INTERNET USE, ABUSE OR MISUSE BY ADVERTISING PRACTITIONERS IN NIGERIA

A STUDY OF ADVERTISING PRACTITIONERS COUNCIL OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The emergence of new media technologies has revolutionized several countries’ economy, institutions and professional bodies, including the advertising profession. With the explosion in the media of advertising and the concomitant liberalization of the advertising landscape where social networking site like Facebook tends to welcome anybody, group or organization that wants to advertise on its platform and individuals creating several advertising links on the micro blogging platform, Twitter; discerning minds are being agitated. Census research design was adopted in obtaining data from a population of fifteen staff of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) in Enugu Zonal Office. The study was aimed at finding out the challenges faced by this regulatory agency and the options available to them in this era of new media. Findings suggest that regulation and monitoring have become increasingly complex as both regulators and the regulated grapple with the dynamics of a digitized world. The study recommends an APCON organized International Regulatory Conference where stakeholders such as advertisers, advertising agencies, bloggers, web publishers, the academia, professional journalists as well as citizen journalists would rub minds on how best to regulate Internet advertising in Nigeria.