Essay, Paragraph, Speech on “The Role of Media in Spreading Awareness of Health” Complete English Essay for Class 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, Graduation classes.

The Role of Media in Spreading Awareness of Health

The media has several functions each of them serving their purpose well but it is the media’s role in the propagating of social messages which gives it its humanitarian edge. Radio, television, cinema and the newspapers are the key tools of mass media.

Mass media has enjoyed number one status in the spreading of social messages. Let’s take a social cause like health. Smoking and drinking are both detrimental to health. While smoking in public places is an infringement on human rights it continues unabated despite legislations having been passed to this effect. The truth however is that the force of a habit far exceeds the force of any legislation or the will for enforcement. The need of the hour is support to legislation and that can be provided only by social awareness. The 1990’s showed a significant upsurge in the amount of smoking in movies and television. Smoking was and is frequently depicted onscreen. Smoking and drinking are shown as being glamorous or as a resort to stress which is dangerous in a country like India where almost a quarter of the population uses tobacco in some form or the other. Cinema is an extremely useful tool to the tobacco industry. 76 percent of all Indian movies portray tobacco wittingly or unwittingly. It doesn’t help the cause of anti-smoking when famous film personalities are seen smoking even when they are not at shoots. But when a celebrity like Shah Rukh Khan, who is a chain smoker, goes on air to promote anti-smoking it works wonders for the anti-smoking campaign.

Radio jingles serve to promote awareness with their catchy tunes cashing in on public memory. During epidemics messages are relayed in between programs that advise to boil water and drink it. In the seventies Lifebuoy soap made a jingle that said, “Tandu rusti kiraksha karta hai Lifebuoy” (Lifebuoy guards your health). This jingle with its catchy tune was a big hit and although Lifebuoy was surely the winner in terms of sales, by default a lot of people who didn’t use soap in rural areas began to use lifebuoy. The advertisement was successful in promoting personal hygiene.

Newspaper articles provide information on the damages caused by drinking and smoking. Through repeated campaigning and advertising across all media, the government has been successful in the eradication of polio and small pox which is no small feat in a country that boasts of the second largest population and falls under the tropical zone which is prone to outbreaks of diseases that spread like wild fire due to dense population. Big movie stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan have been roped in to do ad campaigns for pulse polio. The catch line for one of these advertisements being “Ek boond hzindagi ki” (one drop of life). This line has been victorious in getting across to the masses of rural India that it takesjust one drop of pulse polio to prevent your child from being crippled for life.

Posters put up in the trains help in keeping the issues of health in the public eye. “Balbeer Pasha ko AIDS kyunhua?” was a poster campaign which became hugely popular. It highlighted a man’s fight against AIDS. Safe sex is intensively promoted by the poster advertisements stuck in public places.

The media has provided much in spreading the awareness of health. However, much still needs to be done. More private sponsors need to come forward to support ad campaigns that create social awareness. While the media has done its bit, the bigger part needs to be played by the public -who is the target audience. It calls for restraint on the finger that quickly changes channels when health campaigns are aired.