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IMPACT OF AWARENESS OF MEDIA CAMPAIGN ON DRUG ABUSE AMONG UNDERGRADUATES

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Mass media have been a major agent of socialisation and tool for social change especially now that people depends on message from mass media. The potential power of the mass media help solve social problems. Television, Radio and Print Advertising can entice people to buy a wide range of products and services, newspaper messages and advertisement influence our ideas, values and behaviour.

According to conventional wisdom, it could be possible to use mass media to get people to act on behalf of their own health and well-being or to do right things. Based on this assumption, since World War II, the Federal, State and Local Government, private foundations and other non-governmental organizations have sponsored hundreds of public services campaigns to promote social rather than commercial “goods” (Delong & Winsten, 2000).

It is not surprising then that prevention advocates would look to the mass media as an important aid in addressing the problem of high-risk drinking in society. Some advocates have pushed for reform or other restrictions on alcohol advertising. Others have sought to influence entertainment producers to end the glorification of high-risk drinking in newspaper, magazine, television and in the movies (Montgomery, 2009). More recently, prevention advocates have produced a small number of media campaigns designed to change students and youth knowledge attitude and behaviour.

Most media campaign focused on college students drinking which have been campus based, using a mix of posters, flyers, electronic mail messages and college newspaper advertisement. More recently a few regional, state and national media campaigns have begin to address this issue as well.

However, the history of the human race has also been the history of drug abuse. In itself, the use of drugs does not constitute an evil. Drugs, properly administered, have been a medical blessing for example, herbs, roots, bark leaves and plants have been used to relieve pain and help control diseases. However, over the past few decades, the use of illegal drugs has spread at an unprecedented rate and has reached every part of the world. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report (2005), some 200 millions people, or 5 percent of the total worlds population aged 15-64 have used drugs at least once in the last 12 months this implied 15 million people more than the 2004 estimated. The report goes on to say that, no nation has been immune to the devastating effects of drug abuse. According to the World Drugs Report (2005), the use of illicit drugs has increased throughout the world in recent years.

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