ABSTRACT
Media has always remained a powerful tool for shaping the strategic
interests of nations across the globe. However, it has been found and
researched in relation to peace-building, that few media organisations
have been able to guard the strategic interests of the nation through
their broadcasts or write-ups. The assumption of the study is that media
can create the needed atmosphere for peace and tolerance through having
programmes on peace sustainance without waiting for conflict to erupt
before engaging in peacebuilding. The research was carried out to
evaluate the effectiveness of a radio programme in communicating peace
in Kaduna State as lack of vital or effective information can, at any
stage of a conflict, make people desperate, restless and easy to
manipulate. The need arose as a result of the on-going debate on the
role of the media in peacebuilding. Despite various attempts through the
media, especially radio to mitigate conflicts in Nigeria, cases of
conflicts, sentiments, discrimination and hatred still prevail in
Nigeria, particularly in the Northern parts. Hence the study aimed at
enhancing radio communication system for proper and effective conflict
resolution and peace-building especially in heterogeneous societies such
as Nigeria. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to gather
data from listeners in Kaduna metropolis. The study was premised on
Social Responsibility Theory which states that during conflicts, the
media has the power to either escalate or mitigate it and that a
responsible press should promote peace, human rights, give intelligent
account of the day‟s event in a context which gives them meaning and
facilitate development. Meyer‟s formula was adopted to get the Sample
size of 384. Simple random sampling procedure was used to select the
number of localities to study. Method of analysis statistical package
for the social sciences was used to analyse the collected data and
content analysis was used to analyse the selected episodes of the tape
and selected script. One of the findings of this study was that
indigenous language was not used during the programme and this could
hinder the enhancement of creating, gathering of information, feedbacks,
audience‟ feelings and perceptions. Another finding was that audiences
were not given the opportunity to initiate new discourse on peace and
this could also limit the effectiveness of the programme. Hence there
are noticeable gaps in the programme. Thus it is recommended that Peace
Arena on Capital FM, Kaduna, should be held at least twice a week to
improve awareness and further promote peace and tolerance. It is thus
imperative to experiment with local language which is more appealing to
the larger population of the study area and create more active roles for
the audience so as to ensure greaterpeace as championed by the
programme.