Text Messaging and Political News Dissemination to Students in Nigeria: Potentials, Uses, Prospects

With the proliferation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the future of the news industry is threatened by the movement of young people away from traditional sources of news. Perhaps, a way to correct this situation is through the use of Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) text messaging. This is because GSM is the one piece of technology that is virtually in the hands everyone, most especially youth of which inherently majority are students. Moreover, seeing that the practice of journalism is changing in ways that challenge the historic function of the news business, text messages will be a good way to keep students informed about political issues both within and outside the country. This book therefore serves as a guide for traditional mass media houses, new media organizations, government of nations (especially developing nations) or anyone else who may be considering the potentials or prospects of using GSM text messages for new dissemination in general or even political news dissemination in particular. It will also help shed light on some conceptual aspects of GSM and also the functional and dysfunctional perspectives of text messaging.