role of media in social development essay

Essay on Role of Social Media

Students are often asked to write an essay on Role of Social Media in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

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100 Words Essay on Role of Social Media

Introduction.

Social media is a powerful tool in our modern world. It connects people globally, allowing us to share ideas, news, and personal updates.

Connecting People

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter connect us with friends and family. They help us stay informed about their lives.

Information and Awareness

Social media is a great source of news and updates. It helps raise awareness about social issues and events happening around the world.

Education and Learning

Social media can be educational. Many educators and experts share knowledge and resources, aiding in learning.

While social media has its drawbacks, its role in connecting people, spreading information, and aiding education is undeniable.

250 Words Essay on Role of Social Media

The advent of social media.

Social media, a revolutionary tool of the 21st century, has transformed the way we communicate, share information, and perceive the world. It has woven itself into the fabric of our daily lives, becoming an indispensable part of our society.

Communication and Information Dissemination

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have made global communication seamless. They allow for instantaneous sharing of ideas, news, and personal experiences. This has democratized information, making it accessible to all, but also poses challenges regarding the spread of misinformation.

Social Activism and Awareness

Social media has become a powerful tool for social activism. Movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo have utilized these platforms to raise awareness, mobilize people, and effect change. However, the risk of ‘slacktivism’ – passive activism without real-world action – is a concern.

Marketing and Business Strategies

Businesses have leveraged social media for marketing, customer engagement, and brand visibility. They can interact directly with consumers, gather feedback, and tailor their strategies accordingly. The rise of influencer marketing is a testament to this new era of digital commerce.

The Double-Edged Sword

While social media has numerous benefits, it also has its drawbacks. Issues such as privacy breaches, cyberbullying, and the detrimental effects on mental health cannot be overlooked.

In conclusion, the role of social media in our lives is multifaceted. It has the potential to be a force for good, fostering global connections, social change, and business innovation. Yet, we must also be mindful of its pitfalls and strive to use it responsibly.

500 Words Essay on Role of Social Media

In the contemporary world, social media has become an integral part of our lives. It has transformed the way we communicate, interact, and perceive the world around us. This essay explores the role of social media, focusing on its impact on personal relationships, public discourse, and business.

Personal Relationships

Social media has drastically altered how we maintain and form relationships. It has enabled us to stay connected with loved ones, irrespective of geographical boundaries. We can share our experiences, milestones, and everyday moments, fostering a sense of closeness. However, this digital connection also has its pitfalls. It can lead to an over-reliance on virtual interactions, potentially undermining the value of face-to-face communication. Moreover, the constant comparison with others’ curated lives can lead to feelings of inadequacy and anxiety.

Public Discourse

Social media has democratized information dissemination, changing the dynamics of public discourse. It has given a platform to voices that were previously marginalized, leading to greater inclusivity. Social movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo have been amplified through social media, leading to significant societal change. However, this freedom also comes with the risk of misinformation and fake news, which can polarize societies and disrupt democratic processes.

Business and Marketing

In the business world, social media has revolutionized marketing strategies. Businesses can now directly engage with their customers, understand their needs, and tailor their services accordingly. It also provides a cost-effective platform for advertising and brand promotion. However, the use of personal data for targeted advertising raises ethical concerns about privacy and consent.

Social media has also played a pivotal role in education, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has facilitated remote learning, enabling students and teachers to stay connected. It also provides a platform for collaborative learning and knowledge sharing. However, the digital divide and the risk of cyberbullying are significant challenges that need to be addressed.

In conclusion, social media, with its profound impact on personal relationships, public discourse, business, and education, has undeniably reshaped our world. Its role is multifaceted and complex, offering both opportunities and challenges. As digital citizens, it is incumbent upon us to navigate this landscape responsibly, leveraging its potential while being mindful of its pitfalls. The future of social media is dynamic and evolving, reflecting our collective aspirations and challenges as a society. As we move forward, it is crucial to foster a balanced and informed approach to social media use, ensuring it serves as a tool for positive change.

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The Significance and Impact of the Media in Contemporary Society

• First Online: 10 March 2018

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• Faith Gordon 3  

Part of the book series: Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies ((PSLS))

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This chapter explores the significance of the media and the impact it has on the meaning-making processes in contemporary society. It draws on key national and international academic literature and previous studies on the role and functions of the media. This includes the key theoretical debates on deviancy amplification, folk devils and moral panics. It assesses the media’s impact on criminal justice policies and on public opinion of, and support for authoritarian ideologies and policies. In particular, it will focus on exploring how the media can influence popular culture and the impact of media portrayals of crime on societal perceptions, responses and reactions directed towards social groups, in particular children and young people ‘in conflict with the law’.

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It has long been acknowledged that the media are difficult to capture and define (Craig 2004 : 3). As outlined in Chap. 1 , the terms ‘media’ or ‘mass media’ refer to the traditional definition of the media, as consisting of newspapers (the print media), radio (broadcast media) and news bulletins and programs (televised media). While choosing to focus on the contemporary media, this book acknowledges from the outset that there is an extensive body of work existing on the historical origins of the media; mass communication and its impact, and the role of technological development (see Downing 1980 ; Frost 2000 ; Curran 2002 ).

There has been much criticism of pluralist theories on the media, including the arguments that pluralism is an ideological justification for the media and that the basis of the theory is not grounded in evidence. Rather the pluralist model assumes that the content of the media is diverse, without presenting evidence to reinforce or prove this theory (see Blumler and Gurevitch 1995 ).

Rupert Murdoch’s ownership of a range of media outlets in the United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) is a prime example of the concentration of power and the influence of owners on media content (see Golding and Murdock 1991 ; Horrie 2003 ; Cole 2005 ). Further to this, academics such as Barker ( 1999 : 46) argue that conglomeration has aided a general concentration of media ownership, with research such as Bagdikian’s ( 2004 ) stating that the US media were controlled by 50 corporations in the 1980s, and by 2003 this had been reduced to five controlling the majority of the 178,000 media outlets. Significantly as Tait ( 2012 : 518) observes, the ‘scale and intensity’ of the phone hacking scandal in 2011, saw the resignation of the chief executive of one of the UK’s most influential newspaper groups, the resignation of one of the UK’s most senior police officers, the arrest of Andy Coulson, who had acted as the then Prime Minister, David Cameron’s head of communications, the resignation of two senior executives from key companies in the Murdoch empire, as well as the collapse of the takeover deal in relation to BSkyB and the closure of the News of the World (see also Keeble and Mair 2012 ; McKnight 2012 ; Watson and Hickman 2012 ).

As Barrat ( 1994 : 61) notes, the majority of media organisations are influenced by ‘a variety of commercial influences’, including the need to be profitable and also obtaining revenue through ‘advertising’. Some media outlets are part of the public sector, such as the BBC and they have the requirement ‘to provide a public service’, by ‘informing, educating, and entertaining audiences’ (Barrat 1994 : 61).

Tait’s ( 2012 : 520) analysis of the phone hacking scandal asserts that it has ‘revealed some fundamental issues in British political communications, the political system and the practice and regulation of journalism’. His analysis also documents ‘a secret history’ between Murdoch and British politics (Tait 2012 : 520–523).

Semiology provides a suitable vehicle for studying the meanings behind media content (see O’Connor 1989 ; Hall 1997 ; Berger 1998 ; Barker 2000 ; Schirato and Yell 2000 ). In contemporary literature it is now referred to as semiotics and was first developed by the Swiss linguist, Saussure, who proposed that meaning was ‘produced through … language systems’ (Schirato and Yell 2000 : 19). He focused on the ‘linguistic sign’, which he divided into the ‘signifier’, ‘the signified’ and the ‘sign’ (Schirato and Yell 2000 : 19).

As the findings of a number of content analysis studies highlight, the media exaggerate the levels of crime, in particular violent crime in the UK (see Ditton and Duffy 1983 ; Schlesinger and Murdock 1991 ; Williams and Dickinson 1993 ; Callanan 2005 ; Greer 2005 ; Reiner 2007 ).

Dorfman and Schiraldi’s ( 2001 ) research found that 76 percent of the public said they formed their opinions about crime from the media, whereas 22 percent reported that their knowledge of crime was formed through their personal experiences.

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Gordon, F. (2018). The Significance and Impact of the Media in Contemporary Society. In: Children, Young People and the Press in a Transitioning Society. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60682-2_2

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Editorial: The roles of social media in education: affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions

Hung phu bui.

1 University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Mark Bedoya Ulla

2 Walailak University, Tha Sala District, Thailand

Veronico N. Tarrayo

3 University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines

Chien Thang Pham

4 TNU-University of Sciences, Thái Nguyên, Vietnam

The interface between education and technology has become both inevitable and significant in today's digitally connected world. As a result, the current educational landscape is shifting toward using digital technologies for teaching and learning (Rautela, 2022 ). In higher education, for instance, an increasing number of teachers and students use social media for personal and educational purposes (Sabah, 2023 ). Education is undergoing tremendous modifications across academic disciplines, owing mainly to the integration of social media and web-based platforms (Chau and Bui, 2023 ). Within this context, educators are pushing boundaries, developing creative approaches, and analyzing outcomes across various teaching and learning situations, from Tencent Docs to Telegram and Instagram to Messenger. This Research Topic explores education in the age of social media, engaging in a discourse where traditional practices meet radical technological needs and trends. It looks deeply into technological shifts, analyzing the promises, successes, and issues that arise from integrating technology, particularly social media, into the ever-changing realm of education. The collected papers in this Research Topic provide a holistic understanding of current educational changes by covering affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions (Bui, 2023 ) and spanning areas such as writing, speaking, and grammar learning, as well as pertinent discussions on physical education, research, professional development, and assessment. Through the eyes of scholars, we examine a range of studies, from experimental interventions and empirical studies to insightful reviews, all with the goal of understanding how the digital age is transforming pedagogical approaches and student experiences.

As educators recognize the pervasiveness of social media in students' lives, research into its integration into English language teaching (ELT) has become critical to identify best practices and evaluate the effectiveness of social media use in supporting language learning. To exemplify, the growing research interest in incorporating social media into ELT highlights its potential to improve writing skills as educators use digital platforms to facilitate authentic writing experiences and immediate peer feedback for learners, as well as increase writing motivation. This Research Topic includes Y. Li's research that examined the impact of online collaborative writing instruction on Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) students using Tencent Docs, focusing on writing performance, writing self-efficacy, and writing motivation. Out of 58 participants, half used Tencent Docs for tasks outside the classroom (experimental group), while the other half followed traditional in-class instruction (control). Over 13 weeks, the group using Tencent Docs exhibited significantly improved writing performance, motivation, and self-efficacy compared to the control group. In a related research, Zhao and Yang explored the effects of a flipped course on Chinese EFL students' writing performance and anxiety levels using a quasi-experimental approach. Fifty students from two classes were divided into two groups: a traditional instruction group (control) and a flipped instruction group using social media (experimental). Two writing assignments and a writing anxiety scale were used to collect data. The results showed that the experimental group improved significantly at writing and reported less anxiety. Another experimental intervention was conducted in the study of Dai et al. , which investigated the impact of wiki-based writing methods on Chinese EFL students' writing skills and self-efficacy. Fifty-three students from a language school in China participated and were divided into two groups: one using the wiki method (experimental) and the other using traditional teaching (control) over three months. Both groups were tested before and after the study using IELTS writing tasks and a writing self-efficacy scale. While both groups showed improvement, those taught using the wiki-based method had more significant gains in writing skills and confidence.

Similarly, scholarly interest in using social media to improve English speaking skills is growing, as its capacity to provide learners with real-world conversational experiences and increased confidence is recognized. Zhou's research explored how online language exchanges affect Chinese postgraduate students' speaking abilities and willingness to communicate (WTC) in an advanced English program. Two groups were compared: one using the Tandem app to converse with foreign English speakers (e-tandem), and the other having collaborative speaking tasks in class (conventional). Fifty-eight students were split between these groups. Data from IELTS speaking tests, a WTC scale, and semi-structured interviews showed that both groups improved their speaking skills. Yet, the e-tandem group excelled more than the conventional group. In a review, Fan delved into how digital-based flipped classrooms influence EFL learners' WTC and self-efficacy. The literature review revealed that social media and digital content can impact students' communication intentions in these classrooms. EFL learners in flipped classrooms demonstrated greater self-efficacy than in traditional settings. The analysis likewise provides insights for EFL educators, educational policymakers, and advisors on enhancing learner self-efficacy, WTC, and the benefits of the flipped learning approach.

Other relevant areas in language education, such as grammar learning, foreign language learning motivation, and the use of the flipped learning approach, were likewise covered in this issue. Teng et al. analyzed the effects of Instagram-feed-based tasks on EFL students' grammar learning. Eighty-four intermediate EFL students were divided into two groups: one received typical online lessons (control), and the other used Instagram-feed-based tasks (experimental). The results, analyzed using one-way ANCOVA, showed that the experimental group learned grammar more effectively than the control group. The findings emphasize the potential of Instagram-feed-based tasks in enhancing grammar learning, and students expressed favorable views toward this method. On the other hand, Zhao et al. investigated the effect of Telegram on foreign language motivation, foreign language anxiety, and learning attitudes of 60 intermediate Iranian EFL students. These students were divided into two groups: one used the Telegram app (experimental), while the other learned traditionally without using social media (control). After 18 sessions, tests revealed that the experimental group had higher motivation, reduced foreign language anxiety, and a positive view of the app's role in their English learning.

In a conceptual review, Pang examined how a web-based flipped learning approach impacts learner engagement and critical thinking. Previous research highlighted the role of social media in fostering these skills and promoting collaborative learning and high-quality interactions, thus boosting student engagement. Furthermore, these platforms offer feedback and complex tasks, honing EFL learners' critical thinking. A corollary to this, Han's review analyzed the flipped classroom approach in language education, particularly its advantages and challenges when integrated with social media. The approach revolves around students accessing lecture content before class, using popular social media platforms for interactive learning. An analysis of 25 journal articles revealed that the flipped approach enhances learning outcomes, including motivation, attitude, course satisfaction, and self-efficacy in higher education. However, a significant challenge is students' unfamiliarity and difficulty adapting to this model. Focusing on an affective dimension in EFL learning, B. Li explored the potential of social networking to boost commitment and dedication in EFL students, providing valuable insights for language educators. By integrating social networking into educational platforms beyond the classroom, the conventional teaching approach is transformed. Social networking, a subset of social media, enables students to interact with peers through online and mobile platforms. This technology fosters a learning environment based on interactive dialog between students.

A few studies and conceptual reviews likewise have delved into the influence and use of social media in other facets of education, such as physical education, research, professional development, and assessment. Wang et al.'s review synthesized previous findings to discuss social media's role in student engagement both in in-class and online sessions. It likewise explored social media's impact on engagement, delved into engagement types, and examined the correlation between social media use and student engagement. In a related review, Chen and Xiao evaluated research on the impact of extensive social media use on students' emotional wellbeing. While positive and negative effects were noted, the latter, including symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and stress, were more prominent. The social comparison theory suggests that several issues stem from students comparing their lives to the unrealistic portrayal of others on social media. Thus, educators, policymakers, and school authorities may be informed about the potential psychological repercussions of pervasive social media use among students.

Moreover, Xu et al.'s work aimed to develop and validate the Social Media Perception Scale for future Physical Education teachers (SMPS-PPE). Data was gathered from 977 preservice physical education teachers using a survey. The data underwent item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. The results indicated that SMPS-PPE is reliable in terms of content validity, internal structure validity, and internal consistency, and valid in evaluating the social media perceptions of these preservice teachers. Lu et al. , on the other hand, looked into how novice EFL teachers in the Czech Republic view the use of social media tools, such as Web 2.0, and their willingness to employ them for collaboration in diverse classroom settings. One hundred teachers from various parts of the country participated in a survey and follow-up semi-structured interviews. The results showed that the teachers most open to integrating social Web 2.0 technologies had the most pronounced positive and negative views on them. The level of technology expertise, workload, and work environment influenced these views.

In the area of research, Alonzo and Oo employed autoethnography to analyze their three-year experience using Messenger for collaborative research, discussing the benefits and challenges of utilizing social media for academic collaboration. They showcased how a particular social media tool aided in enhancing their research output and obtaining a grant. The activity theory was used to discuss how various factors (i.e., personal, socio-emotional, structural, technological, and organizational) played a role in the success of their scholarly pursuits. On the other hand, Ping , in a review, explored the influence of teachers' commitment and identity on their use of social media in professional development (PD) for EFL instruction. Social media enhances teachers' dedication and professional identity (PI). Such PD helps teachers envision and shape a new identity through social media interactions. Since identity is fluid, participating in social media communities helps educators collaborate and connect, fostering their PD and professional success.

Lastly, in the area of assessment, Alonzo et al. utilized PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) to analyze 167 articles on the use of social media in educational assessments, finding only 17 relevant for detailed review. It revealed that Facebook and Twitter were the main platforms for assessment activities, including task sharing, monitoring progress, and offering feedback. The benefits included timely feedback and enhanced student performance. However, concerns emerged about assessment reliability, the constraints of social media tools, and balancing academic with social engagement.

The use of social media and digital platforms in education is no longer a budding trend; it is an essential component of modern pedagogy when harnessed with purpose and prudence. The scholarly works included in this Research Topic show both the transformative power of this integration and its potential challenges. While several educators and students have experienced significant improvements in areas such as writing, speaking, and learning motivation, there are evident concerns, such as the potential psychological consequences of excessive social media use. As the educational world merges with digital technology, educators, policymakers, and stakeholders should create a balanced approach to ensure that the benefits of technology are realized without compromising learners' holistic wellbeing.

Author contributions

HB: Conceptualization, Writing—review and editing. MU: Conceptualization, Writing—review and editing. VT: Conceptualization, Writing—review and editing. CP: Conceptualization, Writing—review and editing.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

• Bui H. P. (2023). “L2 teachers' strategies and students' engagement in virtual classrooms: a multidimensional perspective,” in Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems , eds D. K. Sharma, S. L. Peng, R. Sharma, and G. Jeon (New York, NY: Springer), 205–213. 10.1007/978-981-19-9512-5_18 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chau M. K., Bui H. P. (2023). “Technology-assisted teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic: L2 teachers' strategies and encountered challenges,” in Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems , eds D. K. Sharma, S. L. Peng, R. Sharma, and G. Jeon (New York, NT: Springer), 243–250. 10.1007/978-981-19-9512-5_22 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rautela S. (2022). Learner-learner interactions in online classes during COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of social media in the higher education context . Interact. Learn. Environ . 10.1080/10494820.2022.2093917 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sabah N. M. (2023). The impact of social media-based collaborative learning environments on students' use outcomes in higher education . Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Interact. 39 , 667–689. 10.1080/10447318.2022.2046921 [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

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Role of media in development: which media; what approach?

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The Role of Media in Promoting Social Development

The case study of snnpr (debub fm 100.9 radio) in hawassa town three sub cities, master's thesis, 2020, tefera geleso genemo (author), table of contents.

Acknowledgement

Author’s Biography

Table of Contents

List of Tables

List of Figures

List of Appendices

CHAPTER ONE 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study 1.2 Statement of the Problem 1.3 Objectives of the Study 1.3.1. General Objective 1.3.2. Specific Objectives 1.4. Research Questions 1.5 Scope of the Study 1.6. Limitation of the Study 1.7 Significance of the Study 1.8. Organization of the Paper 1.9. Definition of Key Terms

CHAPTER TWO 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.0 Introduction 2.1 Media effects and Social Change: Theoretical Framework 2.1.1 Effects of Media – Theories 2.1.1.1 Two-step flow Theory 2.1.1.2 Cultivation Theory 2.1.1.3 Bullet Theory 2.2 Development as a Concept 2.3 Development Media as Theory 2.4 The Social Responsibility Theory 2.5 Empirical Data 2.5.1 Research on FM radios for Social Development 2.6 Ethiopian Mass Media-An Overview 2.6.1 Broadcast Media in Ethiopia 2.7 Historical Development of Radio Broadcasting in Ethiopia 2.8 FM Radio as an Understanding 2.9 SNNPR (Debub FM 100.9 Radio) 2.10 Development Communication: - Overview 2.10.1 Participatory Communication as a Theory 2.10.2 Communication for Social Change (CFSC) 2.11 Modernization 2.11.1 Development Journalism 2.11.2 Diffusion of Innovation 2.12 Paradigm of Contemporary Global Development 2.12.1 Democracy and Diversity of Radio 2.12.2 Radio as Participatory Communication 2.12.2.1 Entertainment – Education 2.12.2.2 Social Marketing 2.13 Conceptual Framework of the Study

CHAPTER THREE 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.0 Introduction 3.1 Research Design 3.2 Operational Definitions of Variables 3.3 Population and Sample 3.3.1 Sample Design 3.4 Data collection Techniques 3.4.1 Qualitative Study 3.4.1.1. Focus Group Discussion 3.4.1.2. Interview 3.4.2 Quantitative Study 3.4.2.1 Questionnaire 3.5 Data Analysis 3.6. Source of Data 3.7 Description of the Study Area

CHAPTER FOUR 4. DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 4.1 Introduction 4.2. Response Rate 4.3 Respondents Background 4.4 Reliability of the Instruments 4.5 Validity of the Instrument 4.6 Analysis and Interpretation 4.7 Data Analysis and Interpretation of Findings 4.7.1 Effectiveness and quality 4.7.2. Media Quality 4.7.3. Media accessibility 4.7.4 Challenges of Media 4.7.5 Prospects of Media 4.7.6 Open Ended Questions 4.8 Forms and Degrees of Audience Participation 4.9 Educational Development Program types 4.10 Total Summation of Frequencies and Percentages of Respondents’ Opinion 4.11 Finding of the Research

CHAPTER FIVE 5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Summary 5.3 Conclusions 5.4 Recommendations 5.4.1 Public 5.4.2 SNNPR Radio and Television Agency 5.4.3 SNNPR Communication Affairs 5.4.4 Public at Large 5.4.5 Further Study

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to thank the almighty God who made me exceed the challenges and obstacles faced throughout my life by hearing more than I say, by answering more than I asked, and by giving more than I imagined. The almighty God, I really thank you for the time being you created and help me to be strong, visionary and bold enough to knock and open the doors those seems unocked and unopened.

I would like to express my sincere and heartfelt appreciation to my advisor Senait Haileselase (PhD candidate) for her close supervision, valuable ideas and invaluable contribution that helped me a lot in preparing my thesis. Really, I admire her optimist behavior, kindness and patience to see my thesis deeply and for her sincerely guidance. Likewise, I would like to express my warm gratitude for my friends Dr. Asfaw Yilma, who is working in commercial Bank of Ethiopia at head office, for his advice and review my thesis. Also Ato Hussen Nuredin the head of SNNPR Communication Affaire office who has helped me in materials and financial during my study; I will never forget, Ato Tamene Tessema, the head of the SNNPR State Office of the President, for his heart full help & encouraging activities to join the University. In addition, Ato Ayalew Arja (SNNPR, South Ethiopian people’s Democratic movement Office) for his valuable support in my research. I also want to thank Ato Aman Nurhussen (a lecturer in Arbaminch University) for reviewing my paper.

I would also like to express my deepest gratefulness to my lovely and self-reliant wife Etenesh Harka for her tireless support; strong moral and tolerance in encouraging me were long-sufferingly isolated with me to make finalizing my endeavor successfully through her encouragement, appreciation and support until the end of this study during my stay in the campus. Moreover, I would like to extend my thanks to all SNNPR media managers Ato Yohaness Ture, Ato Semnegus Sheno, and Tadesse Abate, and all the journalists and editors, Leku kebele, Philadelphia and Gebeyadar Kebele participants in this study.

Finally, I would like to thank Ato Merkneh Yacob, Hawassa town Mehal Sub city administrator during the beginning of my research that made convenient situation for my research in the sub city. Lastly, I would like to thank Markos Tantu the chairman of Mehal sub city Youth’s association and Dessalegn Dawit who were supporting me in collecting questionnaires during my study.

AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY

The Author was born in 1973 at Hawassa town Leku Kebele, in SNNPR region, in Ethiopia. After the completion of high school, he studied and graduated his Bachelor of Education Degree (BED) at Debub University – Dilla in English, 2003.

Thereafter, he has served as a teacher of English for the last ten and half years in Gedio Zone (Dilla), a year in Aleta Wondo town administration as an information officer, three years as mass media team leader in Sidama zone Government Communication affairs and now working for eight years in SNNPR regional Communication affairs as a public relation officer in Hawassa and totally served in government activities for twenty years and above. He has joined the Institute of Leadership and Good Governance, Ethiopian Civil Service University for his post – graduate studies in Leadership and Good Governance in September 2013.

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: SNNPR Branch Radio Stations and Broadcast Languages

Table 2.2: Branch Radio Stations and Their Wave Length

Table 3.1: Population and Sample Size

Table 4.1: Response Rate

Table 4.2: Respondents Profile by age, sex, education and Categories

Table 4.3: Instrument Reliability

Table 4.4: Media Contents

Table 4.5: Processed Data summary of Media quality

Table 4.6: Processed Data summary of Media Accessibility

Table 4.7: Media Challenges

Table 4.8: Kruskal-Wallis test of Media Prospects

Table 4.9: Kruskal- Wallis test of Open Ended Questions

Table 4.10: Forms and Degrees of Audience Participation

Table 4.11: Some Educational Development programs on Debub FM 100.9 radio

Table 4.12: Feeling of the respondents on the appropriateness of the contents, quality, access, challenges and prospects

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: (Researcher’s Own Source), Media not Effective

Figure 2.2: Effective Media

Figure 2.3: Conceptual Framework of the Study

Figure 3.1: Administrative Map of Hawassa City Administration

Figure 4.1: Media Prospects

Figure 4.2: Open Ended Questions

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix – I: Questionnaires for Respondents

Appendix – II: Interview Questions for Radio Journalists and Editors

Appendix – III: Interview Questions for Media Managers

Appendix – IV: Focus Group Discussion Questions for Listeners

Appendix - V : Focus Group Discussion Participants

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

The purpose of this study was to examine the challenges and prospects, quality and effectiveness of media. In the methodology of the study, by using randomly techniques 137 questionnaires were distributed to 3 kebeles participants. Out of these, for Leku kebele 46, for Philadelphia 46 and for Gebeyadar kebele 45 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents for quantitative study. For interview,20 participants were selected purposely from SNNPR Media institution of Debub FM 100.9 radio case. Out of 20, 16 were journalists, 2 editors, and 2 Media managers. In focus group discussion, 30 participants were selected purposely and participated in the discussion, of these, 10 from Leku kebele, 10 from Philadelphia and 10 from Gebeyadar kebele. This study treated the types of educational development programs that the FM radio broadcast. In the study totally 187 participants were participated. According to the findings of this study show that using a radio broadcast mainly as a tool of motivation rather than as a tool of development which is one of the impediments and threatening aspects of the growth of broadcast system in the region. The results of the study demonstrated that the effectiveness of media, challenges and prospects that hinders practicing of media, this revealed that the perception and attitudes of all respondents did not significantly vary across their responses. The major findings of the study discloses that FM100.9 radio has created programs that are not entertaining, and not preferable to listen as Fana FM 103.4 and Hawassa University FM 97.7 radio. The FM radio station devotes a reasonable percentage of their broadcasting time to the discussion of public issues of interest, i.e. educational and socially relevant issues but the audiences were not needed to listen the media. The study employed a descriptive statistics survey method and used both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Media managers, reporters, editors, and Hawassa town three sub cities of three kebeles local people were sources of data for the study. Using randomly techniques, questionnaires were distributed to three kebele’s people and were selected using simple random sampling techniques to distribute the questionnaires prepared for them. Besides, for purposefully selected respondents for qualitative interviews were made. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequencies, percentages, tables and bar charts. For data organization, the quantitative data analysis was used by coding them and analyzed through the software of SPSS 20 computer assisted programs. Respondents in their perceptions and attitudes towards the role of Media in promoting social development (educational development) were requested. Finally, the researcher recommended that media managers, journalists and editors, regional communication affairs and the public (audiences) have to build best practices of exemplary in reducing the problem of media effectiveness (contents, quality, access) and challenges and prospects.

Key words : Social Development, Educational Development, Challenges, and Prospects of media.

CHAPTER ONE

1. introduction.

This chapter lays the foundation for the rest of the thesis. From the background, and a statement of the problem, it proceeds to the objective of the study, research questions, the scope and limitations of the study, the significance of the study and organization of the paper, then it concludes with an outline of the subsequent chapters.

1.1. Background of the Study

The media plays a big role in empowering citizens to participate in all the processes of socio-economic development.

According to Steeves (2008) the media’s role in social development for the Third world countries like Ethiopia has an excellent solution for the problem of poverty and related causes such as backwardness, hunger, diseases, injustice and exploitation. The use of mass media and its effectiveness is a prerequisite for communication and attitudinal change which are very crucial in the process of social development.

In Africa, one of the main challenges for developing contents of radio is the need to produce programs on tight budget which has an impact on educational programs like, dramas- which require retaining dedicated teams of writers, technicians, editors, the prevailing culture of African radio is that of the live broadcast, rather vehicles, etc. - are housed and funded by donor aid. These are produced in separate production houses and funded by donor aid. Much development content is produced in this way, by charging airtime to NGOs and civil society organizations to broadcast their programs. Because of this reason, the researcher expects that developmental issues are not seriously aired on the radio without tight budget; even it may affect development issues and the effectiveness of media too. On the other side, which affect the effectiveness of media, is the preparation of journalists towards media contents (Mayers, 2008). These affect the effectiveness of media.

Similarly, the effectiveness of media is growing from time to time, however, still it needs a lot to do on this agenda Servaes (2008) showed that when one sees the effectiveness of the Ethiopia media, the main factors that make the media effective is in producing better social, economic and political outcomes, but there is still a gap in reaching the society due to lack of infrastructure to access the information. In relation to the mass media landscape of Ethiopia, there are sub cities very high expectations for radio to play the central role in the dissemination of development information, among urban and rural dwellers simply because, compare to other mass media (television, newspaper or internet), “Radio is much more pervasive, accessible and affordable”. But, in the context of Ethiopia, there are some basic problems which can deter the effective and efficient use of radio for social development.

Development towards media have been witnessed that during the last ten - twelve years it has a rapid growth in the broadcasting industry of Ethiopia. The trend is mainly a result of the forces of globalization, chiefly liberalization, privatization and the free market economy. Government sets the regulatory bodies to regulate the operation of the electronic media that are also being charged with enforcing an ethical code of broadcasting. Some FM radio stations to air the programs related to the community based problems and issues, but many depend on entertainment without logical reasons. The governments of Ethiopia maintained the monopoly of the airwaves always viewed radio as an indispensable instrument in the processes of national integration. In this country where gaps existed between the illiterate and literate in both rural and urban areas, radio was/is seen as a vehicle for cultivating national consciousness (Tadesse, 2005).

The Debub FM 100.9 radio station is one of FM radios, established on March 1, 2005 by Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Media Agency in Hawassa, and is controlled by the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Government. In the region, it has 14 Zones and 4 Special woredas’ the access of south media information has different from Zones to Zones and special Woredas’. The Media Organization has recently broadened its horizon by upgrading the quality and diversity of its services. The main Radio Station and the transmitters’ have links by 10KW and 5KW with 1500 MHZ wave length. But to strengthen its effectiveness still it has a gap to fill it. Now a day, the radio station has main radio station in Hawassa and it has 8 branch stations which broadcast programs for 18 hrs per day by Amharic language from the main station and about 47 languages out of 56 national languages in the region broadcast their programs by their own language for one hour per day on average by this channel every morning. The television station is in the way to establish in the region (SNNPR Mass Media Organization, 2012).

Even though the SNNPR FM 100.9 Radio has eight sub FM radio stations, the stations and their staff, lack special social development programming approaches. Effective FM radio broadcasting should promote social development issues, which is relevant to the community totally. In spite of the fact that development implies change and the first change that takes place is the attitude of the people who are directly affected by the development. In this case, the city of Hawassa’s three sub cities, communities are directly affected by development, if they did not bring attitudinal change.

For change radio plays a vital role in the process of development. Therefore Debub FM 100.9 radio can be trusted as a source of information and a vital player of development in the Urban and rural community. This is only possible if the broadcast content is prepared strategically and appropriately to prompt to the people to be socially engaged in development activities. The study attempts to explore the role of media in promoting the social development issues like educational development programs on the media and there are needs to be filled the gap and researched. Through this, the researcher would like to see the challenges, quality and effectiveness of FM 100.9 radio in the process of social development in the selected three sub cities of three Kebeles.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

The effectiveness of media growing is changing from time to time, however still it needs a lot to do on this agenda. Any mass media are used to educate, inform and encourage people to build a national consensus and the public also evaluates any mass media output and the extent of its influence on society or, in other words, its educational value (Nigussie, 2006). Mass media plays a great role in solving the problem of the public in the process of social development. The FM radio has benefited to the public in social development issues, when broadcasted quality contents of media messages effectively. Today the FM radio stations are established in Ethiopia, but the effectiveness of the media is different from place to place.

According to the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority (EBA), it requires each station should air educational and socially relevant themes. Thus, they are expected to integrate educational messages into an entertainment format with the purpose of informing the audiences about development issues in the country. Additionally, any broadcasting media has the basic roles of educating; informing and entertaining people as it is known from the classic theories of public service (McLeish, 2005).

Effective media is instrumental for building democratic governance and human centered poverty reduction endeavor of a poor country like Ethiopia as state media development in Ethiopia (2007). Media effectiveness depends on the context of access to information, autonomy, reach and quality. FM radio stations are established, but today the effectiveness of the media is highly in question in demanding. Media plays a great role in promoting about social development programs and has an impact on social relations. In the recent study of Zerihun (2012), the effectiveness, challenge and prospect of electronics media is addressed the problem of media (Debub FM 100.9 radio) accessibility to the public.

Similarly, according to Aderaw ( 2008) large scale surveys, conducted by either program producers or hired external evaluators, have not been sufficient to collect detailed individual response data on the effects of radio program such as serial dramas.

In this research, the study is focused on “the role of media in promoting social development” in reference to SNNPR Radio and Television Agency of Debub FM 100.9 radio as a case study of Hawassa town three sub cities.

Therefore, the researcher has taken the following points as the rationale behind to study this research and has no detail written on this issue in the region. Hence, it is necessary to assess the effectiveness, quality of content, challenges and prospects of the media (FM 100.9 radio) experiences in promoting social development programs like education and health programs by taking sample areas as a case study of the region. The quality of the program content and the professionals that understand the environment should be considered in the study.

But today, the quality and the effectiveness of media messages have a problem in solving social development issues of the audiences as expected and the public are not benefited as well from social development programs of the radio. Because, it lacks the quality contents and its effectiveness of media message to the audiences. Because of this, the social development issues of the public are not solved in different places. The researcher hopes that, the study contributes a lot to FM radio station. But, there are many challenges to sustain its contribution like quality, contents and its effectiveness.

So, it needs to analyze what impacts it brought on people’s attitude the quality, contents and effectiveness of broadcasting message of FM 100.9 radio and what challenges and prospects are considered in the media station. The reason of the study is there are qualit y and effectiveness gap in the media institution.

1.3. Objectives of the Study

1.3.1. general objective.

The main objective of the study is:

To examine the challenges and prospects of mass media in promoting social development using the case of SNNPR Radio and Television Agency of Debub FM 100.9 radio in Hawassa town 3 sub cities.

1.3.2.Specific Objectives

The specific objectives of this study are:-

- To assess the quality and the effectiveness of FM 100.9 radio in promoting social development issues. - To identify the challenges of FM 100.9 radio programs of social development.

1.4. Research Questions

The study attempts to find out answers to the following research questions.

- To what extent FM 100.9 radio is qualified and effective in promoting social development issues? - What are the challenges of FM 100.9 radio to improve the quality, and its effectiveness?

1.5. Scope of the Study

The scope of the study encompasses the city of Hawassa which has eight sub cities and of these three sub cities is selected (Mehal, Addis ketema and Haikdar). From these sub cities the study examines three Kebeles like Leku from (Mehal), Philadelphia (Addisketema), and Gebeyadar (Haikdar) are the study settings.

The study is limited to examining the extent of the challenges and prospects of Debub FM 100.9 radio broadcasting in promoting social development issues in focusing on Hawassa city as a case study. The study also covers the perception of the radio audiences on the issues of educational and development themes aired on. In this study, from three sub cities, the researcher had taken one Kebele from each sub cities. The selected areas had taken as a sample for the whole region. The reason why these areas and the region selected that in the selected area as urban base the audiences have many opportunities to listen FM radio because of this vast audiences tilt to listen another FM radio. The audiences complain that FM 100.9 radio has given much air time to music and western cultural activities than social development issues like educational development program and also the effectiveness of FM 100.9 radio quality, content and its impact on social welfare are into consideration and allotted time to development issues are not enough. This is limited on a monthly report of SNNPR Radio and Television Agency (Debub FM 100.9 radio).

1.6. Limitation of the Study

During the time of data collection the researcher encountered some limitations such us shortage of time, respondents like journalists, editors, and media managers were busy because of different activities and meetings and some of the respondents were not willing to cooperate with the researcher to respond to the questions.

1.7 Significance of the Study

This study tried to respond how much the government/public FM Radio addresses the social development issues which meet the need of people. This research paper helps to mass media organization to improve its challenges, effectiveness and quality of the media service.

FM radios have in mobilizing the public for nation building, prepare them mentally for the changes that accompany development and reinforce national unity. In the study area, there has not been through researched in this area in SNNPR region; this study might fill the gap and can provide a point of references for similar interests in the study of FM radio’s role and its challenges and effectiveness in addressing social development issues.

As stated in to Zerihun (2012), Electronics media is one of the important tools for democratic society building. It plays an important role in all facets of social, cultural, political and economic life. But there is no enough research on the issue of improving its effectiveness and quality media service in SNNPR. Due to this reason the study has the following importance for regional government and for other stakeholders. First, it helps to afford written document/paper to SNNPR Radio and Television Agency to look towards their organization and to improve the challenges and effectiveness of the media. Second, it helps to motivate other researchers to conduct further study in the area and the third, it is hoped to become an input for the regional government to design/formulate a policy from the studied material.

1.8. Organization of the Paper

In this research thesis, it has five chapters, including the introductory chapter. Chapter two of this study organized as the relationship of development and the mass media and particularly the role of (effectiveness) of government FM radio in promoting social development, and the concepts of different scholars were seen in the organization. Chapter three of the study expresses about research methodology, the data collection and the analysis of these methods, and description of the selection of samples were gathered. Chapter four expresses about data presentation or the discussion and interpretation. At last, chapter five presents the conclusion and recommendation of the thesis.

In conclusion, the study basically focuses on three selected sub cities of Hawassa city: Mehal, Addis ketema, and Haikdar. Of these, Leku kebele from Mehal Subcity, Philadelphia kebele from Addisketema and Gebeyadar kebele from Haikdar were selected as the setting of the study. The study wants to assess the challenges and prospects of FM 100.9 radio quality and effectiveness by the basic variables: FM 100.9 radio effectiveness in its promotion of social development issues, its impacts on social development (educational development programs), quality, and the contents of the radio.

1.9 Definition of Key Terms

Educational Development Programs : The educational, instructional or informational radio programs concerning socioeconomic problems based on identifiable audience needs.

FM Radios : Frequency Modulation (FM) radio stations which have narrow and localized broadcasting, normally covering a radius of not more than 100 miles.

Social Development: is a type of social change in which new ideas are introduced in social systems. It refers to the improvement of human life condition of individual and social levels.

Effectiveness: is the extent to which the respondents have benefited immensely from mass media in terms of social development like – from educ ational development programs.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.0 Introduction

In this chapter it has seen the development and the mass media relationship in general and radios in particular, the theoretical framework which is related to radio and development, media effects and social change (development) theory is also undertaken. The theoretical framework of media effects and social change begins with the influence of media on masses and the different scholars’ definition of social change theories has been shown, and proceeds to see development as a concept and media theory, social development responsibility theory. The empirical data and the most critical dimensions of development, including mass media in Ethiopia and FM radio’s concept and effectiveness is included, communication for development and social change, and participatory communication is under this chapter is shown. Also, it looks development paradigm with regard to development.

2.1 Media Effects: Theoretical Framework

2.1.1 effects of media - theories, 2.1.1.1 two-step flow theory.

Bob (2005: p266) explained about “a two-step’’ flow of media messages and that the audience has the ability to “select and interpret media messages”. The media messages filtered through the mass media to opinion leaders, peers or relatives, who then play roles in decisions that people make after being exposed to media messages. The radio influences the minds of the masses aroused numerous social inquiries. This theory is a popular media effects theory, and to some extent is related to the diffusion of innovation hypothesis. This theory is still a relevant theory for studying the relationship between FM radios and the development in the developing countries.

2.1.1.2 Cultivation Theory

George (1994, p17-41) said that media shape the people’s view of the world. It explains about the passage of time, the usages of media will “cultivate” inside users a distinct view of the world. This theory helps to understand that how a person’s perception shapes or sometimes it is distorted by the media. The media can be a source to change in the perceptions, attitudes and behavior of the people.

2.1.1.3 Bullet Theory

According to Melvin (2008,p163), in this theory people who are watching different movies become influenced by those movie messages. If they watch violent movies become violent and those who read immoral comic books become morally wrong. This theory shows that media effects flow directly from the media to an individual like a bullet.

2.2 Development as a Concept

Waisboard (2011) said that development has no single definition, because of different factors of the nature of concepts, the different physical environment, culture, natural resources and general ways of life.

Matterlart (1998) defines development, it is synonymous with “growth’’, “modernization”, and “social change’’. In the middle of the 20th century.

According to Servaes, et al. (1996, p82-83), development can be defined as: “a multidimensional process that involves change in social structures, attitudes, institutions, economic growth, the reduction of inequality, and the eradication of poverty”

2.3 Development Media as Theory

According to Denis McQuil (1984), the development media theory is appropriate to the media situation in developing countries for economic, political and social requirements and also the media should be constructive instead of being destructive.

The theory shows that the relationship between the national government and mass media to promote national development. The media organizations, professional, governmental agencies and officials are expected to work closely together to achieve national goals rather than assume an antagonistic relationship.

2.4 The Social Responsibility Theory

The free market approach to press freedom had only increased the power of a single class and has not served the interests of the less well-off classes. The emergence of radio, TV and film suggested the need for some means of accountability. Thus, this theory advocated some obligation on the part of the media to society. One pivotal characteristic of the view which is an emphasis on the media’s responsibility to use its powerful position to ensure appropriate delivery of information to audiences, furthermore, if the media fails in carrying out its responsibility, it may be relevant to have a regulatory instance enforce it. The power and near monopoly position of the media impose on them an obligation to be socially responsible, to see that all sides are fairly presented and that if the media do not take on themselves it may be necessary for some other agency of the public to enforce it (Seibert et al.,1956).

2.5 Empirical Data

As we know that Fm radio is the new phenomenon in our country, not many research have been conducted related the contribution of effectiveness of FM radio in social development– like education. However, the researcher wishes to cite a few local and international studies whose findings and conclusion are relevant to this research.

2.5.1 Research on FM Radios for Social Development

According to Milkissa(2010), educational and development themes and social analysis have been disseminated /aired through many popular programming formats such as talk shows, chat shows, commentaries, the magazine reports, radio drama news, phone-ins and music and special thematic programs. Of course, there are some weaknesses for which the FM radios are accused very often. Because of its Private FM radios, their profit motives, they feed the audience with too many advertisements, music and DJ jokes. In fact, these privately owned radio stations rely on local and nationally significant businesses for ad revenue. The researcher recommends that analyzing the content of FM radios in quantitative research is better to reach good performance and fill the gaps.

Similarly, in the recent study of Zerihun (2012), the problem addressed about effectiveness, challenge and prospect of electronics media in SNNPR. There has been an argument regarding the problem of accessibility of media to the public and the context in which information is disseminated by electronic media to the public especially in common consensus and democratic society building. There has been a suggestion concerning media in the region in the quality of content, professionalism, understanding the environment in which the message is transmitted, etc. Based on this, the researcher recommends that audience analysis of FM 100.9 radio needs to assess and fulfill the problem is preferable.

2.6 Ethiopian Mass Media-An Overview

Mass media are playing a great role in information dissemination. Our time witness that again and again, we hear that information is power, power to achieve sustainable development. The Ethiopian mass media are a century old, with the print media taking up the leading role in the history. The demand to be informed properly for the sake of achieving sustainable economic, political and social development and lay down a strong foundation for democracy is growing. However, the mass media are not showing a significant development, possessing a number of problems that occurred in its life cycle. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning the historical background, in order to understand the present status of the mass media in Ethiopia, with special reference to the widely popular medium in the country, i.e. radio (Gissila, 2008).

2.6.1 Broadcast Media in Ethiopia

According to Ministry of Information of Ethiopia (1996), broadcasting, primarily the radio, reaches a much larger part of the population, both literate and illiterate, than does print, though the distribut ion is limited. Radio was first introduced in 1935, prior to the Italian invasion. However, the Ethiopian soldiers broke down the installation, so that it won’t be used by the Italian invaders. Following this, the Italians installed radio service for their propaganda, which was later on overtaken and restored by the Ethiopians after the victory, in 1941. Gradually, its transmission capacity, facilities and programming were expanded during the imperial era. In 1960, for the first time it was possible to start international broadcast to Europe, West Africa and Middle East. Meanwhile, its capacit y and quality of transmission was upgraded in reception of domestic services.

Radio Voice of the Gospel, owned by the Lutheran World Federation, operated prior to the overthrow of the Emperor in 1974. Their facilities were seized under the Derg, and it turned out to function as the voice of revolutionary Ethiopia international service. Some documents show that there is no significant difference in broadcast media, between the previous regime and Derg, mainly in contents. Compared to the development of media globally, it was mentioned as ‘backward’, monotonous and unbalanced in content (Gissila, 2008).

2.7 Historical Development of Radio Broadcasting in Ethiopia

Media has a long history in Ethiopia when we compare the history of the media establishment in Africa. During the regime of Emperor Menelik II (1885-1913) which is considered as the first legal domestic media. The Ethiopian Radio was introduced to Ethiopia in 1936 since then the station has been trying to redesign the organizational structure in order to accommodate new technology and provide quality services.

Makuria (2005:10) stated that in 1936 the Radio Ethiopia started its transmission with a 7 kilowatt short wave transmitter and hardly covered the scale of Addis Ababa. Immediately, the Italians took control of the station and used it as an instrument of propaganda. In 1941, after the withdrawal of Italian troops, the Ethiopian government used the Radio for disseminating Amharic news, government statements, declarations and music (Basic Information’s of Ethiopian Radio and television, 2000:4).

In 1963, Foreign and Domestic Broadcast Services started. For example: the Ethiopian Radio for the first time broadcast news in English to West Africa, Europe, in French, in the Middle East, East and North Africa and in Arabic to the Middle East audiences. After 1970, the Radio Ethiopia made changes by overcoming the problems of its formative years with coverage of 40 percent of the people in all major cities, towns and villages of the country under the direction and guidance of the Ministry of Information. Following the 1974 Revolution, the Dergue regime changed the name from ‘Radio Ethiopia’ to ‘Voice of the Revolut ionary Ethiopia’ so as to fit the name into the revolut ionary changes which occurred at that time. As Makuria (2005:10) indicated the name Radio Ethiopia was restored soon after the incumbent government came to power 1991.

In the regime of Haile Sellassie, Radio broadcasting was started in Addis Ababa in 1941. Shortwave broadcasting was resumed in 1941 and then in the subsequent years Radio Ethiopia operated from three locations: Addis Ababa, Harar and Asmara broadcasting in six languages and the first provisional radio station was inaugurated in 1933 in a contract signed with an Italian company (Tadesse, 2005). The first airwaves came to Ethiopian earth from their native soil at the time of Emperor Haile Silassie (1930-1974) in 1935. At the time of the Emperor, however, radio broadcasting was employed as an instrument of unification, “to help overcome the internal linguistic and ethnic divisions which geography has perpetuated over Ethiopia’s long history of independence” (Negussie, 2006: 10). Though by the late 1960s the country’s radio system had been organized under the imperial government’s Ministry of Information, radio broadcasting (as this was also true to the other mass media) was neither employed as a means of development nor in a position to exercise freedom of expression as the government was an absolute, undemocratic monarchy (Brook, 2000: 18-19).

During a Mengistu’s regime (1974-1991), the radio was employed as a major tool for propaganda and counter-propaganda purposes since “Broadcast played a primarily propaganda role, aimed at promoting national unity under state socialism” (Brook, 2000: 19). It was very negligible, radio was “used for education purposes to promote literacy campaigns, health and farming”.

At the time of the Derg virtually there had never been any remarkable change or even improvement in the landscape of Ethiopian mass media. From the technical perspective, they were still backward; from a professional point of view they were still monotonous and filled with imbalanced reports. Inefficient and slow reporting, a lack of interesting news and analysis, and insufficient technical means needed for the proper functioning of newspapers, all helped explain why the Ethiopian press was not considered a significant social institution compared with the press of other developing countries (Negussie, 2006: 13).

Since 1991, Up to 2005, there were only three broadcasting stations in the media landscape of the country, i.e. Radio Ethiopia, Radio Fana and the Voice of Wayane Tigray. It was after this time that Regional States started to establish local radio stations.

According to the report that the researcher obtained from the Ethiopian Broadcast Authority, up to February 2012, there were 26 radio stations that were operating in the country. From these seven radio stations are belonged to state media; they are owned either by the Federal Government or Regional States. In Ethiopia, there were no regional broadcast media before 1991, but now there are many government and private broadcast media, which were established in different regions like FM 97.1, 98.1, 102.1, 90.4, 96.3 in Addis Abeba and FM 100.9 of Hawassa, FM radio of Dire Dawa, Bahirdar, Mekele (dimtse weyane), and oromiya TV station of Nazret are some examples of broadcasting media established.

To put in place the legal and regulatory frameworks and institutional arrangements for media development, and broadcast law has recently been endorsed broadcasting authority was reestablished. The 1992 press proclamation, which abolished censorship, has been revised. The private print media, FM radios and community radio were granted licenses. Moreover, a number of national and regional states owned broadcast media have expanded their reaches and language diversity. Today there are many FM radio stations are established, but today the effectiveness of the media in governance is highly demanded.

2.8 FM Radio as an Understanding

The first FM station was launched in Ethiopia in June 2000, established under Radio Ethiopia. FM Radio is a device that can influence to its listeners in worldwide areas. It has the capacity to increase one’s knowledge, ideas, and understanding of any issue while maintaining personal relationships with its transmission. Its listeners interact with their environmental subjects. It can also be noteworthy, such as bringing change in a person’s attitudes, culture and can cause for social change. This study would call attention to the effectiveness of FM Radio in promoting and causing the development (Social development). The drawback of the medium is that they mostly focus kill the air time on traditional and Western music transmission. Radio has proved itself as a powerful medium in all over the world where it has become also a tool for disaster management (Sadaf Naqvi, 2011).

FM Radio can be a trusted source of information for the people, this is only possible if the broadcast content is prepared strategically and appropriately prompts for the people to be economically aggressive and engage in self-income generating activities. There is a need for the radio stations to provide development related programs and content rather than allocating a lot of time for mere music and entertainment. This means that the staffing (journalist/editors) at these local stations require special skills to design programs to accelerate development. Radio enables communities to articulate their experiences and to critically examine issues and policies affecting their lives, for example, a communit y can use the radio to highlight new educational policies. These policies can be debated upon and discussed using the radio and immediate feedback can be given to relevant authorities to take action (Amany, 2011).

2.9 SNNPR (Debub FM 100.9 Radio)

SNNPR Media Organization was established in March 1, 2005. The organization has recently broadened its horizon by upgrading the quality and diversity of its services. Now a day, the radio station has main radio station in Hawassa and it has 8 branch stations broadcasting about 47 languages of the region. The main Radio Station and the transmitters’ have links by 10KW and 5KW with 1500 MHZ wave length (SNNPR Mass Media, 2012) (See Table 2.1 below).

Source: SNNPR Mass Media Organization, January 29, 2012

The Radio Expansion Project of FM 100.9 consists of 8 additional branch stations which covers 80% of the target population. Each branch station has its own Wave length or MHZ (See Table 2. 2 below).

2.10 Development Communication: - Overview

According to Thomas (2009:3) development communication is intervening in a systematic or strategic manner with either media (print, radio, telephony, video, and the Internet), or education (training, literacy, schooling) for the purpose of positive social change. Develop communication, particularly radio, was viewed as being central to improving the economic and social lot of the poor in the southern hemisphere. Theorists like Daniel Lerner, Wilbur Schramm, Paul Deutschmann, Walter Rostow, Everett Rogers, Luis Beltran, Michel Foucault, along with other scholars, as well as agencies such as the Ford and Carnegie Foundations, UNESCO, and the UN’s Department of Economic Affairs looked at development issues, some cautiously, some critically, and others creatively.

Of these, Daniel Lerner and Wilber Schramm were influential in this regard because their work stressed the role of communication in development (Servaes, 2002, P 15-16). They theorized that communication was the transmission of information from the Western World to the Third World. They had strong belief that if traditional societies were exposed to the mass media, they would also be exposed to modern western attitudes which would make them change (Servaes& Melkote & Steeves, 2002: 15-16; 2007: 71).

2.10.1 Participatory Communication as a Theory

This focuses on the effects of individuals on mass communication with special emphasis placed on the development of the third world. Unlike other mass communication theories which deal with the effects of the few and powerful with the masses via vertical diffusion. Waisboard (2001) as cited in Ocwich (2004) defines participatory communication as the process by which people within a particular community “create and share information with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding (Ocwich 2004, p20).In the case of radios, it means debates or other active forms of participation in the decision making, production and the trashing out of numerous diverse ideas over radio. This can be on any pertinent issue affecting the community’s welfare (Thomas, 2009, p3).

2.10.2 Communication for Social Change (CFSC)

According to Elizabeth (2011) communication for Social Change uses participatory approaches. This is stressing the importance of horizontal communication, the role of people as agents of change, and the need for negotiating skills and partnerships. It focuses on dialogue processes through which people can overcome obstacles and identify ways to help them achieve the goals they set for themselves through better life.

2.11 Modernization

The concept of modernization refers to the fundamental proposition that people in traditional societies should adopt the characteristics of the modern societies in order to modernize their social, po litical and economic institutions. Studies about development were heavily dominated by modernization theory which applied insights from communication models to address the shortcoming of development and modernization in Third World countries. The modern mass media supplement and complement as mobilit y multipliers, the oral channels of traditional society, radio. As to Servaes, the mass media could speed up and ease the long, slow transformation that was necessary for economic growth and the mobilization of human resources ” (Servaes, 2002 : p20).

2.11.1 Development Journalism

Analysts and scholars who propound this idea believe that the media could be harnessed to promote social, and political development, as well as national or community building. This perspective became consistent with the dominant communication paradigm advanced by Western, mainly American communication scholars, which urged that “the mass media could play a crucial role in society and, by implication, could be an agent in the ‘modernization’ of the Third World” (Thussu, 2000: p325). This scholarship emphasizes the importance of development news on radios and other media, as opposed to infotainment (Waisbord, 2001).

The issues addressed by the media must affect the lives of the ordinary people or the majority (Fisher, 2001). The modern mass media are dousing the public with too much entertainment, sex, fashion, food, celebrity story travels and sensationalism Nordenstreng (1975) ;Thussu (2000: p325-341); (Waisboard, 2001).

2.11.2 Diffusion of Innovation

Everret Rogers defined modernization as a process of diffusion where individuals move from a traditional way of life to a different, more technically developed and more rapidly changing life. In this model an innovation, which is a new idea or practice, is communicated through certain media over time, among members of a social group with the aim of changing their way of thinking and doing things.

The model sees development as a type of social change in which new ideas are introduced into a social system to improve agriculture, health, education and politics. To put it in Roger’s own words, “development communication is a process by which an idea is transferred from a source to a receiver with the intent to change his/her behavior Rogers (1962 & 1983)developed the diffusion of innovations theory as another communication model of modernization.

2.12 Paradigm of Contemporary Global Development

Development might mean different things, to different people. But of late, global development organizations like the United Nations (UN), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have codified standard indicators of development. For this study, we refer to this as ‘contemporary paradigm of development’. The UN Development Program (UNDP) has a Human Development Index (HDI), a composite indicator which it uses to measure and rank the progress in different countries every year- which findings are published in its annual Human Development Report (HDR).

The HDI covers three broad dimensions of human welfare: income, education and health. These are then broken down to numerous significant indicators of human development. They include life expectancy, adult literacy, enrollment in schools, gender equality, infant mortality, maternal mortality, access to information, health services, transport and communication, child rights, democracy and food security. Other elements encompass employment, capital intensive technology, investment, and access to water and electricit y (Zinnabauer Norris, 2002).

2.12.1 Democracy and Diversity of Radio

There are key elements that determine whether a society is democratic or not. These include the rule of law, respect for human rights, transparency and accountability of local leaders, regular and free elections of leaders, freedom of expression and of the press, justice and equal opportunity for all members of the community (White, 2001). As the UNDP puts it in its annual HDR 2005: Democracy is a fundamental aspect of human development. It is both intrinsically valuable, and therefore a human development indicator in its own right, and a means towards wider human development goals (UNDP, 2005:p20). It is important to study the relationship between radio and democracy because, as Hendy (2000:p139) explains, “Radio imbues itself with an aura of democracy.”In a free society, the multiplicity of opinions and expressions through debates, talk shows, phone- in etc on radio is good for the community.

2.12.2 Radio as Participatory Communication

According to Hendy(2000: p195) quot es German playwright, Bertolt Brecht to have once urged against radio being a channel through which homes passively received information and entertainment: If listeners could transmit as well as receive, he argued, then they would become producers of radio as well as consumers, and it would be a truly public, two way forum of communication.

2.12.2.1 Entertainment – Education

An entertainment, education strategy is being implemented in much of the world is because of its grounding in development theory. It is a communication strategy to disseminate information through the media.

It is not a theory, but a strategy to maximize the reach and effectiveness of development messages through the combination of entertainment and education. The fact that its premises are derived from socio- psychology, human communication theories place entertainment-education in the modernization/diffusion theory trunk. Like diffusion theory, it is concerned with behavior change through the dissemination of information. It is based on Stanford professor Albert Bandura’s (1977) social Learning theory, a framework currently dominant in health promotion.

Entertainment-education is premised on the idea that individuals learn behavior by observing role models, particularly in the mass media. Imitation and influence are the expected outcomes of interventions. This process depends on the existence of role models in the messages: good models, bad models and those who are in transition from bad to good (Waisboard, 2002: p13). Entertainment–education refers to “the process of purposely designing and implementing a media message to both entertain and educate, in order to increase audience knowledge about an educational issue, create favorable attitudes, and change overt behavior”. Some of the educational development programs which are airing by the media are like, health education, cultural practices, agricultural development programs, etc.

2.12.2.2 Social Marketing

It is one of the approaches that have carried forward the premises of diffusion of innovation and behavior change models. Since the 1970’s, social marketing has been one of the most influential strategies in the field of development communication (Waisboard, 2002: p6).

In this marketing is an advertising technique used for selling social messages. Such campaigns can address a variety of development needs, from health issues to environmental issues. It is marketing’s response to the need to be socially relevant and socially responsible. It is the reaction of marketing as both discipline and industry to be sensitive to social issues and strive towards the social good.

Social marketing consisted of putting into practice standard techniques in commercial marketing to promote pro-social behavior. One of the standard definitions of social marketing is the one given by Andreasen (1994:110) as quoted by Waisboard. He defines social marketing as the adaptation of commercial marketing technologies to programs designed to influence the voluntary behavior of target audience to improve their personal welfare and that of the society of which they are a part.

Concept Note

It is better to check up FM 100.9 Radio whether it plays significant roles or not, or it addresses Social development issues. FM 100.9 radio gives considerable time to educate and social development issues, but, according to its contents and quality of message, it is questionable. Most programs conform to the parameters of development, when we say development, we should not only think of agriculture, health programs. Even the fact that FM radio stations have broadened the people’s horizon to access to information is in itself an aspect of development is necessary.

Effectiveness of media depends upon the context of access to inform, autonomy, reach and quality. To enhance development, promoting development issues to specific community, the media plays a significant role.

1. Media (FM 100.9 radio) 2. Social development programs (educational development) /themes/ like, health, education etc 3. Context and quality of media is/ not attractive 4. Public participation becomes less/more 5. Media does/doesn’t bring any change and people’s attitude is changed/not changed. 6. Media is not effective/most effective

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The Role of Social Media Essay

Introduction, role of social media in contemporary organisations: advantages and disadvantages, reference list.

Social media is becoming a major force in the world of business. Human beings have created social networks to exchange ideas, views, concepts, and information (Bradley & McDonald 2013). Social media increases the level of interaction among individuals in many societies.

Social media platforms ensure communities, organisations, and individuals create and share user-generated ideas or content ( What Role Can Social Media Play For Your Business Organisation? 2014). Social media continues to change the way people and communities communicate between themselves.

The role of social media and internet-based applications in organisations is immeasurable. Many businesses have succeeded because of their continued use of social media. This essay highlights the unique roles of social media in modern organisations.

Many corporations have succeeded because of new technological applications and resources. Companies are using modern technologies to create the best plans and strategies. Information technology (IT) has helped many firms address most of their problems. This approach has increased the level of communication and decision-making.

The internet is ‘a powerful invention because it supports many operations and activities in every firm’ (Harris & Rae 2009, p. 29). The globe is embracing the use of these modern technologies to provide quality customer services. Leaders and business managers are using new technologies to support their consumers. Every successful company uses new technologies to achieve its goals.

Social media is a fundamental area of technology. Social media can take ‘different shapes such as social networks, internet blogs, online forums, wikis, photographs, book-markings, and podcasts’ (Miner, 2007, p. 73). Many people are currently using social media to exchange photos and information. Many societies and agencies are currently using social media to spread new ideas to their audiences (Miner 2007).

Mobile devices and cell phones are making social networking possible. Businesses also stand to gain a lot from these modern technologies. The approach will ‘equip employees with skills, opportunities, information, and resources to improve performance’ (Harris & Rae 2009, p. 29).

Ulrich identifies the best framework to support organisational performance. Businesses are always focusing on the best practices to achieve their goals. Managers can use Ulrich’s framework to make their firms successful. According to this framework, technological innovations can promote human resource (HR) practices (Luthans & Youssef 2007).

The organisational process should identify the targeted objectives and goals. A collaborative approach will ensure every HR manager mentors and supports his or her employees (Armstrong 2006). The strategic focus will place the firm on the right path.

The approach will also encourage more companies to embrace the use of social media. The above discussion explains how social media empowers both managers and workers. The HR team will also address the challenges affecting every employee in the firm.

Scholars have used Strategic Choice Theory to support the use of social media in every business firm. The theory examines every force in the business environment. Social media is a powerful external factor that affects the effectiveness of every firm. Companies should make the best adjustments in order to achieve their potentials. Social media is currently becoming a critical force in every environment.

The theory ‘offers three approaches towards adapting every feasible option’ (Pearlman & Gates 2010, p. 252). Every business should consider the best strategy to become profitable. Strategic Choice Theory encourages leaders to consider every viable approach. The decision depends on the existing factors or forces in the society.

The above theories support the use of social media in businesses towards better performances and HR practices. Social media supports many practices in a business. Human Resource Management (HRM) is a critical practice in every firm. HRM seeks to improve the level of business performance by supporting the changing needs of every worker.

HR managers ensure every employee gets the best support and remuneration. The department formulates the best systems, strategies, and policies depending on the nature of the organisation (Bradley & McDonald 2013). Social media is a critical tool towards better HR practices. HR managers can train, monitor, and recruit new workers using such social media resources.

Social media promotes collaboration between employees and HR managers. The practice ensures every worker is contented with his or her working environment. Many HR managers have gained their objectives because of these social networks (Hausman & Siekpe 2009).

Social media also improves the quality of communication in every firm. Modern technologies ‘allow staff and managers to communicate using video-conferencing, online chats, and social networks’ (Bradley & McDonald 2013, p. 63). The practice has helped managers monitor their employees and address the issues affecting their working environments (Bradley & McDonald 2013).

Social media discourages the formation of organisational hierarchies. Every employee wants to interact with his or her boss. The approach will ensure such employees engage in immediate decision-making processes. Social media promotes the level of interaction between leaders and their employees.

The practice has created new situations in many organisations. Many employees are now able to support their business goals using social media (Harris & Rae 2009).

The other benefit of social media is the ability to promote marketing. Companies can use mobile networks and social media resources to inform their customers about every new service or product. Such companies will attract more customers and eventually achieve their objectives.

Companies can use different platforms such as Facebook.com and Google+ to improve their marketing strategies. Wal-Mart ‘uses social media to inform more consumers about its services’ (Moth, 2013, p. 2). Many companies ‘are now embracing social media to promote their products’ (Taufique & Shahriar 2011, p. 18).

Social media also encourages and supports electronic commerce (e-commerce). The internet has increased the number of services and goods purchased online. This practice explains why e-commerce is common in many countries (Harris & Rae 2009). Companies such as eBay and Amazon.com use social media to inform their customers about every new product.

A large number of companies are using social media networks to achieve their targets. Every customer wants to buy his or her product via the internet. Online business practices are becoming common today than ever before (Taufique & Shahriar 2011). The above advantages explain why social media is relevant for every organisation. Social media is a major strength because it promotes business productivity.

Social media has reduced the costs incurred by many organisations. Companies can use social media to support their employees. Every HR manager can use social media to empower his or her employees. This situation explains why social media remains critical for many businesses. Marketers and manufacturers can use the internet to communicate with their stakeholders and customers.

The customers can provide immediate feedbacks about every service or product. Firms can use social media to identify the best market segments. Online marketing and targeting identifies various customers ‘depending on their needs and expectations’ (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p. 64).

Marketers use such segments to market their commodities successfully. Such firms can use ‘consumer behaviours, psychographics, and demographics to market their products’ (Singh 2009, p. 24).

Business managers should consider the best strategies in order to place their organisations on the right path. Social media transforms every business practice and decision-making process. This discussion explains why many organisations are embracing the use of various online-based applications.

Social media also has its share of weaknesses. According to Pearlman and Gates (2010), social media increases chances of hacking. Hackers can launch virus attacks or commit detrimental frauds. Such malpractices will affect the performance of every firm.

Analysts have identified how social media can potentially reduce the level of employee commitment and productivity. Some employees will use social media applications for their personal gains. These employees ‘will become less productive if they are busy chatting with their friends or updating their statuses’ (Taufique & Shahriar 2011, p. 16).

Hackers can deceive most of these employees using various online traps. Such strategies will eventually result in identify theft or data loss. This practice can have detrimental impacts on the performance of every business. Social media can tarnish the image of an organisation (Norton 2011). Some employees may post new tweets or comments that might affect the company’s image.

Wal-Mart Corporation is one of the primary retailers in many parts of the globe. The retailer focuses on the best opportunities and environmental forces in order to attain its business potentials (Pan & Li 2011).

Wal-Mart uses different social networks such as Facebook.com and Twitter.com to increase its online activities and presence. The HR managers at Wal-Mart use social media to communicate with their workers. This practice has ‘supported the relationships between the employees and managers at Wal-Mart’ (Moth 2013, p. 2).

The current use of social networks has become a mandatory practice for many entrepreneurs and firms. Wal-Mart Corporation has remained a leading retailer in many nations across the world. The company also improves its HR practices using social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.com.

The above discussion explains why companies should use social media to improve their HR practices and business performances. Social media has become a requirement for many corporations. Social media has made Wal-Mart a leading competitor in its industry. Marketers can use social media to increase their sales and profits. According to Abraham (2012), social media increases the level of business profitability.

Companies can create dynamic teams using social media applications. Corporations can also use social networks to make accurate and realistic HR decisions. Every business should also evaluate the challenges associated with social media such as hacking and data loss. This practice will improve the level of productivity.

Abraham, S 2012, ‘Development of Employee Engagement Programme on the basis of Employee Satisfaction Survey’, Journal of Economic Development, Management, IT, Finance and Marketing, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 27-37.

Armstrong, M 2006, A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, Kogan Page Limited, London.

Bradley, A & McDonald, M 2013, The Social Organisation: How to Use Social Media to Tap the Collective Genius of Your Customers and Employees, Harvard Business Review Press, Chicago.

Harris, L & Rae, A 2009, ‘Social networks: the future of marketing for small business’, Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 24-31.

Hausman, A & Siekpe, J 2009, ‘The effect of web interface features on consumer online purchase intentions’, Journal of Business Research , vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 5-13.

Kaplan, A & Haenlein, M 2010, ‘Users of the World, Unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media’, Business Horizons, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 59-68.

Luthans, F & Youssef, C 2007, ‘Emerging Positive Organisational Behavior’, Journal of Management , vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 321-349.

Miner, J 2007, Organisational Behavior: From theory to Practice, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Moth, D 2013, How Wal-Mart uses Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ . Web.

Norton, C 2011, The Seven deadly disadvantages of Social Media. Web.

Pan, B & Li, X 2011, ‘The long tail of destination image and online marketing’, Annals of Tourism Research , vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 132-152.

Pearlman, D & Gates, A 2010, ‘Hosting business meetings and special events in virtual worlds: A fad or the future’, Journal of Convention & Event Tourism, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 247-265.

Raymond, A 2011, Fundamentals of human resource management, McGraw-Hill, New York.

Singh, K 2009, Organisational Behavior: Text and Cases, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Taufique, K & Shahriar, F 2011, ‘Online Social media as a driver of buzz marketing: Who’s riding?’, Annual Conference on Innovations in Business & Management, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-23.

What Role Can Social Media Play For Your Business Organisation? 2014. Web.

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Social Facilitation, Social Learning and Obedience to Authority Within Educational Development

This essay about the impact of social dynamics on learning likens educational development to a symphony where social facilitation, social learning, and obedience to authority play integral roles. It describes social facilitation as akin to the strings section of an orchestra, enhancing performance through the supportive presence of peers. Social learning is compared to the brass section, emphasizing the importance of observational learning from others. Obedience to authority is represented as the conductor, guiding and shaping educational outcomes with expertise rather than strict control. Together, these elements interact dynamically to enrich the educational experience, making it a collective and mutually enhancing process. The essay argues that understanding and utilizing these social influences can lead to more effective and engaging learning environments.

How it works

Imagine the journey of learning as a symphony, where each musician’s contribution is vital to the harmony of the whole. In this orchestra of education, the concepts of social facilitation, social learning, and obedience to authority play the roles of principal instruments, each adding its unique tone and texture to the collective performance. Their interplay creates a melody that guides the path of educational development, shaping minds in environments far beyond the traditional classroom.

Social facilitation, in this symphonic analogy, acts as the strings section.

Just as the strings can elevate a piece of music, bringing warmth and depth, the presence of peers in a learning scenario enriches the experience. It’s akin to practicing a violin solo at home versus performing it in an orchestra; the energy and presence of fellow musicians (or learners) enhance our performance, encouraging us to reach new heights of achievement and understanding.

Social learning, then, is the brass section of our educational symphony. Bold and commanding, it teaches us through the power of observation and mimicry, much like a trumpet player learns from listening to the robust tones of their section leader. This element of learning emphasizes that knowledge isn’t just absorbed through direct instruction but caught through the air, like a catchy melody, from watching and interacting with those around us.

Obedience to authority, perhaps surprisingly, plays the role of the conductor. Far from being a tyrannical force, the conductor (or teacher) guides and shapes the performance (or learning experience) with expertise and vision. This authority is not about stifling creativity or imposing rigid rules but about channeling the collective energy towards a common goal, enabling each musician (or student) to explore their potential within a supportive framework.

The beauty of this educational symphony lies in its dynamic nature; the strings and brass interact with and influence the conductor, just as social facilitation and learning shape and are shaped by the role of authority in education. This mutual interplay ensures that learning is not a passive reception of information but an active, shared journey that resonates with the individual experiences and contributions of all involved.

This symphonic perspective on education invites us to reimagine the learning environment as a place of vibrant collaboration and mutual growth. It suggests that the key to unlocking the full potential of educational development lies in understanding and harnessing the power of these social dynamics. By doing so, we can create learning experiences that are not only more effective but also more engaging and fulfilling for everyone involved.

In essence, the journey of learning, much like a symphony, is enriched by the contributions of many. The melodies of social facilitation, social learning, and obedience to authority, when played in harmony, can elevate the educational experience to new heights, crafting a masterpiece that is greater than the sum of its parts.

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6 Common Leadership Styles — and How to Decide Which to Use When

• Rebecca Knight

Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances call for different approaches.

Research suggests that the most effective leaders adapt their style to different circumstances — be it a change in setting, a shift in organizational dynamics, or a turn in the business cycle. But what if you feel like you’re not equipped to take on a new and different leadership style — let alone more than one? In this article, the author outlines the six leadership styles Daniel Goleman first introduced in his 2000 HBR article, “Leadership That Gets Results,” and explains when to use each one. The good news is that personality is not destiny. Even if you’re naturally introverted or you tend to be driven by data and analysis rather than emotion, you can still learn how to adapt different leadership styles to organize, motivate, and direct your team.

Much has been written about common leadership styles and how to identify the right style for you, whether it’s transactional or transformational, bureaucratic or laissez-faire. But according to Daniel Goleman, a psychologist best known for his work on emotional intelligence, “Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances may call for different approaches.”

• RK Rebecca Knight is a journalist who writes about all things related to the changing nature of careers and the workplace. Her essays and reported stories have been featured in The Boston Globe, Business Insider, The New York Times, BBC, and The Christian Science Monitor. She was shortlisted as a Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford University in 2023. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade as an editor and reporter at the Financial Times in New York, London, and Boston.

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Environmental justice and education: How schools can help foster a sustainable future

Climate change conference brought together artists, activists, public officials, school board members, higher education leadership, district administrators and teachers to share their commitment to sustaining the environment.

On April 4, USC Rossier and Bio Equity Ed , a community-based non-profit in Los Angeles, hosted a conference on “Climate Change and Environmental Justice: The Role of Schools in Planning for a Sustainable Future.” Artists, activists, public officials, school board members, higher education leadership, district administrators and teachers convened by the dozens in the LEED-certified building of the California Endowment. Panelists and conferencegoers alike shared their commitments to transforming communities and building alliances, to sustain just and meaningful change in the face of our changing climate.

In her opening remarks, Veda Ramsay-Stamps EdD ’23 , USC Rossier alumna and founder of Bio Equity Ed, described how disconnected communities of color in most urban areas feel from nature, owing to historic injustices. She recounted the stories of Black and Brown students in Los Angeles, those who grow up miles from idyllic beaches and mountains but who know only the concrete beneath the nearest river and their feet. Artist Lauren Bon then described her work to bend and regenerate the L.A. River, providing water to the Los Angeles State Historic Park, which had once been a trainyard.

As Dean Pedro Noguera told the audience in his introduction: “Every problem facing the world today is an educational challenge. We have to learn what we need to do. And if we think of the climate crisis this way, as an educational challenge, the problem itself becomes less despairing.” Dean Noguera urged those in attendance not only to meet but to act, not merely to educate others to be resilient in the face of climate change but to inspire its solutions.

In breakout sessions, Distinguished Professor Gale Sinatra moderated a discussion with Imogen Herrick  PhD ’23, a USC Rossier alumna now at the University of Kansas, and Paula Carbone , USC Rossier professor of clinical education. They described successful pedagogical approaches to inspiring students into climate action, integrating students’ own identities and experiences. USC Rossier Professor Tracy Poon Tambascia spoke with researchers and architects about how to transform schools and schoolyards into biophilic environments. Community organizers and non-profit leaders shared their experiences greening urban environments with trees and micro-farms, especially in convincing schools to plant more gardens. Teachers and administrators from California’s climate-sensitive Central Valley described their fleets of electric school buses and innovative sustainability programs and curriculum to move students of color.

The conference’s keynote speaker, University of California, Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz  outlined his university’s foundational commitment to sustainability in the Central Valley. At UC Merced, which was already the first research university in the United States to be carbon-neutral, Chancellor Muñoz is helping construct a center for sustainable agriculture, a model for what higher education can contribute to environmental sustainability and surrounding communities.

In an especially rousing plenary session, Stephen Ritz , a high school teacher from the South Bronx, described how he had turned his classroom and his school, in one of the most economically and environmentally deprived communities in the United States, into a vegetable garden. Ritz the subject of an upcoming documentary called Generation Growth , has not only shared his plant-based curriculum with governments and classrooms around the world, through his Green Bronx Machine non-profit, he turned the very conference room in which he spoke into an organic, immersive experience with greenery.

Naomi Riley, representing Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California’s 37th District, who had directed millions of dollars to sustainability projects, told those in attendance early in the day, “the folks closest to the problem are usually closest to the solution.” Most often, no one is closer to the problems in our communities than the teachers and administrators of local schools. It is they, as Noguera said, who “must begin to think creatively and critically to address climate change and give hope to kids who believe there is no future.”

• Pedro Noguera
• Distinguished Professor of Education
• Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean

• Gale M. Sinatra
• Stephen H. Crocker Chair
• Professor of Education and Psychology
• Associate Dean for Research

Tracy Poon Tambascia

• Professor of Higher Education
• Veronica and David Hagen Chair in Women’s Leadership

Article Type

Article topics.

• Climate change

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Fact-Checking Trump’s Defenses in His Court Cases

The former president has trotted out a host of false and misleading claims to defend his conduct, attack judges and prosecutors and portray himself as a victim of political persecution.

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By Linda Qiu

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• April 17, 2024

As former President Donald J. Trump battles a series of criminal and civil actions while he runs to reclaim the White House, he has put his legal woes at center stage, making them a rallying cry for his re-election.

It is a tactic that is likely to be on full display this week as his trial in Manhattan over his role in a hush money payment in the 2016 race gets underway. Just as he has done with his other legal troubles, Mr. Trump has dismissed the charges in that case as part of an “election interference” scheme orchestrated by President Biden.

He has described the cases against him with colorful hyperbole, defended his conduct with faulty comparisons and lobbed false attacks and baseless accusations at opponents and adjudicators alike.

Asked for evidence of Mr. Trump’s claims, the campaign did not directly address the matter but continued to insist, with no evidence, that Mr. Trump was the target of a “witch hunt” led by the Democratic Party.

Here’s a fact-check of some of his most repeated claims.

How Mr. Trump has sought to undercut the cases against him:

Baseless accusations of a biden-orchestrated conspiracy, hyperbolic claims of persecution, faulty and irrelevant comparisons, inaccurate attacks on judges.

What Mr. Trump Said

“Biden said it. He said — you know what their whole plan is? It was just released the other day. It didn’t — it was leaked by one of the many people that probably thought it was wrong. Their whole plan is to go after Trump in every way possible, especially criminally and legally.” — at a rally in Georgia in March

This lacks evidence. Of the four criminal cases against Mr. Trump, two were brought by state or local prosecutors, meaning that the Justice Department itself has no control over them. His two other criminal cases are overseen by a special counsel, whom Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

It is unclear what leak Mr. Trump was referring to, and The New York Times was unable to find an instance of such a plan to target Mr. Trump “criminally and legally.” False posts circulating on social media have used deceptively edited clips to suggest that Mr. Biden or his aides have admitted to weaponizing the legal system.

Still, there is no evidence that Mr. Biden is personally directing the cases against his political opponent. Mr. Biden has publicly emphasized the independence of the Justice Department. Moreover, The Times and other news outlets have reported that Mr. Biden’s campaign strategy is to say nothing about Mr. Trump’s legal woes .

“Jack Smith just admitted what the American People already know, namely, that his case is being directed and supervised by the Biden Administration. So, although he denies it, Garland is carrying out the orders from his boss to prosecute me, and to interfere in the 2024 Election.” — in a Truth Social post in March

This is misleading. Mr. Trump was referring to — and wildly distorting — a court filing from prosecutors in the classified documents case.

The document was responding to a motion by Mr. Trump’s lawyer to dismiss the case, claiming that Attorney General Merrick B. Garland had no authority to appoint Jack Smith, the special counsel in the case. Prosecutors argued that the Supreme Court had affirmed such an authority 50 years ago in the Watergate case, and that many special counsels had been appointed since then, including by the Justice Department under Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump was apparently referring to a description in the filing of the special counsel’s role, although he used it out of context: “The special counsel was retained from outside of the department to ‘ensure a full and thorough investigation’ of certain sensitive matters. While he remains subject to attorney general direction and supervision, he also retains ‘a substantial degree of independent decision making.’”

“Look, the Manhattan D.A. has a man named Colangelo in there. He was Merrick Garland’s top person. They put him into the Manhattan D.A.’s office. Fani Willis and her lover spent a lot of time in Washington talking about my case. They came out during the hearings talking about my case. The A.G. of New York, Letitia James, deals with Washington all the time.” — in an interview with Fox News in March

This is exaggerated. Asked for proof of his claim that Mr. Biden was personally directing the local cases against him, Mr. Trump pointed to purported ties between prosecutors and “Washington,” but provided no evidence that Mr. Biden had been involved in any of the hiring decisions, conversations or meetings that Mr. Trump cited.

The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, hired Matthew Colangelo as a senior counsel in December 2022 . Mr. Colangelo previously worked at the New York attorney general’s office and at the Justice Department as acting associate attorney general — the third highest-ranking, not “top,” official — before that position was filled permanently. There is no proof that the appointment of Mr. Colangelo was directed by Mr. Biden or the Justice Department. The two men previously worked together at the New York attorney general’s office under Ms. James’s predecessor, and Mr. Colangelo’s appointment came as Mr. Bragg ramped up his investigation into Mr. Trump’s role in hush money payments made in the 2016 election.

The Times earlier reported that Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., and her office had been consulting with the bipartisan House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack as part of her election interference case. An outside lawyer hired by Ms. Willis — Nathan J. Wade, her former romantic partner who resigned from the case in March — to lead the prosecution met twice with the White House Counsel’s Office in 2022. It is not clear what the purpose of those meetings was, but a former White House counsel told The Times that the office can become involved when prosecutors seek the testimony of former officials.

Mr. Trump often points out that Letitia James, the New York attorney general who brought a civil fraud case accusing him of inflating the value of his properties, has visited the White House three times. According to visitor logs , her first visit was in April 2022 at the South Lawn, where a crowd had gathered to celebrate the confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. She again visited in July 2023 to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris and other state attorneys general about efforts to stop fentanyl trafficking . And she visited in August 2023 to attend an event Ms. Harris hosted recognizing Black women serving in public office. The White House has said Mr. Biden did not speak to individual guests at the first event and did not attend the latter two.

“Why didn’t they bring these Fake Biden inspired cases against me 3 years ago? Because Crooked Joe Biden wanted them to be brought right in the middle of my 2024 Presidential Election Campaign, strictly Third World Country ‘stuff!’” — in a post on Truth Social in March

False. Of the multiple cases Mr. Trump has been embroiled in, at least three began before Mr. Biden took office while another three center on Mr. Trump’s post-election and post-presidency conduct. There is no evidence that Mr. Biden has sought to drag out the cases. Investigations and prosecutions generally take time , and Mr. Trump himself has repeatedly sought to delay proceedings.

The inquiry over hush money payments began while Mr. Trump was still in office in 2018. Ms. James began her investigation into the Trump Organization over its financial dealings in March 2019. The writer E. Jean Carroll filed her first lawsuit against Mr. Trump in November 2019, accusing him of defamation.

Ms. Willis opened her investigation into Mr. Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the election in Georgia in February 2021. A top Justice Department official said in January 2022 that it had opened an investigation into a plan by Mr. Trump and his allies to reverse the results of the 2020 election; the investigation was widened in March 2022 . Mr. Smith was appointed the special prosecutor in the documents case in November 2022.

“It is a form of Navalny. It is a form of communism or fascism.” — in a town hall on Fox News in February

False. Asked about the ruling in his civil fraud case, Mr. Trump compared himself to Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who had died days earlier in prison . The two cases are not at all similar.

Mr. Navalny had been behind bars since early 2021, sometimes in solitary confinement, and serving multiple prison sentences. He had also been poisoned in 2020, and survived earlier physical attacks. At the time of his death, he was being held in a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle. In contrast, Mr. Trump was ordered to pay a fine, which was reduced and which he has appealed.

“A bond of the size set by the Democrat Club-controlled Judge, in Corrupt, Racist Letitia James’ unlawful Witch Hunt, is unConstitutional, un-American, unprecedented, and practically impossible for ANY Company, including one as successful as mine. The Bonding Companies have never heard of such a bond, of this size, before, nor do they have the ability to post such a bond, even if they wanted to. The statute used to attack me has never been used for such a purpose before.” — in posts on Truth Social in March

False. A New York State Supreme Court judge ruled in February that Mr. Trump must pay $355 million, in addition to interest — or about $454 million — in his civil fraud case. Mr. Trump initially had trouble securing a bond and argued, wrongly, that both the bond amount and Ms. James’s use of the New York state law were unprecedented.

As PolitiFact has reported, some companies have posted bonds as large as $1 billion. The state statute Mr. Trump cited was enacted in 1956, and has been used by New York attorneys general in lawsuits and actions against the oil giant Exxon Mobil, the tobacco company Juul, and two other entities belonging to Mr. Trump: his family charity, the Trump Foundation, and his for-profit Trump University.

“I got indicted more than Al Capone.” — in a rally in Ohio in March

False. Mr. Trump has been indicted four times. Mr. Capone, the famous gangster, was indicted at least six times, according to A. Brad Schwartz, a historian who has written a biography of him .

“Well, nobody else has been over the years, because, you know, Hillary took a lot and Bill took a lot. Bill took them out in his socks, they call it the socks case, which he won with a very tough judge, which he won. Bush took them. Everybody. Reagan took them out. Everybody took them out. It only became a big subject when I took things out.” — in the Fox News town hall

False. The examples Mr. Trump cites as comparable to the federal criminal case in which he is accused of mishandling classified documents, obstructing justice and making false statements to officials in fact have little in common with it.

Prosecutors say Mr. Trump took hundreds of classified documents from the White House at the end of his term, ignored a subpoena to return them to the National Archives and Records Administration, stored them in locations accessible to resort employees and shared military secrets with visitors to his properties.

Hillary Clinton set up a private email server during her time as secretary of state. While it did store emails that contained classified information, several official inquiries have concluded that Mrs. Clinton did not systematically or deliberately mishandle classified material.

Former President Bill Clinton’s case is even less relevant. A conservative legal group sued the National Archives for access to audiotapes of interviews between Mr. Clinton and the author and historian Taylor Branch . Mr. Branch has said that Mr. Clinton stored the recordings in his sock drawer. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2012 , reasoning that the National Archives did not have the tapes in its possession and had no obligation or authority to seize them.

And there is no evidence that any presidents before Mr. Trump took classified documents with them upon leaving office, despite Mr. Trump’s repeated insistence that there was a precedent. The National Archives has said that it “assumed physical and legal custody of the presidential records from the administrations of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, when those presidents left office.”

“Reports that indicate or imply that those presidential records were in the possession of the former presidents or their representatives, after they left office, or that the records were housed in substandard conditions, are false and misleading,” the agency has said.

“The special counsel’s report tries to let Biden off by claiming that he is too mentally incompetent to convict at a trial.” — in a rally in South Carolina in February

This is misleading. Mr. Trump was referring to the report released by Robert K. Hur , the special counsel who investigated Mr. Biden’s handling of classified material. Mr. Hur described Mr. Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” who had “diminished faculties and faulty memory.” He did not declare Mr. Biden mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Mr. Hur wrote that while he believed Mr. Biden knew he was not allowed to keep classified notebooks, there was not sufficient evidence “to prove his willfulness beyond a reasonable doubt.” He added that Mr. Biden’s “diminished faculties in advancing age and his sympathetic demeanor” would make it difficult to persuade a jury to convict him.

“Judge Juan Merchan is totally compromised, and should be removed from this TRUMP Non-Case immediately. His Daughter, Loren, is a Rabid Trump Hater, who has admitted to having conversations with her father about me, and yet he gagged me.” — in a Truth Social post in March

This is exaggerated. Loren Merchan, the daughter of the judge presiding over the hush money case, served as the president of a digital campaign strategy agency that has done work for many prominent Democrats, including Mr. Biden’s 2020 campaign.

The “conversations” Mr. Trump mentioned refer to an anecdote from a podcast interview Ms. Merchan did in 2019 about campaign strategy. In the episode, Ms. Merchan recounted that her father had said in recent conversations: “I hate that politicians use Twitter. It’s so unprofessional.” She said she had argued that there are improper uses of social media, like posts by Mr. Trump sharing “anything that he thinks,” but that social media allows candidates to bypass traditional media.

Experts in judicial ethics have said Ms. Merchan’s work is not sufficient grounds for recusal. When Mr. Trump’s legal team sought his recusal based on his daughter, Justice Merchan sought counsel from the New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, which said it did not see any conflict of interest .

“This judge, he levels a fine for $355 million on a loan that’s a fraction of that size because he’s a corrupt Democrat clubhouse judge. He wouldn’t allow a jury. There was no jury.” — at a rally in Georgia in March

False. Mr. Trump’s civil fraud trial did not go to a jury, but not because Justice Arthur F. Engoron, the judge presiding over the case, refused one. There was no jury because it was brought by Ms. James under a New York state law that provides the attorney general with broad authority to investigate corporate fraud and requires adjudication at what is known as a bench trial, which is conducted by a judge alone.

Justice Engoron addressed the unusual setting at the beginning of the trial in October : “You have probably noticed or already read that this case has no jury. Neither side asked for one and, in any event, the remedies sought are all equitable in nature, mandating that the trial be a bench trial, one that a judge alone decides. I promise to do my best, despite my lame attempts at humor.”

“Engoron’s fraudulent valuation of Mar-a-Lago for $18,000,000, when it is worth 50 to 100 times that amount, is another piece of the Election Interference HOAX.” — in a post on Truth Social in March

This is misleading. Justice Engoron did not himself value Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Florida club and residence, at $18 million.

“From 2011-2021, the Palm Beach County assessor appraised the market value of Mar-a-Lago at between $18 million and $27.6 million,” Justice Engoron wrote in his September ruling against Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump, for his part, valued the property at $426 million to $612 million, an overvaluation that Justice Engoron said was at least 2,300 percent of the assessor’s appraisal.

(Mar-a-Lago has a current market value of $37 million, according to the Palm Beach County appraiser. )

Linda Qiu is a reporter who specializes in fact-checking statements made by politicians and public figures. She has been reporting and fact-checking public figures for nearly a decade. More about Linda Qiu