TRADITIONAL MEDIA OF COMMUNICATION AS TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE RURAL DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
Communication encompasses a wide range of behaviors, processes, and outcomes.
Technologies that transmit or derive meaning from information. The term “team” is used to describe a wide range of activities.
Communication is at the heart of what makes us human. Our lives and the world are shaped by how we communicate with one another. Humans rely on their communication skills when confronted with events that test their flexibility, integrity, expressiveness, and critical thinking abilities.
Communication takes many forms, including intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, public, and mass communication, among others. These are the various ways/means by which we interact, associate, communicate, relate, and share ideas, views, opinions, information, norms, and values with ourselves and others. Communication is regarded as the lifeblood of human existence, as it rapidly increases unity, resulting in the development of our society as a whole.
Communication, both modern and traditional, has aided in the promotion of peaceful coexistence, understanding, and self-awareness among humans. Certain elements are shared by both modern and traditional modes of communication, which help define the communication process.
These elements include the people listed below. To make communication lively and effective, individuals must be involved in both the dissemination of the message and the reception of the message. If we were only receivers, we would be nothing more than receptacles for signals from others, never having an opportunity to let anyone know how we were being affected;
if we were only senders, we would simply emit signals without ever stopping to consider who, if anyone, is being affected. However, if we were able to achieve our communication goals, it simply means that there is effective communication between the sender and the receiver on the same level.
Messages- the message is the communication itself in communication. The content of a communicative act is defined as a message. Everything one does with his/her body, or with other mediums such as what we talk about, the words we use to express our thoughts and feelings, the sounds you make,
your gestures, our facial expressions, and possibly even our touch or smell all communicate information, which shows how effective communication can be, as it involves our every second activity/action. There is no communication unless a message is conveyed.
Channels- In communication, these channels refer to the medium/means by which information is passed/disseminated. We are known as multi-channel communicators. We have various channels through which we communicate in both urban and rural areas (settings), which helps to provide a better result of what is sent.
Noise – anything that interferes with or distorts our ability to send or receive messages is considered noise in the context of communication. Semantic factors such as uncertainty about what another person’s words are supposed to mean could be considered noise.
Context – Communication always takes place IN some kind of setting or context. Every communication begins somewhere, and there must be a setting that aids in making it real, natural, and even acceptable.
Feedback – When we interact or communicate with one or more people, we receive information in return. We get both positive and negative feedback when we communicate.
Positive feedback from a diverse audience or rural dwellers, as the case may be, improves whatever behavior is in progress. It encourages us to keep our information/attitude going. Negative feedback, on the other hand, extinguishes a behavior; it serves as a corrective rather than a reinforcing behavior.
Effect – When people communicate, they are changed in some way by the interaction, which influences what happens next. These effects could be the result of a power exchange. Communication always has an impact on both you and the person or people with whom you interact. An effect can be either emotional, physical, or cognitive, or any combination of the three. Without all of these elements, communication is incomplete and loses its effectiveness.
Based on our daily activities, communication serves a variety of functions in our lives. Communication assists us in developing understanding and insight. It enables us to comprehend both ourselves and others. Developing an understanding of ourselves and others.
This is because as you get to know another person, you learn about yourself and how others affect you. Communication also assists us in establishing meaningful relationships with others; the level of communication between us and others determines the level of our relationship with them.
We require water, food, and shelter, but when we do not communicate, we become disoriented and maladjusted, and our lives may be jeopardized.
Communication also aids in influencing and persuading others, allowing those around us to do things the way we do, believe in what we do, and share our culture. And when people are influenced by our ideas and beliefs, it means that our objectives have been met.
According to Gamble and Gamble’s (2002) Communication Works, Seventh Edition, Remarks that………
“Communication allows us to share our personal realities with people from our culture as well as people from other cultures.”
We all engage in similar activities when we communicate, whether we live in an East Coast urban area, a southern city, a desert community, a rural area, a home in sunny California, a village in Asia, a plain in Africa, or a town in the Middle East. We may use different symbols, rely on different strategies, and seek different outcomes, but our processes and motivations are strikingly similar.
However, in order to promote communication, various governments around the world have been building roads, purchasing equipment, and training personnel, among other things, in order for any meaningful development to occur in Nigeria and Africa in general. Both urban and rural areas of society should have equal participation.
One method for accomplishing this is to use traditional communication media in conjunction with modern mass media.
As a result, reviving our communication media is one of the first steps toward achieving economic and social development in our country’s rural areas.
The desire for information about people and events, the satisfaction of news hunger caused by war or rumours of war, the need to spread information about political and religious decisions as well as security threats, the need to stimulate and strengthen a sense of identification with the society’s values and objectives, the need to be aware of the authority structure and to generate and identify loyalty to those in power, all of these were met by indigenous peoples.
Anthropologists studying human communication and development tend to concentrate on its central roles in the survival of a society through communication and the development of significant symbols. Language and other symbolic behaviors, for example, embodied the concepts of honor, bravery, love, cooperation, and honesty, which create and sustain belief in ways of acting because they function as names signifying proper, obvious ways of expressing relationships.
The concept of culture became a focus of study in many academic disciplines, including communication and development, in the late 1900s and early 2000s. Culture, according to social scientists, refers to people’s beliefs, customs, inventions, and technology.
Cultural studies of communication began to gain popularity in Europe in the 1960s and 1990s, and they quickly spread throughout the world. This approach, developed by cultural critics such as Raymond Williams and Stuart Hall, as well as other scholars in the United Kingdom, focuses on how contemporary communication media shape people’s understanding and action.
The revival of our culture as a whole is necessary because it will improve the overall national development of our Traditional Artifacts as communication channels. Communication is the exchange of ideas, and each society has its own communication culture in order to reach out to its citizens. Every culture should not be overlooked, which is why the study of the Iwollo oghe community to see their communication development systems became necessary.
When news is coordinated with modern modes of communication, it becomes more effective. These various assertions are both challenging and inspiring, and the social sciences researchers in this field have risen to the occasion. They have, at the very least, produced a number of studies on African traditional media of communication, which were previously treated on the periphery.
Negligence resulted from a lack of foresight, funds, manpower, and interest. Such studies are now required due to the need to disseminate current international and national development programs in rural areas, which house more than 70% of Africa’s population.
Family planning, oral dehydration, the war against indiscipline and corruption, Obasanjo’s previous government’s Operation Feed the Nation, the Directorate for Food, Roads, and Rural Infrastructure (DFRR), a better life for rural women, MAMSER, WOTCLEF, and other innovative ideas are examples of such programs. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and various governments have identified the need for traditional communication institutions in most African countries, including Nigeria.
The World Bank Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) and other art festivals are examples of cultural reformation.
Every citizen of this country, including the government, individuals, and especially journalists, should elevate the traditional media of communication in this country, ignoring the fact that the traditional media of communication in this country is the foundation of their profession.
They should make an effort to promote these various traditional modes of communication without focusing too much on modern means by visiting various villages, communities, and communities, particularly their own, to learn how the various traditional modes of communication are being coordinated for the promotion of our cultural beliefs, which enhances unity in the rural area and leads to the development of our communities and country at large.
Regardless of modern means of communication, every society’s growth, survival, and continuity has depended on, among other things, a communication system through which people could exchange ideas and feelings; an economic system for the production of goods and services; a health system to counteract disease and ensure human reproduction; a socio-political system to maintain control and order; and a decentralized system.
These various traditional modes of communication essentially consist of the following:
Oral Tradition- One of the most important media through which Nigerians interact/communicate with their people/with themselves is oral tradition.
Okam (1987) observes that long before the introduction of Roman, Arabic, and Amharic letters and scripts in Africa, tradition in the form of history, cultural values, and heritages were transmitted orally through songs, proverbs, legends, religious liturgy, ballads, and invocations.
They are passed down from person to person, generation to generation, region to region, and become legendary and immortalized with the passage of time. In pre-colonial Nigeria, oral tradition dominated all other forms of information exchange. Oral tradition aids in the dissemination of environmental knowledge,
the interpretation and explanation of events in society through a cultural lens, the transmission of social heritage from one generation to the next, the socialization of new members, and the entertainment of the community/society at large.
Another traditional mode of communication is the Town Crier. The town crier’s or village Gong man’s voice is usually heard in the early morning hours, preceded by the sound of a gong. He publicizes important meetings, ceremonies, messages, and impending disasters.
According to Ugboajah (1985), town criers are “a significant village “broadcaster’ who summons the elders for decision and policy making for the advancement of the society.” They communicate their decisions to the villagers for implementation:
The town crier, who serves as a traditional communication link between the legal head and the villagers, is always full of news. He is considered the society’s journalist. The town crier’s effectiveness is usually based on his oratory skills and thorough knowledge of the community norms, values, and heritages.
Among the Igbos, he is known as “Onye Ogene.” He is known as the “Mai Shela” among the Hausa; he is usually chosen by the Sarki or village head. The “Mai Shela” is revered as a holy man whose announcements are never questioned. One of his main responsibilities is to announce the date and time of the new moon, which marks the start of the Ramadan festivities.
Among the Yorubas, he is also the “gbohun-gbohun,” whose duties include, among other things, announcing the celebration days for the Egungun and sango religious festivals. Among Nigeria’s other ethnic groups, he holds a similarly credible and authoritative position. In today’s Nigeria, this relevance exists.
The Talking Drum- Another traditional mode of communication that aids in the development of rural communities, the talking drum is an extension of oral tradition. This talking drum is also known as the “Ekwe Ikoro” in Igbo communities. It reproduces the tonal pattern of a sentence in the correct sequence and can be heard from a long distance. The talking drum performs two types of communicative functions: official and social.
Officially, they are used to call meetings, make official announcements, at sacrificial ceremonies, and to increase adrenaline levels during wars. Socially, they provide entertainment during festivities and ceremonies such as new-Yam festivals, weddings, and chieftaincy title taking; they also provide suspense and tension during war and wrestling matches.
Age Groups- Age Groups are old institutions made up mostly of males in the same age brackets—usually those born between the ages of one and five. The Age Groups aid in bringing things back into order in the society to which they belong. The names of age groups are derived from the patron or father’s name. According to Ifemesia (1979), the age groups participate in community development projects that include
the cleaning of water supply sources, the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges, and village squares Assembly houses and deity shrines; the enforcement of laws and decisions made by the council of elders and the linage or village assembly, including the collection of dues and fines, the punishment of crime, and the burial of the dead.
The age groups also aid in educating the younger generations about the traditions and requirements for the preservation of their culture.
Ivory Horns and Long Brass- These instruments produce notes that vary in length and tone. These are used to convey long messages and to announce important events. Long brass horns are primarily found in Nigeria’s northern states, whereas ivory horns are found in the country’s south-eastern states, where they have also become state symbols of titled men.
Smoke Signals – In modern Nigeria, smoke signals are almost non-existent. Previously, one of the earliest modes of communication between distant communities, they were used to exchange information using agreed-upon codes. An Igbo proverb emphasizes the importance of smoke signals, stating that “any message sent through smoke must reach the heavens surely and clearly.”
The Open Market- The open market has always been one of Nigeria’s most powerful and important institutions. It is usually found in or near a village or town. The village markets run on a four-to-five-day cycle, while the town markets are open every day.
Despite the fact that the market serves as the economic nerve center, it has evolved into a hive of all kinds of communication activities. The open market is important for agitation because it provides a forum for “adherents of synergetic religions to propagate their faith, politicians to solicit the votes of the common people, and the open market also offers one of the few opportunities for communication to move from community to community.”
According to Ike S. Ndolo (2005), murderers and thieves are paraded and humiliated on market days in many Nigerian villages, where one can also see newlyweds, new fashions, newly born babies, new products and new traditional dances, new products and masquerades.
Finally, MCBride et al. (1980) recommended,
“Policymakers and communication practitioners must devise a formula for preserving the relationship between traditional and modern forms of communication without jeopardizing the necessary march toward modernity.”
These are meant to demonstrate how effective the various traditional modes of communication are for the advancement of our society.
SUMMARY OF THE PROBLEM
Rural people appear to be marginalized in communication processes, particularly in modern mass media such as print and electronic media, for a variety of reasons. Despite these factors, traditional artifacts have the potential to be positively exploited and utilized to meet the needs of the rural populace.
The primary concern of this research is how far harnessing and utilizing these traditional means would get in solving the problem of rural tiesils.
The significance of traditional artifacts in areas where they will improve rural life
How effective are the organizations in terms of communication and development?
What are the similarities and differences between traditional communication media?
There are differences between these media and traditional communication.
Some of the issues this raises are the Iwollo community’s systems.
A study is being conducted. As a result, the challenge is to figure out how
Traditional media of communication are effective as a means of rural communication.
communication based on trust
1.3 STUDY PURPOSE STUDY OBJECTIVE STUDY
The purpose of this research is to identify the role of traditional communication in the development of Iwollo town in Enugu State’s ezeagu Local Government Area and other rural communities. The purpose of this research is to determine the utility and limitations of various media in the community.
The effectiveness of traditional media will be assessed, and this will serve as a foundation for incorporating traditional communication in the Iwollo Oghe community.
1.4 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
The study will be a modest contribution to the development of traditional communication media in the Iwollo oghe community as a whole. It will also serve as a source of encouragement for the community’s and others’ marriage of traditional and modern mass media in Nigeria.
This study will also encourage other cultural studies in African indigenous communication patterns, as well as guide others who want to learn about and understand traditional communication and development media.
THE STUDY’S OBJECTIVE
As stated in the introduction, the research is being conducted in the Iwollo community of Enugu state’s Ezeagu North Local Government Area. The study provides a brief history of the community. The study also identifies the traditional communication tools most commonly used by community members in the past and in the present. Because of the short period of time, the usefulness and limitations of these Artifacts in serving communication in the entire Igbo Land.
Because of the possibility of a lack of maximum cooperation. This study may be limited to information gathered from the community under study’s population figures, the low literacy rate, the non-availability of previous research on the topic, and the scarcity of text books, all of which are limitations.
1.5 QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH
1. Do Iwollo people use traditional communication methods?
2. What are the traditional modes of communication in the Iwollo oghe community?
3. Is traditional communication in the Iwollo oghe community more credible than modern mass media?
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TRADITIONAL MEDIA OF COMMUNICATION AS TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE RURAL DEVELOPMENT
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