Mass Media and Pulse Polio Awareness Campaign

This Study aimed to find out a popular medium of mass communication that played the most significant role in polio eradication. The research paper was based on the concept of health communication, which is an integral part of development communication. Mass media, especially television is the most powerful and effective medium of mass communication and a very important tool for shaping Indian society. It can be informing, educating and motivating the people to perform desired behavior. This study explored awareness levels of people on health issues is very high. Most of the respondents claimed they had been watching advertisements about social issues on television. It was also revealed that the level of participation of people in polio eradication was very high, i.e., 96 percent respondents reported that they came to the polio booth after watched the advertisement on television which was advocated by celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Jaya Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Aishwerya Rai and many more. Thus, this study showed that TV as a mass medium for health communication was a very effective tool and it could also be argued that it had played a very pivotal role in making India polio-free. While planning the present research it was felt that an attempt should be made to provide a complete picture of the role of communication in semi-urban society of Lucknow district with specific reference to polio eradication.