The Effectiveness of Covid - 19 Broadcast in the Fight Against the Pandemic, A Study of Kumasi Radio Stations

Abstract

Ghana is one of the countries in West Africa that recorded high COVID-19 incidents. This triggered efforts to push information out in order to help combat the pandemic and its associated problems. This study set out to find out what role radio broadcasts have played in this fight against the dreaded COVID-19. It sought to do this by considering the informative as well as infomercial role of radio broadcasts so far, the effectiveness of radio in the fight against the pandemic and then the perception of radio broadcasts by Ghanaians as far as the COVID-19 fight is concerned. This study was considered significant due to its ability to help assess and improve COVID-19- related mass engagement as well as communication on other important issues of public interest. In this study, the COVID-19 pandemic is approached as a development problem which can be dealt with using effective communication and hence setting the work out on the development communication theory. The study made use of both primary and secondary sources of data to obtain facts and also make the study more empirical. A combination of quantitative and qualitative helped enrich the research since both methods have different strengths and limitations. Primary data was gathered using structured questionnaires and an interview guide while secondary data was obtained from previously published works. The study used both probability and non-probability sampling methods. Specifically, purposive sampling techniques were used to select respondents to answer the interview questions. vi The study established that radio broadcasts indeed have proven very effective and have played a very important role in the fight against the pandemic, delivering salient information in timely manner to all manner of audiences using various languages. The informative role of radio broadcasts well pronounced while not much happened as far as infomercial role is concerned. In order to make more impact it was recommended that more resources be channeled into radio broadcasts on COVID-19 Since politicians topped the list of those who were listened to on COVID-19 information, it was also recommended that they be trained and deployed on COVID-19 and any other similar campaigns to achieve effect