AUDIENCE AWARENESS, PERCEPTION AND EXPOSURE TO SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The reality of Domestic violence as a major threat to the society is no longer questionable. In the face of the ongoing discourses of the new media and how it has given voice to the voiceless, there have been a lot of domestic violence campaigns on social media. This study investigated the Anambra state audience’s level of awareness and exposure as well as their perception of social media campaigns on domestic violence in the social media. The study builds its postulations on the Technological Determinism Theory which lays emphasis on communication technology and how it has a profound effect on the way people think and believe. The survey research design was adopted with sample size of 400 drawn from Anambra State, Nigeria. Findings revealed high level of awareness and exposure to social media campaigns on domestic violence. Furthermore, the study found out that these social media campaigns are beneficial to the society, educative and informative, encouraging and effective not withstanding that 165 or 42.9% believe that the social media campaigns on domestic violence are not regular. Majority of the respondents were of the view that the campaigns have not yet made remarkable progress but suggested that offenders should be brought to justice.