عنوان

Enlightenment campaigns in Nigeria :

TLets796012

Enlightenment campaigns in Nigeria :

[Thesis]

Odeka, Francisca Osarumwense

a case study of audience reaction to the Nigerian T.V. 'War Against Indiscipline'

University of Glasgow

1988

Ph.D.

University of Glasgow

1988

Nigeria is a country endowed with enormous resources made up of different ethnic populations, totalling 100 million people. Since political independence there has been a succession of military regimes with occasional transient civilian governments. The present regime has thought it fit to organise an awareness campaign that would highlight the need for development through disciplined attitudes and behaviour. Thus the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) Television Campaign was born. The purpose of this study is to assess audience opinion and attitudes towards WAI messages, and to evaluate some of the campaign's possible effects on behaviour. Chapter One is concerned with the historical background of Enlightenment Campaigns in Africa. It also discussed in detail, contemporary Nigerian Mobilisation Campaigns. Chapter Two summarises methodologies in media effect studies. This chapter also discusses theories of the use of mass communication to effect changes in opinion and attitudes of target audiences. It examines recent research on audience attention span and recall and also looks at the issues raised by attempts to use these research approaches in an African context. Chapter Three discusses interviews held with officials involved in the implementation of WAI Campaign:- The Assistant Director of Information, Ministry of Information and the Controller of Light Entertainment, Nigerian Television Authority, Lagos. The reasons for the interview were:- (1) To gain more background knowledge of those involved in planning WAI and (2) The need for a better understanding of Government policies towards the campaign. Chapter Four outlines the research procedure and sample for the current study. A questionnaire was administered to respondents. The first part of this was designed to elicit information on their social/economic background. The second part dealt with questions on Opinion, Attitudes, Reaction and Attention to the WAI Campaign. To gain more information on similarities and differences in perception and belief, a general group discussion and participant observational study was also initiated by the researcher. The sample consisted of 236 respondents, 80 school children and 156 adults, through purposive sampling. Samples were chosen from the four main ethnic groups, further matched with key social/economic variables. Chapter Five is concerned with the analysis of the questionnaires plus the group discussion and observational study involving both school children and adult respondents. The study indicates that perception and belief about WAI seemed to be mediated by respondents socio cultural experience. The impact of WAI messages varied in relation to their relevance to different sections of the audience. It was also found that the practice of wAI ideas was influenced if the messages were perceived as real possibilities. Finally, in their reception WAI messages had both intended and unintended effects on all categories of respondents.

Odeka, Francisca Osarumwense

University of Glasgow

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y