Possible implications of modern mass media for traditional communication in a Nigerian rural setting

This article looks at two models of communication existing in a Nigerian rural environment: the traditional, largely interpersonal and interactive model, and the modem, mass mediated, impersonal system. Drawing from sociological theories of change, it finds that the traditional and modem (mass) communication systems interact in interesting ways as a new socio-economic system evolves within the traditional structures of village life. In spite of the imposed foreign language (English) which is the dominant transmission language of the modem mass media, there are significant and complementary outcomes of the interaction between the two modes of communication. The article argues, however, that the traditional systems of communication will retain their role in the transmission of knowledge and information, cultivation of beliefs, and other socialization processes for quite some time to come.