ASSESSING THE RELEVANCE OF NEW MASS COMMUNICATION CURRICULUM (CCMAS) TO THE DEMANDS OF BROADCAST MEDIA IN TARABA STATE

The rapid development of media technology and the increasing demand for development journalism necessitated thereview of new Mass Communication education curriculum (CCMAS). The study identified skills, knowledge andpracticing gaps that exist in the broadcast media in Taraba State, evaluating alignment of CCMAS with these gapsand examine the challenges of implementing the curriculum. Built on Curriculum Alignment Theory which holds thateducation must be pertinent, useful, and adaptable to the industry’s actual demands in order to be effective, the studyadopted a qualitative method using in-depth interview, it sampled 13 and 12 respondents from Taraba State universityand broadcast media industries in Jalingo respectively, using availability sampling technique. Interview guide was usefor data collection and data was analysed in form of narration. Findings revealed that broadcast media in Taraba Staterequire community journalism, indigenous language communication, development journalism, data journalism andfact checking, digital storytelling among others. It was equally discovered that CCMAS is partially relevant as it doesnot fully contain the needs of the industry; and that major challenges of implementing CCMAS are lack of digitaltools and equipment for the teaching, poor funding of the programme and wrong placement of the courses inappropriate levels. The study recommended that National Universities Commission, Mass CommunicationDepartments’ Reps and media experts should review CCMAS, incorporating areas like community journalism, indigenous language communication, fact-checking and development journalism to equip students with industry-relevant skills; as government and university management ensure provision of digital equipment for training the students.