Amolo emmanuel N
Diffusion of Innovations –
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| 2.3.2 Diffusion of Innovations – is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas (and technology) spread through cultures. Everett Rogers, a professor of communication studies, popularized the theory in his book Diffusion of Innovations; the book was first published in 1962, and is now in its fifth edition (2003).
Rogers argues that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the participants in a social system. He proposes that four main elements influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, communication channels, time, and a social system. Diffusion manifests itself in different ways in various cultures and fields and is highly subject to the type of adopters and innovation-decision process. While Rogers (1962) points out that the innovation must be widely adopted in order to self-sustain, he also notes that the process often relies heavily on human capital. Within the rate of adoption however, there is a point at which an innovation reaches critical mass. The categories of adopters are: innovators (2.5%), early adopters (13.5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%), and laggards (16%). The concern that newspapers face such an uncertain future may be linked to the rise of electronic media (Norris, 2000, and others). There is both media displacement and media complementing each other. Use of the Internet seems to have reduced the use of television; 40 percent of youngsters say they watch it less (Mediappro, 2006). There is evidence of substitution between of the Internet for television, both overall and for news, between daily newspapers and broadcast TV news (Waldfogel, 2002). So, creating a newspaper for children as a defining concept; how would this be achieved? It is a new innovation which is hoped children would embrace. But how would they go about it? How can this newspaper innovation diffuse in a digitally/technology driven society? Some research suggests that young people value news. Gauntlett and Hill (1999) asked young British respondents to keep a diary of their TV viewing behaviour over five years. Based on these diaries, Gauntlett and Hill claimed that news programmes increasingly became part of the youngsters’ daily routines as they grew older. Young people indicate that they are interested in particular in shocking, bizarre, funny or abnormal events. The particular relevance of such information is that it provides conversation topics (Meijer, 2006). Knowledge about current affairs also seems to be a strong element in prestige in some social groups. Most research into children’s information–seeking behaviour has been conducted in schools. This study was open to the same strengths and weaknesses identified by Shenton (2004). He identifies administrative and contextual reasons among the benefits, and timing, permission and absenteeism among the weaknesses. So, the diffusion of innovation theory would help to comprehend that engaging in a project as to getting children to read and embrace newspapers would take various steps in achieving; while some of the children may be quick to pick up the innovation of a children’s newspaper, some others may be outrighly reluctant. This however, does not mean the project should be halted; it only indicates that there is need for a continuous persuasion of the recipients to the ideals of the concept and its benefits to not just the laggards or later majority, but also a continuous reinforcement of benefits of the project to the early adopters and even the innovators. While this study is by no means fully representative of all young people in Nigeria, it is relevant to those who are likely to be affected by changing information habits – those who read newspapers and surf the Internet on a regular basis. The limitations of this study are that the target group may have been too small to provide a more fair and all–encompassing point of view. As literature review may have pointed out, the ages of individuals had become the strongest predictor for daily use of newspapers as a source of information. So it is pertinent to take into consideration the likely outcome of a study directed at children when it comes to their preference in media type. Download 261.2 Kb. Share with your friends:
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