ACCESS TO MEDIA

Exposure to information on television and radio and in the print media can increase people’s knowledge and awareness of new ideas, social changes, and opportunities as well as affect their perceptions and behaviours. Equal gender access to the media, whether as citizens or as professionals, is fundamental to human rights and to empowerment. The more access that women have to mass media, the more empowered they will be to make informed decisions that concern them.

In the 2013 NDHS assessed exposure to the media by asking respondents how often they read a newspaper, watch television, or listen to the radio, the results show that level of exposure to mass media, especially exposure to the print media, is low in Nigeria. Nine percent of women read a newspaper, 35 percent watch television, and 39 percent listen to the radio at least once a week. Only 7 percent of women have access to all three media at least once a week, and half do not have access to any of the three media at least once a week. There are slight variations by age.

There is also a wide gap in exposure to mass media according to place of residence, education, and wealth. For example, the proportion of urban women who read a newspaper at least once a week is 15 percent, as compared with 5 percent among rural women. Urban women are much more likely than rural women to watch television once a week (55 percent versus 21 percent).