CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTION1.1 Background to the Study.Population Action International (PAI) (2012) established that population growth is occurring more rapidly in Africa, and also that the continent is lagging behind in female school enrolment. Itu Local Government is hit by this problem; in particular female literacy is much lower in ruler communities of Itu than in towns like Uyo, Eket and Ikot Ekpene. The gender ratio of population in Itu Local Government Area and the gender enrolment ratio indicates a disproportionate female representation in schools. These statistics coupled with the widely held notion that female child survival rates are generally higher than that of the male child (Awogbade, 1990a), gives more urgency to the cause of female child education. The legally defined rights of the female child are fully articulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (Hodges, 2001), and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (Hodges, 2001), which emphasize the need for urgent intervention by all stakeholders.The role of mass communicators for creating awareness on the need to bring and keep the female child in school, so that she can get at least a functional education, cannot be overemphasized. This is believed to be invaluable in helping to achieve the education for all (EFA) goals that seek to among other things achieve gender equality in education (Hodges,2001). The radio is considered to be one of the most powerful information dissemination medium available to the mass communicator. It is considered to be one of the most effective for development communication purposes especially in the rural areas (Ojebode & Adegbola, 2007). This is because radio waves are easily accessible and the radio is believed to be thecheapest technology in terms of first and maintenance costs.Daniel Lerner cited in Seers (1997) in his book The Passing of Traditional Society which was published in 1958 wrote what is still considered today as one of the most rational arguments for modernization. Along with other scholars like McAnany and Jamison (2002), Lerner viewed mass media, especially radio as the means by which people of the Third World could be influenced. His ideas had several critics who viewed his position as ethnocentric anda ploy by the West to force capitalism on disempowered people of the Third World countries.This study therefore seeks to examine the role of the radio broadcast programme the woman as a tool for creating awareness on developmental issues pertaining to girl child education in Itu Local Government Area. Itu is a Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State with administrative headquarters in Mbak. Itu Local government area is in Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial Zone along Etinan, Ibesikpo Asutan, Ibiono Ibom, Nsit Atai, Nsit Ibom, Nsit Ubium, Uruan and Uyo Local Government areas. Itu Local government also form a federal constituency alongside Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area. Itu Local Government Area covers an area of 606.10 Square kilometer, and is bounded in the North by odikpani Local Government Area of Cross River State, in the North-east by Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia State, in the West by Ibiono Ibom and Ikono Local Government Area, and in the South-East by Uruan South by Uyo Local Government Area. The Itu Local Government comprises of various ethnic groups with Agriculture has it principal occupation, the people of Itu Local Government Area speak Ibibio language. This is a common characteristic of the people in Akwa Ibom State, Itu Local Government Area is made up of seventy-eight villages with five clans namely:Itam Clan, Oku Iboku Clan, Itu Clan, Mbiabo Clan and Ayadehe Clan. Itu have thirty-eight (38) primary school and eight secondary schools. Thus, development communication scholars believe that several aspects of national development revolve around proper and adequate use of relevant radio broadcast messages (McAnany & Jamison, 2002).An important consideration here is how the audience perceive and are influenced by the radio messages. It would be important to know what they use the messages for in light of the Uses and Gratification model (a subset of Audience Theory) (Lull, 1990) or if they had a preferred, oppositional or negotiated disposition to the broadcast messages as another Audience Theory, the Reception Model suggests (Hall, 1990).Radio is the chosen medium because it is relatively cheap and available, there is also an adequate radio broadcasting infrastructure in Nigeria which has existed since the 1940’s (Umah 1997) Also, and most importantly, the rural audience is considered to be essentially a listening audience (Yusuf, 2003)As a rural- oriented medium, the radio is believed to have a multiplier effect as A tells B what he heard on radio and so on. This is especially true of rural radio which increases the capacity for knowledge sharing and potentially the rate of development through community involvement. Mass Communication and Development scholars like Akinfeleye (2008) and Quebral (2003) are of the opinion that, the mass media (in this case radio) constitute both “cause” and “effect” of development where “cause” is the mass media programmes in terms of broadcast media messages and “effects” is the response to the stimuli of messages (Dominick, 2010). In addition to these radio has some unique features which include portability, cheapness, universality and selectivity (Dominick, 2010). This study is therefore aimed at assessing the effect of radio on listeners’ awareness.