Youtube, new media, advocacy and the challenges of authenticity

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><p><strong>INTRODUCTION</strong></p><p><strong>1:1 Background to the Study</strong></p><p>Conventional and traditional advocacy has always relied on the mass media as a tool to gain mass support and mount pressure on policy makers. Media advocates employed a communication strategy based on stern lecturing and beaming of information to receivers who are expected to act on the basis of the information received. The expected outcome is that information and education will lead to awareness, and will ultimately result in behavior change. This communication strategy has failed to get the desired result and has created a huge gap between the sender and the receiver due to the inability of the receiver to understand the messages designed by experts largely because the people were not involved in the process of message conception, design and dissemination.</p><p>Many challenges of advocacy projects in Nigeria do not only stem from the fact that the people do not participate in the process but the fact that advocates lacked the ability and medium to effectively mobilize members of a given community to support the desired project. Therefore, most advocacy campaigns/projects fail to get the level of support needed to bring the much needed change. Also, very critical to advocacy is the question of empowerment. In most cases, the people or community who participate in advocacy project are still unable to speak for themselves because they are not empowered to take part in the advocacy project. As a result, the people are left voiceless as they cannot fight for themselves.</p> <br><p></p>