ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF PHOTOGRAPHIC CONTENT IN ENHANCING NEWS CREDIBILITY AMONG PRINT MEDIA AUDIENCE

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ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF PHOTOGRAPHIC CONTENT IN ENHANCING NEWS CREDIBILITY AMONG PRINT MEDIA AUDIENCE

 A CASE STUDY OF EKITI STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The primary duty of every journalist is to inform, educate and entertain the public adequately and accurately. The method used in the information dissemination may differ from one media station to the other, but the aim is the same. Audiences utilize their senses of light, sound, taste, touch and smell to appreciate the message put across by the media. The print uses texts to glue readers to the pages of newspapers and magazines. While doing so, media experts are wary of the fact that wide pages of texts in newspapers or magazines without pictures to complement stories and break the monotony of paragraphs would result in speedy diminishing of interest for reading, no matter how interesting a story is. This aspect of news reporting is photojournalism.

According to the popular saying “one picture is worth a thousand words” demonstrates the power of pictures and the information they can convey. It is a known fact that people tend to believe their sense of sight more than other sensory organs based on the popular saying, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Okoro & Nnadiukwu (2000 p.73) define photojournalism as communication through pictures. They also add that it is the use of photographs in the narration, description, explanation or illustration of what has happened, is happening, or about to happen. Based on the power of photographs, words are secondary to pictures in reporting news events in this field of journalism. Okoro (2002, p.15) sees it as “information, education, communication and entertainment through pictures.” It means the visual presentation of happenings of the day with the help of the camera.

The use of photographic contents in print media (Photojournalism) is a sub-discipline of photography, which involves capturing of images to help tell a story. The use of pictures in journalism has been a topical issue. While some academic efforts tend to loud the complementary role of photographic contents, others cry out against its manipulation and deliberate lie through computer possibilities in recent times. For instance, in the study of Malizu (2011, p. 133), she expresses the growing concern over the debate on whether pictures lie or not. She says “that the camera cannot lie is true only in the sense that the images it captures must have existed in one form or another at some particular time, but it is not always clear if those images have been manipulated in some way to alter or to stage an event which never happened.” Malizu argues further that photography was never innocent from its beginning. Liu, Yao & Liu (2004) corroborate the claim when they affirm that “Even some of the most vulnerable news organizations of the world have had their reputations corroded by allowing these tampered photos to be published.”

However, photography has come to stay, considering its roles in meeting audience needs. Pictures serve the purposes of complementing stories in print media; presenting pictorial sequence of events, standing alone for news; and acting the story in form of feature photo (Asemah & Ottah, 2015). It is against this background that this study seek to analyze the impact of photographic contents in enhancing news credibility among print media audience – a case study of Ekiti state.

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

It is no longer news that the use of photographs in print media occupies a very significant position in the industry. This is because it is effectively used to accompany a news story and tell the news better. But there are no adequate literatures on the frequencies and uses of pictures in newspapers and how it enhance news credibility. Also, studies on the various types of photographs used in print media are in short supply. Analyses on the relevance of photographic contents used in print media in general and suffered what one may call academic neglect. There is the need to understand in specific terms the frequency of the use of photographs in print media and how it enhances readership, understanding and enhancing the credibilitiy of news. Associated with this research problem is that there are divergent views on the functions of news photos in print media, more so that in recent decades, the use of computer has questioned the veracity of the claim that pictures do not lie. There is therefore the need to analyse the pictures used in print media to ascertain the level of editing and the extent to which such editing tampers with the natural (original) look of the pictures; as well as the sources of those pictures and whether they actually relate to stories featured. This work therefore, specifically seeks to analyze the impact of photographic content in enhancing news credibility among print media audience in Ekiti State.

1.3       OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY.

The general objective of the study is to analyze the impact of photographic contents in enhancing news credibility among print media audience – a case study of Ekiti State.

The specific objectives include

1. To ascertain the frequency of the use of photographic contents in print media
2. To identify the various types of photographic contents used in them.
3. To ascertain the relevant functions of the photographic contents in print media
4. To identify the sources of the photographic contents used in the print media and how it affects news credibility.

1.           RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research questions to guide this study include the following:

1. How frequent is the use of photographic contents in print media?
2. What are the various types of photographic contents used in print media?
3. What are the relevant functions of the photographic contents in print media?
4. What are the sources of the photographic contents used in the print media and how it affects news credibility?

1.5       SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study was embarked upon so that people will understand and appreciate the impact of picture on ensuring news worthiness. In other words, it will help them know its effect on news credibility. This study shows clearly the benefits in photojournalism to our researchers, professional. In the field, street men and women and to students of mass communication. This will also help in the encouragement of the use of picture and illustration in magazine pages since its usage prove pragmatic on readers. This in other words, serve as a guide to editors who place any kind of picture on their news paper and magazine pages.

1.6     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this study is to analyze the impact of photographic contents in enhancing news credibility among print media audience. The scope of the study is geographically limited to Ekiti state.

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