Influence of technological innovation on journalism practice amongst journalists in Owerri metropolis

Abstract

Journalism has been going through several major technological changes during the past few years. The pace of these changes is breathtaking, altering the practice of the profession in ways on thought of just decades ago. These changes have impacted on a wide range of activities from news gathering to dissemination and are known to birth many benefits. However, the profession faces some negative impact too. The study was conducted to ascertain the influence of technological innovation on journalism practice amongst Journalists in Owerri Metropolis. The objectives of the study amongst others were to find out the degree to which media practitioners use new media technologies in their day-to-day reportage and examine the influence these technological innovations have had on their news reportage and other media activities. The study was anchored on Technological Determinism Theory. The population of this study comprised 121 registered registered practicing Journalists in Owerri metropolis and this formed the sample size of the study using the Census principle. The Questionnaire was used for data collection while statistical package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to run the analysis of the data obtained. The study revealed that there is a positive significant impact of technological innovations on Owerri based media practitioners. The study recommends that orientation should be intensified at journalism schools and other allied training schools to educate Journalists to embrace new technological innovations.