Taraba State Broadcasting Service (TSBS) Jalingo Reportage: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

Mainstream media around the world have gone digital with more sophisticated gadgets and digital communication tools in order to compete with the social media which tend to have the credibility of breaking the news ahead of the conventional media. In Taraba State, some station livestream in their quest to meet up. Based on foregoing, this study is set to examine the impact of digital communication in Taraba State Broadcasting Service (TSBS) Jalingoreportage, uncovering the challenges and prospects.The objectives of this study are to ascertain the impact of digital communication in TSBS, Jalingo; to examine the peculiar challenges the station faced with digital communication and to uncover the prospects of digital communication to the station. The study which is guided by Technological Determinism Theory, adopted a qualitative approach using in-depth interview to collect data from population which are the 18 trained Journalists of the Station. 12 out of the 18 population were selected based on experience and were interviewed to provide data for the study which were analysed thematically to explain the emerging themes. Findings revealed that digital communication have significant impact on the station’s broadcasting hence; it uses digital communication tools to boost its operation, however, there arechallenges ranging from lack of required tools, staff are under trained, and unstable power supply. The study concluded that digitalisation has a very high impact on TSBS and recommended that government should supply more equipment and train the staff for utmost utilisation of the digital communication tools.