THE ROLE OF MASS MEDIA TO THE GROWTH OF SMES IN BENIN CITY

ABSTRACT

This study is on the role of mass media to the growth of SMES in Benin City. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected radio and TV stations in Benin City. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made editors, broadcasters, senior staff and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies

 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

Information is the key to an efficient market operation and thus plays a critical role in all aspects of SME, commerce and industry. An effective and rich information environment enables economic actors to make informed decisions, provides SME with channels through which they can reach existing and potential customers, and supports an inclusive public private dialogue allowing the development of pertinent business environment reform strategies. In an environment where information is such an important factor of economic and public efficiency, mass media have drawn development practitioners’ attention in many development disciplines. Some economists have pointed out that direct and sometimes untargeted financial aid from developed countries is destroying African economies by eliminating entrepreneurship, thus alienating populations from their own way out of poverty. Developing the mass media industry is an innovative approach to facilitate the improvement of the SME and is a part of a shift in the way poverty reduction programmes are implemented by development practitioners. Whereas mass media has traditionally been viewed as a public information dissemination channel, the new view should be of a channel for a diverse and dynamic two-way flow of information enabling informal economy operators to influence the reform of the SME that will ultimately affect them. The mass media themselves are important actors in the development process and significant agents of social and economic change both in the formal as well as in the informal economy.

Mass media are public communication means characterised by their mass reach capacity. The most widespread forms of mass media are newspapers, magazines, television and radio, but the term also encompasses new information and communication technologies such as the Internet and telephone messaging. Although these new communication means offer many advantages (global outreach, easy and instant interactivity, multimedia features etc.), their use is still very limited in Africa where in 2006, 20%3 of the African population subscribed to a mobile service and only 3.6% of the population were Internet users. It is therefore the more traditional media and particularly broadcast media that offer the greatest potential to reach the poor and marginalized. The large gap between developed and developing countries in terms of access to mass media leaves a large proportion of the world’s population with limited or, in some cases, no access to mainstream information sources. Factors such as literacy, affordability, accessibility and language, lead to a divide between wealthy/urban and poor/rural populations.