Impact of Radio Programs on the Healthcare of listeners in Pakistan

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Dr. Anila Saleem, Dr. Wajiha Raza Rizvi, Maria Saleem, Awais Afzal

Abstract

This study investigates the role of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), commonly known as Radio Pakistan, in influencing socioeconomic development in Central Punjab (2008-2013). The first of its kind, the study assumes that Radio Pakistan has substantially contributed in socioeconomic development in Central Punjab, catering to social (healthcare) needs of Pakistani public. Listener is dependent on radio while radio independently produces programs to cater to audience’s needs.


The study checked the efficacy of programs through the interviews of programmers and an audience satisfaction survey asking if program policy, topic, guest speaker’s knowledge of topic, and quality were made to meet/meeting a listener’s needs in the selected territory. Radio Pakistan relies on, what WHO calls, “the practice of development support communication, [which] is a multi-sectoral process of information sharing about development agendas and planned actions. It links planners, beneficiaries and implementers of development action, including the donor community” (“Development,” 2001) that share information and answer the queries of listeners in radio programs.


The article comprises two qualitative studies based on data collected from 35/35 radio programmers/producers employed at the three stations in Lahore, Faisalabad and Sargodha, and 1000/1M random listeners/callers from Lahore, Faisalabad and Sargodha zones, covering 300 km², 120 km², and 50 km² geographical areas respectively (Punjab: 205,344 km²; Pakistan: 796,095 km²). The study examines the role of radio in socioeconomic development in Central Punjab through two survey questionnaires by asking 40 demographic and specific information questions (SED 1-40) from the programmers and listeners each respectively. The author developed two questionnaires: one for in person, in-depth interviews of 35 radio programmers and producers (22 males and 13 females), one for closed ended, telephonic interviews of 1000 random listeners/ callers (636 males and 364 females). She collected authentic data with the help of two assistants for the qualitative study, and 55 assistants (30 males and 25 females), for the quantitative without any intervention/prejudice by the Corporation/radio in good faith and analyzed.


The qualitative study analyzed programmers’ comments on topics, content, budget, expert opinion, and caller queries and suggestions for the improvement of the programs and finds that the radio meets/strives hard minute by minute to meet the audience expectations by adjusting/upgrading the content concerning indicated socioeconomic domains on daily basis through the exchange of information between the programmers and listeners/callers during 18 hours daily transmission (healthcare). The data collected through interviews showed that radio producers are restricted to the provincial and national agenda and policy. The limited budget, less skilled staff, conventional approach and less interest of high government officials are the hurdles in upgrading medium’s capacity to engage a larger audience with more efficient results.

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