Local Media Going Global: Assessing Online Media Efficiency By Nigerian Audience Abroad

Abstract

The internet connectivity is projecting the opportunities upon which local mainstream news media (newspaper, radio and television) are reached globally. Even outside the comfort zones of the newspaper circulation as well as radio and Television spectrums, the internet makes a point of contact between the media and the audiences across borders.  Assessing the purpose for media going global, which transcends reaching the audience outside the border-bound but accommodates the effort to meet up with the information needs of the international audience, constitutes the major objective of this study. A survey of the diaspora audience of Nigerian online media in Malaysia, UK, South Africa, and the US was conducted through online questionnaire. Sampling the opinions of the media audiences across frontier on whether the media globalisation enhances the quality and structure of media output, this study found out that despite the fact that the general audience assessment of the media was lamentable, the audience appraised newspapers for moving closer to the global prospect ahead TV and Radio. The audience rating of the online media efficiency was discussed on the tenet of media usage based on the information needs that compel gratification. The online access to mainstream media according to the audience remains a laudable innovation that upturns the media questionable outputs and narrows the wide gaps between the media and the audience as well as among the audiences.