Abuja, Nigeria. October 24th, 2017 – The United Nations (UN) observes the World Development Information Day on the 24th of October every year. This day is set aside to serve as an opportunity to draw the world’s attention to developmental challenges, and to raise awareness on the need to strengthen international cooperation to help overcome them.
The goal of this day is to “improve the dissemination of information and the mobilization of public opinion, particularly among young people”, by highlighting the issues of development and strongly emphasizing that a permanent global security is achievable once the economic and social well-being of every citizen across the globe is guaranteed[1]. In recent times, the world has been faced with challenges in all three dimensions of sustainable development—economic, social and environmental, and for these issues to be tackled head-on, data is very important. Many developing countries do not have the sound and credible statistical data required to underpin development processes. Data availability makes enormous differences as it presents reliable information which cuts a clear picture of all issues, enabling decision makers prioritize and effect positive change. Through scientific research, NOIPolls has been presenting reliable data from the diverse public opinion polls it has consistently conducted over the years. These data if properly utilized, are capable of influencing the formulation and implementation of great policies with high positive impact.
One of the specific aims of World Development Information Day is to inform and motivate young people worldwide to development problems. Identifying these problems of development through dependable data is as important as the various channels used in disseminating such information. Hence NOIPolls presents a previous poll conducted on the most common sources of information available to the Nigerian populace. In the poll, Radio and Television were identified as the major avenues where the citizens get their information from, among other sources. It also revealed that social media platforms had experienced an incredible leap in usage over the two years in view which is an added bonus given the role that modern information technologies, such as Internet and mobile phones can play in information gathering, countering false and inciting messages, alerting the people on security issues and inspiring them to act towards finding solutions to problems of development facing their societies. These cannot be overemphasized.
In the previous poll conducted by NOIPolls on sources of information, results revealed that a majority of Nigerians get their daily news and information from radio stations (62 percent), a smaller but still sizable proportion (49 percent) mentioned television, (37 percent) mentioned social media and (30 percent) mentioned newspapers.
Despite the country’s attraction to technology, its devices, and myriad social media platforms, by ranking, majority of Nigerians (34 percent) picked ‘radio’ as the main source of their daily information. Television was ranked second with (27 percent), while social media ranked third with 20 percent.
Furthermore, trend analysis from previous polls conducted in past years revealed a dramatic increase in the use of social media. The upswing of new technology has introduced several options for getting information which have continued to compete with traditional media. The year on year assessment revealed that social media as a source of daily information in Nigeria had a total increase of 18-points and 14-points in 2015 from 2007 and 2013 respectively, indicating a huge growth in its usage in Nigeria as a source of information, thus increasing the competition among all sources of information. In 2015, although radio declined by a significant 24-point when compared to 2013, it still remained the most common source of information as reported by 34 percent of Nigerians interviewed. Also, findings revealed that more Nigerians get access to their daily news from social media than newspapers.
In conclusion, information is an essential tool for development, decision-making, and control because, without information, communication is compromised. The crux of the matter is that information dissemination is as important as the content of the information itself, especially when it concerns the issues of development. Lately, modern decision making, whether done by a nation’s government or an international agency, is increasingly impacted using quality and reliable information or data gathered using statistical methods. Therefore, the problems of inadequate statistics which has always been a major limitation to studies done about issues bedeviling the development of Nigeria can be surmounted by making use of reliable data presented by NOIPolls.
Finally, in honour of the World Development Information Day whose aim is to present developmental challenges to the world and provoke international attention to help surmount those challenges, it is important for organizations, governments, and other stakeholders to know that it is not enough to have information, but disseminating said information through diverse and relevant sources is equally important.
Because for a society to fully function, there must be a steady stream of information passing through numerous channels ranging from entertainment, inspirational, educative or informative for various people.
Disclaimer
This press release has been produced by NOIPolls Limited to provide information on all issues which form the subject matter of the document. Kindly note that while we are willing to share results from our polls with the general public, we only request that NOIPolls be acknowledged as author whenever and wherever our poll results are used, cited or published. For more information, kindly visit our website www.noi-polls.com you can also download our mobile app NOIPolls on your smartphone.
NOIPolls hereby certifies that all the views expressed in this document accurately reflect its views of respondents surveyed for and at the time this poll was conducted, and background information is based on information from various sources that it believes are reliable; however, no representation is made that it is accurate or complete. Whilst reasonable care has been taken in preparing this document, no responsibility or liability is accepted for errors or fact or for any views expressed herein by NOIPolls for actions taken as a result of information provided in this report. Any ratings, forecasts, estimates, opinions or views herein constitute a judgment as at the date of this document. If the date of this document is not current, the views and content may not reflect NOIPolls’ current findings and/or thinking.
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[1] http://www.un.org/en/events/devinfoday/
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