INFLUENCE OF BROADCAST MEDIA CAMPAIGNS ON CREATING AWARENESS ON EXCLUSIVE BREASTFEEDING: A STUDY OF OWERRI URBAN

ABSTRACT: The study investigated the influence of broadcast media campaigns on creating awareness on exclusive breastfeeding. The study was anchored on the health belief model. The survey method was adopted; the study has a population of 555,500 from which a sample size of 385 was arrived at using the Australian sample size calculator. The study adopted the multistage sampling technique and questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. Findings revealed that 54% of the respondents are moderately aware of broadcast media campaigns on exclusive breastfeeding, 94% of the respondents said campaigns on exclusive breastfeeding is a good public enlightenment programme and 64% of the respondents agreed that exclusive breastfeeding campaign on the broadcast media has helped them in actualizing the benefits of breastfeeding exclusively. It was further revealed that 46% of the respondents affirmed moderate compliance to exclusive breastfeeding practice. Therefore, the study recommended the need for more awareness campaigns and the need for more exposure of the women to such publicity in order to highly intensify their practice of exclusive breastfeeding.

Keywords: Breastfeeding, Mass media, Campaign, Women, Awareness.