CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The
last two decades the world have witnessed a number of global and regional
initiatives aimed at improving the health of people all over the world. These
efforts according to Family Care International FCI (2012) have been spearheaded
by organizations such as Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health,
Countdown to 2015, the Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality
in Africa (CARMMA), the Commission on Life -Saving Commodities for Women and
Children, leading voices in governments and the private sector. Many Third
World countries (particularly African countries) have been
targets/beneficiaries of the efforts and programs of these organizations (Okaro
and Iyoke, 2010).
Similar efforts were enacted in Nigeria by
some organizations. In the year 2000, the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics
of Nigeria (SOGON) initiated a strategic plan to reduce maternal mortality rate
in the country by 50 percent in 2010 (Okaro and Iyoke, 2010). One of the
principles to guide the organization in the realization of this goal was
promoting partnerships and joint programming among stakeholders including
professional associations. As a major stakeholder in this arrangement, the
media had the task of educating the public on the vital issues in this plan. Since
advocacy and information dissemination on maternal, newborn and child care were
key components of the strategic plan, the mass media had to be co-opted into
the scheme to get the message to a very wide audience. The authors note
specifically, that a regular radio programme was to be established in local
languages to facilitate public and community awareness on the issues in
question. In 1979, the Nigerian government introduced the Expanded Program on
Immunization (EPI) which later became the National Program on Immunization
(NPI). The mass media were also co-opted as partners in mobilizing the public
for the program. Planned and well-funded communication activities were
integrated into the program to raise awareness, create and sustain demand, and
encourage acceptance of the immunization services. Shimp (2004) notes that
these activities involved advocacy to make the NPI program a priority,
mobilizing communities to participate in it and educating caregivers on the
importance of the programme. The need to communicate maternal and child health
issues to the public through the mass media cannot be overlooked, more
especially at a time when the world is witnessing an explosion in information
and information sources. The media have always played the role of informing and
educating people on issues of public interest. Such information influences and
shapes how they conduct their daily lives (Karki and Agrawal, 2008). The
society gets to understand issues better when the media provide more insight
and interpretation to them (Dominick, 2009). Maternal and child health issues
are public health issues because women constitute a large segment of the
world’s population. Unfortunately, in the public health arena, issues like
immunization are often perceived in terms of availability and cost of vaccines,
their storage, and handling (Shimp, 2004). Little is done about the
communication component that should complement the other efforts.
Media
organizations often use radio to broadcast health information because it is
capable of reaching many people while maintaining a strong impact. Certain
media interventions have been determined to be particularly cost-effective,
considering the benefits that are associated with expenditure.
Radio-disseminated health messages have been found to be more cost-effective
than television, as radio can reach people in their homes, cars, or at work.
Brief educational radio segments can be inserted between programs during
primetime hours when the maximal number of people are tuned in. One American
study demonstrated that people who listen to the radio have a surprisingly
accurate ability to recall details of broadcasts from months earlier; in this
way, the study findings support the potential of radio to disseminate
educational messages that significantly affect listeners. (Wakefield, Laken,
and Hornik, 2010)
The use of radio to disseminate health
education messages is particularly advantageous because of the wide range of
people it can reach. In developing countries, many rural villages do not have
access to electricity or television, but battery-operated radios are
commonplace. Consequently, its ability to reach people in a diverse range of
settings has made radio a prime medium for educational initiatives, and various
health topics have been addressed through radio programming throughout the
developing world. Educational radio has been used, for instance, in India for
rural development, in Swaziland for public health, in Nicaragua for health
education in the Philippines for nutrition education, in Sri Lanka for family
planning and health, and in Trinidad and Tobago to promote awareness of proper
breastfeeding practices (Wakefield, Laken, and Hornik, 2010).
Radio is a technology with low production
costs, with low infrastructure costs and with marginal costs of distribution
close to zero. As an aural medium, it does not exclude those who are unable to
read or write and it is ideally suited to conveying content in vernacular
languages. For these reasons it is perhaps unsurprising that radio has become
an intimate and pervasive presence throughout the developed world and, at the
same time, has penetrated into the remotest areas of the poorest
countries.” (Dagron 2000: 3) A significant expansion of radio-based
interventions for health at international, national and community levels has
occurred in recent years (Dagron 2001). In part, this is due to the
deregulation of the airwaves that has occurred in many developing countries and
recognition that radio is a cheap and effective means of communicating issues
relating to health, policy and health service delivery.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The
health sector in any economy forms the backbone of its growth and development.
Factors affecting the overall Nigerian health system performance include:
inadequate health facilities and structures, poor management of human
resources, poor motivation and remuneration, inequitable and unsustainable
health care financing, skewed economic and political relations, corruption,
illiteracy, decreased government spending on health, high user fees, absence of
integrated system for disease prevention, surveillance and treatment,
inadequate access to health care, shortage of essential drugs and supplies and
inadequate health care providers. Bilateral and multilateral assistance, and
government spending on health (26.40 billion Naira or 26% of total annual
budget for 2004) have not translated into enhanced health status of average
Nigerians. Policy reversals and other inconsistencies over the years tend to
undermine some health reforms of the past. Strategies developed for the
effective implementation of national health programs in the three tiers of
government (federal, state, and local government) are poorly implemented due to
the politics of federalism (autonomy and resource control). High disease burden
and population explosion have culminated in a vicious cycle of poverty,
insecurity and uncertainty. Mortality rate has seriously increase in the
Nigeria and it does not only affect the family involved but has a great effect
on society as a whole. When a mother dies the children’s chances of reaching
adulthood is slim”. Besides, the life/survival of infants/children under
five is closely related to maternal health (Odesanya, et al. 2015). This brings
to the fore why every effort of partnering with the mass media especially the
radio. The Radio have the capacity to penetrate the hinterlands informing,
educating and creating the needed awareness on matters of public interest. This
however arose the interest of the researcher to investigate the role of Radio
station in achieving a sustainable health care in Nigeria.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is to find out the role of
radio station in achieving a sustainable health care in Nigeria, specifically
the study intends to
1.
Find
out the role of radio on the health sector in Nigeria
2.
Investigate
the factors militating against achieving a sustainable health care in Nigeria
3.
Find
out the role of radio in achieving a
sustainable health care in Nigeria
1.4 RESEARCH
QUESTION
1.
What
are the roles of mass media on the health sector in Nigeria?
2.
What
are factors militating against achieving a sustainable health care in Nigeria?
3.
What
is the role of radio in achieving a sustainable health care in Nigeria?
4.
Is
there any significant relationship between radio stations and achievement
sustainable health care in Nigeria?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
Ho: there is no significant relationship
between radio stations and achieving sustainable health care in Nigeria
H1: there is a significant relationship
between radio stations and achieving sustainable health care in Nigeria
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This
study will expose the public to the impact of radio stations and the importance
of listening to different health talk on their radio as different information
on health awareness is passed across every day. This study will also serve as
an eye-opener to the governments at various levels to the role radio stations
play in disseminating information to the public so they can make favorable
policy that will encourage radio stations across Nigeria. And lastly, this
study will serve as a reference to other researchers that will embark on the
same research in the nearest future.
1.7 SCOPE
OF THE STUDY
This research role of radio station in achieving a
sustainable health care in Nigeria covers the health sectors and every radio
station in Nigeria, but due to time and financial constraints, the study will
be limited to Rivers state and Nigeria Info 92.3fm Port-Harcourt alone and the
result will be generalize.
1.8 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
However,
in the course of carrying out this research work, the researcher can foresee
some limitations which include; insufficient financing, insufficient data for
the research work and the time required for the project to be concluded.
1.9 DEFINITION
OF TERMS
Role: the
function assumed or part played by a person or thing in a particular situation.
Health care: the
organized provision of medical care to individuals or a community.
Radio station: radio
station is a set of equipment necessary to carry on communication via radio waves.
Generally, it is a receiver or transmitter, an antenna, and some smaller
additional equipment necessary to operate them