IMPACT OF RADIO IN PROPAGATING CULTURE
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IMPACT OF RADIO IN PROPAGATING CULTURE
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background for the Study
Radio is one of the mass media that ensures the promotion of culture in all societies. It typically broadcasts how society, nation, community, or family members spend their lives and interact with one another.
Cultural promotion is one of the fundamental purposes of mass media, in which individuals learn and share their culture with a large audience, nations, communities, and society. This tends to improve the lives of inhabitants in a certain nation/society (Okunna, 2003).
Cultural promotion in society is an essential function of the media, particularly radio. Radio’s accessibility to the audience makes it one of the most fundamental mass media channels for cultural promotion (Okunna, 2003).
Radio at the grassroots level is usually regarded as a vital medium for cultural promotion. Radio is among the oldest kinds of mass media. It is a tool of battle in the pursuit of liberty and social justice.
Because of its ease of access, radio, particularly community radio, has become a very successful tool in societal development through culture. (Schramm, 1964) in Daramola (2003).
Radio, as the name implies, is an electronic device that transmits sound from a specific source to a receiver. Ajayi (2006) states that:
Radio is essentially an audio medium. Whether you want to enlighten your listeners about what is going on at home and around the world, encourage them to buy or test a product, or entertain them with music or drama, radio allows you to do all of that.
Sounds are the basic material of radio, consisting of periodic waves produced by vibrating items such as musical instruments, loudspeakers, and the human voice.
This helps us comprehend that radio uses audio or sound to deliver information of any kind to its listeners, who may be individuals, groups, or a large number of people.
In this study, we must focus on the impact or effect that radio has on people’s cultures. It is crucial to understand what radio is and how it works, as well as how it affects our emotions, lifestyle, and, most importantly, our behaviours.
One of the media’s functions in society is cultural transmission. According to Otite and Ogionwo (2006), “In scientific usage, culture is often defined in blanket terms as the total way of life of people”.
This simply implies that our culture determines who we are as a people by conveying what we acquire as human beings in ways such as knowledge, traditions, morals, customs, ritual, beliefs, art, and so on, which are shared and transmitted from generation to generation (Otite and Ogionwo, 2006).
For convenience of examination, the many interpretations of culture can be classified into two (2) separate categories depending on their ideological orientations: idealist and materialist perspectives of culture.
Culture, according to the idealist perspective, is determined by ideas, values, and beliefs. This perspective sees culture as a heritage that transcends time and location and can be defined as an ontological diversity.
According to this viewpoint, culture is static and unchanging. On the other hand, the material perspective of culture sees it as a historical product of a certain people at a specific time and place.
From this point, culture evolves as the civilisation that causes its alterations. According to materialists, a cultural or social phenomena is determined by the interaction of humans with their material conditions and ways of production.
Culture is, in fact, a combination of human, spiritual, and materialistic aspects. The humanistic side includes concepts, values, knowledge, philosophy, laws, morals, and so forth.
The spiritual aspect consists of a set of beliefs and religious activities, whereas the materialistic aspect consists of artefacts and consumer goods created by humans rather than items found in nature.
In another vein, Bromislaw Malinowski, as cited in Ijomah (2008), describes culture as “an integral whole, consisting of implements, consumer goods, constitution of various groupings, human ideas and crafts, beliefs and customs”.
1.1 Statement of Problem
Culture, which is defined as a full way of life for people, is intended to be conserved, nourished, and monitored, as it influences people’s thoughts and actions to some level.
As a result, media, particularly radio, bears the obligation of transferring the notion for which culture is designed from generation to generation via information, education, entertainment, and so on (Okpoko, 2012).
The society is more relying on the media for messages that are relevant to its structure and settings in order to further validate its history and ideals.
However, the media has recently failed to address this issue. The media is increasingly focussing on educating society about material that is adverse to the survival of our immediate culture and customs. Furthermore, the tendency of globalisation, which has fuelled cultural imperialism, has exacerbated the situation.
Local radio stations tend to play more foreign music than our own. For example, radio stations prefer to use international music as their signature in advertisements rather than domestic music. Local radio stations compare our traditional music to international music to measure our social growth.
Local radio stations frequently disregard the use of our various domestic languages in programming and news broadcasts. Furthermore, some of the programs carried out at these channels are not targeted towards cultural enrichment.
Thus, the researcher is inspired to do a research study on the subject in order to re-emphasize the importance of cultural promotion through mass media in contemporary society.
1.2 Objectives of the Study
i. Determine whether radio has helped to spread culture among the inhabitants of Kaduna South Local Government Area.
ii. Determine whether the inhabitants of Kaduna South Local Government Area listen to KMSC radio.
iii. Determine whether KSMC radio broadcasts programmes that promote culture to the people of Kaduna South Local Government Area.
iii. Determine whether the programmes offered by KSMC contribute to the spread of culture among the people of Kaduna South Local Government Area.
1.3 Significance of the Study
According to reports, individuals prefer to listen to radio rather than watch television (Okpoko, 2006). The significance of this study is that it aims to determine how radio has been helpful in promoting culture as a way of life for people.
In this sense, the study focusses on how residents of Kaduna South Local Government Area have used radio programs to gain cultural awareness.
The study also helped to draw the attention of the people of Kaduna South Local Government Area to the fact that radio content, such as indigenous music programmes, indigenous cultural festivals, indigenous language programmes, and so on, has the potential to promote, sustain, and preserve the various cultural practices in their community, making them feel proud of their culture.
This study is significant because the findings would provide a foundation for KSMC to evaluate its performance as a radio station, whether they are doing well in broadcasting culturally educative radio content to their audience, and whether other radio stations are ahead of them in that regard, which would undoubtedly leave room for improvement.
Finally, the study would be extremely valuable to other researchers because the findings would provide useful information in the form of material for future research linked to this topic.
1.4 Scope of the Study
This study covers the Kaduna South Local Government region, but due to the vast geographical region, enormous population size, and time constraints, it focusses on the Kaduna South Local Government Area’s television district.
1.5 Limitations of the study
Access to Information refers to the idea that the public can receive information held by the state, as well as information held by private entities in some nations, in order to be informed about the state’s operations.
The goal of many information access research initiatives is to simplify and improve human users’ ability to access and interpret massive amounts of data and information.
Financial constraint is a shortage of money that prevents you from buying or doing anything. When you are under restraint, you are obliged to do something you dislike.
No institution can provide meaningful education if it is under financial limits, since a shortage of cash inevitably affects study programs and research projects that benefit the country.
A communication gap is a state in which communication does not occur at the appropriate time. For example, there is a well-documented communication gap between European Parliament ministers and voters.
With such large territories to represent, they can only assess a small portion of public opinion, and as a result, people are less likely to contribute feedback and remark, resulting in slow progress.
A communication gap can be caused by a variety of factors, including differences in languages and language quality (both highbrow and harsh), as well as vague instructions, insufficient definitions, and conflicting signals. Gender differences or job conflicts are frequently the cause.
A few years ago, Nigerians were concerned about how the federal government would address corrosive and caustic corruption, education, agriculture, and power outages, but the recurring spate of hapless killings in Nigeria’s northern regions diverted Nigerians’ attention, forcing the federal government to focus on addressing security threats in the country.
Despite huge expenditures in the energy sector since its privatisation, 75 percent of Nigerians still lack access to a reliable supply of electricity. One of the issues is a shortage of supply lines from the national grid.
We would have been delighted to be able to promise 24-hour electrical supply to our consumers, but we cannot deliver what we do not have. Furthermore, despite the increase in price, it is still insufficient for us to pay our bills, posing a significant hardship.
1.6 Research Questions.
i. Has radio helped to spread culture to the people of Kaduna South Local Government Area?
ii. Do people in Kaduna South Local Government Area listen to KSMC radio?
iii. Does KSMC radio have programs that promote culture for the people of
iv. Do the programmes offered by KSMC genuinely promote culture among the people of Kaduna South Local Government Area?
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