An Assessment of the Role of Media Campaigns on Road Safety and Accidents in Ghana

Abstract

Mass Media play a very important role in both developed, developing and less developed countries. This report provided an assessment of the role of media campaigns on road safety and accidents in Ghana. Local and international literature was reviewed to ascertain how road safety campaigns by persuades and changes the target behaviours, examine specific channels used to inform/communicate the target audience, determine the effectiveness of road safety campaigns and examine the challenges associated with increasing awareness using road safety campaigns in Ghana. Three theories that focused on changing knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors were reviewed. These theories were Roger’s Protection Motivation Theory, the Extended Parallel Process Model, and General Deterrence Theory. The study revealed that to improve media campaign effectiveness, the following were critical; integrating advertising with other activities (e.g. enforcement), tailoring message content and means of communication to the characteristics of the target audience, and using multiple forms of media outlets including social media for the younger target audience and multiple forms of media to reach the target audience. In the end, the researcher recommended addressing problem behaviours of target audience, better understanding the behaviours of target audience, well-design media campaign, well-executed media campaigns and appropriate duration of media campaign.