Media Influence on Beliefs about Family Planning In Cross River State, Nigeria Mapping a Role for Socio-Political Reorientation

Abstract

Despite the numerous media messages on contraceptives, women still face little or low access to contraceptives health care, resulting to unwanted/teenage pregnancy, couples giving birth to children that they cannot provide for or even death of either mother or child. Hence, this study aims at evaluating the sociological and political influence of the mass media on beliefs about family planning among Cross River state residents, through a comprehensive analysis of media exposure, media Content, audience perceptions and socio-cultural factors inhibiting family planning practices and its implications on reproductive health programs. This study was anchored on Agenda-Setting theory of the press. The projected population for this study is 15,657,887 according to 2006 National Population Commission census. The survey research design was adopted for this study, using questionnaire as the instrument for data collection, a total number of 385 respondents were sampled using the Australian calculator. The multi-stage sampling technique was employed. The research questions were analyzed using mean score while the hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics. Findings from this study shows that there is inadequate exposure to family planning media message by respondents. The study recommends that government, non-governmental organizations, medical institutions and other agencies should take advantage of the platform which the media provides to disseminate important information that will make the audience aware and enhance their knowledge about family planning in order to encourage them to practice it especially in Cross River state where this study was conducted.