Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism

The Role of Social Media in Enlightening Nursing Mothers on the Practise of Exclusive Breast Feeding in Ekiti State

Abstract

Yetunde Adetunla*

The globalization of technology which gave rise to Information Communication Technology (ICT) has changed the information seeking behaviour of human which has shifted attention from broadcast and print media to Social Media. Exclusive Breast Feeding (EBF) practice over the years has been a global discussion and its significance has been passed across to Nursing Mothers through several sources i.e. Open campaigns, Hospital Seminars, Television, Radio etc. and the efforts have not yielded desirable results. Little attention has been paid to the role of Social media hence the need to examine the role of Social Media in enlightening Nursing Mothers on the practise of Exclusive Breast Feeding in Ekiti State. The study adopted a Survey design with a study population of 952 Nursing Mothers. Multi-stage sampling technique was used for selecting 380 respondents as sample for the study. Questionnaire was used for data collection. Data collected were analysed with statistics. Findings revealed that Nursing Mothers in Ekiti State are enlightened about EBF through several Social Media sources but Facebook and WhatsApp appear to be the most prevalent Social Media source of enlightenment on EBF practice, a large percentage of Nursing Mothers were encouraged to breastfeed their infants through the enlightenment obtained from Social Media, age and employment are the most prevalent demographic factors that influence the enlightenment on EBF and some of the challenges in the use of Social Media is the fact that it consumes time, poor network signal, high cost of data subscription etc. The study concluded that Facebook and WhatsApp are the most effective Social Media source on EBF. Therefore, the study recommended that stakeholders should push their adverts and campaigns on Facebook and WhatsApp more frequently