Mass Media And Promotion Of The Benefit Of Exclusive Breastfeeding

Mass Media And Promotion Of The Benefit Of Exclusive Breastfeeding

Abstract

Media juggernauts are frequently used to achieve followership rallying and participation in the process of development. frequently times, still, it fails to achieve the purpose for which it was designed retaining to numerous factors. It’s material to insure that similar development dispatches are duly planned and designed so as to meet the target group and achieve the set objects. This study examined the media juggernauts on exclusive breastfeeding in Uyo original government area while assaying the comprehensions of women regarding the juggernauts and the colorful media used in the exercise, it linked the colorful constraints in the application of the media to reach the envisaged followership. Anchored on the invention prolixity proposition, this check exploration employed questionnaire as the major instrument of data collection. The data collected was presented in simple tables and probabilities. The findings of this exploration findings include; interpersonal communication is the most effective mode of communication in communicating the exclusive breastfeeding juggernauts, the juggernauts do run in acceptable volumes to effect behavioral change among these women, maturity of the women reserve their predilection towards exclusive bone- feeding in malignancy the juggernauts and that they’ve challenges using the media through which they admit information on exclusive bone- feeding. Recommendations made at the end of this exploration work will help to enhance the planning and designing of the media juggernauts in the state and Nigeria as a whole.

Chapter One

Preface

Background of Study

Effective communication enhances sustainable development. numerous inquiries carried out support that communication and development are so nearly related that there can not be development without communication. In a developing country like Nigeria, strategies, plans and programs on experimental systems can only be effective and the asked results produced, if the design is duly communicated.

This indicates that it’s important to duly articulate the development systems through planning and formulating strategies on how to actually apply the objects of the development systems to achieve results. On the other hand and inversely important is the communication regarding the development design. It must be duly communicated in order for people to see the need, the strategies and the asked result in view. This is what’s known as development communication.

Development communication as defined by( Nwabueze, 200818) “ is a conscious trouble by a sender to package dispatches aimed at prevailing , encouraging and persuading the receiver to borrow and share in appearing the development plan ”. Development communication is used to bring about behavioural change towards the asked development in a particular society. These communication processes are frequently done through mass media juggernauts and advocacy advertising.

Advocacy advertising titleholders preventative action against conditions affecting the public weal( Ukonu, 200483). In development process, advocacy is concerned with producing information and knowledge for decision makers within the terrain where the development is needed to grease their capability to make informed opinions regarding the design or invention.

It isn’t enough to just state these juggernauts, it must be duly planned to meet the end for its product. It entails duly probing the people who the development communication is targeted at, to insure that the applicable channel is used, the applicable language and the communication itself packaged to suit the people. This will in turn encourage their appreciating the development process and their participation in it. According to( Okunna, 2000298), “ development should be a participatory process whose success thus eventually depends on the involvement of the people in whatever design is being carried out ”

There have been numerous of similar juggernauts for experimental processes in Nigeria, but whether these juggernauts meet the asked objects is a question that’s yet to be easily answered. As( Ekwelie, 1999 6) opines

We’ve evidence that development and communication can be complimentary. We know that communication may fail to induce development, but after making all the allowances for accidents in nature and society, we’re still left with a paradigm that links communication with development

One of similar juggernauts is the exclusive bone- feeding crusade. This crusade is no longer news to Nigerians especially women. Exclusive bone- feeding crusade is the leading intervention in the forestallment of child malnutrition which is the major cause of further than half of all child deaths in developing countries. In an attempt to achieve successful bone- feeding encyclopedically by the time 2000, World Health

Organization( WHO) and United Nations transnational children exigency fund( UNICEF) launched the baby friendly sanitarium action( BFHI) in 1991. It’s a design through which exclusive bone- feeding is being supported, promoted and defended.

Exclusive bone- feeding means that no other drink or food should be given to the child except bone milk; the child should feed constantly and for unrestricted ages. The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative( BFHI) recommends that babies be bone fed for six months and later until twenty- four months alongside other proper food for the child. This recommendation is because of the colorful exploration publications on the superiority of bone milk compared to other type of milk for the aliment of child, and the immolation of better health benefits to both mama and child. All nutritive requirements for children are handed by the bone milk in the right quantum and duration. This pivotal benefit of bone milk urged the need for exclusive bone- feeding crusade.

In malignancy of all the sweats geared towards achieving the pretensions of exclusive bone feeding crusade, which include reducing child malnutrition and mortality, the design still doesn’t have 100 percent success. This is owing to a number of factors which include gap in communication, especially in the pastoral areas. Writing on the effective creation of bone- feeding in the 21st century( Oruamabo, 200415) affirms that “ Women occupant in the pastoral areas pose the topmost problems ”.

Exclusive bone- feeding crusade is communicated through the colorful mass media in the country. These media include the radio, TV, journals and magazines, banners, bills, and pamphlets. child weal clinic sessions at several hospitals and prenatal conventions are also avenues where information about exclusive bone- feeding is communicated.

The juggernauts frequently times aren’t holistic, in that they’re citified which removes the pastoral people from the picture.( Mboho, 2005114) noted that communication with pastoral people is a complex process, involving a combination of traditional and ultramodern mass media. Unlike in the civic communities where the ultramodern mass media are used to circulate dispatches of development

communication, one can not ignore the traditional means of communication. This is owing to the lack of the introductory infrastructural amenities like electricity and good road network which frequently hamper the spread of these ultramodern mass media.

Media juggernauts in Uyo original government area are frequently patronized by government agencies or transnational associations that plan and place these juggernauts at the public situations of the media and through their network channels the juggernauts are spread to reach people each over the confederation. therefore they may remain as one of those programmes or announcements to people because their contents aren’t localized, in that it isn’t done to suit the people that the crusade is targeted at.

Again the media juggernauts, because veritably frequently are patronized by, private agencies or as a means of publicizing a particular world programme, the juggernauts don’t come in the right volumes to sustain the process until there’s the asked behaviourial change which will bring about the experimental process.

Another part to consider is the perception of the women, of the juggernauts and the extent to which they’re told by the juggernauts to stimulate behaviourial change which will affect to the asked development. Do they buy the idea in the crusade? Does the strategy and type of programme appeal to them and their media patterns? All of these must be considered for the crusade to meet the target and get the right results.

Again, it’s necessary to use the most suitable medium for the right target followership in order to achieve the asked result. The women in Uyo original government area can appreciate completely the advantages of the use of ultramodern mass media for the juggernauts; still, how effective are these media in communicating the communication of the exclusive bone- feeding crusade especially in the pastoral areas in Uyo original government area? The print media i.e. the journals and magazines which are substantially public domestics frequently carry these bone- feeding juggernauts. still this medium may not be effective in the communication of these juggernauts to these women in Uyo original government area because of the need for compendiums to be knowledgeable and again the cost of buying clones which the women especially those in the pastoral areas may not readily go.

numerous scholars have constantly stated the power of the electronic media over all other communication media.( Aniebona 1990116) observed that the world has honored the fact that broadcasting is a important and effective tool for the spread of education for both children and grown-ups in order to achieve certain prescribed pretensions.

According to Waterson( 1969), the radio is a veritable channel through which group geste can be directed in a combined way in order to bring about any social change. Radio stations are important channels through which these development dispatches can be transmitted because of its cost effectiveness and the fact that it doesn’t inescapably bear electricity to operate. Again the radio tends to identify further with the followership including the pastoral residers in terms of programme content and language of delivery, because information is also transmitted using the conversational language.

still, the use and effectiveness of these broadcast media by the women is also not veritably clear.( Okenwa 2000 42) states that “ the solicitude of numerous communication scholars is that, just as exploration has shown substantiation that broadcasting is a important pastoral development communication tool, substantiation also shows that broadcasting is yet to be effectively employed in the pastoral development communication ”. This buttresses the point by( Oruamabo 200421)

It would appear thus that information packaging on suckling crusade have been veritably important disposed in favour of civic residers and I want to believe that these findings aren’t unique. The 1999 NDAS numbers on the time of inauguration of bone- feeding showed that 43 of the civic residers imitated bone- feeding within one hour to 36 of pastoral residers.

therefore there exists a gap in knowledge about exclusive bone- feeding benefits and methodology between the civic and the pastoral women. This results in the juggernauts not achieving the purpose for their design. This sets back the process of development. Although the women in the pastoral areas may be prone to do further exclusive bone- feeding than their civic counterparts, information on the time of inauguration of bone- feeding, duration for the exclusive bone feeding and also the proper ways of bone feeding the child may not be completely known to them. Hence the need to communicate these dispatches to them, if holistic results are to be achieved.

Inversely important are the traditional media which include all kinds of verbal andnon-verbal dispatches designed for propagating dispatches to the people living within the position.( Ndolo, 199812) defines traditional communication as “ a source of media indigenous, believable and respectable channels of communication employed by pastoral residers for colorful societal functions including dispersion of dispatches ”. These traditional communication means are bedded in the culture and

social life of those in the pastoral areas, and are similar that they can not do without.

Statement of the Problem

Indeed though there are myriads of these juggernauts on the mass media and all other channels of communication, there’s yet to be significant success results accruing because of exclusive bone- feeding crusade. There are still difference in the results attained between the pastoral areas and the civic areas. Also the results attained at the public position don’t census with those at the state position especially in Uyo original government area.

These difference in the results could be because of a lot of factors. These juggernauts are done through the colorful mass media and mortal media just as it’s at the public position, yet the results aren’t the same. This can be an recrimination of the ineffectiveness of the media used. Again the perception of the women regarding the media and indeed the cost of assessing some of the media used are issues that can hamper the influence of these juggernauts in order to achieve the asked results.

The contents of the communication and the programme type through which the juggernauts are publicized can also be a interference to achieving the asked objects of the crusade in the state.

It’s the burden of the experimenter thus to estimate media juggernauts on exclusive bone- feeding, in order to dissect its influence on the women in Uyo original government area. Also, to estimate the available results in comparison to the set objects of the juggernauts and to estimate the difference in the use of the crusade between the pastoral and civic areas in Uyo original government area on exclusive breastfeeding. The problem statement of this exploration work therefore is why media juggernauts on exclusive bone- feeding in Uyo original government area are ineffective.

Objects of Study

The following include the general purpose for this exploration work

To examine the influence of media juggernauts on exclusive bone- feeding in Uyo original government area.

To dissect the perception of women regarding the media juggernauts in the colorful media in Uyo original government area.

To identify the colorful constraints and challenges the women have in using the colorful media for exclusive bone- feeding juggernauts.

To make recommendations on the posterior media juggernauts on exclusive breastfeeding juggernauts and other experimental juggernauts in the state.

Exploration Questions

In line with the problem, that this study is set to break, the following exploration questions have been formulated as a companion to the study.

What’s the perception of the women on colorful media used for the exclusive breastfeeding juggernauts?

What’s the volume of these juggernauts in the colorful media and the time frame each of these juggernauts run to insure influence and posterior change in geste ?

What influence does the exclusive bone feeding juggernauts have on women in Uyo original government area?

What are the colorful constraints or challenges the women have in their use of the media use on the exclusive bone- feeding crusade?

Significance of Study

The study would enhance the effectiveness of media juggernauts in Uyo original government area because it’ll help crusade contrivers to use the right medium for the right target followership.

This study would be useful to media interpreters because it’ll give information on how to effectively mix the colorful communication media available for the people i.e. the ultramodern mass media and the traditional communication systems in the separations of information and development communication dispatches especially to those in the pastoral areas. Decision makers on development programmes should be suitable to use

benefactions from this study to design juggernauts that are balanced. juggernauts that take the constraints of women have in the use of colorful media for juggernauts in the state into consideration, therefore adding the asked behaviourial change geared towards development because the juggernauts will be effective.

This study could also be helpful for inaugurators of these juggernauts to dissect and estimate the results on the exclusive bone feeding juggernauts in the state because it’ll dissect the perception of the women on the colorful media and type of programme used for the juggernauts and thereby ameliorate on posterior development communication.

This study will also be a source of literature for farther studies in this area.

Compass and Limitations of the Study

This exploration work carried out an analysis of the influence of media juggernauts on exclusive bone- feeding on in Uyo original government area. It anatomized their preferences of the colorful media available to them in the exclusive bone- feeding crusade, the constraints that hinder the operation of media and the appreciation of these juggernauts by these women.

The exploration is limited to the women living in Uyo original government area and not all the women living in Nigeria. The exploration work will be carried out only in three wards in the three senatorial sections in Uyo original government area in order for results attained to be efficiently anatomized. Only women of travail age were used for the study. Time and lack of fiscal coffers are the other constraints that limited the methodology of this exploration work.

Description of Terms

crusade A series of planned conditioning and dispatches aimed at changing the station of a target followership concerning a particular issue, in this environment, exclusive bone- feeding.

Media The colorful means of mass communication considered as a whole, including TV, radio, magazines, and journals, together with the people involved in their product.

bone- feeding To feed a baby by holding it so that it can stink milk from the mama ’s guts.

Prenatal care a follow up care given to a pregnant woman from generality to just before she puts to bed by good professional health care givers in order to insure that mama and child are healthy after birth.

Exclusive bone- feeding the absolute feeding of an child with only bone milk and no other cover from birth to at least six months of child life.