Africa Media Review Vol. 1. No. 1. 1986 
O African Council on Communication 
Mobilizing People's Support for 
Development: An Analysis of Public 
Enlightenment Campaigns in Africa 
by Ikechukwu E. Nwosu* 
Abstract 
This paper directs its attention on information campaign effectiveness. It 
examines some theoretical and practical considerations that should be 
taken into account in planning and executing public englightenment 
campaigns in Nigeria and other developing countries and offers a multimedia 
model for more effective information campaigns in these areas. 
According to the model, well prepared and packaged information campaign 
messages should flow from the information campaign headquartersto the 
mass media and the interpersonal and group communication channels, 
and through these channels to the target audiences with continual 
monitoring and evaluation by campaign officials. The suggested model is 
diagramatically provided. 
Re'sume' 
Cet article se penche sur la question de l'efficacite des campagnes de 
sensibilisation. II examine certain aspects theoriques et pratiques qui devraient 
etre pris en consideration en matiere de planification ou d'execution des 
campagnes de sensibilisation au Nigeria ou dans d'autres pays en voie de 
developpement et suggere un modele multimedia pour plus d'efficacite 
campagnes d'information dans ces regions. 
Selon ce modele, des messages bien preparer et bien elabores doivent circuler 
des quartiers generaux de la direction de la campagne aux mass media, aux 
canaux interpersonnels et aux groupes specifiques et de la etre convoyes vers 
les publics vises etant entendu que les responsables de la campagne guideront 
et evalueront contunuellement celle-ci. Un diagramme du modele propose 
accompagne l'article. 
*Ikechukwu Nwosu is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, 
Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, Nigeria. 
48
The mobilization of mass support for national development through the 
use of the mass media and other communication modes has become an 
important instrument of modern government, especially in the developing 
countries. For instance, Nigeria has witnessed national development 
information campaigns that include road safety information campaign, 
green revolution or agricultural campaign, pre-voting public 
enlightenment, literacy campaigns and the on-going War-Against- 
Indiscipline (W.A.I.) campaigns. All these are indicative of the increasing 
confidence which Nigerians seem to be placing on the findings and 
conclusions of communication experts on the gainful role which the mass 
and other media of communication can have on national development.1 
A common problem confronting experts, governments and the 
campaign planners and implementers everywhere, is finding out how the 
effectiveness of the various information and public enlightenment 
campaigns can be improved or even assured. This problem has persisted in 
spite of the various degrees of successes recorded by some of the past 
campaigns.2 This is an indication that we still have to do much work in this 
area. 
This paper contributes to this continuing effort to find a solution or 
solutions to the problem of information campaign effectiveness. It will 
examine some theoretical and practical considerations that should be taken 
into account in planning and executing future public enlightenment 
campaigns in Nigeria and, by extension, other developing countries. We 
shall also use materials from existing relevant communication theories and 
research, as well as other related areas to construct and recommend a multimedia 
model or approach for more effective information campaigns in 
Nigeria and other developing countries. 
Basic Assumptions: 
The following are the fundamental working assumptions that run 
through this paper :- 
1. That an effective publicity or information campaign is sine qua non 
to effective execution of various government policies and programmes 
2. That people will be better informed if the organisers of any public 
information campaign are familiar with and can apply the recognised 
theories and practices on the pattern of information flow in a developing 
country like Nigeria. 
49
3. That people will be better informed if the information campaign 
messages are couched and presented as messages that mostly 
emphasise things to be gained by them, both as individuals and 
members of groups. 
4. That the mass media can set the agenda for the public about the issues 
or events involved in any information campaign by lending greater 
salience to certain issues or events than others, through emphasis, 
repetition- and other media activities. 
5. That in a developing country like Nigeria, information flow from the 
mass media to the masses is largely indirect, resulting in the need for 
effective combination of a "multi-mass media mix" with various interpersonal, 
traditional and other communication means for a more 
effective information campaign. 
Theoretical Framework 
Media Effects in General: 
The focus of this paper falls within the broad realm of media or press 
influence, impact or effects, an area which has for many years attracted the 
attention of researchers and scholars in Mass Communication and Politics.3 
Some comments must be made right away, therefore, on the state of 
research and scholarly thinking in the area. Part of the reason for doing this 
will be to further indicate this paper's scope and explain why the scope is 
restricted to a particular level of analysis. 
Thinkings and research on media influence in general and political 
influence of the media have fluctuated among three major levels of 
abstractions or positions: 
(1) The Strictly Powerful Effect position 
(2) The Little or No effect position, and 
(3) The Modified Powerful Effect position. 
The Strictly Powerful Effect position saw the mass media as definitely 
having powerful influence on human beings at all levels. It saw the mass 
media as almighty mass movers that have the ability to inform people, 
change their attitudes, beliefs and opinions, and move them to desired, 
expected or prescribed actions. It has its origin in the period following 
World War I when people were assessing the powerful effects of Hitler's 
media propaganda and those of the Allied Forces. This position was soon 
abandoned because it was not generally based on scientific data and did not 
take into account the simultaneous influence of other societal and 
psychological variables. The so-called Stimulus-Response (S-R),| 
50
Hypodermic Needle and Bullet theories of mass communication are related 
to this school of thought about media influence and are no longer regarded 
as useful analytical tools. 
The second position, the Little-or-No-Effect position, is held by those 
who see the mass media as having a minimal effect and those who claim they 
may even have No Effect at all, with those in the minimal effect school 
dominating. Media scholar, Noelle-Neuman, for example, reviewed media 
effect studies over a 40 year period and concluded that "the effects of the 
mass media appear to be negligible."4 Another researcher, W.J. McGuire, 
in his study of media role in changing attitudes, concluded that "The 
measured impact of the mass media as regards persuasiveness appear quite 
slight and embarrassing."5 He found little evidence in support of media 
change of attitudes, much less in gross behaviour change. Researcher 
Berelson summarised the minimalist viewpoint masterly when he wrote 
that, "Some kinds of communication, on some kinds of issues, brought to 
the attention of some kinds of people, under some kinds of conditions, have 
some kinds of effects.6 Note the much qualified, reserved and conditional 
tone of his conclusion. 
But there now seems to be a more recent return to the idea of powerful 
media effect thinking; but this time in a modified and restricted manner. 
Those who share the thinking of this third Modified Powerful Effect 
position have the one major agreement that the mass media definitely have 
powerful influence at the information or learning level, but may not have 
much influence at the attitude/opinion or behaviour change levels, if at all. 
They agree that at these later levels of decision and action, the media 
collectively serve as contributors or reinforcers alongside with a nexus of 
other communication and non-communication variables. 
Researchers Tichenor, Olien and Donohue of the Knowledge Gap 
Hypothesis7, maintain, for instance, that the "mass media represent 
sub-systems which cut across other sub-systems and transmit information 
among and between them.8 
They point out that researchers who assess media effect along these 
lines usually find considerable effects, at least at the learning or 
information level. Still other researchers, Kline and Clarke have observed 
that most studies that report null media effects were biased and had "Sterile 
research designs and poor definition of key variables."9 According to 
them, people learn and obtain information from the media; that should be 
seen as a rewarding media effect by itself and research emphasis should be in 
this area. 
It is thus in line with this more current and modified powerful media 
effect position that the present paper's focus and scope is restricted to the 
51
informational level of media influence. In this paper, therefore, the mass 
media are seen as powerful instruments of politics and information that 
have to be adequately utilized during public enlightenment campaigns in 
Nigeria. The three Mass Communication theories, quasi-theories or 
hypotheses10 that will be critically reviewed and applied in this study -- the 
Two-Step Flow Theory and its variants, the Uses and Gratification Theory 
and the Agenda-Setting Hypothesis, -- hang mainly on this modified media 
effect position that emphasises the informational learning influence of the 
mass media. Let us now critically review and apply these three "theories" 
in some details, starting with the Two-Step Flow theory. 
The Two-Step Flow Theory and Its Variants: 
Theory and Application 
The Two-Step Flow theory grew serendipitously from the now famous 
Erie County studies in the U.S.A. by researchers Lazarsfeld, Berelson and 
Gaudet. But it has been successfully and contextually applied in many 
studies of information in developing countries that include Nigeria, India 
and Middle East countries. Simply put, the theory states that in any mass 
communication effort (such as in an information campaign) messages 
usually flow from the mass media to opinion leaders, who then pass them on 
to others whom they unavoidably influence in doing this.J l In other words, 
media information influence is indirect and usually takes place in a crossfire 
of interpersonal connections or communications. Lazarsfeld and his 
associates, in presenting this theory, also highlighted the fact that families, 
friends, co-workers, churches and similar social institutions while helping 
to play the media information influence role, can and do also have their own 
independent influences. Furthermore, like the individual differences and 
social categories theories,12 the Two-Step Flow theory holds that the media 
do not influence "people informationally in the same way. 
The Two-Step Flow theory has been subjected to many tests, reviews 
and replications. While there have been some differential findings rising 
from situational or contextual differences, some significant modifications 
and some null findings about the theory, it has not been totally debunked. 
In fact, many recent studies, such as the diffusion of innovation studies13 
have continued to demonstrate the usefulness of this theory in 
understanding mass communication. This is why more than fourteen years 
after their original Erie Country Study, Lazarsfeld could in another study 
he did with Elihu Katz reaffirm that, Ideas often seem to flow from radio and ] 
print to opinion leaders and from them to the less active sections of the 
population."14 
52
The major changes that have been brought to bear on the original 
submissions of the Two-Step Flow theory appear in the form of variants or 
modifications. Hence we now have the Multi-Step Flow theory and the NStep 
Flow theory (where N represents any number of steps or stages in the 
information diffusion process). These variants do not, however, change the 
original idea of interpersonal mediation in the flow of information from the 
mass media to the masses (according to the Two-Step Flow theory) or the 
opinion leadership and personal influence idea. They will not therefore, be 
dwelt upon in this paper. 
Applying the Two-Step Flow Theory 
Our major purpose for reviewing any of the three selected theories in 
this paper is to explore its practical utility and application, how we can 
gainfully employ it in the planning and execution of public information 
campaigns such as the ethical reorientation and agricultural information 
campaigns in Nigeria. The major thing we learnt from the Two-Step Flow 
theory is that information flow from the mass media to individuals is 
indirect; passing from the media to more politically aware and active 
opinion leaders and then to the less active masses. The Multi-Step Flow and 
the N-Step flow variants of the theory suggests to us that in addition to the 
opinion leaders, many other individuals participate or help in the media 
information transfer or flow process, depending on the communication 
situation. 
What all this means is that in launching future information campaigns, 
the campaign officials should see the planting of iniormation in the mass 
media as just an important first step that should be followed by other even 
more important steps which mainly involve the assurance that this mass 
mediated information flows smoothly through the web of interpersonal 
relationships in families and other social institutions that will ultimately 
ensure the achievement of the campaign goals. 
The fact that Nigeria is a developing country makes this even most 
important and significant. Many Nigerians do not have access to mass 
media information and even many of those who have access may not be 
literate enough to participate fully in the media communication process. 
Except radio which has recorded an admirable degree of ability to 
considerably scale language and literacy barriers, other arms of the media, 
such as the newspaper, have not done much to overcome this handicap. 
This is in spite of the existence of local language newspapers, such as the 
Udoka Igbo language newspaper published by Concord Press of Nigeria 
53
Limited. Television cannot do very much in this issue because the majority 
of Nigerians still do not own televisions or have regular access to them. 
The foregoing reasoning can be supported with the empirical data 
supplied by a recent study of the 1978 prevoting registration publicity 
campaign in Nigeria by a one-time visiting professor in the University of 
Nigeria, Nsukka, Department of Mass Communication, Sharon M. Murphy 
This researcher conducted a 21-question interview survey of a cluster 
sample of 497 people in 11 villages in Nsukka Local Government Area, plus 
Nsukka town itself. This area had a potential eligible voting population of 
116,958 persons 18 years of age and above in 1978, according to the Nsukka 
Local Government office which did not divide this figure by sex differences. 
Her major findings were that 37% learnt about the registration exercise 
from the radio (direct information influence), only 4% from newspapers 
and television combined (direct information influence); while 
interpersonal and other indirect means -- councillors and village 
associations.-- accounted for 23% and 36% respectively (i.e. 59%) of the 
information they got about the registration campaign. Among those who 
eventually registered, 30% cited radio as a major influece on their decision 
to vote, 23% .cited the councillors and 25% cited the village associations. 
The remaining 22% was distributed among other factors that included 
friends, church sermons, newspapers and intrinsic interest in politics.15 
These findings are interesting and go to strengthen one of this paper's 
earlier assumptions that in a developing country such as Nigeria, media 
information flow is largely indirect. As noted earlier, those who plan and 
execute information or public enlightenment campaigns in Nigeria should 
observe these facts if they wish to be effective or successful. To this end, 
they would in addition have to make better or more effective use of social 
institutions such as the churches, town criers, village meetings and the like. 
They should do this realising that apart from helping to disseminate mass 
mediated information, they also have independent influences of their own. 
The Uses and Gratification Theory: 
Theory and Application 
The Uses and Gratification theory or approach to the research, analysis, 
understanding and practice of mass and other types of communication has 
its origin in the early audience studies of radio serials in the 1920s. But 
studies in this area actually became empirical in the 1940s when Lazarsfeld 
and Stanton (1949)16, Berelson (1949)n and others started empirical 
research in this area. There is currently an increased interest in the 
empirical, analytical and applicatory values of this theory as demonstrated 
54
in the studies contained in the book-length review and assessment of this 
theory by J.G. Blumler and Elihu Katz (1974)18. 
The basic conclusion or message of the Uses and Gratification theory is 
that in any communication situation the individual audience member or 
message receiver (e.g. a farmer or potential voter) usually has specific 
information needs and consciously exposes himself to communication 
mainly to satisfy or gratify those needs. In this way then, according to this 
theory, an individual's communication behaviour is seriously affected, 
determined or shaped by his needs (basic and higher order needs). Those 
needs and the ability of a message to satisfy them will, it is assumed, 
determine whether he exposes himself at all to the message and how he uses 
the message. 
Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch summarised this Uses and Gratification 
theory very masterly in one of their studies when they stated that the social 
and psychological origins of individuals' needs generate or lead to certain 
expectations from communication sources, media or channels of 
communication, and that these in turn lead to differential patterns of media 
exposure which results in different need gratification and other 
consequences.19 
As can be seen from the above statements of the theory, it views 
audience members in any communication situation or venture as 
deliberate and active users of communication contents, rather than being 
mere passive participants in the communication experience. In a manner of 
speech, these individual audience members have certain needs, come to the 
communication market with these needs and actively "shop" for messages 
and information that will satisfy or gratify these needs; rejecting or refusing 
to expose themselves to or buy information that does not serve any of their 
needs. Related to these ideas of the Uses and Gratification theory are the 
older communication concepts of selective exposure and selective 
perception which also present members of the audience as actively involved 
in selection or rejection of media information according to their psychological, 
physical, social and other backgrounds. 
A major development in recent times is the attempt by some researchers 
to replace the "need" component in the Uses and Gratification theory with 
the concept of "purpose".20 Among the reasons offered by those who 
advocate this change are that every audience member generally has the, 
same needs, that social and psychological needs are difficult to measure and 
that it is difficult and hazardous to attempt to say that a particular need is 
the reason (direct causality) why an individual uses a medium. It is 
necessary to point out, however, that even when the shift is made from 
"need" to "purpose", the original message of the Uses and Gratification 
theory is not changed. 
55
Applying the Uses and Gratification Theory: 
For our purpose in this paper, the essential applicatory message of the 
Uses and Gratification theory are that different individuals have different 
needs or purposes which shape their communication behaviour; and that 
members of the communication audience are usually deliberate, active, and 
selective, rather than passive, in the response to information from the mass 
media and other sources. 
What this means in effect is that in organising and executing publicity 
and public enlightenment campaigns, those concerned should realise that 
individual Nigerians will respond more (quantitatively and qualitatively) to 
information that mostly emphasize the different gains to be derived by them 
by doing what is required. The realisation should then guide their overall 
communication strategy and specific actions or tactics. For instance, it is 
not enough to merely emphasize the fact that the electorate will have 
chance to elect politicians or governments that will satisfy their needs, as 
many of the campaign messages dished out by FEDECO in the 1978 and 
1982 registration and voting information campaigns seemed to have so 
emphasized. In trying to apply the teachings of the uses and gratification 
theory, we need to go beyond this general or blanket type of gratification or 
satisfaction of needs or purpose and include details of specific needs of the 
voters that would be satisfied if they elected the right government or people 
to rule them. In fact, the rest of the registration information such as where 
to go and register should rest on these need-satisfying information that 
help to make the audience member more willing to expose himself to and 
perceive communicated messages. 
The first task of any communicator or official who wishes to apply this 
theory then is to identify the various needs or purposes of the individuals 
and communities that he wishes to inform and influence in any 
communication exercise. According to this theory these needs or purposes 
are bound to vary from one individual to another, and by extension, from 
one community or group to the other. The situation therefore calls for 
careful audience segmentation as part of the information exercise. 
Knowledge of the target audiences or communities would, for sure, be very 
useful to such a communication campaign in trying to decipher their 
differential needs or purposes. But even this does not remove the need for 
some fact-finding or basic audience research efforts before launching the 
information campaign. Such a basic pre-campaign research effort will help 
to answer specific questions like: What could be their purposes for 
preferring or using one medium or channel or communication instead of 
the other, for selectively exposing themselves to some types of information 
56
and leaving out others, for responding positively or in the desired direction 
to certain types of information or communication content and negatively to 
some others? It will also help to uncover some political, economic, social 
and other needs of the members of the audience that can be gainfully 
incorporated in the communication strategy. 
When these needs or purposes are uncovered or identified, they should 
then be the dominant forces in carrying out the information campaign; not 
merely the narrow specific information the government wishes to sell to 
the masses. For example, if the priority needs of individuals in a particular 
community were found to be water-supply, electricity, good roads and 
schools, the information campaign should emphasise specifically and 
clearly that doing what is recommended in the campaign will help the 
government to provide these amenities for them. 
This is not to say that those specific official information goals for a 
particular campaign should be forgotten. What is required or recommended 
is that they be kept in the background or de-emphasized as much 
as possible in line with the Uses and Gratification theory; while the specific 
needs of the people are made explicit and dominant. If the information is 
presented otherwise, the result is likely to be that the members of the 
communication audience, who the Uses and Gratification theory has told 
us are largely active and deliberate in their response to communicated 
messages, will not expose themselves to or perceive these public enlightenment 
information. This will render the whole campaign ineffective as was 
reported to be the case in many areas during the 1978 and 1982 voters 
registration information campaigns. 
The Agenda-Setting Hypothesis: 
Theory and Application 
We shall now consider the third and last of the "theories' we are 
working with in this paper. This third one is known as the Agenda-Setting 
hypothesis. This hypothesis is known to be most popular among many 
planners of political and other information campaigns and political 
commentators, even though it is still largely known as a hypothesis. 
The ideas of media agenda-setting can actually be traced back to the 
early 1920s when that well-known political and communication analyst, 
Walter Lippmann suggested a relationship between "the world outside and 
the pictures in our head."2 His works further suggest that the mass media 
or press paint a picture of the world outside for us and arrange the events 
covered in an order of importance that can be called an agenda. Another, 
significant scholarly thinking that probably got empirically-oriented 
57
scholars to carry out systematic studies on the media agenda-setting idea 
was the one made in 1963 by Political Scientist Bernard Cohen. He 
contended in a study he did that the media may not be particularly 
successful in telling people what to think ".but it is stunningly successful in 
telling its readers what to think about." 
It was not until the 1970s, however, that serious research efforts on 
media agenda-setting started. Two researchers whose names have been 
closely associated with the seminal efforts in this area are Maxwell 
McCombs and Donald Shaw who stated the hypothesis thus: "That media 
emphasis on an event influences the audience also to see the event as 
important.23 These researchers tested their hypothesis in the 1968 
American Presidential election and found a strong positive correlation 
between the issues the voters deemed important and those emphasized by 
the news media. McCombs and Shaw have continued to test and retest this 
Tiypothesis with many other researchers in developed and developing 
countries. In their 1977 study, for instance, they concluded among others, 
that, "There is a progressive increase in the use of mass communications 
during a presidential election. In fact, the major political role of the mass 
media may be to raise the salience of politics among the electorate24 
Among other researchers who have tested this media agenda-setting 
hypothesis and found some validity in its claims are Jack McLeod and his 
two associates. The three researchers ended up restating the hypothesis 
thus: "An Audience member exposed to a given medium agenda will adjust 
his or her perception of the importance of issues in the direction 
corresponding to the amount of attention devoted to those issues in the 
medium used J s What all these means is that public's agenda of issues and 
events ten J to match the media's agenda on those issues and events because, 
according to the hypothesis, the media lend importance or salience to 
certain issues and not others. Put in another way, the press or mass media 
construct a hierarchy of social and political realities for the audience by 
arranging the social and political issues/events they present in order of 
importance. 
There.are many ways in which the press or media lend salience to issues 
or event. They include the technique of repetition mainly employed by 
radio and television. In addition to this technique, newspapers, magazines 
and other print media can lend salience to socio-political issues and events 
through placement (front page vs. inside page), space allocation (large vs. 
small space), headlines differences (bold face Vs. light face) and story 
slanting. Also the mere act of editors and reporters deciding what is 
newsworthy enough to be included in the bulletin or newspaper is also a way 
of setting agenda by lending salience to the stories they select and no 
58
salience to those they reject (the gate-keeping process). The radio and 
television stations canalsocreate agenda by the way they arrange stories in 
the bulletin; with stories they consider as more important being placed first 
vhile the ones they consider less important come last. 
Even though researchers are still engaged in testing various aspects of 
Jthis hypothesis, it has continued to gain wide acceptance, especially among 
[scholars interested in understanding the role of the mass media in politics 
land information campaigns. The major reason for its present popularity is 
I that apart from the common criticisms against it like inconsistencies in 
findings from study to study and the possibilty of other explanations like 
whether people set the agenda for the media instead, no major debunking of 
the hypothesis has emerged. 
| Applying the Agenda-Setting Hypothesis 
For our present discussion, there are, no doubt, several lessons of 
| practical application that can be learnt from the above summary review of 
the Agenda-Setting Hypothesis. For one thing, it should go to further 
strengthen the faith of government officials and others involved in planning 
information campaigns in the ability of the mass media or the press to 
influence people; at least at the information or learning level. It should also 
alert them to the various manipulations which the initial information they 
send to the media can undergo in the hands of the editors and reporters; 
manipulations that can make their target audiences see their message as 
important or worth their attention or not. 
It is when they are so alerted that they will come to realise that their 
information campaign messages are competing with other news items in the 
minds and eyes of the media practitioners and that their decision to play it 
up or lend salience to them will depend on how well they present the 
messages in the first place to make them sell. This calls for maximum use of 
professional communicators on a consultancy or permanent T>asis in the 
planning and execution of various activities connected with the publicity 
campaigns -- activities that may include organising regular press 
conferences, issuing effective press releases, backgrounders and similar 
media relations activities. 
The most practical use of the Agenda-Setting hypothesis still lies, 
however, in the fact that the importance which audience members or 
potential voters attach to the issues and events involved in any public 
enlightenment exercise tends to depend largely on the amount of attention 
the mass media devote to those issues and events and how much salience 
they lend to those issues and events through repetition, bold or "shouting" 
59
headlining, adequate space allocation, strategic placement and favourable 
slanting. 
This further implies, for practical purposes, that the officials involved 
in information campaigns should not only give pieces of information about 
those campaigns to media practitioners and fold their hands after that. 
They should follow these up with other activities aimed at ensuring that 
their handling is done in such a manner that could be said to be reasonably 
in line with the contents of the Agenda-Setting hypothesis. They should do 
this realising that people are more likely to consider it important for them to 
respond positively to the campaign messages, if they consider them 
important in the first place, and that the mass media help people to 
determine this importance. 
In trying to achieve this practical purpose, lobbying of the editors and 
reporters, in the cleanest sense of the word, may not be ruled out. But in 
addition, the publicity officials should be ready to spend more time and 
money in public service and other types of advertising than was the case in 
previous publicity campaigns. 
Integration, Summary and Conclusion 
The preceding sections of this paper have among other things attempted 
to summarily review and discuss the practical applications of three major 
"theories" of communication in publicity and public enlightenment 
campaigns in Nigeria. Since the three theories and their applications were 
deliberately treated independently, it seems necessary to tie them up or 
perform a brief integration exercise that will highlight the key applicatory 
messages of each theory and the relationships among the three theories. 
In a general sense, we learnt that the mass media or press influence 
individuals mainly more at the awareness, information or learning level 
than at the opinion change, attitude change, decision and actual behaviour 
or action level. It was also clear from the earlier sections of this paper that 
beyond this awareness or information level and even within that level, a 
combination of the different arms of the mass media and other 
communication channels is very essential, especially in a developing 
country like Nigeria. 
Based on this knowledge we can go ahead and recommend that in 
planning and executing publicity and public enlightenment campaigns, in 
Nigeria, a more effective multi-media or multi-communication channels 
approach be adopted. It is only when we adopt this approach that we can 
effectively and jointly utilize interpersonal channels of communication, 
mass media channels and other institutional or traditional channels like 
60
churches, schools, age grade forums, different village and city associations 
or clubs and the village town crier or gongman. This balanced multi-media 
or Multi-Communication Channel approach will also ensure effective use of 
other channels of information dissemination like personal visits, public 
meetings, direct mails, exhibits, bill boards, posters, hand bills and various 
indigenous channels of communication. 
The three specific theories discussed in this paper help us to go beyond 
this general approach in order to grasp fully how we can benefit most 
from or how best we can utilise the various units or channels that constitute 
the recommended multi-media or multi-communication channel approach. 
The Two-Step Flow theory and its variants instruct, for instance, that in 
dealing with publicity and public enlightenment campaigns, those, 
responsible should place less emphasis on direct media influence on isolated 
individuals and more emphasis on indirect media influence on individuals 
as members of social groups involved in a continual web of interpersonal 
relationships. They should, also not fail to establish informed public 
opinion leadership that is very vital to information dissemination and 
diffusion in a developing country like Nigeria. As Margaret Piel has 
observed in a booklength study of Nigerian politics, middle men, 
councillors and other opinion leaders play a key role of helping to transmit a 
great deal of the political information by "word of mouth."26 
The Uses and Gratification theory goes beyond information flow to 
instruct that public enlightenment and publicity campaign strategies should 
be also guided by the knowledge that human beings or audience members 
are usually active (not passive) participants in the communication or 
information process. Audience members, it holds, usually selectively and 
deliberately use or not use, respond or refuse to respond to information 
content, depending on whether it does or does not satisfy specific needs for 
them. This then means that mass media, interpersonal or other messages 
should be delivered or couched in a manner that emphasizes specific need 
gratifications for the audience members concerned in order to receive 
favourable or any attention at all. Information campaign strategists and 
executives will do well to apply this knowledge in their work. 
Finally, the Agenda-Setting hypothesis alerts publicity campaign 
planners to the fact that the mass media are very effective in structuring and 
restructuring the information environment and setting a hierarchy of 
agenda of issues and social events by lending more salience to some and not 
to other events or issues. They should, therefore, work hard to ensure that 
the mass media lend salience or importance to their campaign information 
through repetition, selection, favourable slanting, large space allocation, 
strategic placement and similar media manipulations. They should do this 
realising that it is only when members of the public consider their 
61
information as important that they can pay attention enough to it to discuss 
it in interpersonal or social levels (according to the two-step flow theory), 
be able to discover its contents that gratify their specific needs (according to 
the Uses and Gratification theory) and probably be moved to perform the 
expected action. 
All in all then it seems right to conclude that effective publicity or 
information campaign is very necessary for successful execution of various 
government policies and programmes in Nigeria, that people will be best 
informed and persuaded if the information campaign planners adopt a more 
effective multi-media approach or strategy that effectively combines mass 
and interpersonal means of communication, realises that the pattern of 
information flow is mostly two-step or multi-step and indirect, emphasises 
aspects of the information packages that have to do with the satisfaction or 
gratification of people's specific needs, and realises that the mass media 
possess the power to set the agenda for the people by lending salience to 
certain issues and not others. 
It would seem from our discussions throughout this paper that if future 
pre-voting registration publicity and other similar campaigns in Nigeria 
adopt the above strategy, the many mistakes of past public enlightenment 
and publicity exercises will be significantly reduced, if not completely 
removed. Our discussions in this paper seem also to serve as a reasonable 
demonstration of the close affinity between theory and practice and 
should help to disabuse the minds of some information campaign planners 
of the erroneous idea that there is a wide gap between the theory of Mass 
Communication and the practice of this vocation. Theory and practice are 
largely inter-complementary and two sides of the same coin. 
Applying the relevant theories contained in this paper's recommended 
effective multi-media approach will help to make their campaigns more 
systematic and not haphazard. It will help them to do even better what 
they did right in the past and to add new armour to their information 
campaign arsenel, thereby achieving better results. 
The multi-media model constructed from our earlier discussions and 
analyses in this paper is described by the schema below^ 
As the model shows, well-prepared and packaged information campaign 
messages should flow from the information campaign headquarters to the 
mass media and the interpersonal and group communication channels. 
Then, through the complex nexus of the various communication channels 
contained within these two broad channels (Mass media and Interpersonal/ 
Group) channels, the information should get to the individual audience 
members with the continual supervision of the information campaign 
officials. Finally, the campaign officials at the headquarters should use 
various evaluation, feedback or monitoring research mechanisms to assess 
62
the effectiveness of their campaign efforts. Such evaluations should be 
done not only at the end of the campaign but also as it is in progress. This 
will ensure continual adjustments whenever this is necessary. These 
continual adjustment, we know, helps to ensure greater effectiveness and 
better results in information campaign exercises. 
Figure 1 
The Recommended Multi-Media Model for 
Effective Information Campaigns 
IMFORMATION 
CAMPAIGN 
HEADQUARTERS 
-HI Tele- II Maga-1| X HJJ || Chur tg^ I Clubs Lhool; 
| paper || v.s.on || z.ne || ^ || n e 0 U J || c h l « || ^ M | | f" 
Town CMer, 
Family visits. 
Meetings, 
Opinion Leaders, 
Bill Boards,, 
Posters. 
Direct Mail 
Handbills. 
THE TARGET AUDIENCES 
OR INDIVIDUALS 
FEEDBACK MONITORING 
OR 
EVALUATION MECHANISMS 
REFERENCES 
I- The key works in the area of mass media and national development include:- Everett 
Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations (1962). Daniel Lerncr, The Passing of Traditional 
Society; (1958). Wilbur Schramm, Mass Media and National Development, 
(1964); Karl Deutsch Nationalism and Social Communications, (1953); 
and Lucien Pye (ed), Communication and Political Development, (1963). 
63
2. For instance.even though some successes were recordedduring the 1978 < >d 1982 voter 
registration information campaigns in Nigeria, many individuals, organisations, states 
and mass media still charged the FEDECO officials involved in that campaign of 
indolence, carelessness, corruption, irregularities and inadequate planning - - evidence 
that everything was not alright. See, for example, Daily Times, February 22, 1978, 
p.24; and Daily Times, September 29, 1982, p. 22. 
3. The pioneeringworks of Paul Lazarsfeld,BernardBerelsonand others were frequently 
about elections, mass media and politics in general. An example is the famous 1940 
Erie County Study in the U.S. by Berelson and others that gave birth to the Two Step 
Flow Theory discussed in this paper. 
4. Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann, "Return to the Concept of Powerful Mass Media," in 
Studies of Broadcasting: An International Annual of Broadcasting Science, 
eds. H. Eguchi and K. Sata, Tokyo: Nippon Kyokai, March 1973, p. 68. 
5. W.J. McCuire, "The Nature of Attitudes and Attitude Change, "in The Handbook 
of Social Psychology, eds. Gardner Lindzey and Elliot Aronson, Addisoh Wesely 
Publishers, 1969, p. 229. 
6. Bernard Berelson, "Communication and Public Opinion," in Communications in 
Modern Society, ed. Wilbur Schramm, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1948, 
p. 172. 
7. The knowledge gap hypothesis states that "As the infusion of mass media information 
into a social system increases, segments of the population with higher socio-economic 
status tend to acquire this at a faster rate than the lower status segments, so that the 
gap in knowledge between these segments tend to increase rather than decrease." 
8. See Philip Tichenor, G. Donohue and C. Olien, "Mass Media Flow and Differential 
Growth in Knowledge,"Public Opinion Quarterly, No. 134. pp. 159 - 170. 
9. Peter Klarke and Gerald Kline, "Media Effects Reconsidered: Some New Strategies for 
Communication Research", Communication Research, Vol. 1, No. 2,1974, p. 225. 
10. In using these terms it should be borne in mind that some of the "theories" in mass 
communication are still regarded by many communication experts as being at best 
hypotheses that need further testing to ensure their generalizability and predictability 
potentials. 
11. Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and H. Guadet, The People's Choice: How the 
Voter Makes up His Mind in Presidential Campaign, New York; Duel Sloan 
and Pearce, 1944. 
12. See Melvin L. Defleur, Theories of Mass Communication, New York: David McKay 
Company Inc., 1966, pp. 199-128. 
13. See for instance, the significant work by Daniel Lerner, The Passing of Traditional 
Society,New York: The Free Press of Glencoe,l964. See also,O.O. Hunponu - Wusu, 
"Communicating Family Planning to Rural Communities in Nigeria: Some suggestions, 
"UNILAG Communication Review, Vol. 1, Nos. 2 and 3, April/December, 
1977. 
14. Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld, Personal Influence: The Part Played by the 
People in the Flow of Mass Communication, Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 
1955. 
64
15. Sharon M. Murphy, "Voter Registration Drive in Nigeria: Patterns of Communication 
Influence", Paper Presented to the International Communication Division, Association 
for Education in Journalism Convention, Houston, Texas, August, 1979. 
16. P.F. Lazarsfeld and F.N. Stanton (eds), Radio Communication Research. New 
York: Harper and Row, 1949. 
17. Bernard Berelson, "What 'Missing the Newspaper' Means," in P.F. Lazarsfeld and 
18. J.C. Blumler and Elihu Katz, (eds), The Uses of Mass Communication, Vol. Ill, 
19. See their research report "Utilization of Mass Communication by Individuals" in 
F.N. Stanton (eds), Ibid, 1949. 
Beverly Hills, California: Sage Publications, 1974. 
Blumler and Katz (eds), Ibid. 
20. This trend is summarised in I.E. Nwosu, J. Pavlik and D. Gonzalez-Ethel's, "Towards 
Effective Employee Communication in a large Commercial Organisation in the U.S.A. 
(Honey Well Inc.), 1980. See also Leo Jeffres, "Functions of Media Behaviours", 
Communication Research, Vol. 2, No. 2, April 1975. 
21. Walter Iippmann, Public Opinion, New York: Macmillan, 1922, pp. 1 - 19. 
22. Bernard C. Cohen, The Press and Foreign Policy, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton 
University Press, 1963, p. 13. 
23. Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw, "A Report on Agenda-Setting Research, 
Association for Education in Journalism, Theory and Methodology Division, San 
Diego, California, August 18 - 21, 1974, pp. 10 - 11. 
24. Donald L. Shaw and Maxwell E. McCombs, The Emergence of American Political 
Issues: The Agenda-Setting Functions of the Press, St. Paul: West Publishers, 
1977, p. 153. 
25. Jack M. McLeod, Lee B. Becker and James E. Byrnes, "Another Look at the Agenda- 
Setting Function of the Press, "Communication Research, No. 1, April 1974, p. 137. 
26. Margaret Piel, Nigerian Politics: The People's View, London: Cassell and Co. Ltd., 
1976. 
65