An Analysis of Community Engagement through Community Radio during the Covid-19 Pandemic amongst Select Communities in Kenya

##plugins.themes.academic_pro.article.sidebar##

Published Apr 1, 2025
https://doi.org/10.71064/spu.amjr.1.1.2025.372
Download
PDF
Statistic
Vol. 1 No. 1 (2025): Special Issue - African Multidisciplinary Journal of Research (AMJR)

##plugins.themes.academic_pro.article.main##

Susan Mwangi
St. Paul's University
Gladys Muasya
St. Paul's University
Wanjugu Wachira
St. Paul's University

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the kind of messages that were disseminated by community radio stations about the Covid-19 pandemic, the audience’s perception towards this information and their confidence in the interventions and control measures that were propagated by these stations. The Health Belief Model was used to inform the study as it focuses on effective health communication that advocates for behaviour change through the provision of information. This study was conducted in two Sifa FM community radio stations in Kenya that is Sifa FM Voi and Sifa FM Marsabit. Data were collected through interview guides, questionnaires, document review and content analysis on radio programmes and advertisements. The target population consisted of the programme developers and hosts of the selected radio stations, their listeners and their radio programmes. Purposive sampling was used to select 12 participants as the KIIs, who included 10 community leaders and two station managers, while random sampling was used to select 100 listeners from Voi in Taita Taveta County and 100 from Marsabit County. A few Covid-19 related programmes were also sampled. The open-ended questions were analyzed using content analysis and the interviews using thematic analysis. The results indicated that the radio stations played a significant role in disseminating COVID-19 related messages through various programmes and that the audience perceived the messages to be informative, especially with regard to preventive measures, transmission of the disease and the symptoms of the disease. This study uses the constructs of HBM as a guide to explain how people changed their behaviour towards behaviour that limited the spread of Covid-19. The study concludes that HBM can be used to study the Covid-19 situation. It suggests that community radio was an appropriate tool that was used to mitigate misinformation and to help the community in selecting healthy behaviours.

##plugins.themes.academic_pro.article.details##

How to Cite
Mwangi , S., Muasya , G., & Wachira , W. (2025). An Analysis of Community Engagement through Community Radio during the Covid-19 Pandemic amongst Select Communities in Kenya. African Multidisciplinary Journal of Research, 1(1), 474–488. https://doi.org/10.71064/spu.amjr.1.1.2025.372

References

  1. Bavel, J. J. V., Baicker, K., Boggio, P. S., Capraro, V., Cichocka, A., Cikara, M., ... & Willer,
  2. R. (2020). Using social and behavioural science to support Covid-19 pandemic response. Nature human behaviour, 4(5), 460-471.
  3. Douglas, K. M. (2021). Covid-19 conspiracy theories. Group Processes & Intergroup
  4. Relations, 24(2), 270-275.
  5. Al-hassan, S., Andani, A. & Abdul-Malik, A. (2011). The role of community radio in
  6. livelihood improvement: The case of Simli Radio.Field Actions Science Reports, vol. 5. Retrieved from http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/869.
  7. Allington, D., Duffy, B., Wessely, S., Dhavan, N., & Rubin, J. (2020). Health-protective
  8. behaviour, social media usage, and conspiracy belief during the Covid-19 public health emergency. Psychological medicine, 1-7.
  9. Andreasen, A. R. (1995). Marketing social change: Changing behaviour to promote health,
  10. social development and the environment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  11. Austrian, K., Pinchoff, J., Tidwell, J. B., White, C., Abuya, T., & Kangwana, B., et al.
  12. (2020). COVID-19 related knowledge, attitudes, practices and needs of households in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya. [Preprint]. Bull World Health Organ. doi: Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.20.260281
  13. Bandura, A. (2012). “Self-efficacy mechanisms in physiological activation and health-
  14. promoting behavior,” in Neurobiology of Learning, Emotion and Affection, ed. J. Madden IV (New York: Raven), 229–270
  15. Bengtsson, M. (2016). How to plan and perform a qualitative study using content
  16. analysis. NursingPlus Open, 2, 8-14.
  17. Bierwiaczonek, K., Kunst, J. R., & Pich, O. (2020). Belief in Covid‐19 conspiracy theories
  18. reduces social distancing over time. Applied Psychology: Health and Well‐Being, 12(4), 1270-1285.
  19. Carico, R., Sheppard, J. & Thomas, B. (2020). Community pharmacists and communication
  20. in the time of COVID-19: Applying the Health Belief Model. Elsevier Public Health Emergency Collection. DOI.101016/j.sapharm.2020.03.017
  21. Collins, C., Landivar, C. L ., Ruppanner, L. & Scarborough, J. W. (2020) Covid‐19 and
  22. the gender gap in work hours Retrieved from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gwao.12506?campaign=wolacceptedarticle
  23. Douglas, K. M., Uscinski, J. E., Sutton, R. M., Cichocka, A., Nefes, T., Ang, C. S., & Deravi,
  24. F. (2019). Understanding conspiracy theories. Political Psychology, 40, 3-35.
  25. Farm Radio International (2014). Audio postcard: Radio Gbarnga at the centre of battle
  26. against ebola in Liberia. Retrieved from https://farmradio.org/radio-gbarnga-at-centre-of-battle-against-ebola-in-liberia/
  27. Holsti, O. R. (1969). Content analysis for the social sciences and humanities. Reading. MA:
  28. Addison-Wesley (content analysis).
  29. Hornik, R., Kikut, A., Jesch, E., Woko, C., Siegel, L., & Kim, K. (2020). Association of
  30. Covid-19 Misinformation with Face Mask Wearing and Social Distancing in a Nationally Representative US Sample.
  31. Hsieh, H. F., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content
  32. analysis. Qualitative health research, 15(9), 1277-1288.
  33. Jaguga, F. & Kwobah , E. 2020). Mental health response to the Covid-19 pandemic in
  34. Kenya: a review. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, Vol. 14, Article number: 68. Retrieved from: https://ijmhs.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13033-020-00400-8
  35. Jolley, D., & Paterson, J. L. (2020). Pylons ablaze: Examining the role of 5G Covid
  36. conspiracy beliefs and support for violence. British journal of social psychology, 59(3), 628-640.
  37. Jose, R., Narendran, M. Bindu, A., Beevi, N., Manju, L. & Benny, P. V. (2020). Clinical
  38. Epidemiology and Global Health. https//doi.org/10.1016/j.cegh.2020.06.009
  39. International Labour Organization. (2020). The Federation of Kenya Employers Interventions during Covid-19. Retrieved from: https://www.ilo.org/global/docs/WCMS_750842/lang--en/index.htm
  40. Maunder, L. (2021). Motivating People to stay at home: Using the Health Belief Model to
  41. Improve the Effectiveness of public health messaging during the Covid-19 pandemic. TBM. https://academic.oup./com/article/11/10/1957/6309390
  42. Mechanic, D. (1991, February). Adolescents at risk: New directions Paper presented at the Seventh Annual Conference on Health Policy, Cornell University Medical College.
  43. Neill, R., Blair, C., Best, P., McGlinchey, E., & Armour, C. (2020). Media Consumption and Mental Health During COVID-19 Lockdown: A UK Cross-sectional Study Across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern.
  44. Ngigi, S. & Busolo, D. (2018). Behaviour change communication in helath promotion:
  45. Appropriate practices and promising approaches. DOI.24940/ijird/2018/v7/i9/SEP18027.
  46. Nirmala, Y. (2015). The role of community radio in empowering women in India. Media
  47. Asia, 42:1-2, 41-46. DOI: 10.1080/01296612.2015.1072335.
  48. O'Cathain, A., Murphy, E., & Nicholl, J. (2007). Why, and how, mixed methods research is undertaken in health services research in England: a mixed-methods
  49. study. BMC health services research, 7(1), 85.
  50. Okoth, D. O. (June, 2020). Radio and pandemics: Covid-19 I East Africa: How community
  51. and vernacular radio are influencing social and behaviour change. KAS Media
  52. Africa. https//www.kas.de/documents/285576/285625/Radio+and+pandemic+-+COVID-19in+East+Africa.pdf
  53. Pandit, M., & Kandpal, L. (2020). Radio as a tool for creating awareness during COVID- 19. Dogo Rangsang Research Journal, 10(6). Retrieved from http://www.drsrjournal.com/no_4_june_20/18.pdf
  54. Pechmann, C. (2001). A comparison of health communication models: Risk learning versus
  55. stereotype printing. Media Psychology, 3(2), 189-210.
  56. Perkins, D. D., & Zimmerman, M. A. (1995). Empowerment theory, research, and application. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23(5), 569–579. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02506982
  57. Quaife, M., Kevin van Zandvoort, K., Gimma, A., Shah, K McCreesh, N., Prem, K., Edwine Barasa. E., Mwanga, D., Kangwana. B., Pinchoff, J., Edmunds.W. J., Jarvis. C., &
  58. Karen Austria. K. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 control measures on social contacts and transmission in Kenyan informal settlements. Retrieved from:
  59. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.06.20122689v1.full.pdf
  60. Romo‐Murphy, E., James, R., & Adams, M. (2011). Facilitating disaster preparedness
  61. through local radio broadcasting. Disasters, 35(4), 801-815.
  62. Rutter, D. & Quine, L. (2002). Changing health behaviour: Intervention and research with
  63. social cognition models. Berkshire: Open University Press.
  64. Schiavo, R. (2007). Health communication: From theory to practice. San Francisco: Jossey-
  65. Bass.
  66. Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of qualitative research techniques and
  67. procedures for developing Grounded Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  68. Waters, D., James, R., & Darby, J. (2011). Health-promoting community radio in rural Bali:
  69. an impact evaluation. Rural and remote health, 11:1555.
  70. Zhang, H. Shaw, R. (2020). Identifying Research Trends and Gaps in the Context of COVID-
  71. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol, 17, pp.1-17 Retrieved from: file:///C:/Users/User/AppData/Local/Temp/ijerph-17-03370.pdf
  72. Zimmerman, M. A., & Warschausky, S. (1998). Empowerment theory for rehabilitation
  73. research: Conceptual and methodological issues. Rehabilitation Psychology, 43(1), 3–16