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Reasons for using folk media:
No communication strategy would be complete unless it included the traditional media, which must rank alongside the more commonly accepted channels of communication.
Status and function of Folk Media:
- As an intrinsically valuable form of popular entertainment or artistic expression it is worth preserving and developing for its own sake.
- It is a means of changing values, attitudes and norms in order to provide a
proper climate for social and economic progress.
- It is a method of promoting certain behaviour acts or patterns. The aim is to
get people to perform specific acts to achieve objectives of national policy
(eg. visiting clinics, investing in bonds, using fertilizer) . 1
- It is a channel for conveying information about available techniques and
facilities which people may use to solve problems.
The above purposes, it was noted, are not necessarily in compatible with each
other. However, problems may arise in specific situations. Certain media may not be appropriate for certain purposes and certain purposes may not be achieved by employing
particular folk media, or any folk medium. It is therefore important to evolve criteria both for selecting media and for selecting messages that pass through them.
Classification of traditional forms:
Traditional forms of expression were identified. The classification covering the performing arts and the visual arts included music, song, drama, skits, puppet shows , poetry, speech, sounds, gesture, gossip, jokes, proverbs, painting, certain printed literature, sculpture, handicrafts, costuming, patterning and colouring of material and use of head-gear. Symbolic meanings may often be an important consideration in use of any one or combination of these forms of expression and therefore the thought-processes
behind selection of forms assumed significance.
Advantages:
Traditional media come from the people and antecede the mass media; their appeal has historically been both functional and aesthetic. Whether of roughly-hewn folk origins or of classifically rigid moulds, they have always served to entertain, educate to reinforce existing ideas or ideologies or to change existing values and attitudes.
Being close to people at the local level, these channels are potentially useful in the service of social concerns, as determined by local, provincial or national authorities themselves. They are, moreover, abundantly present in areas where mass media technology has not been fully or effectively developed to capture sustained interest at local, provincial or national levels. Folk media are personal forms of entertainment and communication. This is important because behavioural changes are most easily brought about by personal interaction. These forms of art are a part of the way of life of a community and provide acceptable means of bringing development issues into the community in its own-terms. .They are capable of reaching intimate social groups, thus
making use of already established communication networks in the audience.
These forms of entertainment evolved as grassroot expressions of the values and life styles of the people, dealing with values as well as information. These features are significant for development, planners in the field of population, since it is rapidly becoming apparent that something more than information is necessary to bring about the behavioural changes involved in the adoption and continued practice of health and Family Planning.
Another advantage of the traditional media is that they attract people who might not attend an educational meeting. With skill, new content might be added to the old forms which are already familiar and dear to the people. Finally, unlike mass media programmes, produced for large and often diverse audience, the folk forms can use familiar dialects for the most intimate and local communication at the village leve1.
Folk media rather deal with values that relate to family life, such as the status of women, conjugal relationships, education and standard of living. Folk media can be :':~n seen as part of the social fabric of the community. While they could reinforce
relevant social changes that are already occurring (or be used directly to introduce new ideas), folk forms should not be used for propaganda.
Limitations, on the otherhand, included the dangers in “overloading” certain traditional channels with too many “messages” of an instrumental nature. Channels could only be loaded according, to their capacity and with respect, in particular to cultural,
religious, or other sensitively integral elements. Sociologists and anthropologists could help planners define these sensitive factors affecting such limitations.
Some criteria for selection and use:
What role the media play in people's lives:
How frequently and extensively are emotional or artistic expression? This would
indicate theVitality of the tradition in which they reset.
What is the usual size and composition of audience attracted in terms of age, sex,
educational, economic and social groupings?
What is the importance of the functions performed in a framework of prevailing
social needs and values?
- Concern for plasticity of the medium, or capacity of a particular form to be "loaded" with specific innovative messages. Examination of religious or social functions attributed to the medium should be made so as not to distort its special role. In some, cases, examination may reveal such use to be unacceptable.
However, it has been found that religious themes can be interpreted in modern
context, providing impetus for social change.
- It would be determine whether the medium has an age or individuality (in which case positive identification of audience with actor can be the agent of change), or whether it is entirely non-individual. It has sometimes been found that certain messages can be best expressed without the personalities of, actors in evidence during performance, as in puppet show, mask presentations and giant figures.
- It should be noted, whether a particular medium or any aspect of its traditions
and features could be used by or extended to, mass media presentation. If so, is
this desirable in relation to both a medium and the message?
- Are the required resources, talent, materials, texts, available for extensive
utilization of the medium?
- Does the selected medium have entertainment value and / or artistic appeal?
- Is it unique enough to prove a valuable communication channel?
- Is the form of the proposed medium flexible enough to incorporate a sufficiently
broad range of content materials, such as family planning and other
developmental messages?
- Is the medium sufficiently versatile to reach varied audiences . To properly assess this criterion, the country must be in a position to assess the range of traditional media and their suitability for audiences according to local and provincial make-up.
- Is the selected medium, relevant to the intended audience?
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