PurposeTo find out the patterns of information technology (IT) use by electronic media workers in Delta State, Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThe survey design using questionnaires to collect data is employed.FindingsThese reveal the personal characteristics of the respondents – their sex, age, qualification, ranks/job titles, name of media organization; that all the respondents use IT facilities/components; most of them use computers system daily; a majority do not use internet/e‐mail nor fax machine but a majority use telephone; a good number of them use IT facilities to send message/news to their office; IT facilitates their sending/receiving of news/messages; frequent power outages among other factors militate against use of IT by the workers.Originality/valueThe findings would assist electronic media organizations in developing countries to develop policies that could make media workers better users of IT.