The character of the mass media is such that it is expected to bring about positive influence in the lives of its audience through contents that lend credence amongst other things to the preservation of the culture and intrinsic values of the society. When television broadcasting was established in Nigeria in 1959, one of the paramount objectives was that the medium be utilized to propagate cultural learning of the ideologies and elements of the numerous ethnic tribes spread across the nation; in order to facilitate the transmission of her cultural heritage from one generation to the next, as well as promote her culture internationally. With the deregulation of the broadcast industry in 1992, broadcast contents on the television have constantly raised concern especially in the area of its contribution to the realization of the cultural vision for which broadcasting was established in the first place. There seem to be a flood of foreign content over local/indigenous content as a result of the commercial nature of industry. It is based on this problem that study sought to comparatively evaluate the cultural relevance of contents on government and privately owned television in Nigeria, using the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA 2) and Silverbird Television (STV) Lagos as case study. Through content analysis quantitative research design, a sample size of two hundred programmes was selected from the 2012 programme schedule of both stations. Results show that while 70% of the contents on NTA are of cultural significance and promote cultural learning; only 43% of the contents on STV were of cultural relevance.

The character of the mass media is such that it is expected to bring about positive influence in the lives of its audience through contents that lend credence amongst other things to the preservation of the culture and intrinsic values of the society. When television broadcasting was established ...