(A STUDY OF KHANA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA)
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ABSTRACT
This study examined the impact of electronic media on the campaign against HIV/AIDS prevalence in Rivers State, A case study of Khana Local Government Area. In achieving this, the researcher adopted survey method. This study is restricted to the people resident in Khana Local Government of Rivers State. It was revealed from the study that the majority of the people in Khana Local Government Area have heard about HIV/AIDS campaign messages through radio due to the fact that radio is portable, cheaper to obtain and with its battery uses. Talking about HIV/AIDS consequences, it is generally believed that HIV/AIDS consequences are sickness and death, to any person who is a victim of the epidemic. From the findings, conclusion were made and it was also recommended among others that the electronic media and other means of awareness creation should be closely improved upon and managed in order for them to work effectively and reach other areas. Also the electronic media stations should increase their frequencies of campaigning against the effects of HIV/AIDS in the area.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
In a bid to actually know how the electronic media influence knowledge of HIV/AIDS among people of Khana, there is need to know a brief history and the meaning of HIV/AIDS.
The word HIV/AIDS according to Advance Healthcare magazine (2007: 33), is Human immunodeficiency Virus; while AIDS is Acquired Immune Deficiency syndrome disease.
This is a kind of disease that destroys human system, cause by infection which destroy some types of white blood cells and is transmitted via blood secretions such as semen.
The AIDS epidemic was first recognized in the United State of America in the year 1981. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was not isolated until 1983. From 1981 to 1987, the average life expectancy for people diagnosed with AIDS was 18 months.
The early years of the U.S.A AIDS epidemic caused an unimaginable holocaust for the family members and loved ones of patients, and for Health care professionals. Hundred of young people died each week and the health care system lacked the medical, ethical, technical, and spiritual resources to soften the blow of so many young people dying of the mysterious illness. According to Centres for Disease Control and Prevent (CDC), more than 940,000 cases of AIDS were reported in the United States from 1981 to 2004. In 2004, about 39,000 new cases of HIV infection were reported. Currently, there are approximately 1.1 million people with the human immunodeficiency virus. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), HIV infections are increasing more rapidly among women, who contract the Virus primarily through unprotected sex with an infected male partner. In the United States, AIDS is the fourth leading cause of death for women between 25 and 44 years old. Although, the number of AIDS cases has fallen dramatically since 1996, when antiretroviral drugs came into market.
In Nigeria, the first two cases of HIV and AIDS were identified in 1985 and were reported at an international AIDS conference in 1986.
The Nigerian health sector established the National AIDS Expert Advisory Committee, in 1987, which was shortly followed by the establishment of the National Expert Advisory Committee on AIDS (NECA). At first the Nigerian government was slow to respond to the increasing rate of HIV transmission and it was only in 1991 that the Federal Ministry of Health (FMH), made their first attempt to assess Nigeria’s AIDS situation.
The result showed that around 1.8 percent of the populations of Nigerians were infected with HIV. Subsequent surveillance reports revealed that during the 1990s HIV prevalence rose from 3.8% in 1993 to 4.5% in 1998. When Olusegun Obasanjo became the president of Nigeria in 1999, HIV prevention, treatment and care became one of the government’s primary concerns. The President’s Committee on AIDS and the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA) were created, and in 2001, the government set up a three-year HIV/AIDS Emergency Action Plan (HEAP).
Despite being the largest oil producer in Africa and the 12th largest in the world, Nigeria is ranked 158 out of 177 on the United Nations Development Programmed (UNDP) human poverty index.
This poor economic position has meant that Nigeria is faced with huge challenges in fighting its HIV and AIDS epidemic.
Today; effective media transmission has helped in creating awareness of HIV/AIDs infection among the people of Khana.
In Khana, it is believed that the majority of the people have access to the radio and television. Kuponiyi (2000: p26-32) said that “television and radio are broadcasting medium that almost all experts agree is the most appropriate for rural and urban emancipation programmes”. A portable radio beats distances and thus has immediate effects; Kuponiyi further explain that radio is cheaper to obtain with a great number of people having access to it due to the fact that it uses battery.
Radio seem to be the most powerful source of information concerning the epidemic, it disseminate information to many people than television, having a large effects on individuals.
In order to tackle HIV/AIDS, it is the duty of the local government to collaborate with the World Health Organization to bring to the awareness of the people the effects of HIV/AIDS.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The health of the inhabitants of Khana is the duty of the Local Government Council because it is the health and sanitary condition of people living in villages that counts in international rating. Consequently, these places need a sound and well equipped hospital that can handle any form of diseases especially HIV/Aids.
The problem of this study is that girls between 7 and)8 years and women at the age of 19 to 24 and above, report their first sexual encounter as coerced (forced). So in considering the nature of settlements in these areas, there is need for effective healthcare delivery to match the upsurging epidemic.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The following are the objectives of this study:
- To find out whether respondents in Khana Local Government have heard about HIV/Aids campaign messages on radio or TV.
- To find out whether they understand the campaign messages on HIV/Aids.
- To find out the impact of HIV/Aids campaign on their sexual behaviour.
1.4 Significance of the Study
- This project will create development as well as changed the life of Khana indigenes on their sexual behaviour.
- The findings of this study will bring about improved Healthcare delivery to tackle HIV/AIDS, if the authority should make maximum use of the suggestions.
- This project would also bring smile on the faces of Khana indigenes because of an effective hospital, electricity’s to access to the radio and television would be brought home, resulting from the recommendation of this study.
1.5 Research Question
This study adopt the following question
- Have respondent in Khana Local Government heard about HI V/AIDS campaign messages on radio or TV?
- Do they understand the campaign messages on HIV/AIDS?
- What is the impact of HIV/AIDS campaign on their sexual behaviour?
1.6 Scope of the Study
This study covers Khana Local Government Area which is the third tiers of government system in Nigeria. Khana happen to be the pivot study of this project because of the settlement of the people living there, i.e. where girls at the age of 7 to 18 years and women at the age of 19 to 24 and above, report their first sexual intercourse as coercion, due to the fact that both boys and girls have not heard about HIVIAIDS infection via sexual intercourse and other form of disease transmission such as sharing of needles, and public barbing saloon, etc; either through the radio or television campaign or from the existing awareness created by hospitals about mV/AIDS. So to desist or at least a minimizations of the epidemic and also know the parameter (condom) to use in other to protect themselves and change their sexual behaviour.
1.7 Limitation of the Study
In order to carryout this study, there were limitations. Among these limitations were:
- Time: One major limitation of the study was time. I needed much more time than ever before in carrying out this research.
- Money: Money was also one of the major limitations.
However, the researcher was able to overcome these limitations in order to complete the study and thus, this study could be used to generalize to other local government areas of the state with same characteristics.
1.8 Theoretical Frame Work
The theory that is associated with this study is “the dependency theory.” This is the theory that proposes an integral relationship among audiences, media and the society at large. Sandra Ball-Roacheach and Melvin De Fleur propounded the theory in (1976).
These two scholars are of the view that the society depend on the media information to meet certain goals. The society do not depend on all media content equally, that is to say, the society become more dependent on media that meet the number of their needs than the media that provide just a few. Another thing is that the source of dependency is social stability.
When social change and conflict are high, established instituUons, beliefs, and practices are challenged forcing one to revaluate and make new choices. At that time, ones reliance on the media for information will increase. On the other hand, your dependency on media may also go down base on the socio and economic state of individual.
One’s needs are always personal but may be shaped by the culture or by various social conditions. The more alternative an individual has for gratifying needs, the less dependent he or she will become on any single medium.
The explanation of the relationship between the content of the mass media, the nature of society, and the communications behaviour of audiences is called dependency theory. People are dependent on the media for their information needs.
People in all societies need information in order to make decision about such matters as food, shelter, employment, political issues, HIV/AIDS, entertainment and other aspect of family life. In traditional societies, people tend to pursue similar ways of life and are linked by word-of-mouth networks of extended families, deeply established friendships, long terms neigbhours, and other social ties from which they obtain information that they need.
In urban-industrialized societies, populations are composed of unlike people brought together through internal migration and immigration from outside. They are greatly differentiated by such factors as race, ethnicity, occupational specialization, and economic classes. Because of their social differentiation, people in urbanindustrial society have fewer effective word-of-mouth channels based on deeply establish networks of social ties through which they can obtain the information that they need in daily life. Thus, people in urban-industrial societies are dependent on the mass media for information needed to make any kind of decision. For the media, they obtain a flow of information advice, and advertising that has a basis for those decisions.
All these are done in the urban industrial societies because the people living there have access to electricity and infrastructural facilities. But in considering Khana Local Government, being in the rural settlement, they do not have such access to electricity (to listen to radio and television messages), and some other development that make life better and conducive to make informed decision. When all these are not done in the rural area, how can the media have impacts on the people living in this particular vicinity?
The media has impacts on the people when the individuals have taken a decision, to change from a particular behaviour that he or she was in, especially sexual harassment or behaviour due to the campaign done by the media concerning the effects of HIV/AIDS epidemic. The impacts are not done if there is no access to electricity and other infrastructural development.
So in a bid to have impacts among the people, there is need to provide the necessary things that is subject to make an individual to take a decision and such are; electricity, a well equip healthcare delivery, networks, i.e. information communication technology (ICT), and any other facilities to Khana communities.
1.9 Definition of Terms
HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus, that develops in the human system as a result of sexual intercourse into Aids before death of the victims.
AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, that collaborates or mixed with HIV to destroy some types of white blood cells, and is transmitted via blood secretion such as semen, which course death to the victims.
Electronic Media: This is the use of electricity technology to disseminate media content, programme etc. to the target market.
Impact: This is the knowledge of somebody on something. (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary 2000, pg 598). It is a powerful effects that something has on somebody or something.
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