TRANSACTIONAL COMMUNICATION AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN AKWA IBOM STATE

This study, “Transactional Communication and Women Empowerment - The Role of Media Women in the Media” was set out to ascertain the roles of media women in assisting their counterparts women folk towards achieving their desired goals and the communication strategies used. The subjects for this study were purposively chosen from among selected Local Government Areas residents. The questionnaire was employed as the instrument for gathering data while analysis was done by frequency count and simple percentage method. After the analysis, one striking finding was that 75(94%) out of the 80 respondents sampled agreed that women now have the support of the entire public, seeing them as strong and that so far the media women have contributed to their having transactional power through creating columns and programmes which project women and their concerns. It was also discovered what the people of the state see women generally as portraying the image of sincerity and foresightedness. Factors that influenced the perception of media women were also discovered. These were their output, attitude to work and roles they sometimes play in the society. To improve public impressions of media women, it was suggested that good training, ethical compliance, good attitude towards duty and serving the interest of women rather than their-media outfit should always be considered. Women were also advised not to mix up “empowerment” with “opportunity”.