Okorie Nelson

Effective Use of Information Sources for Breast Cancer Care: Interplay of Mass Media and Interpersonal Channels

In health communication research studies, there have been various qualitative and quantitative studies on breast cancer. However, there is paucity of research investigations on the influence of information sources used in media awareness campaigns on breast cancer care among women in Nigeria. This study, therefore, investigated the influence of media awareness campaigns on breast cancer care among women in South-West Nigeria. This study was anchored on two theories: agenda setting theory and diffusion of innovation theory. It employed survey design, which made use of the questionnaire to achieve the objectives of the study. The total number of subjects examined in this study was 600 questionnaire respondents. The multi- stage sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the questionnaire respondents in Lagos, Oyo and Ekiti States. Three hypotheses were tested using cross tabulation and correlation analysis to determine the strength, nature and direction between variables. The findings revealed that the majority of the respondents (98.8%) were aware of breast cancer but many of these respondents were not sufficiently knowledgeable of the disease. It also reveals that information sources such as mass media and interpersonal channels are crucial health communication carriers for breast cancer interventions. It was suggested that mass media messages should be incorporated as key machineries in media awareness campaigns for improving breast cancer care among women. This is essential because mass media messages can produce positive changes or prevent negative changes in health-related behaviours of women in South-West Nigeria.

Measuring Media Campaigns Effectiveness for Environmental Health for Sustainable Development: A Study of Ebola Outbreak in Lagos State, Nigeria

In the field of media and health communication studies, there have been various studies on the nature and danger of virus and infectious diseases in the African continent. However, there is paucity of research investigations on media awareness campaigns for creating awareness of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Africa. This study, therefore, examined the use of media campaigns for the awareness of EVD in Lagos State. For this study, four questions were raised and answered to achieve the stated objectives. Also, this study adopted the survey design, which made use of the questionnaire for data collection. Furthermore, the multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 400 respondents across two local government areas (Surulere and Ikeja) in Lagos State. The findings indicated that 71.2 per cent of respondents had adequate knowledge of the disease. Also, a significant majority of the respondents engaged in anti-Ebola health practices as a result of positive impact of media campaigns geared towards creating awareness of EVD. The result shows that there is a strong link between the anti-Ebola health practices and the fear of the disease. This study recommends that programmes geared towards awareness of the EVD and other infectious diseases should be done intermittently so as to help avoid an outbreak in the future.

Creating HIV/AIDS Awareness through Localized Communication for Health Development in South Africa.

HIV/AIDS is a perennial health issue in South Africa; the disease was the major cause of the 200,000 deaths in South Africa in 2013. The menace has increased with the increase in the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa, despite the rigorous preventive strategies that were adopted in the country. This article explores localism in communication as a tool of health development in promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and knowledge in Africa, with a particular reference to South Africa. This article draws attention to the various localized channels of communicating development messages in relation to their significance in facilitating HIV/AIDS awareness and knowledge.