Political Factors Affecting Parents' Perceptions on Televised Polio Messages in Sindh, Pakistan: A Critical Investigation

"[L]ittle is known about the hegemony of political actors specifically government in power over televised health content and its impact on people's perceptions to adopt or reject a health attitude, particularly in developing countries."

Television plays a crucial role in the formation of public health attitudes. In Pakistan, one of the remaining polio-endemic countries, the government designed mass media campaigns as part of the national plan of polio eradication 2015-2016 to inform parents about polio and the polio vaccine and its safety. In this context, and using the concept of collective efficacy within Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory as a framework, this study investigated the relationship between televised health messages and political actors as gatekeepers of messages.

To situate the research, the paper opens with a literature review explaining, for example, that Pakistani electronic media (in particular, private television channels ) operate under private ownership. However, due to economic pressures, the state and policymakers in Pakistan effectively have control over media institutions through circuitous means of advertising revenue. Therefore, several media house in Pakistan "make efficient efforts to oblige government requests of favouring them by providing positive coverage (Yusuf, 2013)".

From April 2015 to June 2015, the researchers conducted 35 semi-structured in-depth interviews among lower-middle-class parents in Jamshoro, Sindh province who had children up to 5 years of age and were exposed to televised polio messages. In this study, 90% of Jamshoro parents watch television daily, while 62.8% of them consume television more than 2 hours on daily basis. Further, television consumption hours were found to be greater in mothers, who mostly spent their time at home.

The parents did not prefer to watch developmental and informative programmes; instead, they said they would rather watch entertainment programmes. They deemed televised health programmes to be incomplete in terms of information and knowledge, and some mothers considered that television only telecasts health issues that are conflict-based in order to highlight the political leadership so people can be persuaded towards their channels. The findings also revealed that Pakistani television channels provide a greater amount of coverage on political issues than health issues.

Parents also disclosed that their main source of information concerning polio issues is their family doctor; they do not trust television to strengthen their knowledge of health or disease because of their doubts about government entities in Pakistan, who they perceived as being behind the messages. Jamshoro fathers also elaborated that if journalists were to expose political leadership's wrongdoings in the health field, ultimately, they would end up losing economic benefits for their respective channels, or the channels would be banned by these political authorities. "Jamshoro parents recognised that media professionals take funds, bribes and donations from government to favour their respective channels and in turn conceal governmental misuse of polio funds for their personal wealth and properties." Some parents underlined the mutual monopoly between television authorities and government in power. One mother said: "The opposition leaders present indefinite facts of polio for the negative image of the ruling party and provide their own solutions to handle the issue, so this sort of political leadership decreases our trust in these leaders." In short, lack of trust in the polio messaging seemed to be a common theme among those interviewed.

Mothers also characterised the televised polio messages as complex, saying the language is scientific and is not easily comprehended by a layperson. They recommended that journalists be trained to construct messages tailored to audiences' capacity to understand, considering the socio-cultural background of the segment of society they wish to reach.

Two parents while discussing the polio messages stated that it is also the responsibility of television channels to portray positivity among parents whose children have been exposed to polio. These mothers expressed that polio victims' families experience emotional turmoil after their children are attacked with poliovirus; therefore, programmes should be broadcast that give hope and solutions to such families to cope with the difficult situations.

Some parents suggested that polio awareness could be raised by highlighting this issue through alternate forms of televised content (not just polio advertisements), including dramas and talk shows.

In short, this study "has established a frame of reference regarding parents' perceptions in Jamshoro district of Sindh province and the political hegemony of government in power over television institution in Pakistan that put serious questions on the credibility of polio televised messages." Returning to the notion of collective efficacy, the researchers conclude that "The main motivator in polio eradication is the positive attitude among community....However, this positive attitude can only be achieved through group performance of political leadership and television medium commitment towards polio disease for public benefit with mutual framework of change....[T]he role of television in spreading health awareness messages is not only to provide the basic knowledge to the public but also to influence them in order to elevate collective efficacy concerning parents' health behaviours."