ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND ITS PROBLEMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

1.1 Introduction

Communication is a key component of sustainable development. Mobilizing community members for community development purpose is important but members of communities can only be mobilized when communication is effective. Effective communication will help in the move of people from individual centered deficit model of learning, behaviour development and change to a collective and community-focused model of participation, appreciation and equity. Communication is to be used to collect and exchange information among all those concerned in planning a development initiative with the aim of reaching an agreement on the problems facing development issue and seeking options for their solutions. Communication will help engage citizens in development (Sarvaes and Liu 2007).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Newspapers, magazines, radio and television has been an important channel for communicating with customers, investors and the community. There is limited information about attempts to communicate with families and communities about arsenic in drinking water supplies. Despite the global nature of the problem, little documentation exists about efforts in different countries to communicate with people about the risk to their health from arsenic. This chapter fills that void by providing a synthesis of the global experience to date.

Effective communication is a two-way communication, it should not be a one way dissemination of information, nor should it consist of telling people what they should or should not do. It should not be viewed as a way to motivate people to participate in activities in which they did not have input. Communication is expected to be used to facilitate community participation in a development initiative. When communication is used for community development purpose, it is based on the one hand on participating process and on the other hand on media and interpersonal communication which facilitates a dialogue among different stakeholders around a common development goal, with the objective of developing and implementing a set of activities to contribute to its solution, or its realization and which supports and accompanies this initiative.

The single largest communication initiative on arsenic comes from Bangladesh. A multi-media, multi-level communication strategy was launched by the national government, with UNICEF assistance, in four rural areas in late 1999. An initial evaluation indicates that the strategy is raising awareness and villagers are switching to safe sources of water. Until more results are available, the Bangladesh example offers communicators with some ‘best practices’ for designing and implementing a large-scale communication strategy. Limited experiences from other countries, such as India, Argentina, Australia and the United States, also provide insights into ways of communicating effectively about the arsenic problem.

In some parts of the world, information and communication technologies and services (ICTs) are contributing to revolutionary changes in business and everyday life. In other parts of the world, the lives of people have hardly been touched by these innovations. If people in developing countries are unable to acquire the capabilities for using the new ICT applications, they will be increasingly disadvantaged or excluded from participating in the global information society. The social and economic potential of these new technologies for development is enormous, but so too are the risks of exclusion.

The production of goods and services is paying less and less heed to national boundaries. New services, robotics, computer-aided design and new management techniques made possible by ICTs are contributing to changes in the competitiveness of firms and nations. The implications of these technologies for the social and entertainment sectors and for governance are equally great. Some observers suggest it is only a matter of time before market mechanisms ensure that all the world’s citizens enjoy the benefits of a global information society. They argue there is little need for special measures by governments and other stakeholders. Others suggest that the transformative nature of these technologies has been exaggerated.

The new ICT applications may destroy more jobs than they create; the gap between rich and poor may widen; and the huge capital investments required to strengthen national capabilities for using ICTs could divert resources from other activities that could have greater development impact. Therefore, this study focuses on the assessment of the problems of communication in developing countries.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to assess the Problem of Communication in Developing Countries.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that lack of funding is one of the challenges facing communication in most developing countries, the utilization of modern technology is important in improving the effectiveness of communication in developed countries, the inability of developing countries to procure these modern communication technology has reduced the effectiveness of communication in these countries.

Noise is one of the most difficult problems that effect, both the print and broadcast media. In broadcast media it comes in form of hooting noise, poor grammatical expressions etc. While in the print, anything that tends to derail the readers mind from the proper understanding of the encoded message is noise. Noise could be in form of wrong spellings, wring usage of words as well as wrong punctuation’s. In interpersonal communication, noise could come in the form of shabby dressing of the communicator, a handkerchief bulging from the pocket of the communicator, or bad make – up. When the encoded message is distorted as a result of noise, understanding will be adversely affected the essential of such communication will therefore be defeated.

Another major problem that faces communication in developing countries is language problems. For a communication process is seen as successful, the decoding must be an indication of proper understating. In country like Nigeria, there are about 250 ethnic groups and several language as well as dialects. Our use of English language is most times hampered by the intrusion of our local and sectional dialects.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to assess the Problem of Communication in Developing Countries. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To ascertain the implication of poor funding on communication in developing countries;
2. To find out the influence of inadequate modern technology on communication in developing countries;
3. To determine the role of the government on the state of communication in developing countries;
4. To find out the effectiveness of communication in developing countries; and
5. To investigate the influence of competent media practitioners on communication in developing countries.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What is the effectiveness of communication in developing countries?
• What is the implication of poor funding on communication in developing countries?
• What is the influence of inadequate modern technology on communication in developing countries?
• What is the role of the government on the state of communication in developing countries?
• What is the influence of competent media practitioners on communication in developing countries?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There are no communication problems in developing countries.
• H1: There are communication problems in developing countries.

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1.7 Significance of Study

The Information acquired from this project report can be used by other researchers as a reference in future, by being compelled to carry out further study on the same filed. The findings of this study may help the management and staff members of the Institution to understand the importance of effective communication as a public relations tool in their institution hence able to take it seriously. Not only will this study help this institution but also other organizations to understand challenges facing communication and possible solutions to the problem.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Assessment of Communication and Its Problems in Developing Countries using Nigeria as a case study.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Communication: It is the act of giving, receiving, and sharing information in other words, talking or writing, and listening or reading.