THE IMPLICATION OF NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMMISSION RULES AND REGULATIONS ON THE BROADCAST ORGANIZATION

Objectivity remains a contentious subject, affording all forms of interpretations and viewpoints depending on the position, interest, orientation and background of parties to it. The interests of such parties are usually of immediate importance. The position a journalist takes as an employee might change when he becomes an owner. Therefore, subject to prevailing and countervailing circumstances, an erstwhile advocate of strict objectivity might shift grounds when certain interests of his are at stake. For instance, certain journalists who left their former jobs on grounds of lack of room for objectivity have been known to run commercial news stories on their stables. Examples here might include the News and Tell Magazines which sometimes devote their cover stories to extolling the virtues and performances of some state governors. This practice supports Altchull's assertion that the content of the press is directly correlated with the interests of those who finance the press. (Althscull, 1984: 254). This suggests, as would be seen in certain cases later in this paper, that media owners sometimes employ the instrumentality of employment and promotion to enforce compliance of staff to toe the line in terms of editorial content.