Audience Survey Conducted on â€œDewelâ€ Radio ... - FES Ethiopia

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Knowledge is defined by different scholars as having many meanings depending on context, but is related to such concepts as meaning, information, instruction, communication and mental stimulus. The Oxford English Dictionary (2006) defines knowledge as information and skills gained in the form of experience, and the awareness and understanding of facts. On the other hand, knowledge is defined as distinct from simple information, though both information and knowledge consist of true statements; knowledge is information that has a purpose or use (BBC-GCSE, 2007). 2.2 Media effects and audience behavior The effect of media has been approached from different directions. It could be argued that most of the approaches were influenced by sociological, political and psychological theories. Discussing the ‘direct effect’ of media on audience behavior, some argued that persuasive approaches can convince the audience and intervene in decision making. This theory, called the ‘hypodermic needle’, depended up on the results of content assessments. This is the first phase in effects research, which assumes media to have direct effect. 1 Persuasive approaches can convince the audience and intervene in decision making, depending on the results of content assessments. In this argument, audiences are perceived as ‘passive’, in that they are not involved in making meaning of media contents (Ruddock, 2001). However, previous research outcomes demonstrate that the attitudes of the message recipients measured by analysts could only represent the attitudes of the audience that already agrees with the message from the very beginning, or to a limited extent, a combination of others. Thus, other researchers argue that the effect of a mass communication campaign may not be successful by simply increasing the flow of messages, with the assumption that a message will directly influence audience perception (Windahl & Signitzer, 1992). 1 This theory called the ‘hypodermic needle’ was dominant theory on media effects at the time of the two world wars.(Ruddock, 2001) 12
By assessing media message during the world wars, they argue that propaganda could persuade audiences to produce a specific behavior (Ruddock, 2001). In this argument, audiences are perceived as ‘passive’, that they are not involved in making meaning of media contents. The study of ‘media effects’ further created a realization on the importance of the ‘indirect effects’ of media on audience behavior. The argument by Lazarsfeld (1955) 2 and by Cantril (1940) brought a new understanding of the ‘effect’ as a one section of the total experience of a society. This shifted the understanding of the audience from an individual to a member of a group and stressed the importance of interpersonal communication in the relationship between media and audience (Newbold, 1995). In addition, the indirect effect of mass communication has proven to be more effective by encouraging interpersonal communication (Bryant, 1994). However there is a tendency of the message to be distorted in the process of selecting and filtering. Nevertheless, it is argued that selected message is more likely relevant to the receiver and more likely to bring about an effect in return (Petty and Priester, 1994). While arguments on whether the audience is ‘active’ or ‘passive’ in making meaning and behaving in a certain way grew, at the same time criticisms on the approach and methodology of the researches increased. However, it could be said that most of the experiments focused on ‘short-term’ effects, and considered media ‘effect’ as an ‘interactive’ of text and content. Later on the realization was switched from ‘short-term effect’ of the media to media’s role in constructing social behavior (Signorielli and Morgan, 1990). 2 Lazarsfeld (1955), in his ‘two-step flow’ approach stressed on the ‘interpersonal networks’ in the process of communication, where media message is filtered by what he called ‘opinion leaders’, who play a great role as ‘intervening variables’ between media and audience (Katz & Lazarsfeld, 1955). 13
Page 1 and 2: Audience S
Page 3 and 4: 3.3 FM stations 18 4. Findings and
Page 5 and 6: 1- Introduction 1.1 Background ‘D
Page 7 and 8: 1.3 Methodology The study would fol
Page 9 and 10: 1.3.4 Focus Group Discussion The po
Page 11: 2 Theoretical Framework on Media Ef
Page 15 and 16: such behavior, and finally the mass
Page 17 and 18: population, both literate and illit
Page 19 and 20: Years after the establishment of FM
Page 21 and 22: objective is to promote public awar
Page 23 and 24: stations. The second editor says,
Page 25 and 26: language use. They say using Englis
Page 27 and 28: frequent feedback. In addition, the
Page 29 and 30: household. The women in our sub-cit
Page 31 and 32: the program deals with serious issu
Page 33 and 34: in the process of content selection
Page 35 and 36: They also pointed out issues relate
Page 37 and 38: • The program deals with importan
Page 39 and 40: On the other hand, respondents from
Page 41 and 42: said to have direct relation to the
Page 43 and 44: In addition to this, some responden
Page 45 and 46: Bibliography - Ajzen, I. (1988), At
Page 47 and 48: No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Annex A Ta
Page 49 and 50: Annex B Questionnaire Case No This
Page 51: i. Yes___ ii. No___ iii. I don’t

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Audience Survey Conducted on â€œDewelâ€ Radio ... - FES Ethiopia