The use of Diffusion of Innovations in a Mass Media Campaign

A detailed Summary of The use of Diffusion of Innovations in a Mass Media Campaign

"Diffusion of innovations is a theory that describes how new ideas, opinions and behaviors spread throughout a community."(Valente, p.34) In this paper I will show how this theory was applied in the reproductive health campaign in Bolivia.

Diffusion theory is used to study the way in which new information is spread throughout a certain population and how innovation is adopted. To begin with, there are five stages in the adoption process:

The first stage is awareness of the innovation - in the case of the Bolivia campaign it is the introduction of family planning. People have to become aware of the new idea and the diffusion of this idea takes more or less time according to the media used to spread it through the population. Usually the mass media are used to spread awareness but it can also be done through primary social networks, i.e. word-of-mouth.

The next stage is persuasion. After people become aware of the new practice they have to be able to learn more about it in order to potentially develop a positive attitude towards it. Different persuasion strategies are adopted according to the sub-population that is targeted. The goal is for this population to accept the new idea as a solution to an existing problem.

Finally, he shows that the spread of knowledge, positive attitude and practice of the behavior varies in time. Awareness spreads rapidly, faster than attitude and practice, indicating a time lag between knowledge and practice. Aldo he shows how the change in behavior is faster when promoted by a media campaign as opposed to word-of-mouth communication (Valente, p.38).

The campaign itself began in 1991 with the creation of a NRHP logo that was associated with the health materials newly created and made available to the population a year later together with training activities.

The campaign strategy varied according to the media that were used to broadcast it (television, radio, local or national stations), as well as according to the cultural differences present in the population (for instance, the translation of radio spots into indigenous languages).

A 1989 survey (DHS, 1994), showed that a vast majority of Bolivian women wanted to have less children. Nevertheless family planning being a controversial subject in Bolivia, it was integrated in the reproductive health campaign, the latter being perceived by the population as an effort on behalf of the government to reduce maternal and infant mortality. (Valente and Saba, p.98) Thus the message was more likely to be accepted by the population and receive a stronger political support from the government.

Reproductive health services being now made available in Bolivia, the campaign was designed to inform the population as to where to obtain them, and improve education concerning reproductive health in general.

The adoption of behavior is influenced by different types of perception, by the "radicality" of the innovation and also by individual characteristics such as education or income. Valente also categorizes individuals within a community according to the time (sequential stage) of their adoption of the new behavior: innovators, early adopters, the early majority, the late majority and the followers (Valente, p.35). The diffusion curve shows that in the beginning of a campaign, the number of people adopting the new behavior is small but increases rapidly until it reaches approximately half of the population, and then slows down as few "non-adopters" are left.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Valente Saba, Bolivia Diffusion, H2 Personal, Theory Valente, PKA Valente, , valente saba, Third Valente, Program NRHP, mass media, reproductive health, H1 Campaign, behavior change, media campaign, reproductive health campaign, health campaign, personal network, interpersonal communication, adoption behavior, mass media campaign, campaign bolivia, STD's HIV/AIDS, valente saba 100, personal network exposure, strong pronatalist policy,

Approximate Word count = 1844
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Foreign