New Media and Mass Communication www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-3267 (Paper) ISSN 2224-3275 (Online) Vol.27, 2014 31 Study of the Effects of ICT on News Processing in Borno Radio Television (BRTV) Maiduguri - Nigeria Nuhu Diraso Gapsiso, Joseph Wilson Department of Mass Communication University of Maiduguri, Nigeria Abstract As media industry especially in developing countries continue to work towards the digitization of its operations media organizations in Nigeria are not left out in this drive. ICT is now an indispensable part of everyday- existence of every radio/television station and newspaper/magazine outfits. This study explores the effect of ICT on news processing in Borno Radio Television (BRTV) with a focus on ICT effects on news processing. The study used the survey method and from a response rate of 88%. The findings indicates that ICT has positive effect on the computerization of news processing in BRTV Maiduguri, the findings also indicates that 75% think ICT is very relevant in the computerization of news processing, 22.7% believe that it is relevant, 2.3% said it is not relevant. The findings further indicates that the following were the constraints in the use of ICT in news processing: network failure, inadequate power supply, very complex and time consuming, limitation placed by NBC Act on the use of certain ICT, server problem, access charges, inadequate computer technology in newsroom. The study recommends that there is need to computerize the process of news processing in order to facilitate the processing of news in our broadcast stations. Keywords: Effects, ICT,News, and Processing. Introduction The news processing in the media particularly the broadcast media seem to be witnessing a revolution that is changing the process of news collection, editing and dissemination. This change has been brought about by the advent of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Meanwhile the last two decades or so witnessed tremendous advancement in the spread of the knowledge of information and communication technology. Virtually every segment of society, including the press, has been impacted by these developments. Even though the knowledge spread slowly to, or was latently embraced in Nigeria, its effects have been enormous. Not only has it quickened information dissemination, it has also revolutionized the conduct, method and quality of media practices generally. Adesoji (2006) The computerization of editorial duties has caused a real upheaval in working habits but has also marked a genuine development in presswork. Computers fascinate some people and frighten others, and have fostered bitter resistance from print union representatives. The possibility for journalists everywhere to type their own articles, type copy and enter it directly into a computer system has completely transformed the profession. Keyboard operators previously responsible for inputting copy, and who themselves had replaced traditional typesetters, have already gone in some countries and will disappear in the medium-term elsewhere. .Silverstone (2000) as he pointed out Media are changing, have changed, radically.Thus the process of writing stories appears to have change with the advent of ICT. First, a reporter writes a news story on the word processing system. The article is then stored in the central data file. An editor “calls up” the story. It is edited, polished and readied for print. Finally, the computer is directed to typeset the story in its expected form. In this way, a story that could have been typed three times (reporter’s original, edited version, typeset version), is only typed once. Nworah (2008) To underscore the relevance of ICT in newsrooms, Mwila a Zambian web developer said that once fully adopted and adapted, the ICT will transform the newsrooms into cabled and networked centres with all journalists discharging stories onto a network, editors picking them before sending them to the page designers or casters in the case of electronic media. Basically, the newsrooms will utilize all the available ICT to easily coordinate material for publication or broadcasting and also to communicate among staff. He adds that with accurate deployment of ICT, newsrooms will be able to efficiently coordinate material, communicate easily with all members of the staff and easily send materials for publication or broadcasting. For instance, instead of individuals getting copy from one desk to another, the ICT will enable copy and articles to flow on a local area network (LAN), drastically reducing the time lag in passing materials. Our century has seen the telephone, film, radio, television become both objects of mass consumption and essential tools for the conduct of everyday life. We are now confronted by the spectre of a further intensification of mediated culture, through the global growth of the Internet and the promise (some might say the threat) of an interactive world in which nothing and no one cannot be accessed, instantly. Much of contemporary debate draws on a sense of the speed of these various changes and developments, but mistakes the speed of technological change, or indeed of commodity change, for the speed of social and cultural change. There is a constant tension between the technological, the commercial and the social, a tension that must be addressed if we