SOCIAL MEDIA'S LIVE NEWS UPDATES AND MODERN JOURNALISM; A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF NIGERIAN TELEVISION AUTHORITY (NTA) JALINGO

Real-time news on social media has shifted people's attention away from traditional media outlets, who struggle to keep up with the rapid pace of news stories. This formed the basis for this study as it investigates why social media break news stories ahead of the conventional media stations. This study which is a qualitative one examines the dynamics of social media's live news updates and modern journalism, with a focus on NTA Jalingo. The study explores three key research questions; do social media break news faster compared to NTA Jalingo? What are the challenges hindering NTA Jalingo from breaking news ahead of social media? And how can NTA Jalingo leverage modern technologies to break news faster than the social media? Hence, the study adopts Technological Acceptance Model which predicts how users come to accept and use technologies based on their perceptions of its usefulness and ease of use. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 12 trained Journalists out of the 20 journalists of the station. Findings reveal that social media indeed break news ahead of NTA Jalingo, primarily due to structural, technological, bureaucratic and human resource challenges. To overcome these challenges, the researcher recommends that NTA Jalingo adopts modern technologies, such as social media analytics tools and mobile journalism apps, to enhance its news gathering and dissemination processes. The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on social media's impact on modern journalism and provides practical recommendations for NTA Jalingo to improve its competitiveness in the digital age.