Communication Media and Their Effectiveness in Reaching the Youth in Rural Areas: The Case of Youth Enterprise Development Fund in Kenya

Abstract

Most youth face the unemployment problem due to scarce job opportunities, lack of start-up capital, skills and lack of information on available resources. The introduction of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund in Kenya was first dismissed as a campaign gimmick to get votes from the youth but viewed objectively, it was a creative strategy towards job creation and income generation for the youth in rural areas. This paper seeks to identify the modes of communicating information about the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) to the youth in rural areas. The main objective of the paper is to identify the communication media that were utilized in disseminating information about the YEDF in relation to their effectiveness in reaching the youth. The study was carried out in Kabianga division of Kericho County among 210 youth. The youth of age bracket between 18 to 35 years formed the population of the study. The study found that mass media and interpersonal media channels were utilized to communicate information to the youth on Youth Enterprise Development Fund. The findings further revealed that other than informing a vast majority of audience, most mass media channels did not provide support for changing attitudes of individuals towards new ideas in the rural areas. Interpersonal channels had a personal influence on adoption of the idea on formation of youth groups. From the study findings, it is recommended that the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports should implement fully integrated communication programmes utilizing a variety of complementary channels wherever possible, so that each medium reinforces and multiplies the importance of the others in an integrated network. This will ensure that widespread coverage is achieved.