The Mass Media and Family Planning in Kenya

Abstract

26 have been posed about a wide range of behavior, including the effects of television on violence, on children’s education, on consumers’ choices of products and on voting behavior, among others. The evidence on the effectiveness of such communications is mixed, 1 but the belief that there is some effect has persisted and is reflected in the emergence of a whole industry devoted to such activities. The application of mass communications to influence fertility is a natural extension of the basic idea that the media can both inform and motivate people, even about such complex subjects as their reproductive means and goals. Communications efforts have become increasingly widespread in the developing world as part of international technical assistance and government programs designed to reduce fertility. A 1986 summary 2 of radio coverage alone cited nearly 250 sources describing