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Information Need, Access, and Use for Social Welfare and Family Planning by Rural Dwellers in Ido and Akinyele Local Government Areas of Oyo State, Nigeria.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Odefadehan, Oo Akinola, Amos Olusola Odefadehan, Olalekan |
| Copyright Year | 2016 |
| Abstract | INTRODUCTION Information is a resource of immeasurable value to both rural and urban dwellers. The information available to any individual per time determines to a large extent the decision such an individual will take on issues. The rural areas in Nigeria are often bedeviled with lack of basic infrastructures that could have enhanced the welfare of its inhabitants. Rural areas in Nigeria are characterised with poor roads, lack of pipe borne water, lack of standard schools and health facilities, inadequate or total lack of electricity among others. The information available to the rural man/woman cannot be compared to that of their urban counterparts. The urban dwellers enjoys regular power supply, have opportunity to attend seminars/workshops, have access to standard health facilities; all these give the urban dwellers better exposure to information compared to rural dwellers. This, without missing words will directly or indirectly affect decisions rural dweller will take on issues compared to his/her urban counterparts. In the words of Ukachi (2010), human efforts towards attaining goals depend highly on effective communication of information, and the major ingredient that makes communication possible is information. Information is an important resource for individual growth and survival. Information is that which is transmitted by the act or process of communication (Ukachi, 2010). She further explained that it may be a message, signal or stimulus. It assumes a response in the receiving organism and therefore possessed a response potential. Information according to Osuala (2001) refers to 'facts and opinions provided and received during the course of daily life'. Access to information is an essential condition for development. It could be said that information if well packaged and delivered for rural communities will exterminate poverty, ignorance and give enlightenment on how to achieve economic, social, educational, political and cultural objectives towards the development of the entire society. Therefore identification of the information need of rural dwellers is very important if any meaningful development is to be achieved in the rural areas. Information need is a state or process that starts when one perceives that there is a gap between the information and knowledge available to solve a problem and the actual solution of the problem (Miranda and Tarapanoff, 2008).According to Wilson (2002) and Choo (2006), information needs is determined by: the perception of knowledge gaps or capability gaps, the inherent emotional factors linked to the existing difficulty when noticing those gaps and the situational factors linked to particular contexts and specific experiences. Access to information is a basic fundamental right. Information is not only vital for technological, scientific and economic progress as erroneously seen by some people. It is also a medium of social transformation and communication. Therefore, in order to get people to participate fully in community development and government programmes like family planning and social welfare they must have good access to information. Information is vital to the rural dwellers in that, it will not only make for better understanding and appreciation of government programmes, it will also encourage a closer link between the initiators and beneficiaries of the developmental efforts. It is in realization of this amongst others that Idoka (2003) asserts that nothing then is important for mankind than to bring within reach all what can widen his horizon, making discoveries and literacy transformation that can make the individual a more valuable member of the society. For the rural dwellers to be able to take full advantage of any development programme like family planning and social welfare; it is necessary therefore that their information need be identified, made available, accessible and finally be utilized in order to achieve the desired goals of the programme. … |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3919&context=libphilprac |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3919&context=libphilprac |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
