1. Information
Acquisition and Sharing
Knowledge creation and sharing involves the sourcing,
collection, storage, processing, dissemination and interpretation by
individuals, groups institutions, government and countries required in order to
understand, react, and relate knowledgeably to personal, communal,
environmental, national and international conditions and developments, as well
as to be in an advantageous position to take appropriate decision (Mbacbrid et al, 1980).
In
nutshell communication is inextricably entwined with knowledge for strength,
power, and love; it’s very vital in providing and acquiring a common fund of
knowledge, which enables citizens and groups from all nations and people to
operate and live as effective and relevant members of the society in which they
lie in and by so doing, foster meaningful social awareness cohesion and
integration for more productive public life.
2. Education
and Training
Mass media remains about the most
potent force and mobile vehicle for enhancement and promotion of education in
the communities and the nation at large. Much of media activities are
instructive and education oriented, as the constant bombardment of the mass
media audience with a preponderance of news, facts, ideas comments, experience
and messages has led to the massive transformation of the human minds, thereby
equipping mankind with the requisite knowledge to function effectively in
chosen locations and areas. These various mass medium of communication
(information).
·
Radio
·
Television
·
Films
·
Camera
·
Books
·
Newspaper,
magazines
·
Rosters,
billboards and a lot more have greatly helped in brining education down and
closer home to our door steps. The features, articles, opinions, editorial,
instructional and many more have many more have drastically and positively
changed the life of many of our people.
3. Formational
and Development of Self Concept
Cooley
(1902) reveals that our self concept
is a reflection of how we see ourselves in the responses of other people to us.
Normally, when we communicate, others observe and assess our communication
behaviorus in the light of our gait, poise, gesture, body movements and
carriage, facial expressions, eye direction and contacts, vocalic etc and react
to them. These reactions, expectedly, help us to determine and decide what we
are and concurrently develop and improve or at the other extreme, dampen our
self-concept.
4. Maintenance
of Global Cooperation and Peace
As
Amodou M’Bows (1980) posits, communication is at the heart of all social
intercourse. Whenever man have come to establish regular relations with one
another the nature of the system of communication created between them, the
forms they have attained have largely determined the chances of bringing
communities together or making them one, and the prospect for reducing tensions
or setting conflicts whenever they have arisen. The ensuring submission by
M’Bow clearly points to the overriding need for interdependent and
interrelationship among people with the understanding that no man is an Island
unto himself. We all need one another to make the world go round and a better
place for all to live in. we need others just as they need us, a kind of
symbiosis for the provision and enjoyment of basic needs of life, in
decision-making, as helping hands, for companionship, as life partner etc go as
to support, guide and assist one another, especially in fighting our common
enemies.
5. Opinion
Leadership, Motivation and Mobilization
Communication, through the
functional services of the mass media, provides this needed direction and
guidance to the mass of the people by exposing them to such issues of public
controversy and importance, prepare them towards taking a firm stand on burning
issues, and offers sound platform for debate and discussion. Certain events of
national significance such as the infamous IMF fund, OIC membership controversy
deregulation of oil sector etc, are usually given salience by the media through
their various publicity network and the a gender-setting functions. The mass
media do not tell us how to think or force us think along a prescribed pattern;
but, they however succeed in shaping and presenting to use what to think about.
Agenda are shaped and we are at times thoughtfully tribalised and given
patterns or lines to toe when we think (Lippman
w, 1922, Cohen, B. C., 19630).
[6. Promoting
the Spirit of Democracy and Servicing the Political System
The mass media effect this service by providing
relevant information and setting agenda that will generate enlightenment, mass
discussion, commentaries, opinions and debates on public affairs. The a
gender-setting function is a major source of institutional correlation between
the mass media and politics; for, it is what the media considers politically
expedient that ordinarily merit people’s interest and opinion.
7. Nation
Building and National Integrating
Macbride
et al (1980) encapsulate the integration functional role of the mass media
to involve the provision to all persons, groups and nations of access to the
variety of message, which they need in order to know and understand each and
one another and to appreciate others living conditions, viewpoints and appreciations.
The media popular broadcast channels of radio and television play dominant
roles in this regard by producing the required message that enable different
people, groups and nations to understudy, understand and appreciate one
another’s unique and positive attributes towards national unification and
integration or what the government call national rebirth.
8. Attitude
and Behaviour Change
It is clear that the mass media
could influence people’s way of life by encouraging them to adopt new life
style such as family planning oral dehydration therapy, breastfeeding or to
drop old and bad habit, criminal activities, drug addition, female circumcision
etc.
CONCLUSION
In summary, the contemporary civilization for better
national development is the mass media oriented that we learn almost everything
we know through mass communication: - the newspaper, magazines, books,
televisions, radio, film among others. If the media fails to say it, who else
can? But the media must be free from the shackles and constraints of their
owners and sponsors the government and their agents, excessive anti-media
legislation and control, undemocratization unprofessionalism in the industry and many
others.