a teledensity of 42%. By April 2010, NCC declared that

there are over 78 million active phone lines in Nigeria, out of which GSM lines are

over 69 million (www.umtsworld.com). Kombol (2009) predicted that by 2011,

Nigeria will have 86.2 million mobile phone subscribers.

Interestingly, the latest record revealed by the NCC showed that active

subscriptions which stood at 95.88 million in December, 2011, increased to 96.15

million and 96.61 million in January and February, 2012, respectively. The

commission also noted that the networks in March pooled a total of 2.53 million

new telephone lines bringing the number of active telephone lines on the various

networks to 99.14 million. Breakdown of the 99.14 million lines as at March

indicated that while the major GSM companies had 94.53 million active

subscriptions, the CDMA recorded 4.01 million while fixed line operators only had

599,335 lines on their networks (Nurudeen, 2012).

Although the active subscriptions stood at 99.14 million as at March, but the actual

number of connected lines on all the networks was 134.91 million. The wide

margin between the active lines and the actual connected lines could mean that

about 35.74 million telephone lines are redundant or inactive. This nonetheless, the

number of active subscribers is awesome.

Since the introduction of GSM in Nigeria, the country has witnessed increased

development of telecom infrastructure across the land by several competing

operators, such as MTN, Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom, Visafone and Starcomms.

This tremendous growth of operators and competition are not unrelated to the

overwhelming demand for GSM service by Nigerians.

39

The regulatory agency, NCC, has continued to introduce necessary measures to

enhance the quality of service delivery and steady growth of the industry. Some of

these measures include the introduction of unified licensing, which made it

possible for fixed wireless operators to offer GSM service. Equally significant is

the granting of Third-Generation (3G) licenses to some operators. The 3G as it is

popularly called is one of the most advanced technologies on GSM, which enables

the operators to offer both data and voice services (Udutchay as cited in Wilson &

Gapsiso 2009).

2.8.2 GSM Subscriber Services

There are two basic types of services offered through GSM: telephony (also

referred to as tele services) and data (also referred to as bearer services). Telephony

services are mainly voice services that provide subscribers with the complete

capability (including necessary terminal equipment) to communicate with other

subscribers. Data services provide the capacity necessary to transmit appropriate

data signals between two access points creating an interface to the network.

In addition to normal telephony and emergency calling, the following subscriber

services are supported by GSM:

- Dual-Tone Multi Frequency (DTMF)- DTMF is a tone signaling

scheme often used for various control purposes via the telephone

network, such as remote control or an answering machine. GSM supports

full-originating DTMF.

- Facsimile Group III- a facsimile group is a standard fax machine

designed to be connected to a telephone-using analogue signals, a special

fax converter connected to the exchange is used in the GSM system. This

40

enables a GSM- connected fax to communicate with any analog fax in

the network.

- Short Message Services (SMS)- SMS is a convenient facility of the

GSM network. A message consisting of a maximum of 160 alphanumeric

characters can be sent to or received from a mobile station. This service

can be viewed as an advance form of alphanumeric paging with a number

of advantages. If the subscriber‘s mobile unit is powered off or has left

the coverage area, the message is stored and offered back to the

subscriber when the mobile phone is powered on or has reentered the

coverage area of the network. This function ensures that the message will

be received.

- Cell Broadcast- a variation of the short message service is the cell

broadcast facility. A message of a maximum of 93 characters can be

broadcast to all mobile subscribers in a certain geographic area. Typical

applications include traffic congestion warnings and reports on accidents.

- Voice Mail- this service is actually an answering machine within the

network, which is controlled by the subscriber. Calls can be forwarded to

the subscriber’s voice mailbox and the subscriber checks for messages

via a personal security code.

- Fax Mail- with this service, the subscriber can receive fax messages at

any fax machine. The messages are stored in a service centre form, which

can be retrieved by the subscriber via a personal security code to the

desired fax number.

This study is limited to GSM/SMS subscriber service.

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2.9 Short Message Service (SMS) / Text Messaging

Text messaging or texting refers to the exchange of brief written messages between

fixed-line phone or mobile phone and fixed or portable devices over a network.

The sender of a text message is known as a texter, while the service itself has

different colloquialisms depending on the region: it may simply be referred to as a

text in North America and texto in Australia, text in the United Kingdom, and SMS

in most of Europe, Nigeria, Middle East and Asia.

Text messages can be used to interact with automated systems, such as ordering

products and services for mobile phones, or participating in contests. Advertisers

and service providers use texts to notify mobile phone users about promotions,

payment due dates and other notifications that can usually be sent by post, e-mail

or voicemail. For example cable companies like DSTV and banks.

Nevertheless, in straight and concise definition, "Text Messaging" by mobile

phones should include all 26 letters of the alphabet and 10 numerals, i.e.

alphanumeric messages or text to be sent by texter or received by textee

(http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=textee).

2.9.1 History of Text Messaging

Text messaging was first used in December 1992, when Neil Papworth, a 22-year-

old test engineer for Sema Group (now Airwide Solutions), used a personal

computer to send the text message "Merry Christmas" via the Vodafone network to

the phone of Richard Jarvis

(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/technology/05iht-

sms.html?pagewanted=all). Reid and Reid (2005) cited in Taiwo (2010) noted that

since the technology of SMS first arrived in December 1992 and later became

42

public in 1994, it has become one of the most popular modern ways to

communicate. It was widely adopted because it is instant, location-independent,

and personal.

Initial growth of text messaging was slow, with customers in 1995 sending on

average only 0.4 messages per GSM customer per month

(www.gsmworld.com/news). One factor that contributed to the slow take-up of

SMS was that operators were slow to set up charging systems, especially for

prepaid subscribers, and eliminate billing fraud, which was possible by changing

Short Message Service Customer (SMSC) settings on individual handsets to use

the SMSCs of other operators. Over time, this issue was eliminated by switch

billing instead of billing at the SMSC and by new features within SMSCs to allow

blocking of foreign mobile users sending messages through it.

Today SMS is king of mobile messaging with more than 6.1 trillion messages sent

in 2010. Despite the popularity of mobile email, Instant Messaging and Multi-

Media Messaging System, SMS is predicted to exceed 10 trillion in 2013

(www.mobithinking.com). Kreutzer (2008) cited in Wilson and Gapsiso (2009), in

his work ‘Cell Phone Usage in a South African Township School’ identified that

the most frequently and actively used applications on cell phones are making

phone calls and sending text messages, with 65% making calls and 62% sending

text on a typical day.

Nonetheless, text messaging is most often used between private mobile phone

users, as a substitute for voice calls in situations where voice communication is

impossible or undesirable. While in some regions, text messaging is significantly

cheaper than placing a phone call to another mobile phone; elsewhere, text

messaging is popular despite the negligible cost of voice calls.

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2.9.2 Impact of Text Messaging on Students

The advent of text messaging made possible new forms of interaction that were not

possible before. A person may now carry out a conversation with another user

without the constraint of being expected to reply within a short amount of time,

and without needing to set time aside to engage in conversation. Mobile phone

users can maintain communication during situations in which a voice call is

impractical, impossible, or unacceptable.

Besides, texting has provided a venue for participatory culture, allowing youths to

vote in online and TV polls, as well as receive information on the move. Texting

can also bring people together and create a sense of community through ‘Smart

Mobs’ or ‘Net Wars’, which create ‘people power’ (Rheingold 2002).

Conversely as Kazon (2011) notes, despite these positive impacts, there are also

dysfunctional perspectives to texting. Although, the introduction of GSM text

messaging is no doubt a plus to the Communication sector, this development is

now attended by some ills, which for sure have started impacting negatively on the

overall gains so far made from this system of communication. Some of these

negative aspects are as follows:

a. Effect on language

A growing body of linguistic research has focused on language use in SMS. One

major focus of these studies is the emerging register and its effect on language

practices of young people. The main issue that has been generating a great debate

among scholars is the effect the language of SMS is likely to have on written

language performance of this generation of students.

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Linguists such as Ling (2001) cited in Elvis (2009) have all sought to analyze the

effects of the ever-growing modern technology on language. They have pointed

that modern science and technology constantly need new words and expressions to

cover their concepts and ideologies. Therefore, new inventions bring with them

new vocabularies, expressions and attitudes. With the development of New

Information and Communication Technology and especially with the advent of the

cell phone and its services, new words, expressions and syntactic structures have

infiltrated into the linguistic continuum of students texters in Nigeria. For instance,

because of the limited message length and tiny user interface of mobile phones,

students commonly make extensive use of numbers for words (For example “4” in

place of the word “for”), and the omission of vowels as in the phrase “Txt msg”

which actually stands for “text message”, ‘b4’ for “before” and ‘c u l8er’ for “see

you later”.

Emeh (2010 as cited in Adamu, 2011:188) adds, “…SMS in particular has led

many students to find it difficult to write in correct, understandable and precise

English”. He further points that this has done incalculable harm to students’ grasp,

understanding and application of words, and syntax-sentence structure. Therefore,

habitual use of this condensed method of writing may lower the students thinking

process; circumvent spelling and writing abilities of the student.

Furthermore, the use of text messaging has changed the way that students write

essays and some scholars believe this trend is harmful. Despite this, in November

2006, New Zealand Qualifications Authority approved the move that allowed

students to use mobile phone text language in the end of the year exam papers.

(www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat). Hence, the notion that text language is

widespread or harmful is refuted by research from linguistic experts. However, this

45

is not acceptable in other countries, like Nigeria, as highly publicized reports,

beginning in 2002, of the use of text language in school assignments caused some

to become concerned that the quality of written communication is on the decline,

and other reports claim that teachers and professors are beginning to have a hard

time controlling the problem.

Nevertheless, recent research by Rosen, Chang, Erwin and Carrier (2009) found

that students who use more language-based textisms (shortcuts such as LOL, 2nite,

etc.) in daily writing produced worse formal writing than those students who used

fewer linguistic textisms in daily writing. However, the exact opposite was true for

informal writing. This suggests that perhaps the act of using textisms to shorten

communication words leads students to produce more informal writing, which may

then help them to be better "informal" writers.

b. In schools

The coming of GSM in Nigeria brought about a new form of examination

malpractice, through texting. Some GSM handset-owners store a lot of information

in its memory. Students are the major culprits here, because they copy most of

what they are taught in class and during the examination or test, they enter the hall

and engage in examination malpractice. It has made most students to become lazy,

as they no longer spend time in studying their books and making researches, they

prefer storing everything in their phones and take it to examination hall. This has

made most brain to be lazy and dull ignoring the fact that the brain is the first

computer endowed on human beings

(www.gamji.com/artrl6000/NEWS6446.html). The number of students caught

using mobile phones to cheat in examinations has increased significantly in recent

years. Due to this ugly trend, mobile phones have been banned in most Secondary

46

and tertiary institutions’ examination halls in Nigeria, because of text message

related malpractices.

Comparably, in Japan text messaging has also had an impact on students

academically, by creating an easier way to cheat in exams. Some students are

usually caught cheating in examination through the use of text messages on their

mobile phones. In December 2002, Hitotsubashi University failed 26 students for

receiving e-mailed examinations answers on their mobile

phones.(www.eschoolsnews.com/news/top-news/index). According to Okada

(2005), most Japanese mobile phones can send and receive long text messages of

between 250 and 3000 characters with graphics, video, audio, and web links.

In England, 287 school and college students were excluded from examinations in

2004 for using mobile phones during examinations. Some teachers and professors

claim that advanced texting features can lead to students cheating in examinations

(Goggin, 2006).

Furthermore, outside examination environment, texting is a form of distraction in

classrooms. According to Amanda (2010), most schools treat the phone as a

disruptive force that must be managed and often excluded from the school and the

classroom. Nevertheless, although most schools treat cell phones as something to

be contained and regulated, students are still texting frequently in class.

Sadly, there is also another dimension to this ugly trend, bullying. Spreading

rumors and gossip by text is also an issue of great concern. Text "bullying" of this

sort can cause distress and damage reputations. Harding and Rosenberg (2005)

argue that, the urge to forward such text messages seems difficult to resist,

describing text messages as "loaded weapons".

47

c. Law and crime

Not only has text messaging had an impact in schools, but also on police forces

around the world. A British company developed, in June 2003, a programme called

Fortress SMS for Symbian phones. This programme used 128-bit AES encryption

to protect SMS messages. This is not surprising considering that text messaging

has been used to carry out various fraudulent activities by youths around the world.

The recent SIM registration in Nigeria will also go a long way in curbing this

crime.

d. Social unrest

Texting has been used on a number of occasions to mobilize large amount of

aggressive youths to cause crises for political cause in certain places. SMS

messaging drew a crowd to Cronulla Beach in Sydney resulting in the 2005

Cronulla riots. Not only were text messages circulating in the Sydney area, but in

other states as well.

Also, one cannot overlook the role being played and likely to be played by the new

media, text messaging especially, in the recent political unrest around North

African nations like Egypt and some Arab nations like Syria. Text messages were

used to mobilize large number of crowds to come out for protests against the

governments. So also was the case in Nigeria when the federal government

removed subsidy on petroleum product which engineered protest around the

country and beyond.

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e. Medical concerns

Text messaging provides leisure and fun to students and some of them are

excessively involved in it. According to Taiwo (2010), young people are skilled at

the use of their thumbs to manipulate cell phones and other computer keyboards.

This led to them being referred to as “the thumb tribe” or “the thumb generation.”

and their activities described as the “Thumb culture.” Texting requires use of our

fingers to press the keys on our mobile phones. The excessive use of the thumb for

pressing keys on mobile devices has led to a high rate of a form of repetitive strain

injury termed "Blackberry thumb."

2.9.3 Major Users of Text Messages

The mobile phone SMS service has developed rapidly since its introduction. It is

very popular throughout the world, especially amongst young urbanites as it

allows for voiceless communication, useful in noisy environments (Elvis, 2009).

This is not unexpected because, since the invention of the mobile phone

technologies, several studies have been conducted on the use of this technology by

different demographics. These researchers have identified several users of the

mobile phone. However, the most prominent of these users are the youths.

In a research conducted by the Pew Research Center in America, findings reveal

that cell-phone texting has become the preferred channel of basic communication

between teens and their friends, with cell calling a close second. This service has

become an indispensable tool in teen communication patterns with 88 percent of

teen cell phone users being text ‘messagers’. One in three teens sends more than

100 text messages a day, or 3000 texts a month. Among all teens, their frequency

of use of texting has now overtaken the frequency of every other common form of

49

interaction with their friends. Fully two-thirds of teen texters say they are more

likely to use their cell phones to text their friends than talk to them by cell phone

(http://people-press.org/report/444/news-media).

This scenario is not different in Nigeria. The younger generations of Nigerian, like

elsewhere in the world, can also be described as “the thumb tribe”, a generation of

people skilled in the manipulation of the phone and computer keys with their

fingers, especially the thumb. The popularity of SMS has created a forum for

Nigerian youths to articulate themselves in fighting all forms of injustices,

monitoring political activities and building social relationships (Taiwo, 2010).

Young people, especially teenagers have been identified as the driving force

behind the popularity of SMS. Their ability to explore and play about with the use

of language makes texting very attractive to them.

Growing body of work with teens in other locations finds a common pattern of

mobile phone use in other countries. Text messaging appears as a uniquely teen –

inflected form of mobile communication, in that it is lightweight, less intrusive,

less subject to peripheral monitoring, inexpensive, and enables easy contact with a

spatially distributed peer group.

According to Branston and Starford (2006), ‘texting’ is the most popular phone

service for ‘teens’- to the dismay of service providers who hope to sell much more

lucrative services. A report on texting by teens worldwide was used as the basis

for an article in The Guardian by Natalie Hanman (9 June 2005).

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The report included some interesting facts and figures:

Much to the dismay of operators keen to see earlyadopters of mobile technology hooked on morelucrative functions, such as picture messaging(MMS), mobile music and mobile internet,teenagers are keeping things simple- andcheap....Among those teens who text the most, boys outnumber girls by 3:1(The Guardian 9th

June 2005)

Contrarily, a study conducted by the Pew Research Centre in America shows,

girls are more likely than boys to use both text messaging and voice calling and

are likely to do each more frequently. Girls typically send and receive 80 texts a

day; boys send and receive 30 texts. 86% of girls’ text message friends several

times a day; 64% of boys do the same. Girls are also more likely than boys to text

for social reasons, to text privately and to text about school work (Amanda, 2010).

Relatedly, Ling (2001) cited in Taiwo (2010) reports that ‘the great motor of SMS

culture’ is found among the female gender in Norway. According to him, teen

women write longer more complex messages than men. Other studies also

confirm that females are more avid texters than males. For instance, Kasesniemi

(2003) cited in Taiwo (2010) observes that Finnish teenage girls are heavy texters

and often place greater emphasis on emotional issues, while the boys tend to be

brief, informative, and practical. Another research observe that German girls send

more and longer text messages while Nigerian women are reported to use their

SMSes to fulfill social-relational function among their friends and family

members.

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However, despite the widespread use of SMS by youths especially in developed

countries, there are challenges faced by youths in developing countries like

Nigeria. A lot of youths in Nigeria are still struggling with issues of access. There

are still several Nigerian youths that do not have access to mobile phone services

especially in rural areas. There are also challenges of cost of acquiring and

maintaining mobile phone. Tariffs are still very high in Nigeria and several

services offered by the operators are still expensive. In addition, there is the

problem of electricity concerning charging phone batteries, poor network and

epileptic services by operators.

Sunday and Solomon (2008) encapsulates that, despite the giant strides that

deregulation of the telecommunication industry has afforded the Nigerian public,

it is not without it failings and challenges. Among which are epileptic power

supply, high tariffs, inability to manufacture hardware and software needed by the

industry, vandalism, network congestion, non – delivery of text and high tax by

government. Consequently, to properly explore mobile phone for disseminating

news, Wilson & Gapsiso (2009, p.109) suggest, “ a lot need to be done especially

in the developing countries to ensure easy access, affordable mobile phones and

services to mention a few.”

2.10 News

News is considered as any reliable and unbiased report or information of an event

that affects the lives, welfare, future or interest of the people (Ebo 1994). As stated

by Odetoyinbo (2001), news is the summary of all major events and activities

around the world. It usually contains any issue concerning any man, place and

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time. People want to know about various aspect of the society that they live in and

beyond. It could be political, economic or social.

Accordingly, McQuail (2005, p.562) defines news as “the main form in which

current information about public events is carried by media of all kinds. There is a

great diversity of types and formats as well as cross-cultural differences, but

defining characteristics are generally held to be timeliness, relevance and reliability

(truth-value).

The relevance of news in our society today cannot be overemphasized as; La’aro

(2004:39) quotes Aspinall (1971) thus:

News is important to all of us because it keeps usinformed as to what is happening in our owncommunity and what is happening in othercommunity that impinges upon our own. Itsatisfies our curiosity and concern and it providesus with basic facts that enable us to make up ourminds and so join in the general discussion thatleads to community action.

2.10.1 Text Messaging and Political News Dissemination in Nigeria.

Political news via text messages in this study is not the text messages, in form of

political advertisements, sent by political candidates to electorate to canvass for

votes, but messages sent by news organizations on any newsworthy items about

any political event or announcement. Political news also includes news relating to

civic administration by government. Examples of such messages are “Cross River

to prepare budget in local languages”, “I reported Otedola’s bribe to police and

EFCC in April - Farouk Lawan”, “Abdulsalami Abubakar soldier for democracy”

Daily Trust, “Subsidy probe: Alleged bribery must not stop implementation of

report- ACN” Vanguard Newspapers, “Adegbite, Ikuforiji, Mamora , others wants

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FG to declare June 12 national holiday” Vanguard Newspapers, “ICC visits its

detainees in Libya” BBC News.

Consequently, text messaging has had a major impact on the political world. It has

helped politics in making citizens aware of what is going on around them and

beyond. For example, voters registration in the 2011 general election in Nigeria.

Prior to 2011, text messaging was used in the 2007 general elections as a tool for

systematic election monitoring. The Network of Election Monitors (NMEM)

associates in each of Nigeria’s 36 states recruited additional volunteers and

forwarded mass reminders about the program on the morning of the elections.

Multiple messages from the same polling site were crosschecked for accuracy, and

over 10,000 messages, describing both orderly voting experiences and widespread

fraud, were received (Taiwo 2010). Despite the fact that these creative messages

only circulate among a group of young people, they say a lot about how Nigerians

feel about the government and its agencies

Looking abroad, the American government for example, found that text messaging

is a much easier, cheaper way of getting citizens to be politically conscious rather

than the door- to- door approach. In Spain, a massive texting campaign was

credited with boosting youth turnout in Spain's 2004 parliamentary elections

(www.huliq.com). This may indicate that adopting this form of news dissemination

may be an advantage to the Nigerian media and also in the long run the political

system.

2.10.2 Exploiting GSM/SMS in Providing News to Youths in Nigeria

The mobile phone has found its way into various professions including journalism.

It is used in various ways and for several purposes in journalistic practice (Wilson

and Gapsiso 2009). Currently, foreign news organizations are connecting to

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consumers through instant messaging services as a means of using new

technologies to connect to younger audiences. News products are built around

information services designed for cellular delivery. These products range from

issues that border on national security to local issues. For example, the texting of

headlines to the phones of youths is clearly a way of producing new product for

different consumers. It is a new media- inspired phenomenon, in part, because it

serves a similar purpose of providing quick snapshots of what is happening in the

world of politics and placing it directly in the hands of Nigerian youths.

This is clearly a method for providing the accessibility younger audiences are

likely to embrace In addition, news organizations have recognized the value of the

one piece of technology that is in virtually most hands of youths around the

country, the cell phone-so that the mobile revolution is, in fact , part of a news

revolution.

So far, the exploitation of GSM to provide information to students through text

messages have mostly been done by GSM companies, politicians or political

parties and not journalists. Messages such as those selling a candidate, voters’

registration or promoting a political party are sent to youths through their mobile

phones. This is a method that journalists need to adopt to keep youths informed

since most are unwilling to go the traditional mass media for news. Thus, if they

will not go to the news the news should be brought to them. However, the question

remains if this service will be acceptable to them? Which is what the study intends

to find out.

In this regard, perhaps what might be considered the most innovative technique in

news distribution in Nigeria is the exploration of text messages as a source of news

dissemination. Mobile phones can now be used to disseminate political news

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through SMSs. Some newspapers in Nigeria such as The Punch and The Nation

claim to have started this news service. Proving this claim, Olaleye (2009)

observes that, subscribers to The Nation newspaper pay a “token” of #100 for SMS

to access any of the paper’s six special offers. These services are The Nation News

Update (NNU), Nation Business Update (NBU), Nation Sport Update (NSU),

Nation Road Traffic Update (NRTR), Nation Breaking News (NBN) and Nation

News Alert (NNA). The Punch sells scratch cards to subscribers at the rate of

#1,500 per month. This service being offered to the subscribers is called Mobile

Punch and subscribers can get SMS on news update through any of the three major

mobile Network- MTN, Glo and Airtel.

In addition, The Punch and Desert Herald Newspaper also send news alerts to their

subscribers on various issues. Also NEXT newspapers in a Sunday , September 5,

2001 report written by Amma Ogan and titled ‘phone sex’ indicated their interest

to begin sending news alert thus,”…..news alerts such as the one this media

organization is starting up will keep you up to date with what is going on in your

world”(p.15). This shows that some news organizations are beginning to take steps

towards adopting this service. However, a lot still needs to be done in respect of

this.

Despite this, other Nigerian Newspapers are waiting in the wings to see how

successful these experiments by the aforementioned newspapers would be before

jumping into the bandwagon to entice the estimated millions of Nigerians using

mobile phones (Ganiyu & Akinreti 2011).

Summarily, this may indicate that the idea of media houses sending news through

text messages is at its early stage and has not been fully adopted by most media

organizations but this innovation is spreading steadily.

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2.11 Theoretical Framework

This work is anchored on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This model

was used because it best represents essential features of the research.

2.11.1 Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is an information systems theory that

models how users come to accept and use a technology. The model suggests that

when users are presented with a new technology, a number of factors influence

their decision about how and when they will use it, notably:

Perceived usefulness (PU) - the degree to which a person believes that

using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance.

Perceived ease-of-use (PEOU) - the degree to which a person believes that

using a particular system would be free from effort.

TAM was developed by Davis F.D in 1986 and deals more specifically with the

prediction of the acceptability of an information system. The purpose of this model

is to predict the acceptability of a tool and to identify the modifications which must

be brought to the system in order to make it acceptable to users. This model

suggests that the acceptability of an information system is determined by two main

factors: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use

(http//www.istheory.yorku.co/technologyacceptancemodel).

Perceived usefulness is defined as being the degree to which a person believes that

the use of a system will improve his performance. Perceived ease of use refers to

the degree to which a person believes that the use of a system will be effortless.

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Several factorial analyses demonstrated that perceived usefulness and perceived

ease of use can be considered as two different dimensions.

It is believed that TAM is rooted in social psychology and draws on Fishbein’s and

Ajzen’s Reasoned Action Model (1975), which establishes that the intent to

produce a behavior depends on two basic determinants: attitude toward behavior

and subjective norms. Subjective norms refer to the reasons for producing a certain

behavior or not and make the link between the latter and an expected result,

whereas attitude toward behavior refers to the positive or negative value the

individual associates to the fact of producing the behavior. The TAM suggests that

attitude would be a direct predictor of the intention to use technology, which in

turn would predict the actual usage of the technology. Davis and Venkatesh (1996

cited in (http//www.istheory.yorku.co/technologyacceptancemodel) however,

suggest that attitude would not play a significant role but rather that perceived ease

of use (expectation that a technology requires minimum effort) and perceived

usefulness (perception that the use of a technology can enhance performance of a

task at hand) would determine the intention to use a technology.

As demonstrated in the theory of reasoned Action, the Technology Acceptance

Model postulates that the use of an information system is determined by the

behavioral intention, on the other hand, that the behavioral intention is determined

by the person’s attitude towards the use of the system and also by his perception of

its utility. According to Davis, the attitude of an individual is not the only factor

that determines his use of a system, but is also based on the impact which it may

have on his performance.

Consequently, TAM replaces many of TRA’s attitude measures with the two

technology acceptance measures— ease of use, and usefulness. TRA and TAM,

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both of which have strong behavioral elements, assume that when someone forms

an intention to act, that they will be free to act without limitation.

Figure I: Technology Acceptance Model from Davis.

The fact that GSM, the platform upon which text messages operates, is a new

media makes TAM and ideal model for this research.

Bagozzi, Davis and Warshaw say:

Because new technologies such as personal computersare complex and an element of uncertainty exists in theminds of decision makers with respect to the successfuladoption of them, people form attitudes and intentionstoward trying to learn to use the new technology prior toinitiating efforts directed at using. Attitudes towardsusage and intentions to use may be ill-formed or lackingin conviction or else may occur only after preliminarystrivings to learn to use the technology evolve. Thus, actual usage may not be a direct or immediateconsequence of such attitudes and intentions. (http//www.istheory.yorku.co/technologyacceptancemodel)

Bertrand and Bouchard (2008), further explained thus, since the mid 70’s, various

researchers have been interested in factors that explain or predict the use of

different technologies. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) represents one

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of the explanatory models having most influenced the theories of human behavior.

The TAM was specifically developed with the primary aim of identifying the

determinants involved in computer acceptance in general; secondly, to examine a

variety of information technology usage behaviors; and thirdly, to provide a

parsimonious theoretical explanatory model.

This study is more adapted to the second reason (which is to examine a variety of

information technology usage), because text message news service is one of the

ways in which information technology usage can be examined. Although the use of

text messages to disseminate news is a new innovation in journalism practice, its

ease of use by the audience will eventually determine its success.

To buttress this further, earlier research on the diffusion of innovations also

suggested a prominent role for perceived ease of use. Tornatzky and Klein

(Tornatzky & Klein 1982 cited in Bertrand and Bouchard 2008) analyzed the

adoption, finding that compatibility, relative advantage, and complexity had the

most significant relationships with adoption across a broad range of innovation

types.

Accordingly, Davis believes perceived ease of use also influences in a significant

way the attitude of an individual through two main mechanisms: self-efficacy and

instrumentality. Self-efficacy is a concept developed by Albert Bandura which

explains that the more a system is easy to use, the greater should be the user’s

sense of efficacy. Moreover, a tool that is easy to use will make the user feel that

he has a control over what he is doing. Efficacy is one of the main factors

underlying intrinsic motivation and it is what illustrates here the direct link

between perceived ease of use and attitude. Perceived ease of use can also

contribute in an instrumental way in improving a person’s performance. Due to the

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fact that the user will have to deploy less effort with a tool that is easy to use, he

will be able to spare efforts to accomplish other tasks.

(http//www.istheory.yorku.co/technologyacceptancemodel).

It is interesting to note that the research presented by Davis to validate his model,

demonstrates that the link between the intention to use an information system and

perceived usefulness is stronger than perceived ease of use. According to this

model, we can therefore expect that the factor which influences a user the most is

the perceived usefulness of a tool. This model suggests that the acceptability of an

information system is determined by two main factors: perceived usefulness and

perceived ease of use. Perhaps this is what is happening in the media world today.

The PA and PEU of new media, of which GSM text messages is a part of could

account for the ease of adoption of new media rather than traditional mass media.

Corroborating this,

(www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdewk/is_200405/ai_n9519940) indicates

that, International editors and publishers have warned that nontraditional

communications- such as cell phone text messages- are rapidly outflanking radio,

television, and print media because of their immediacy and proximity to the public.

This may rationalize why Elvis (2009) gives credence to the fact that, the mobile

phone SMS service has developed rapidly since its introduction. It is very popular

throughout the world, especially amongst young urbanites as it allows for voiceless

communication, useful in noisy environments.

Thus, since the purpose of TAM is to predict the acceptability of a tool (GSM text

messages) and to identify the modifications which must be brought to the system in

order to make it acceptable to users (students of FCE Zaria and College of Health

Sciences, University of Ilorin), The acceptability of an information system (using

text messages as a channel to transmit political news to students) will be

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determined by two main factors: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use,

which this channel (GSM text messages) possess.

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Chapter Three

Methodology

3.1 Introduction

In this chapter, attention is focused on methodology of data collection that was

used in this work. The chapter discusses the research design, research population,

sampling technique, construction and validation of instrument and data gathering

procedure.

3.2 Research Design

The research design used for this work was descriptive research design. Olayiwola

(2007) describes the descriptive research design as an on-going oriented study that

is concerned with the collection and analysis of data for the purpose of describing,

evaluating or comparing current or prevailing practices, events and occurrences. It

is primarily designed to paint the picture of a situation.

The descriptive research design was chosen because it helps in determining the

type of data required, how to collect them as well as how to analyze and measure

them.

3.3 Method of Data Collection

The method of data collection used for this work was the descriptive survey

method. Wimmer and Dominick (2006, p.179) notes, “ the descriptive survey

attempts to describe or document current conditions or attitudes-that is, to explain

what exists at the moment”. Olayiwola (2007, p. 28) affirms “survey research

design is a research method that describes a given state of affairs at a particular

time.” It involves a clear definition of the problem, collection of relevant and

adequate data, careful analysis and interpretation of the data and skillful reporting

of the findings.

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Survey refers to techniques that are used in the collection of data in a large

population. There are various techniques used in the survey method. However this

study made use of questionnaire. From the total population, a carefully selected

sample having traits and characteristic of interest is drawn. Inferences are drawn

from the work of the sample group using appropriate statistical techniques.

The various survey techniques, if properly conducted can produce useful data that

are used to identify trends, patterns, and the characteristics of a social condition or

behavior and also to explore the relationships between it and other variables. This

method also produces data that may be subjected to fairly rigorous quantitative

analytical techniques, provided appropriate sampling strategies are utilized

(Alemika, 2002). The survey method collects three types of information. The

information of: what exists, what the researcher wants to find out and how to get

the result (Singh, 2006). These three are very important information which was

useful to this work.

3.4 Instrument for Data Collection

The instrument for data collection used for this work is written questionnaire. A

written questionnaire is a data collection tool in which written questions are

presented to be answered by the respondents in written form. Questionnaire was

chosen because it is less expensive, eliminates bias due to phrasing questions

differently with different respondents and permits anonymity that may result in

responses that are more honest.

A questionnaire which contained open and close-ended items was designed to elicit

information from the sample drawn. The questionnaire was divided into two

sections. Section A is to obtain the respondents demographic data, while section B,

elicited responses based on questions related to the study. The questionnaire asked

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respondents about the following areas: ownership/access, patronage, uses,

traditional mass media, awareness, GSM/SMS and others.

3.5 Study Variables

There are two sets of variables involved in this work, the dependent and the

independent variable. The major independent variable is political news

dissemination; others are the demographics like gender and age category. In line

with Wimmer and Dominick (2006), these variables are systematically varied by

the researcher.

The dominant dependent variable in this work is the potentiality of text messages,

others include, sources of news, level of access, awareness, opinion and ownership.

Even though little children may also own handsets in Nigeria, this work is limited

to students between the ages of 18- 35 years because they are most likely to own

handsets. These dependent variables are observed and their values presumed to

depend on the effects of the independent variable.

The variables were tested based on operational definitions given to each variable

by the researcher. An operational definition specifies the procedures to be

followed to experience or measure a concept. Research depends on observations,

and observations cannot be made without a clear statement of what is to be

observed. An operational definition is such a statement. Wimmer and Dominick

(2006, p.48) states “operational definitions are indispensable in scientific research

because they enable investigators to measure relevant variables. In any study it is

necessary to provide operational definitions for both independent variables and

dependent variables.”

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3.6 Population of the Study

In any research especially scientific, one of the goals is to describe the nature of a

population. Population which is sometimes referred to as the universe, is defined as

the entire group whose characteristics are to be estimated (Ndagi as cited in

Danladi, 2009). Similarly, Wimmer and Dominick (2006) define population as a

group or class of subjects, variables, concepts or phenomena.

The research population for this work includes all students of Federal College of

Education Zaria (Approximately 9000 students) and College of Health Sciences,

University of Ilorin (Approximately 1808 students), in Kaduna and Kwara State

respectively. Their ethnic groups or religion were not put into consideration but

rather their level of education. This population was chosen because they represent

majority of youths with formal education in urban centers in Zaria and Ilorin. In

addition, most students in these tertiary institutions fall within ages 18-35 years.

3.7 Area of the Study

The area chosen for this work was tertiary institutions in Zaria and Ilorin. These

two areas were chosen because they both have a high representation of tertiary

institutions in the country.

Zaria, historically known as Zazzau, was the administrative capital of the Zazzau

Kingdom, emirate as well as the headquarters of the old Zaria province. It was one

of the original seven Hausa states (Hausa Bakwai). The 2006 Census population of

Zaria was 408,198. However, according to the GeoNames geographical database,

the population of Zaria is estimated to be about 975,153 today

(www.population/mogabay.com). The town comprises the old Zaria city, Tudun

Wada, Sabon Gari, Palladan, Kwangila, Samaru, Gaskiya and Wusasa.

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The main ethnic groups in Zaria are Hausa and Fulani. There are also various

ethnic groups from different parts of Nigeria who come to settle in Zaria. The main

occupation of Zaria people is farming, Arabic scholarship, blacksmithing and

trading. With the establishment of higher institutions of learning in the early

sixties, western education blossomed, this saw the influx of many people from

different parts of the country and beyond into the town. Majority of the population

in Zaria are Muslims, however, there are Christians and animists as well.

It has lots of tertiary institutions such as Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Federal

College of Education (FCE), Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic, Nigerian College of

Aviation Technology (NCAT) etc. Perhaps, this is what has earned Kaduna state

the name Centre of Learning.

Ilorin was founded by the Yoruba, one of the three largest ethnic groups in

Nigeria, in 1450. The population of Ilorin is about 814,192

(www.population/mogabay.com). It is regarded as a leading Middle Belt state in

both geographical and political contexts. It became a provincial military

headquarters of the ancient Oyo Empire and later became a Northern Nigeria

protectorate when the Shehu Alimi (a decendant of Shehu Usman Dan-Fodio

Dynasty) took control of the city through the spread of Islam. Although the city

retains a strong Islamic influence from the Northern incursions, Christianity is

widely practiced by significant portions of the local population and other Nigerians

originating from other states. Ilorin is the largest city and the official capital of

Kwara State.

Just like Zaria, Ilorin also boasts of prominent tertiary institutions in Nigeria, such

as Nigerian Naval School, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Kwara State

Polytechnic, College of Education and the new Aviation College.

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3.8 Sampling Technique

The sample for this work was drawn based on purposive sampling technique. The

purposive non- probability sampling method includes subjects or elements chosen

for specific characteristics or qualities and excludes those who fail to meet these

criteria. Shedding more light on this sampling technique, Singh (2006, p.91) writes

“the idea is to pick out the sample in relation to some criterion, which are

considered important for the particular study”. The criterion used to select the

sample for this work was to purposively select students of FCE Zaria and College

of Health Sciences, Unilorin, who either own or have access to a GSM set.

This sampling technique was chosen for this work for the following reasons: with

the homogeneity of subjects used in the sample, sample data can be easily

matched; better control of significant variables and it makes use of the best

available knowledge concerning the sample subjects.

3.9 Sample Size

Van Dalen (1979 cited in Key 1997) lists three factors that he considers to

determine the size of an adequate sample as (l) the nature of the population, (2) the

type of investigation, and (3) the degree of precision desired. Based on these, the

formula for estimating the sample size and a table for determining the sample size

based on confidence level needed from a given population was provided by Krejcie

and Morgan (1970 cited in Key 1997). The formula goes thus:

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Where:

S = required sample size

N = the given population size

P = population proportion that for table construction has been assumed to be .50, as

this magnitude yields the maximum possible sample size required

d = the degree of accuracy as reflected by the amount of error that can be tolerated

in the fluctuation of a sample proportion p about the population proportion P - the

value for d being .05 in the calculations for entries in the table, a quantity equal to

X2 = table value of chi square for one degree of freedom relative to the desired

level of confidence, which was 3.841 for the .95 confidence level represented by

entries in the table

Based on the formula above, the sample size of the study as indicated in the “Table

of recommended sample sizes (n) for populations (N) with finite sizes”, is

approximately 370 respondents.

Nonetheless, the author used a sample of 300 because as Gay (1980 as cited in

Olayiwola 2007, p.83) suggests that for descriptive research, a minimum sample of

10% of the population would be considered enough. However, Frankel and Wallen

(1990 as cited in Olayiwola 2007. P. 83) suggested a minimum of “…100

participants for descriptive study”.

Using 10% of the research population (100% of 11,000 = 1,100) for this work

might be cumbersome while 100 respondents, which is the minimum for

descriptive study, are not representative enough. Hence, due to ease of managing

the sample and the fact that the sample size used is not too far from that obtained in

the table, a sample size of 300 students was selected for the work.

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3.10 Validity and Reliability

A pilot study was conducted in both schools to enable the researcher test and

validate the instrument with a view to correcting any weakness, and review the

questionnaire. This ensured the validity and reliability of the instrument for data

collection.

A sample size of 10% of the sample (300) was selected for the pilot study.

According to Wimmer and Dominick (2006, p.101), “samples with 10-50 subjects

are commonly used for pretesting measurement instruments and pilot studies…”

Hence, the researcher used the average, which is 30 respondents. The measuring

instrument was administered to the respondents personally by the researcher.

Face validity was used to examine the questionnaire to see whether, in the face of

it, it measures what it attempts to measure, According to Olayiwola (2007), face

validity assesses how a test measures what it is supposed to measure. It involves a

cursory glance of a test. A test that looks like it measures what it is expected to

measure has face validity. A test that possesses this condition must appear relevant

to users. If an instrument is measuring a particular behaviour, the items must seem

to be measuring the behaviour.

It was discovered that majority of the respondents were reluctant to answer the

open-ended questions. Some respondents suggested that in some questions ‘mobile

phone’ should be substituted with ‘GSM’ because they understand the term GSM

as a service and not a physical phone. Another respondent pointed out that

‘traditional mass media’ should be used instead of ‘traditional media’. In addition,

it was pointed out that some options in the questionnaire were not lettered.

Considering the above suggestions, a review of the questionnaire was made on the

affected questions before the author went to the field.

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On the reliability of the instrument, the Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient was

used to assess the internal consistency of the measure. Wimmer & Dominick

(2006) explain that, correlation coefficient ranges from -1.00 to +1.00 and is used

to gauge the strength of a relationship between two variables. Hence, a negative

number indicate a negative relationship and a positive number indicates a positive

relationship. In measuring reliability, a high positive correlation is desired. Hence

Olayiwola (2007, p72) notes “a reliable test will have a high reliability co-efficient

close to +1.00.

Using the split-half reliability method, only one administration of the questionnaire

was made. The test was split into halves and scored separately. The test items in

the questionnaire were grouped into two, odd and even numbers. Scores of each

group were correlated using Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient the reliability

test was run and the result was 0.81. Hence, the instrument could be said to be

reliable. Overall, the author discovered that the instrument used was well

interpreted and understood. Thus, the instrument could be said to be valid and

reliable.

3.11 Data Analysis Technique

Simple percentage method and frequency distribution tables were used to clearly

present the data gathered from the field. This technique was used by the author

because it makes data easier to interpret. Supporting this view, Kerlinger (as cited

in Timothy, J. E & Yair, L. 2008; Muhammad 2011) explained that percentage

method could be used to reduce different set of numbers to a common base, and

any set of frequency can be transformed to percentage in order to facilitate

statistical manipulation and interpretation.

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Chapter Four

Data Analysis, Presentation and Discussion of Findings

4.1 Introduction

This chapter contains presentation and analysis of data collected from respondents

in FCE Zaria and College of Health Sciences, Unilorin. A total of 300 copies of the

questionnaire were distributed and 291 were properly filled, completed and

returned. The returned copies of questionnaire represent 97% of the total number

distributed. Hence, data analysis will be based on the returned copies of

questionnaires.

4.2 Data Analysis

Table 1: Sex of RespondentsN=291

FrequencySex n Percentage Male 159 54.6

Female 132 45.4

Total 291 100 Field data (2011)

Table 1 shows there were more male (54.6%) than female (45.4%) respondents.

Although respondents were selected purposively, however, the researcher did not

intentionally seek to distribute questionnaires to more male than female

respondents.

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Table 2: Age of RespondentsN=291

FrequencyAge classes (in years) n Percentage 18-22 92 31.6

23-27 112 38.5

28-32 50 17.2

33-35 37 12.7

Total 291 100 Field data (2011)

The data in the table above indicate that most of the respondents for the study were

between age 23-27 years representing 38.5%, while the next major age group is 18-

22 years representing 31.6%, and the others are 28-32 years 17.2% and 33-35 years

12.7%. Thus, majority of respondents appears to be in their twenties.

Table 3: Respondents Response on Ownership/Access to GSM set.N=291

FrequencyResponse n Percentage Yes 291 100

No 0 0

Total 291 100 Field data (2011)

From the table above, all respondents own or have access to a GSM set. This result

is important for this study because those who have access to GSM sets are the ones

needed to adequately answer questions for the research. In addition, this research

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was undertaken based on the assumption that students in Zaria and Ilorin own or

have access to GSM sets. Thus, data in the table above indicate the assumption is

right.

Table 4: Respondents’ form of ownership of /access to GSM set.N=291

FrequencyResponse n Percentage Full ownership 246 84.5

Parents own 23 7.9

Relatives own 6 2.1

Friends own 10 3.4

Commercial Centre 6 2.1

Total 291 100 Field data (2011)

From the data gathered above, majority of respondents personally own GSM set.

This is not surprising because from observation around any campus, it is evident

that most youths own a GSM set and those who do not own one have access to it.

Table 5: Respondents’ accessibility to GSM.N=291

Frequency

Response n percentage Very accessible 234 80.4

Accessible 57 19.6

Not accessible 0 0

Total 291 100 Field data (2011)

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Results in table 5 corroborate the results in table 4 because the high percentage of

respondents with full ownership of GSM sets explains why it is very accessible to

most respondents.

This further confirms the assumption that most students have access to a GSM set.

Table 6:Responses on reading, listening to or watching traditional mass mediaN=291

FrequencyResponse n Percentage Yes 251 86.3

No 40 13.7

Total 291 100 Field data (2011)

Data in table 6 show that contrary to literature reviewed for this study; a lot of

youths actually do read, listen to or watch one form of traditional mass media or

the other, although the form of programming or news they read, listen to or watch

could not be determined at this point.

Table 7: Responses on frequency of reading, listening to or watching traditional mass media

N=251

FrequencyResponses n Percentage Very often 67 26.7

Often 127 50.6

Rarely 57 22.7

Total 251 100 Field data (2011)

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Note: Only respondents who answered ‘Yes’ in Table 6 above were required to

answer this question.

The table above shows a significant number (127) of respondents often read, listen

to or watch traditional mass media. 67 respondents do so very often and 57 do so

rarely. This brings the total number of respondents to 251 out of 291 respondents

who read, listen to or watch traditional mass media. This may indicate that a

significant number of youths devote their attention to traditional mass media.

Table 8: Responses on where respondents get their news from.N=864

FrequencyResponses n Percentage Newspaper 175 20.3

Magazine 87 10.1

Radio 193 22.3

Television 209 24.2

Internet 112 12.9

GSM 88 10.2

Others specify 0 0

Total 864 100 Field data (2011)

Note: Respondents could select more than one option to the question: ‘what are

your sources of news?’

The fact that most respondents get their news through television could not be

unconnected to the fact that various researches have shown that youths worldwide

are known to be ardent viewers of television. It was closely followed by radio and

76

then newspaper. The internet also has a sizeable amount of respondents which is

likely because many youths are known to go online to read newspapers. The low

figure attributed to GSM could be attributed to the fact that news service available

on GSM is not as popular as that of the other media and is just becoming popular

in our environment.

However, it is important to note that despite the review of literature for this study

which indicates that American youths do not go to traditional mass media for

news; for example, Mindich (2004) write that, the media industry today is no

longer the same because young people do not see a need to keep up with the news.

In short, the future of the news industry is seriously threatened by the seemingly

irrevocable move by young people away from traditional sources of news,

however, it appears a sizeable number of Nigerian youths actually still follow

traditional mass media for news.

Table 9: Reponses on awareness of news through GSM text messages.N=291

FrequencyResponses n Percentage Yes 144 49.5

No 147 50.5

Total 291 100 Field data (2011)

Table 9 reveals that more respondents are not aware of GSM text messages

containing political news than those who are aware of it. Those who are aware of

text messages carrying news mentioned mostly broadcast stations as those they are

aware of; top on the list is BBC Hausa Service and CNN mobile news. Others are

BBC World Service, VOA, ESPN sport and Al Jazeera, while very few

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respondents mentioned Nigerian print media like The Nation, New Nigerian

Newspaper, Vanguard and Weekly Trust.

From the above, it is evident that most of the respondents who are aware of GSM

text messages carrying news mostly mentioned foreign media. Only few Nigerian

media were mentioned. This may indicate that Nigerian media are not catching

onto this new trend fast enough.

Table 10: Responses on reception of GSM text messages containing newsN=291

FrequencyResponses n Percentage Yes 81 27.8

No 210 72.2

Total 291 100 Field data (2011)

The table above shows that despite the fact that a significant number of

respondents are aware of GSM text messages containing news, only a few had

actually received any. The few who had received any mostly received

entertainment news next to which was political news. A lot of the respondents have

never received any news through GSM text messages rather what they got was

advertisement from politicians seeking for votes through GSM/SMS.

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Table 11: Respondents’ opinion on using GSM text messages to transmit political news. N=291 FrequencyOpinion n Percentage Favourable 191 65.6

Unfavourable 100 34.4

Total 291 100 Field data (2011)

The above table shows that more than half of the respondents agree with the idea

of transmitting political news through GSM text messages. This may show that

SMS can be used as a channel for sending political news to students and by

extension, the larger society.

Table 12: Responses on preference for source of political newsN=291

FrequencyPreference n Percentage GSM Text Messages 167 57.4

Traditional Mass Media 124 42.6

Total 291 100 Field data (2011)

In the table above, more respondents would prefer to get news through GSM text

messages than traditional mass media. The reasons respondents gave for the

preference of GSM text messages included the following; convenience, portability,

accessibility, fastness and rapidity, private, factual and reliable, easily read and

79

received, brief, clear, stress less, and finally, the fact that it \makes a whole lot of

difference in a world where every second counts, putting into consideration the fact

that GSM is a modern means of communication in the world today.

4.3 Discussion of Findings

This section looks at the research questions and how they were answered based on

data collected from the survey.

4.3.1. RQ1. What are the levels of access to mobile phones by students in

Zaria and Ilorin?

Table three shows there is a high level of ownership /access to mobile phones with

100% representing 291 respondents answering in the affirmative. In table four, of

the 291 respondents, 246 representing 84.5% of respondents have full ownership

and subsequently in table five 234 (80.4%) indicated that mobile phones is

accessible to them and 52 (17.9%) say it is not accessible. This statistics may

indicate that the form of ownership of mobile phones contributes to its level of

accessibility.

Thus, the data above may indicate that the level of access to mobile phones by

students in Zaria and Ilorin between ages 18 to 35 years is high.

4.3.2. RQ2. What is the source(s) of news to students in Zaria and Ilorin?

Table 8 shows students in Zaria and Ilorin get their news from both the new and

old media (traditional mass media). Top on the list among their news sources is

television (209 respondents representing 24.2%), which is followed closely by

radio (193 respondents representing 22.3%) and then newspaper (175 respondents

representing 20.3%). Others are internet (112 respondents representing 12.9%),

GSM (88 respondents representing 10.2%) and then magazine (87 respondents

80

representing 10.1%). It is evident that television has the highest number of

respondents which is not surprising because students watch television a lot. The

fact that Magazine has the lowest percentage of respondents may not be

unconnected with the fact that observation has shown that most students do not go

to magazine for news but rather to satisfy other needs.

This result show that despite speculations, statements and observations that youth

do not view traditional mass media as their source of news, they actually do

considering the fact that the old media tops the list as their source of news in this

study.

4.3.3. RQ3. What is the attitude of students in Zaria and Ilorin to traditional

mass media sources of news?

Table 6 shows a significant number of respondents (251 representing 86.3%) read,

listen to or watch traditional mass media. This large percentage show that students

are still in tune with traditional mass media.

Results in table 8 show that students in Zaria and Ilorin have a favourable

disposition towards traditional news sources. Those who read, listen to or watch

traditional news sources very often (67 respondents) and often (127 respondents)

constitute 26.7% and 50.6% respectively. These two figures combined are quite

significant. This shows that not only do they access traditional news source, the

frequency of doing so is quite remarkable.

Furthermore, table 8 shows respondents mostly get their news from traditional

news source than from new media.

In addition, data in table 7 indicates that in as much as a lot of respondents prefer

GSM as their source of news, those who have preference for traditional mass

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media are quite sizeable in number. This is because 124 respondents representing

42.6% still prefer traditional mass media as their source of new. However, reasons

for such could not be determined at this point.

Thus, from the analysis above, it may be deduced from this study that Nigerian

youths have a positive attitude towards traditional news sources.

4.3.4. RQ4. Are students aware of text messages as a channel of news?

Table 9 indicates that those who are not aware (147 respondents representing

50.5%) of GSM text messages as a news source are slightly more than those who

are aware of it (144 respondents representing 49.5%). Although by a slim margin,

this result may still be indicative of the fact that a lot of youth do not know about

this service. This may not unconnected to the non- proliferation of SMS news as

compared to news from traditional mass media.

Furthermore, from the result of the study, majority of those who are aware of it

know only of foreign news media, only a few of them have come across Nigerian

news media that offer this service.

Thus, although some respondents are aware of this service, others are not aware.

4.3.5. RQ5. What is the opinion of students on use of text messages as a

channel of news?

In Table 10, students who find this idea favorable are 191 (representing 65.6%)

while those who found it unfavourable are 100 (representing 34.4%).

In addition, data in table 7 signify the desire of more respondents to get their news

through GSM text message (167 respondents representing 57.4%) than through

traditional news sources (124 respondents representing 42.6%). When asked the

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reason for GSM being their preferred source of news, respondents cited various

reasons among which are convenience, portability, accessibility, fastness and

rapidity, private, factual and reliable, easily read and received, brief, clear,

stressless, and the fact that, GSM a modern means of communication in the world

today, thus they want be in tune with what is in vogue.

The above analysis may imply that students believe using GSM to transmit

political news is a good idea. This is because, not only do most of them find the

idea favourable, they would also prefer it as their source of news.

This corroborate findings in a survey (launched by Carnegie Corporation of New

York) of youths carried out by Frank N. Magid Associates’ in May 2004. The goal

was to assess where youths get their news today and how they think they will

access news in the future. One of the major findings of the survey of news-related

habits of the demographic age of youths is that there are fundamental changes

driven by technology and market forces. Data indicate that this segment of the

population intends to continue to increase their use of the internet/ new media (like

mobile phones) as a primary news source in the coming years. Newspapers and

national television broadcast news fare poorly with this critical demographic

group.

4.4. Perspectives of Students on Using Text Messages for Political News

Dissemination.

Students around the world have been known to be quick in trying and accepting

new things especially when it comes to technological innovation. This may not be

unconnected to the fact that majority of students are youths. However, assuming

they will adopt the idea of SMS news is erroneous. Thus, finding out if SMS can

be used to send political news to students was of paramount importance. The ideas

83

of some respondents (57.4%) on the use of SMS for political news dissemination

included the following:

- It will avail them the opportunity of getting important and vital political

information in Nigeria easily.

- They will be abreast of current events anytime and anywhere because of

the portability of the medium. Hence, it will enlighten and create

awareness in them about latest political information.

- It is a good idea considering the fact that a large percentage of them use

and spend a lot of time on their mobile phones.

- It is very effective because it will provide them access to information at

their convenience.

- It will help to reach a lot of them thereby keeping them abreast of

political happenings.

- It is a cheap medium of political news dissemination, hence cost

effective.

- It is the fastest way of conveying political news to them.

- Its use can be maximized because technology is advancing everyday and

everything is going digital. The world is now a global village and

everything is going high tech hence this is the way forward.

- It is already in use hence the idea of its possibility cannot be questioned

thus it stands a good chance.

- It is a welcome idea which will be accepted easily because new things

are replacing old ones nowadays and SMS news could be an important

means of political news dissemination

Despite these positive advantages highlighted above, some respondents (47.6%)

had negative perceptions about sending political news through text messages.

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These respondents stated that they would not value such news. In addition, SMS to

them is something for fun and not for serious uses like transmitting political news

and as such they believe use of SMS for political news should be avoided because

it had a gloomy future, thus, it has no prospect.

These negative perceptions notwithstanding, after assessing the uses of political

news dissemination to students through text messages, this research has shown that

majority are open to the idea, hence it may be said that this new phenomenon is

acceptable and its uses could be maximized.

85

Chapter Five

Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation

5.1 Summary

With the proliferation of new media and the spread of digitization around the

globe, different professions have been looking for ways of meeting up with these

new trends. Journalism is not an exception. Due to intense competition, and the

increasing loss of its audiences to new media, traditional mass media houses in

Nigeria and in other parts of the world are frantically looking for ways to get back

their old audiences and possibly get new ones. One way through which they could

achieve this is through GSM text messages.

Based on the fact that GSM is the one piece of technology which is in the hands of

virtually all students in Zaria and Ilorin and hence can be used to reach a lot of

them easily, this book, assessed the uses GSM text messages has for political news

dissemination to students in FCE Zaria and College of Health Sciences, Ilorin. The

research is meant to highlight issues pertaining to GSM text messages and how its

use can be maximized on a large scale to disseminate political news to students.

Furthermore, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used to explain the

study because it corroborates media-related technological innovations (of which

GSM and text messages are part of) and thus can better explain the research.

The researcher used survey method in the study for empiricism. Copies of the

questionnaires were administered to 300 respondents, residing in Ilorin and Zaria.

Out of the 300 copies of questionnaires distributed, 291 copies were returned,

simple statistical method was used in analyzing the data and findings were

discussed.

86

The result of the study suggests using GSM text messages to disseminate political

news to students could be a welcome idea. They also would prefer to get their

news from text messages than traditional mass media sources. Equally, the findings

show that in as much as a lot of the students are aware of text messages carrying

political news, only a few have actually received any.

5.2 Conclusion

In this digital age, news organizations need to connect to consumers through

instant messaging services as a means of using new technologies to connect to

younger audiences. This is clearly a method for providing the accessibility younger

audiences are likely to embrace. Brown (2006) agrees that, this is a way of

producing new products for different consumers. It is a new media- inspired

phenomenon, in part, because it serves a similar purpose: providing quick

snapshots of what is happening in the world of culture, news and entertainment,

and placing it directly in the hands of consumers. Thus, there is no reason why it

cannot be used for political news as well.

For example, as Taiwo (2010) stated, though SMS is now subtly being used among

Nigerians to deride the state, its agents and the people, it has the potential of

becoming an instrument for active agitation for social reforms. Some state

governments in the country (e.g, Lagos, Jigawa, Imo) recognise the potential use

SMS can be put to and now use it as a medium to receive feedback from the people

they govern. This is an idea media houses should embrace. Likewise, the Nigerian

government also used SMS recently for their propaganda on the Rebranding

Project. All these show that in future, the young people will take SMS beyond the

present level of its use for interpersonal relationship and subtle use for social

commentary to play a major role in the political institutions in Nigeria.

87

Thus, it is also advisable for the media in Nigeria to move quickly along with these

trends. In addition, news organizations must recognize the value of the one piece of

technology that is in virtually every hand around the world-the cell phone-so that

the mobile revolution is , in fact , part of a news revolution.

Based on the findings of the work, the conclusion that can be drawn is that

majority of students in Zaria and Ilorin do have full ownership of GSM set and this

makes it accessible to them. The accessibility of the GSM to youths affects their

patronage of its services to a large extent. Of all the uses students put GSM to,

such as, to make and receive calls, to send and receive messages, to chat with

friends, to play games, to get news, to take pictures, to listen to music, to watch

video; the least use youths make use of GSM for is to get news. Youths often read,

listen to or watch traditional mass media for news contrary to popular opinion and

of all the traditional media, television ranks top among the list of media through

which they get their news from. A lot of students are aware of text messages

carrying political news items, however, only a few have actually received any.

Students feel GSM carrying political news is a good idea which will be very useful

to them. Hence, they would rather get news from GSM text messages than from

traditional mass media because of its convenience, accessibility, rapidity and

proximity.

5.3 Recommendations from the Study

Based on the findings of the work, the researcher recommends the following:

1) The proliferation of mobile phones SMS use in Nigeria should not just be

limited to helping students to fulfill their interpersonal communication

needs, it should also be used to transform the political landscape of the

88

country by empowering youths to participate in political affairs through

political news they will receive from the media.

2) The idea of sending political news alerts to the phone of students should be

practiced on a large scale by all media houses in Nigeria. News products

could be built around information services designed for cellular delivery.

These products could range from issues that border on national, state or local

politics. It is worthy of note that whatever the level of government, it is

important for students to know how their country is being governed.

3) In an attempt to get text messages across to the youths, media houses can get

the data of this demographic group from the Nigerian Communications

Commission (NCC) data base. With the new SIM registration phenomenon,

this should not be a difficult task. Albeit, regrettably, noting privacy

concerns.

4) There should be increased collaboration between traditional mass media

organizations in Nigeria and the telecommunication service providers (i.e

Airtel, MTN, Globacom, Starcomms, Etisalat, Multilinks and Visafone ) on

the best and cost effective way to send political news alerts to students and

other citizens in Nigeria. Although, there is already collaboration in this

regard, this service could only be gotten at a price. Hence, the proposed

collaboration should make political news available to GSM phones for free.

5) There is the need for media managers to regularly commission or conduct

research in order to stay up to date with ever-changing attitude of youths

towards the media. However at present, owners of media houses should

think more towards the creation of a new product (quick political news alert

through mobile phones) that youths can identify with.

6) Media organizations and the government of the day in Nigeria need to keep

track of the news consumption habits of youths. This is to increase the level

89

of awareness of government activities among young persons, media houses

need to re-define the way they deliver news. Also the means of getting

feedback should be encouraged.

5.4 Recommendation for Further Research

Due to the limitations encountered in this work, the researcher recommends that a

much broader work should be carried out; such study should spread out in terms of

population and sample size. It is also recommended that a would be author could

assess the potentiality of any other new media such as the internet for news

dissemination to Nigerian youths.

90

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99

Appendix I

Questionnaire

This work is on “Use of Text Messages for Political News Dissemination to

Student in Nigeria”. You have been purposively selected as a member of the

student population for this work.

Information supplied will be used strictly for academic purpose. Your responses

will be treated with utmost confidentiality. Please be truthful in your response to

the questions. Thank you.

Instruction

Please kindly tick (

correct to the question.

Section A (Demographic Information)

1. Sex

a. Male [ ]

b. Female [ ]

2. Age:

a. 18-22 years [ ]

b. 23-27 years [ ]

c. 28- 32years [ ]

d. 33-35 years [ ]

100

3. Area of residence

a. Zaria [ ]

b. Ilorin [ ]

Section B

Ownership/ Access

4. Do you own or have access to a GSM set?

a. Yes [ ]

b. No [ ]

5. What form of ownership/access do you have?

a. Full ownership [ ]

b. Parents own [ ]

c. Relatives own [ ]

d. Friends own [ ]

e. Commercial center [ ]

6. How accessible is GSM to you?

a. Very accessible [ ]

b. Accessible [ ]

c. Not accessible [ ]

Patronage

7. Does this accessibility affect your patronage of GSM services?

a. Yes [ ]

b. No [ ]

101

8. To what extent does this accessibility affect your patronage?

To a large extent [ ]

To an extent [ ]

Not at all [ ]

Uses

9. What different uses do you put GSM to? (You can tick more than one option).

a. To make and receive calls. [ ]

b. To send and receive messages [ ]

c. To chat with friends [ ]

d. To play games [ ]

e. To get news [ ]

f. To take pictures. [ ]

g. To listen to music and play video [ ]

h. Others specify--------------------------------

Traditional Mass Media ( For example newspaper, magazine, radio and

television)

10. Do you read, listen to or watch traditional mass media?

a. Yes [ ]

b. No [ ]

If YES, answer question 11, if NO proceed to question 12.

11. How often do you read, listen to or watch traditional mass media?

a. Very often [ ]

b. Often [ ]

102

c. Rarely [ ]

Awareness

12. Where do you get your news? (you can select more than one)

a. Newspapers [ ]

b. Magazine [ ]

c. Radio [ ]

d. Television [ ]

e. Internet [ ]

f. GSM [ ]

e. Others specify------------------------

13. Are you aware of news through text messages from any news media?

a. Yes [ ]

b. No [ ]

14. If Yes, which media----------------------------------------------------------------------

------------

15. Have you ever received any GSM Text message containing news?

a. Yes [ ]

b. No [ ]

16. If yes, what type of news was it?

a. Political [ ]

b. Social [ ]

c. Entertainment [ ]

e. Economic [ ]

103

d. Sports [ ]

e. Health [ ]

f. Religious [ ]

g. Others specify -------------------------------------------------

GSM Text Messages

17 .What is your opinion on using text messages carrying political news?

a. Favorable [ ]

b. Not favourable [ ]

18. How useful is GSM text messages carrying political news?

a. Very useful [ ]

b. Useful [ ]

c. Not useful [ ]

d. Don’t Know [ ]

19. Would you rather get your political news from GSM text messages or through

traditional mass media?

a. GSM text messages [ ]

b. Traditional mass media [ ]

20. If from GSM text messages, why?

104

21. Which of these options do you feel is/are the advantage(s) of sending news

through GSM text messages? (You can tick more than one option)

a. Convenience [ ]

b. Accessibility [ ]

c. Rapidity/fastness [ ]

d. Proximity [ ]

22. What do you consider as the prospects for using SMS for political news

distribution especially among Nigerian Youths?

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