RADIO: AN EFFECTIVE MEDIUM OF REACHING THE LARGEST AUDIENCE

        Electronic media are media that use electronics or electro mechanical energy for the end-user (audience) to access the content. This is in contrast to static media (mainly print media), which today are most often created electronically, but don’t require electronics to be accessed by the end–user in the printed form. The primary electronic media sources familiar to the general public are better known as video recording, audio recordings, multimedia presentations and online content.

However, electronic media may be in either Analog or Digital format. Any equipment used in the electronic communication process (e.g. Television, Radio, Telephone, Desktop Computer) may also be considered electronic media.

        Electronic media are ubiquitous in most of the developed world. As of 2005, there are reports of satellite receivers being present in some of the most remote and inaccessible regions of china. Electronic media devices such as Radio have found their way into all parts of modern life. The term is relevant to media ecology for studying its impact compared to printed media and broadcasting the scope of understanding media beyond a simplistic aspect of media such as one delivery platform (e.g. the World Wide Web) aside from many other options.

Electronic media especially Radio serve as a direct instrument of communication, education, information, entertainment and cultural enhancement. Radio are agents of social change because they lead to changes in attitudes, beliefs and skill which can be substantial to rural development considering the low level of literacy among the rural dwellers, the impact of print media (Newspaper and Magazines) will obviously be very restrictive and limited. This make electronic media (Radio) to be more effective and efficient media in rural development.

However, for any meaningful development to take place in rural area, the rural communities need to be properly mobilized in order to create the awareness that is basic for appreciation and participation in any development process.

From 1932, when Radio Broadcasting service started in Nigeria, as empire service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to 1992 when broadcasting in Nigeria was de-regulated, the broadcast media were owned either by the National, Regional or state government. The establishment of broadcasting in Nigeria was the result of the determination of the British Colonial authorities to link the colonies with the “mother country” such a link was expected to serve the dual purpose of providing a powerful propaganda machinery for the British and the wider world. A committee was set up to consider and recommend what steps should be taken to accelerate the provision of broadcasting services in the colonial empire.