INTRODUCTION
This study deals with the role of mass media in community development. Mass media as an act of communication through is as old as life itself. Still remains one of the most important activities of man since the earliest days. Life and living are premised on man’s ability to communicate.
Communication evolved as a result of the persistent natural human love to promote unity at times and other times conflicts. Communication can be defined d as the process or act of transmitting information, ideas and attitudes from a source to a destination (Age et al 1988). Mass media of communication is one of the levels of dissemunationg information to a large audience which lack geographical unity and whose membership can’t be controlled. Mass media enables audience to receive and react to messages simultaneously (H. Blummer 1939). The various mass media of communication are fast becoming major instrument for promoting development as we will find out later.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Prior to the institutionalization of mass media in it’s present form, community development had progressed from one generation to another generation.
In the olden days, communities or village groups undertook different forms of project such as village hall, villages square with juju-shrines and various other traditional project peculiar to different communities. Such development were usually instantiated by age groups in agreement with the establishment tradition of the local area.
The scale of such project depends on the sizeable community and the country’s quality of leadership and available resources, external influences were limited to those of the immediate neighbors of the communities. Generally, each community was contended with its own achievement and also unaware of the activities or development in distant. Inter village wars and lack of means of transportation imposed restriction of interaction between villages and towns.
In those days, Western education as we know was virtually absent and development project were centered around the traditions or culture of the community, Hence, is the area of major development like roads, hospitals, maternities and schools, the need were not felt and communities were generally ignorant. Narrow winding pathways were used for inter village communication and trade.
In contents to the above situation, today, communities are exposed to various influence both within and outside the confines of the communicates. This influence had resulted in quest for development strategies in a comprehensive scale.
Expansion of government activities stretching into nooks and carmines of the state brought about greater interaction between communities of different background coupled with this, social, economic and political changes have been brought to the door steps, economic and political changes have been brought to the door steps of various communities.
The planned instititutionalisation of the mass media has been felt by various communities and these seemed to have had direct bearing on both the extent and the pattern of development projects such as schools, hospitals, post offices, even telecommunication network and electrification of towns.
Modern tarred roads and bridges are undertaken today by communities in place of narrow winding tracks and logs of woods across streams which used to serve as bridges and others like mechanized farms, secondary schools and universities.
1.2 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
The purpose of this study therefore, is to examine the roles played by mass media in the area of community development with respect to:
Raising people awareness of development projects and opportunities. Helping to foster attitude and motivation that contributes to development of the community as a whole.
Helping to foster attitude and motivation that contributes to development of the community as a whole. Educating, informing and mobilizing people towards the need for community development.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
To make development information available, useful, proper and relevant to the communities it serves. To bridge the widening information gap between the urban and the rural contres.
To provide easy access to developmental information diffusion at the grassroots. To assist masses at the grass root in identifying and participating in societal reciprocity of information and or news flow from the urban to the rural setting.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The benefits of the community to this study is to make the communities know at what stage of development they are and what specific forms their contribution should take. The study also ensures that the aspect agents should be involved in the formulation of public development programmes affecting the communities. It helps to solve the problem of disunity in community development.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Can the mass media play any significant role in community development. If so, what has been their contributes to community development over the year? What are the achievements of mass media towards restricting the community.
1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
To find answers to these questions arising, a hypothesis will be formulated including the null hypothesis.
H1
The media has played a major role in promoting community development.H0
The media has not played any major rile at all in promoting community development.H2
The media has made it possible for the people in the community to get information in order to understand the general pattern of daily interaction and specific development and change.H0
The media has not made it possible for the community to understand the information give and the general pattern of daily interaction in specific development and change.MEDIA
The media creates awareness, educate, persuades, inform and mobilizes the mass. It serves as agent of change which can provoke and unprovoked community development in their social transformation and mobilization toward meaningful changes.
COMMUNICATION
This is broadly defined as the process or act of making things of common knowledge. The encoder (sender of message) a message, the decoder (i.e. the receiver of the message) the channel (i.e. radio, television, Newspapers, town criers etc) and of course, the feedback (i.e. the reaction to the message being sent to the masses).
MASS COMMUNICATION
In a method of education , mobilization and a collective weapon of fighting illiteracy, poverty, ignorance and the essential weapon to overthrow imperialism and to assist total liberation and community building and development.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Is about promoting the welfare and productivity of communities about scope and quality of participation of the people in that process and about structure, organization, operations and interactions and facilities which make this people.
ASSUMPTIONS
The researchers assumed that the respondents have been exposed to some development programmes. Also, respondents must have known the various ways and processes of communication which are used in dissemination of information, mobilization and educating the community and society at large.
1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This study as pointed out, had some serious limitations in terms of finance time, material and logistics. By it’s nature the study deals with a society which is constantly experiencing rapid changes apart from these changes in physical structure, changes also occur in human and legal setting.