Impact Of Nigerian Television Authority Programme In Creating Awareness Campaigns On Corona Virus in Nigeria

Chapter One/Introduction

Over the years, the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) has been performing critically well in the area of information dissemination, educating the populace and playing advocacy roles most especially in critical moments and events. The outbreak of the world endemic of corona virus CONVID- 19 has un arguably taken the world unaware, unprepared thus, leaving the affecting country to suffer the devastating dead crises as well as economic breakdown etc. In Nigeria, the present of the deadly virus knows as corona virus, CONVID- 19, was confirmed officially on the 27th February 2020 after a virology laboratory was came out at the Lagos university teaching Hospital on the suspected Italian man who arrived Nigeria from Milan on February 24, 2020 on the Turkish Airline.

Corona virus is a large group of viruses that resemble a crown. The word corona is Latin meaning crown https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/types.html. There are different types of corona viruses and people around the world commonly get infected with human corona viruses 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1. The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS-CoV; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS; and novel Corona virus or SARS-CoV-2 are all caused by corona viruses and result in severe respiratory illnesses.

The 2019 novel corona virus (SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19), was first identified in Wuhan, China, among people having pneumonia. These ones were associated with seafood and live animal market https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-to-ncov. Currently at the time of writing this paper, there are a total of 107510 confirmed cases; 3658 mortalities; and 42932 active cases around the world worldometers.info/coronavirus/. In China as of February 14, 2020, there were 51986 confirmed cases in a single province (Hubei); out of which 1318 cases died Yong et. al (2020).

Routes of transmission of the virus include respiratory droplets and fecal-oral Yong et. al (2020). The virus invades the oral cavity, respiratory mucosa and conjunctiva, and has been

found in stools of infected persons Yong et. al (2020). This means the virus can be transmitted through coughing, sneezing, contaminated hands, foods, and water.

Methods of preventing the onset and spread of the virus include strengthening health publicity and education; maintaining environmental health; keeping good personal hygiene; drinking boiled water; avoiding raw food consumption; frequent hand washing; avoidance of touch (especially around the eyes, ears and mouth); disinfecting surfaces of objects in households, toilets, public places, vehicles; disinfecting the excreta and environment of patients in medical facilities to prevent water and food contamination.

As part of the commitment by the Nigerian Government, the federal government through the Federal Ministry of Health made it officially known to Nigerian about the reality of the virus. It is against this development that we have taken into consideration to measure the effect and the level of awareness programme by NTA especially in the Niger Delta region which had not yet record any case of this virus during the period under study according to the best of researchers’ knowledge. Television is a powerful medium for appealing to mass audience. It reaches people regardless of ages, sex, income or educational level. In addition television offers sight and sound, and it make dramatic and life like representation of people, event and product. Considering the Niger Delta being the economic bench of the country it becomes imperative for NTA to strengthen the awareness effort on the region so as to preserve life and continuous activities on the oil rich region for economic growth.

The first case of corona virus reported in Nigeria was confirmed on February 27th by an Italian man who arrived Nigeria from Milan, stayed in the country for almost two days before being isolated. Before now, he had travelled through Lagos and visiting other places in the country.

The outbreak of the virus CONVID- 19, has worst hit Italy, among all other European country. The Italian man who was confirmed to have been infected with corona virus arrived Nigeria in February 24, 2020 on the Turkish Airline that had a connection with Istanbul.

It was reported that he spend a night in hotel close to the airport and later visited the neighboring state of Ogun on February 25, 2020. That is, the company where he worked in Ogun state. No one suspected him until he began to develop a serious fever and body aches on the afternoon of February 26, 2020. The company Health workers then contacted bio-security authority who transferred him to a containment facility in Yaba, Lagos state The infection was confirmed on February 27, 2020 by the Virology Laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, part of the Laboratory Network of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control were contacted, the man was quarantine under closer monitoring and responded to treatment.

There is empirical evidence that the health of a nation significantly enhances its  economic development and vice versa. Outbreak of diseases have undermined development and impoverished many developing nations like Nigeria in one way or the other as resources meant for other sectors has been channeled to preventing and halting the disease as well as treating the victims. Nevertheless, it has been enunciated that the pursuit of better health should not await an improved economy; rather measures to improve health will themselves contribute to economic growth.

At the instance of any outbreak of diseases in a country, it is the responsibility of the government through the Ministry of health to rise to the challenges by appropriating good amount of money and setting up facilities to combat the virus, Non-Governmental bodies and other national and International Health and co-operate Organizations must of a necessity create awareness through mass media and other communication forms by sensitizing the public on the

causes, signs and symptoms of the disease, preventive and protective measures against the disease. The outbreak of Corona virus diseases (COVID-19) required the same procedure of creating awareness. It was first reported of its outbreak in January  2020.  Since  then,  the disease has claimed so many lives at its different outbreaks globally.

In order to reduce the spread of the disease, the World Health Organization recommends raising community awareness of the risk factors for Corona infection and the protective measures individuals can take. The government charitable groups, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and other agencies hence so much created awareness campaigns on the Corona virus such awareness includes putting messages and jingles on radio and television stations and putting posters around communities as part of a long term programme to inform the public and help prevent further infections. Others include organizing seminars and workshops on Corona topic, as well as taking to the streets and villages educating the public on how to respond to the outbreak.

Necessary awareness on Corona virus by NTA in the Niger Delta region necessitates the research for the various programme awareness campaigns such as jingles programme and weekly messages on information about Corona virus carried out by the television broadcasting States at the Niger Delta region.

Awareness programme on any issue simply gives detailed information about the issue at hand. Television is a major medium for dissemination of information to the public while Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) is one of the numerous channels that has the statutory responsibility for transmission of these information via Television. NTA has so many branches and sub stations across the country Television is a powerful tool for the transfer of information, concepts and ideas to both general and specific audiences. It plays an important part in advancing public health goals.

The importation of Corona virus into Nigeria by an Italian man who work in Nigeria had given a serious challenge to the health sector of the country. Since the Corona Virus Disease is very deadly, it needs a thorough awareness campaign on it.

It is on this background, that it is necessary for the research to find out the individuals views on the efficacy of awareness programmed on Corona Virus through NTA station located within the Niger Delta region

Objectives of the study:

Study shall be guided by the following objectives

  1. To assess the type of ongoing programmes awareness presented on NTA that create awareness on Corona Virus in Nigeria
  2. The assess the effectiveness of the ongoing programme awareness Corona Virus in Nigeria
  3. To examine the impact of ongoing NTA programme awareness on Corona Virus in Nigeria

Research Questions:

Study shall answer the following questions:

  1. What type of ongoing programmes awareness presented on NTA that create awareness on Corona Virus in Nigeria?
  2. What is the effectiveness of the ongoing programme awareness Corona Virus in Nigeria?
  3. What is the impact of ongoing NTA programme awareness on Corona Virus in Nigeria?

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