The Impact of Effective Communication Using Television for Awareness Creation about the Nigerian Power Sector: the Case of ‘Power Track’ on AIT

Abstract

The most desired structure or process in Nigeria and other developing countries around the world is development. Development as a transformation ensures new ways of life and better standards of living. These attempts or actions could have direct or indirect bearing on the social, cultural, economic, environmental, political or even religious spheres of the people's private and public lives. The indices of this much desired development either as a process or a product are pulled through via the instruments of the media, since it is the most dominantly known agent of mobilization among members of any given society. The instruments of the media become potent tools for this one goal, and development communication as a genre readily comes to mind as a means to this end. This study has carefully examined and brought to the fore, the impact of the use of television for awareness creation about the power sector in Nigeria which is instrumental to bringing about development since all other sectors directly or indirectly depend on or thrive on the availability of power in any developing economy such as Nigeria. This research used the questionnaire and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) as instruments for data collection and analysis. At the end of the study, the key finding, among others was that a large population of the public follow government activities in the power sector through Television, especially via ‘Power Track' on AIT. In conclusion therefore, Television is a potent media tool for accessing information about government activities in the power sector. The contribution to knowledge in this study is by showing that there is a programme called ‘Power Track' on AIT which creates awareness about the power sector in the Nigeria media space and the impact it has on the teeming population.