CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Communication is a variety of behaviours, processes and Technologies by which meaning is transmitted or derived from information. The team is used to describe diverse activities.Communication is at the core of our humanness. How we communicate with each other shapes our lives and our world. Human beings rely on their communicative skills as they confront events that challenge their flexibility, integrity, expressiveness, and critical thinking skills. Communication involves different forms which includes the intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, public, mass communication etc all these are different ways/means through which we interact, associate, communicate, relate, share ideas, views, opinion, information, norms and values with ourselves and others. Communication is regarded as the life blood of human existence which rapidly enhances unity that leads to the development of our society at large.
Communication both modern and Traditional means has promoted peaceful co-existence, understanding and self-awareness among human beings. Both modern and traditional means of communication have certain common elements that together help define the communication process. These elements includes the following people. In communication there must be individuals who are involved in the dissemination of the message and at the same time receiving the message inorder to make it lively and effective. In communication things are done simultaneously (sending and receiving] if we were just receivers, we would be no more than receptacles for signals from others, never having an opportunity to let anyone know how we were being affected, if we were just senders, we would simply emit signals without ever stopping to consider whom, if anyone is being affected. But, if we were able to achieve our goals of communicating it simply signifies that there is an effective communication between the sender and the receiver at the same level.
Messages- in communication, the message is the communication itself. A message is the content of a communicative act. Everything one does with his/her body, or with other medium such as what we talk about, the words we use to express the thoughts and feelings, the sounds you make, your gestures, our facial expressions and perhaps even our touch or smell all communicate information, this is to tell you how effective communication can be, it involves our every second activity/actions. There is no communication without a message being passed across. Channels- In communication, these channels means the medium/means through which the communication is being passed/disseminated. We are regarded to be multi channels communicators. We have different channels through which we communicate both in the urban and rural areas (settings) which helps to proffer a better result of what is being sent.
Noise – in the context of communication, noise is anything that interferes with or distorts our ability to send or receive messages. Noise could be semantic factors such as uncertainty about what another person’s words are supposed to mean. Context – Communication always takes place IN some context or setting. Every communication starts from somewhere, there must be a setting that helps to make it real and natural and even acceptable.
Feedback - In communication, whenever we interact, communicate with one or more persons, we receive information in return. In communication we have positive feed back and negative feedback. Positive feed back which could come from the heterogeneous audience or rural dwellers as the case may be enhances whatever behaviour is in progress. It encourages us to continue with our information/attitude. In contrast, negative feedback extinguishes a behaviour; it serves as corrective rather than a reinforcing behaviours.
Effect – In communication, as people communicate, they are changed in some way by the interaction, which in turn influences what follows. These effects could be as a result of exchange of influence. Communication always has some effect on you and on the person or people with whom you are interacting with. An effect can be emotional, physical, cognitive or any combination of the three. Without all of these elements communication can never be complete and its effectiveness is withdrawn. Communication has variety functions in our lives based on our daily activities, communication helps us to create an understanding and insight. It allows us to understand ourselves and others at the same time. Creating an insight into ourselves and others. This is because when you get to know another person you get to know yourself , you learn how others affect you.
Communication also helps us to create a meaningful relationships between ourselves and others, the level of communication between us and others determines the level of our relationship with them. Just as we need water, food and shelter, when we do not communicate we become disoriented and maladjusted, and our life itself may be placed in Jeopardy. Communication also helps to influence and to persuade others, making the people around us to be able to do things the way we do, believe in what we do, Exchange the same culture with us. And whenever people are being influenced by our idea and belief it means that our goals has been achieve.
According to Gamble and Gamble (2002) communication works, seventh edition, Remarks that. “Communication gives us the chance to share our personal reality with persons from our culture, as well as people from different cultures”. Communication takes the same shape whether we live in an East Coast Urban area, a southern city, a desert community, in rural area, a home in sunny California, a village in Asia, a plain in African or a town in the middle East, we all engage in Similar activities when we communicate. We may use different symbols rely on different strategies, and desire different outcomes but the processes we use and the motivations we have are strikingly alike. However in a bid to promote communication, various government of the world have among other things been constructing roads, purchasing equipment and training personnel for any meaningful development to occur in Nigeria and Africa in general. There should be equal participation of both urban and rural settings of the society.
One way of achieving this is through the utilization of traditional communication media in conjunction with the modern mass media. Therefore, revival of our communication media is one of the steps in bringing about economic and social development in the rural setting of our country Nigeria. The desires of information about people and events, the satisfaction of news hunger stimulated by war or rumour of war, the necessity to spread information about political and religions decisions as well as threats to security, the need to stimulate and strengthen the sense of identification with values and objectives of the society, need of awareness of the authority structure and to generate and identify loyalty to those in power, all these were answered by the indigenous media form of communication.
Anthropologists, looking at human communication and development tend to focus on it’s central roles in continuation of a society through the communication and development of significant symbols. The concept of honour, bravery, Love, co-operation and honesty, for example are embodied in language and other symbolic behaviors that create and sustain belief in ways of acting because they function as names signifying proper, obvious ways of expressing relationships. During the late 1900’s and early 2000’s the concept of culture became a focus of study in many academic disciplines including that of communication and development. To social scientists, culture means people’s beliefs, customs, inventions and technology. Cultural studies of communication began attracting interest in Europe in the 1960’s and 1990s soon gained supports worldwide. Cultural critics like Raymond Williams and Stuart Hall and other scholars in the united Kingdom developed this approach that focuses on how the contemporary communication media shape people’s understanding and action.
Revival of our culture as a whole is necessarily because it will enhance overall national development of our Traditional Artifacts as channels of communication. Communication is the exchange of ideas and each society has it’s own communication culture to reach it’s people. Every culture should not be by passed, hence the interest in studying Iwollo oghe community to see their communication development systems became imperative. When co-ordinated with modern ways of communication, news becomes more effective those various assertions are challenging and inspiring and the social sciences researchers in this area stood up for the challenges and inspirations. They have at least come up with various studies in African traditional media of communication which were unfortunately treated at the periphery in the past.
The negligence was caused by lack of foresight, lack of fund, man power and interest. Such studies are now necessary because of the need to diffuse current international and national development program in rural areas, which accommodate more than 70 percent of Africa’s population. Such programs include family planning, oral dehydration, war against indiscipline, and corruption, operation feed the Nation of Obasanjo’s previous government, Directorate for food, Roads and Rural infrastructure (DFRR), Better life for Rural Women, MAMSER, WOTCLEF and other innovative ideas. The need for traditional communication institution in most African countries including Nigeria by the United Nations Education Scientific and cultural organization (UNESCO) and the government of different countries.
The World Bank Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) various festivals of Art are Epitomes of cultural reformation. The Traditional media of communication should be elevated by every citizen of this country both the government, individuals and more especially the Journalists who only pay mush interest in the foreign means neglecting the fact that the traditional media of our communication in this country is the grass root of their profession. They should endeavour to promote these various traditional media of communication without emphasizing so much in the modern means by visiting various villages, communities etc more especially their own community to know how the various traditional media of communication are being co-ordinated for the promotion of our cultural belief which enhance unity in the rural area that leads to the development of our communities and country at large.
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