Mass Media and Grass Roots Mobilization in Nigeria

Abstract

A vast number of the world’s population live in the rural areas and there
is the need to properly sensitize them to key into the various initiatives of
government and all other developmental programmes by individuals and
corporate organizations. The rural populace can only get to know about
these programmes through the mass media as well as other modes of
communication. This review therefore examines the role of rural
journalism in mobilizing rural dwellers to support various initiatives as
well as how it can be used to further mobilize the rural dwellers to support
developmental programmes. The aim is to awaken the consciousness of
government, journalists and the society at large to the strategic role of
the mass media in getting the rural populace to key into their various
programmes since they constitute a larger population of Nigerians. The
theoretical framework of this study is anchored on the Agenda-Setting
Theory. The work discusses the concept of mobilisation and social
mobilisation, the role of the mass media in social mobilisation and the
mass media as a mobilization tool. Hence, rural community media should
not be used as a one way system such that it is only information from the
government that should be pass across rather it should be that of rural to
government and government to grass roots communication.