Influence of Safe Excreta Disposal Campaigns on Knowledge, Attitude and Practices among Rural Residents in South-East Nigeria

This study investigates the influence of safe excreta disposal campaigns on the knowledge, attitude and practices of rural people in South East Nigeria. To investigate this, the researcher used Convergent Mixed methods design to generate quantitative and qualitative data through questionnaire, in-depth interview and observation. A sample of 18 communities was drawn from 18 rural LGAs in South East Nigeria where the study is based. After the analysis, findings revealed that rural residents were aware of the health dangers associated with unsafe disposal of excreta. This was as a result of their exposure to media messages on unsafe excreta disposal campaigns designed and executed by UNICEF and WHO. The findings also revealed that the knowledge level of the respondents on unsafe disposal increased as a result of their exposure to the campaigns. The increase in respondents’ knowledge level was determined by the ability of the respondents to recall 78 percent of the dangers associated with indiscriminate disposal as contained in the campaigns. Again, it was found that over 56 percent of the rural people have positive attitude towards safe excreta disposal. In essence, the respondents now believe that there are health dangers associated with unsafe excreta disposal. However, observation revealed that this positive attitude did not translate to practice as majority of them still defecate in open fields, bush, streams and farmlands. The respondents attributed this negative practice to lack of toilet facilities and the fact that they were comfortable defecating in the open. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the current safe excreta campaigns by UNICEF and WHO should be redesign for efficiency using the fear appeal strategy. This is because the current campaigns failed to emphasis the health dangers inherent in unsafe disposal. The fear appeal strategy has been proven to be effective by health promotion theorists. Again, local government councils in Nigeria should help in providing toilet facilities in schools, markets and homes

When Ownership and Geographical Considerations Get To The Front Burner In Media Coverage Of Political Crisis: A Critical Review

One fundamental principle of media business is the fact that media people must always put public interest first in all their dealings. This they are expected to do irrespective of their geographic or ownership leanings. While one recognises the fact that these factors remain contentious in the media circle and sometimes difficult to do away with in media business, the social responsibility principle should always be allowed to govern all media engagements. While some observers argue that this principle rules only in developed world and not in the third world, others argue otherwise. This review looks at whether or not geographical and ownership considerations influence media people in their coverage of political crisis around the world. After a review of some empirical studies, it is concluded that geographical location and ownership play significant role in media coverage of political crisis

Regulatory Environment and Media Coverage of Elections in Nigeria: A Review

The legal environment under which an election takes place, no doubt, plays a crucial role in determining the extent to which the election would be adjudged free, fair and credible. The 2011 general elections in Nigeria were widely acclaimed to be free, fair and credible both locally and internationally. This work, therefore, set out to ascertain the veracity of this claim by examining the legal atmosphere under which the elections were conducted. The review showed that the legal environment was adequate enough to guarantee a free, fair and credible elections. However, it was discovered that most of these legal provisions were not complied with and the offenders were not brought to justice by the relevant bodies such as the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON). With regards to the ‘equal opportunity doctrine’ as contained in the Electoral Act, the ruling party at various level of government, dominated the airwaves giving the opposition party very limited opportunity to be heard. It was also observed that the law on campaign funding was not observed. The ruling party spent far above the provisions permitted by law. Based on these findings, the researchers recommend that the regulatory environment in Nigeria should be strengthened by ensuring that the provisions of the Electoral Act and other election related laws are adhered to by all concerned and enforced by the relevant regulatory bodies

Achebe’s There Was A Country In The Court Of Public Opinion: 43 Years After The Nigerian Civil War

The Nigerian civil war of 1967-1970 ended with the then military government of Gen. Gowon maintaining the“No Victor, No Vanquished” posture. This was despite the fact that the defunct Biafra, as it were, clearly lost outwith millions of casualties, mostly women and children. This posture, with all its criticisms from those whoinsisted that Biafrans should be treated as prisoners of war, was maintained by the then Head of State whobelieved it was a reconciliatory take off point. Ever since, several policies, and programmes have been put inplace to reduce the hostility between the then Biafrans (now mainly South- Easterners and a few South-Southerners) and the rest of the country. At the point when available evidence was suggesting that the hostilitywas reducing, late Prof. Chinua Achebe published a controversial book, “There was a Country: A PersonalHistory of Biafra,” in 2012. This book, with a detailed account of the war, analysts argue, has reengineeredhostility, “thereby bringing to naught all reconciliatory moves made in the last forty-two years.” ConsideringAchebe’s intellectual capacity, world status and what he represented, especially to the Igbo nation, one istempted to agree with these analysts. However, such conclusion could be hasty without empirical proof.Therefore, the obvious questions are: has the book in any way influenced Nigerians to construct or reconstructtheir memories of the war? Is it leading to fresh hostility, considering the fact that he accused prominentNigerians of genocide? Qualitative and quantitative data generated through interview, questionnaire and focusgroup discussion revealed that the book has influenced Nigerians to construct and reconstruct negative memoriesof the war.Keywords: Nigerian Civil War, Memory Construction, Reengineering Hostilit

The Influence of Prevention of Mother-To-Child HIV Transmission Campaigns on the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice among Nigerian Women

The transmission of HIV from an infected mother to her child during pregnancy, delivery or breastfeeding is called Mother-to-Child Transmission (MCT). This is one avenue that has fundamentally aided the infection of children with the dreaded HIV disease. This menace of mother-to-child transmission has been very devastating. Many children have been infected which has resulted to their early deaths. According to a progressive report in 2012 by UNAIDS, an estimate of 3.4 million children younger than 15 years were living with HIV globally in 2011, 91% of them in Sub-Saharan Africa (where Nigeria is situated), while an estimated 230 thousand children died from AIDS-related illness in the same year. It was also reported that mother-to-child transmission accounts for more than 90% pediatric AIDS. To effectively combat the MCT malaise, the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) was introduced. This introduction heralded countless number of PMTCT campaigns globally, including Nigeria. Therefore, the critical question that necessitated this study is, what is the influence of the PMTCT campaigns on the knowledge, attitudes and practice among Nigerian women? Using Survey Research Method and Multi-Stage Sampling Technique, women in 6 selected states from the 6 geo-political zones of Nigeria (1 state from each of the zones) were studied. In the end, findings revealed amongst others that though the knowledge level, attitudes and practice of PMTCT among Nigerian women is abysmally low. Based on the findings, it was recommended, amongst others, that organizations, agencies and other bodies involved in packaging PMTCT campaigns should design and disseminate adequate, specific clear and very convincing messages to the women. This will help improve their knowledge on the PMTCT programme which will consequently secure the right attitude in them and herald an improved level of practice. When this is achieved, mother-to-child transmission would have been drastically reduced. Keywords: Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV •Campaign •Knowledge •Attitude •Practic

The Use of Strategic Silence in Interpersonal Communication

For over a century now, the attention of communication scholars has shifted from strategic communication to strategic silence with an open invitation for experts to investigate the potency of the latter in the line of communication. As an honour to this invitation, this study investigates the use of strategic silence in interpersonal communication among residents of Enugu Metropolis in Enugu State Nigeria. In conducting this survey, explanatory mixed method research design was used to generate both qualitative and quantitative data using questionnaire and interview. After a thorough analysis, both quantitative and qualitative data revealed that residents of Enugu metropolis use strategic silence in interpersonal communication. Finding also revealed that the respondents use strategic silence both negatively and positively to influence others in the line of communication. Based on these findings, it is recommended that users of strategic silence should always deploy it for positive reasons

A Discourse on the Use of Social Media by Journalists in Nigeria

The social media, which is the product of new media technology, has incontrovertibly charted new frontiers for conventional journalists. Practitioners in most developed countries of the world now rely heavily on the social media to generate contents. Expectedly, the concept of collaborative journalism has emerged. Emphasis has shifted from mere social interactions among folks to more sophisticated collaboration. While there this is wide spread practice in the developed societies, available statistics indicate that journalists in Africa are still grasping to acquire the needed knowledge to utilize social media platforms. Thus, this study amongst other things is aimed at assessing the use of social media by journalists in Nigeria and how such usage affects the performance of their duties. The research design used was survey; purposive sampling technique was used in studying 399 registered journalists in South East Nigeria. The findings of this study indicated that Nigerian journalists do not make adequate use of the social media; social media enhance news gathering and dissemination; social media has remarkably affected the performance of journalists in Nigeria; social media has negative effect on journalists in Nigeria. The study recommends amongst others for the provision of adequate infrastructure and access; constant verification of the authenticity of stories through crowd sampling, financial support from both government and private sector and the adoption of necessary digital media skills by journalists to  reinvent the media and remain relevant in this digital age

DEALING WITH OUR APATHY THROUGH THE RADIO: ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF FRCN NNoKO UMUNWANYI PROGRAMME IN INFLUENCING WOMEN TO PARTICIPATE IN POLITICS

The last three decades has been dotted by the continuous agitation by women for equal political positions in the political space of Nigeria. While women advocacy groups and international organisations accuse the men folk of engineering a political architecture that makes it difficult for women to participate, the men believe that there is growing apathy on the part of women. This has brought to the fore the issue of 35 percent affirmative action for women in developing societies like Nigeria. But this can only be achieved by raising the awareness level and interest of women in politics. In line with this demand, the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) Enugu developed a gender political programme- Nn?ko Umunwanyi. The programme which is only targeted at women of Igbo speaking origin in Enugu State, is design to raise the interest of rural women in politics. More than ten years after this programme was designed and broadcast to rural women in Enugu State, how far has it gone in raising the awareness, knowledge level and interest of women in politics? In investigating all these, the researcher used Explanatory Sequential mixed methods design developed by Cresswell (2012) to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data while focus group discussion was used to generate qualitative data. After a thorough analysis using both quantitative and qualitative data, findings showed that women in Enugu State are exposed to Nn?ko Umunwanyi. programme to a large extent. It was equally found that the knowledge and women participation in politics have increased as a result of their exposure in the programme. Based on these, it was recommended that more programmes of this nature should be designed. Keyword: World? FRCN? Politics ?Marginalization ?Awareness ?Knowledge ?Participatio

WHAT WE HEAR AND WHAT WE DO: An analysis of the perceptual influence of child spacing campaigns on the knowledge, attitude and practices of rural women in South-East Nigeria

This study examines the influence of child spacing campaigns on the knowledge, attitude and practices of South-East rural women. Using behavioural change theory as the framework, the study adopted survey method as its research design. A total of 384 respondents drawn from the South-East responded to the copies of the questionnaire designed from six research questions raised in the study. After a thorough analysis, it was found that while the mass media campaigns on child spacing have created serious awareness about child spacing in South-East rural communities, the practice is still very low. Some of the problems found to be associated with this low practice include lack of adequate community health facilitators, lack of information on improved child spacing techniques, urban oriented messages, lack of integration of the rural people in messages/communication meant for their consumption, etc. Based on these findings, it was recommended that, health workers, media researchers, communicators, social workers, guidance counselors and those in the helping profession should take cognizance of those variables that have been found to influence birth spacing practices among couples with the view to correcting them for an informed and healthy society. Keywords: Child spacing ●Campaign● Attitude ● Practices●  Rural wome

A Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) analysis of lassa fever media campaigns among residents of South-East Nigeria

Background: In as much as studies have been conducted on Lassa fever in Nigeria, the studies had no media angle and were carried out mainly in the Northern and Western regions of the country. This study examined how mass media intervention messages on Lassa fever have influenced the level of knowledge, attitudes and health practices of people living in South-East Nigeria towards controlling and eradicating this disease.Methods: The study adopted survey research design. Multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting 428 respondents while structured questionnaire was used for data collection.Data analyzed was by descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation technique.Result: The level of exposure to and knowledge of Lassa fever media campaigns among South-East residents were high as confirmed by 90% and 51.1% respectively of the responses. Media campaigns against Lassa fever positively influenced the attitudes of 56.3% of the respondents towards prevention and control of this disease.There is positive significant relationship (0.93 with 0.01 level of significant) between exposure level to Lassa fever media campaigns and knowledge level of the disease among South-East residents.Conclusion: Mass media campaigns aimed at sensitizing the public on Lassa fever disease was adjudged effective. There is also need to employ more of interpersonal communication strategies to enhance effective delivery of this health messages