The Role of Media in Implementation of Mass Campaign Messages

Abstract

Mass media remain to be vital tools that allow for effective media campaigns. Vast research on mass media campaigns have been conducted across the world, however, much of these studies have centered on how these campaigns promote public health and how effective they are in changing the behavior of a target audience. Unfortunately, some media campaigns fail due to the problems of inadequate funding. This paper therefore points out how campaigns can still achieve behavioural change on a target audience in spite of the high rates demanded by the media. This study explores the role played by the media in ensuring these campaigns succeed in view of the financial impediments. The study further establishes how media invokes cognitive responses and influences the decision making processes of individuals. In addition it explicates how media may initiate development of discussions related on these campaigns. This study was conducted qualitatively where the Content analysis method was used. The data based on previous knowledge obtained from literature review and analysed deductively indicate that mass campaigns succeed through the earned media coverage. The mass campaign messages can be adopted in form of news stories, feature stories and talk- shows in the various forms of media. Organizations should therefore create opportunities for the earned media coverage by building a sustained series of events and news conferences which becomes vital for the dissemination of campaign content to a target audience.