Abstract

As more advocacy are being geared towards sensitizing and educating individuals to become more involved in determining their health status, it is important to assess the characteristics of the source that easily enhance their adoption of disseminated messages. Surveying 380 males and females of child bearing age from north-central Nigeria, this study examined the influence of gender, age, and socio-economic status of the source on effective dissemination of information on maternal mortality. Two related theories: the source credibility theory and the diffusion of innovation theory were tested with respect to confirming the assumption that the characteristics of a communicator impact greatly on the acceptance or rejection of the message by the audience. Regression analysis was run to establish the correlation between the independent  variables and the dependent variable. An independent t-test was also run to examine the weight of the variance in the gender, age, and socio-economic status of the source accross categorical data of the respondents. The findings through regression analysis indicate significant relationships between age and socio-economic status of the source and effectiveness of disseminated information but an insignificant relationship exists between the gender of the source and effective dissemination of information.

Key Words: Source Credibility, Gender, Age, Socio-Economic Status,

                      Information Dissemination

^JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 4, No. 1, April 2012, 143 – 152 

© Delmas Communications Ltd.

About the authors

*Salah Saudat Abdulbaqi  who is currently at the Department of  Communication, School of Multimedia Technology and Communication, Universiti Utara, Malaysia, is a  Lecturer at the  Department of Mass Communication , University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.

**Dr. Che Su Bt Mustaffa is a Professor of Communication at the Universiti Utara, Malaysia.

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