Sociolinguistic Situation of English in the Electronic Media Establishments in Maiduguri

Authors

  • Usman Mohammed Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna Kaduna state

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of English in the electronic media establishments in Maidguri i.e radio Borno (RB). Borno Television (BTV) and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). Two of the media establishments BR and BTV are state owned while NTA is federal owned are: (a)education, (b)enlightment, (c)entertainment and (d) edification i e 4Es. By the establishments except RB, which does not use English for E4. This is due to the fact that “state languages”are used for that purpose whose consumers constitute the non-elites. It is equally observed that the use of English is high in NTA with about 67.06% for all the Es in 4 quarters which determines the functions and communication range of English as one of the de facto national and official languages of the country i e Nigeria. The percentage of the use of English is low in BR with about 23.39%because the media establishment is owned by the state and efforts are made to reflect as many “state languages” as possible. Though BTV is also owned by the state, it is a high percentage of the use of English of about 44.105. We also observe that the use of English is generally high for E2 and E3 in all the media establishments. This is with a view to moulding the opinion of the elites. For E1 and E2 generally, the use of English is low. This may be the fact that “state languages” are preferred with a view to reaching the “grassroots”. We can notice that in BR the “state languages”are exclusively used for E4.

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Published

2009-07-17

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Articles