AUDIENCE PERCEPTION OF WOMEN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES, ON PLATEAU RADIO TELEVISION (PRTV) JOS
ABSTRACT
The study conducted in Plateau State set out to find out the perception of the residents in the selected study areas of Jos North, Jos South and Bassa Local Government Areas o n the role of the programmes, Women in Action and Muryar Mata in creating demand for development and providing relevant information to promote the development of women as designed by the Plateau Radio and Television Corporation (PRTVC). The programmes are being transmitted for more than a decade to address women developmental issues. The study seeks to find out the  level of awareness of the programmes, examine opinions of the respondents on the relevance of the programme in meeting the information needs of women to  facilitate and promote  their  self  development  and   find  out  the  strengths  and   weaknesses  of  these programmes. The study adopts the Selective Perception Model and Diffusion of Innovation theory and uses survey research method and multi stage as its sampling technique. A total of
492 copies of the questionnaire were administered in the study areas in Plateau State. Findings from the study reveal that 95.5 per cent of the male respondents are aware of the programme Women in Action, while 100 per cent of the female respondents are aware of the programme Muryar Mata. Generally, findings reveal that factors which affect level of awareness of these programmes  are  the  broadcast  language,  access  to  its  channel  of  transmission,  issues discussed, its clarity, time schedule and duration of the programmes. The programmes were rated by respondents as relevant in meeting the information needs for women to promote their development through the aforementioned factors. Findings show that the weaknesses of the programmes are audience low appeal in viewership, lack of confidence on the relevance of its guests’ expertise  in  handling  questions,  the strengths of the programmes are  its content, broadcast language, clarity, access to channels of its transmission and its time s chedules. The Study  recommends  re-invention  of these  programmes  through constant  improvement  to increase its capacity to satisfy the needs of different segment of its audience, this entails providing more quality information on health, education and economic empowerment for women development,  more duration and  frequency for the programmes, use of indigenous languages and more interaction with the audience by including a phone in segment.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1    Background to the Study
Communication  for  development  is  a  tool  for  social  transformation  which  deploys  the methods and  instruments of interpersonal  communication,  community  media and  modern information to share ideas, innovations and information leading to improvement in the quality of lives of communities and vulnerable groups (Jenatsch & Bauer, 2016). In order to fast-track development, the use of communication for development was conceived to play a vital role in prioritizing communication systems and processes to improve the quality of lives of people especially identified  vulnerable groups (Waisbord, 2001). Waisbord (2001) further explains that the primary objective of Development Communication (DEVCOM) as a discipline is to empower people as well as lay emphasis on issues related to human-centered development for the purpose of fostering empowerment process in order to achieve target goals in developed nations. In view of the above assertion, DEVCOM becomes an important vehicle to bring about positive change in a variety of ways and through diverse channels.
Isah (2010) asserts that information on steps to be taken to enhance appropriate action on developmental needs is facilitated through communication. This entails that stakeholders are engaged in intensive discourses and debates to address various social and development issues.  These  measures,  to  a large extent,  create  awareness among the general public or specific  groups of people  about  significant  issues of public concern and  existing  social services. Furthermore, it has been observed to empower people by influencing them to take actions through the use of various media to inform and persuade peoples in disadvantaged communities for social change.
People need to be informed on the possib ilities for improving their lives; Dominick
(2011) explained that how to effect such necessary change to improve lives is facilitated by the media as agent of development. The media as agents of development discharge this role through communication, according to Gupta (2015), development partners understand the role communication can play in empowering people to influence the decisions that affect their quality of lives and so adopt it in their campaigns and interventions.
Identified marginalized and vulnerable groups have been recognized to have special development needs which can be addressed through communicating them in the media for appropriate action.    According  to  a report by UNDP  in 2015,  women,  one of the  most
vulnerable groups worldwide are the poorest especially in developing countries because they do  not  have  adequate  access  to  education,   quality  health  service  delivery,  political representation and economic ventures (UNDP, 2015). The report stated that almost two-thirds of women in the developing world work  in the informal sector and  girls account for the majority of children out of school.
This plight of women   have hindered their self deve lopment and can be addressed through the  media’s role of creating  awareness on  the  need  to  address  their challenges, sensitize the public on their plight, provide  information to address that and engage policy makers and other stakeholders for discussion to facilitate appropriate action.
The  struggle  for  women  development  has  been  the  concern of  women  groups, development workers and the local and international communities. According to a report by the  UN  Women  Watch  (2010),  despite  the  key  role  women  play  in  supporting  their households and communities in achieving food and nutrition, security, generating income and improving rural livelihoods, every day around the world, rural women and girls face persistent structural constraints that prevent them from fully enjoying their human rights (UN Women Watch Report, 2010).  The report stated that this has hampered their efforts to improve their lives as well as others around them. Women globally have challenges in acce ssing quality
healthcare,  education,  political  relevance  and  economic  empowerment.  In Nigeria  also, women face similar developmental challenges.
In  Nigeria,   the  history  of  women  has  been  one  that  is associated with abject poverty as in other parts of the world. The culture has been the grim responsibility of women,  like other members of the underprivileged and downtrodden class, to feed, serve, work, fight and even die for the privileged class (Usman, 2015:122)
This plight of women in Nigeria indicates the importance of producing media programmes specially designed to engage critical stakeholders for appropriate action in order to fast track their development.
According  to  Fapohunda  (2012),  many  Nigerian  women  largely  live  in  poverty, lacking access to basic education, decent nutrition, adequate health and social services which the development process is supposed to provide. Thus, the participation of women also  in politics and governance is very low which may impair them in roles such as policy making to improve on their lives, Fapohunda (2012) noted that even though there has been considerable progress in developing the capabilities of women, their participation in economic and political decision making remains very limited. According to Badamasiuy (2012), cultural prejudices could be the hindrance for such roles. This therefore implies that they require special attention for their needs to be addressed. Communicating their needs to policy makers, development workers, and donor agencies through the media for appropriate action is necessary to  fast track  social  transformation  thus  their  development,  while  also  providing  them  with information for their self development.
Media can assist in promoting women development because of its power of influence. According to Khan and Moin (2013), the media is considered effective in creating demand for development through  moulding opinions  and  providing relevant  information  for them for appropriate action.  This therefore implies that the media is  important and  instrumental in
* MSC MASS COMM.