CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background Of the Study

For the past years, the issue of social vices such as corruption, bribery, cheating, stealing, lying, drunkenness etc. has become matters of utmost concern to the society. There is therefore, the need to explore veritable tools of communicating to people in order to cause them to change for good by possibly educating them more on the above social issues. Drama seems to be one of those most appropriate and suitable means of disseminating vital information to a mass audience. Its reach through the radio and accessibility of radio as a medium of communication makes it a veritable tool. Almost everybody can afford a radio set in the society. Lassnell (1998).

Derlo (1996) see drama as entertainment programme, which shows how men react to situation and the environment. It uses the activities and action of characters in the plot. Through appropriate method of delivery to excite human feelings. Drama programmes entertain and enliven people, but their ultimate good is to educate. Most of the radio and television houses in Nigeria work with drama sketches with occupationally serious themes. More local drama performance with salient social vices messages could be staged and acted by the primary and secondary school people. In both  rural and urban area for instance, comment: rephrase the underlined words. To which their parent and guardians will be lavished that is attracted large audience. This because people tend to engage more in non-serious and entertaining programmes than serious entertaining programmes.

The drama of individual countries can be found in the natural literature articles such as American literature, French literature and Spanish literature etc, they are also separate articles on English drama and Greek drama among others. At the very start of Western drama the Greek recognized the complex interaction between actors and audience and enquired deeply in between actors and audience and enquired deeply in communication and practice into the meaning of an institution that was the hart of their civic and religious life Wikandar (2000).

In Abia State radio, drama programme is always prominent in the programme schedule of the station and takes various forms and names. It is sponsored by society for family health, the United State Agency of International Development, Federal Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social Welfare and so on. According to a free Encyclopedia in the internet Wikipedia drama achieves wide spread popularly within a decade of its initial development in the 1920s. By the 1940s it was a leading internal popular entertainment.

. 1.2   Statement of the Problem

Issues like social vices require serious attention. There is the need to alert, to make people be aware of issues like corruption and other social vices. This is because the public needs to be informed and educated on some of these issues. It means therefore that ignorance as a problem should be eliminated through public information.

The problem however, is how to identify the best way or approach to communicate vital societal vices to a heterogeneous and mass audience with a high rate. At the same time, choosing a method of arousing the audience towards changing their attitude regarding social vices, the question before this study is, can drama serve as a tool for eradication of social vices? This is the puzzle, which the researcher intends to tackle in the course of this work.

1.3     Objectives of the Study

The main objective of the study is to examine drama as a tool for eradication of social vices. The specific objectives are to:

1. Ascertain whether drama is an effective and suitable too for eradication of social vices.
2. Examine the effect and impact of the message content in the audience using drama.

• Find out the best and possible ways to reach the mass audience in issues of public concern.

1. Proffer solution or make recommendation of the problems of drama in reaching the target audience and heterogeneous populace.

1.4     Research Questions

The following research questions could be asked to guide the researcher:

1. Does drama really serve as an effective tool for the eradication of social vices?
2. Do people perceive drama as a tool for eradication of social vices?

• Has drama programme any impact on social vices?

1. Has drama programme been made to achieve its intended objective?

1.5     Significance of the Study

This research significant is in various ways. It is hoped that the result of the study will be of immense of benefit and useful to the money makers and communication planners because they will be furnished with basis for curriculum development which will take cognizance of the analysis of drama as a tool for eradication of social vices.

It is hoped that both state and federal ministries of information and radio houses will make use of some of the findings in their policy formulation.

It is believed that the findings from this study will serve as a valuable and useful guide to future researchers as it can serve as a reference for further researchers in the field of mass communication and other related disciplines.

1.6     Scope of study

The study is restricted to radio drama as a tool for the eradication of social vices in Abia State Broadcasting Corporation. The drama programmes studied include: “one Thing at a Time” “Story, Story”, and “Flavour”. The editions studied are those played in the first half of 2016.

1.7     Limitation of Study

The study in one way or the order has its set-backs. Time was a limited factor, the time allowed for the research was too short, since the researcher had in addition to writing this project other academic cause to handle at the same time as such a vices was constrained.

Moreover, due to current economic problem in the country it was difficult for the researcher to extend the research to any order radio house. Most importantly the researcher was faced with financial constrained to probe into many variables because of fare. Another limitation was the unwillingness of the respondents to attend to the research instrument.

1.8     Definition of terms

Drama: This is an entertainment programme which shows how man react to his situation on the environment it uses the activities and action of characters in the plot through appropriate language of delivery to excite human feelings.

Programmes:  This is a lineup of activities or shows a television or radio broadcasting as for a particular day