Audience Reception of Radio Messages that Discourage Early Marriage: The Case of Mecha District
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Date
2007-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study was conducted to explore audiences’ interpretation and response to radio messages
that discourage early marriage in Amhara Region, West Gojam Zone, Mecha district. To
generate the appropriate data, triangulations of quantitative and qualitative research methods
were employed. Convenience and purposive sampling methods were also used to select study
subjects. The study elicited important insights in the understanding of how different audiences
make meaning out of radio messages that discourage early marriage and how they decode the
messages. Accordingly, it was found out that audiences have the knowledge and awareness of
early marriage and its harmful consequences, but have different understandings of the term
early marriage as compared to the encoder. In other words, communication failure is detected
between the encoder and decoders. With regard to respondents’ reaction to radio messages on
early marriage, study subjects have showed positive reactions to the preferred meaning.
Specifically, educated, and urban respondents showed a preference to totally accepting the
preferred meaning of radio messages on early marriage. In addition, the age of respondents
impacted on the decoding the radio messages on early marriage. As the age of respondents
increases, their reading of the preferred meaning decreases and vice versa. The Muslim
religion with regard to girls’ marriage at first age was found to be incompatible with the
preferred meaning of radio messages that discourage early marriage. However, the
Ethiopian Orthodox Christian religion was found to be compatible concerning girls’ marriage at
first age with the preferred meaning. In comparison, the illiterate tended, in contrast to the
literate, to perceive radio messages that discourage early marriage as incompatible with their
local culture.. The language that the Amhara radio program used was found to be easily
understandable except the minor problem with the use of the Wollo dialect. In addition, the
content of the radio messages on early marriage were found to be easy for respondents to
comprehend. Generally, study subjects showed positive reactions to radio messages that
discourage early marriage regardless of their behavioral change.
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Reception of Radio Messages