Media and Contemporary African Society: Constructing an Environment Sensitive Communication Theory of Media Effect

Abstract

This research proposes a theory that ameliorates the deficiencies of agenda-setting, two-step flow, and third-person effect theories that are linear in explaining the influence of mass media on their audience. Whereas postmodernism abhors universality because, in reality, different groupings of individuals in different societies receive and respond to media messages differently depending on the influence of both internal and exogenous variables in the society in any communication process. These lacunas in the theories birthed the environment dynamo theory which does not intend to replace but to capture the idea that science, psychology, ethnography, and technology have broadened the understanding of the nuances that determine the relationship between the media and audience, and vice versa. The environment dynamo theory cumulatively created a web to explain media effects in society based on three components that are intricately interwoven - the audience, media, and environment.

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Changing Global
Media Landscapes:
Convergence, Fragmentation,
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Jabbar A. Al-Obaidi
Bridgewater State University, USA

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55
DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3693-3767-7.ch004
Chapter 4
Media and Contemporary
African Society:
Constructing an Environment Sensitive
Communication Theory of Media Effect
Desmond Onyemechi Okocha
http:// orcid .org/ 0000 -0001 -5070 -280X
Bingham University, Nigeria
Maureen Chigbo
Bingham University, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
This research proposes a theory that ameliorates the deficiencies of agenda-setting, two-step flow, and
third-person effect theories that are linear in explaining the influence of mass media on their audience.
Whereas postmodernism abhors universality because, in reality, different groupings of individuals in
different societies receive and respond to media messages differently depending on the influence of both
internal and exogenous variables in the society in any communication process. These lacunas in the
theories birthed the environment dynamo theory which does not intend to replace but to capture the idea
that science, psychology, ethnography, and technology have broadened the understanding of the nuances
that determine the relationship between the media and audience, and vice versa. The environment dy-
namo theory cumulatively created a web to explain media effects in society based on three components
that are intricately interwoven - the audience, media, and environment.
INTRODUCTION
In a postmodern world, truth and reality are shaped by both internal and exogenous variables such
as personal history, social class, gender, culture and religion, individuality, and technology all of which
combine to define the narratives and meanings of our lives which are locally constructed without universal
applications (Cornell, 2006). These variables could not be sufficiently explained with linear theories of
the media as postulated in agenda-setting, two-step and third-person effect. In this era, major changes in
the characteristics of the media, audience, and environment have occasioned varied responses to mass

Media and Contemporary African Society
media messages. Unlike in the past when media analyses and effects were monolithic in explaining the
effects of the media on audience and environment, advancements in science and technology have pushed
the frontiers of knowledge and awakened the consciousness that different variables – demography, psy-
chology, ethno-religious, culture, politics, socio-economy - all combine to influence the outcome of the
media content; who is communicating what to whom, and with what effect in a spiral of news source
(Musa, 2011; Imoh, 2013; Oludele, 2020).
This development has pushed to the fringes the era when a single story defined an explanation of
an all-powerful media effect on society. At present, science and technology have shown that different
narratives combine to influence audience reaction to media content. As Cornell (2006) posited, the
pre-modern era marked the period religion was the source of truth and reality while science character-
ized truth and reality in the modern era as against the postmodern era where there is no single defining
source for truth and reality beyond the individual. This can be seen in the different reactions that greeted
the recent Pope’s Fiducia Supplicans on the blessing of couples in irregular situations and of couples of
the same sex. (Francis, Fernandez & Matteo, 2023) observed that previously, it would have been a fait
accompli for an imprimatur from the hierarchy of the Catholics Church without dissent. Arnold (2024)
observed that there is a growing resistance in Africa to the Fiducia Supplicans while globally, bishops
are divided as to its acceptance or rejection.
Apart from the clerics, the faithful have voiced their opinions which was either contrary or supported
the Pontiff’s declaration based on their different individualism, laws, and cultural peculiarities. The stance
was predicated on how the media in different countries interpreted and communicated the declaration
on Fiducia Supplicans. This is obvious in the position of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria
(CBCN) that assured there would be no possibility of blessing same-sex unions and activities in the
church as that would go against God’s law, the teachings of the Church, the laws of our nation and the
cultural sensibilities of our people (Ugorji & Ogun, 2023). Contrary to that, Argentina, the home country
of the Pontiff while in support, states that Fiducia Supplicans does not give rise to confusion and that
confusing the blessings with approval or permission would be reductionism (Arnold, 2024).
Closely allied to this is Strinati’s (1995) view on post-modernism and mass media delineated culture
and society where social environment appears different from ordinary life. For instance, Koskei (undated)
observed that we now have TV, radio and computers in our sitting rooms, bedrooms and places of work
where cultural representations such as music, videos, news etc., are part of our everyday life. In the 1970s
and 1980s in Nigeria, many homes did not have television sets so, many people in the neighbourhood
would converge at a viewing centre or in the house of the wealthy individual in the community to watch
Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), the only TV station in Nigeria that boasted of 30 million viewers
then. But this has changed as 740 television stations (Okamgba, 2023) now beam different programmes
to varied audiences. There is, however, no guarantee that the signals received in different homes of
people with different backgrounds will have the same universal effect as envisaged by the agenda set-
ting, two-step and third person effect theories in a pre-modern and modern era. This dovetails into Jean
Bauldrillard’s 1920 - 2007 narrative on hyperreality and simulation by the media in a postmodern era
that sees the stages of communication as being more real than the real communication; hence, the real
is abolished. The mass communication is under pressure of information; it pursues enticing disruption
of the society and culture (Standard Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2020). For instance, the media unrav-
elled a cross- dresser popularly called Bobrisky after propping up his celebrity status which many in the
conservative world had believed would have a negative influence on the youth. Bobrisky was arrested
after spraying money at a social event, a cultural practice that is prevalent in the country. At the court,
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Media and Contemporary African Society
the media dramatized his admission that he is a male so, he was kept in a male detention cell until he
was sentenced to prison by the court. The fact remains that Bobrisky can only happen in premodernism
when the receivers of media messages battle with other vicissitudes of life that made them immune to
the cross-dresser’s imprisonment to the extent that the civil society organisation did not protest against
his prison sentence despite the spiralling messages the mainstream media and social media conveyed.
Apparently, the attitude of the people to Bobrisky’s case was explained by Koskei (undated) whose com-
ment on Jean Bauldrillard (1929 - 2007) explained that we all live by the passionate idealism of meaning
and communication; an ideal is a wish, an unreality which when internalised, becomes our reality; which
in essence is a non-reality or hyperreality. He also viewed television as the biggest contributor to the
hyperreality, regulating everything from a distance. This resonates with the NTA’s coverage of the 2019
elections campaigns that did not focus on protesters who pelted former President Muhammadu Buhari
with sachets of water but featured the story as if all went well until reports of the incident surfaced on the
social media and other TV stations. By not showing exactly what transpired, the TV station concealed
the process of simulation which restricts our vision of reality, said Bauldrillard. The obfuscation of re-
ality has worsened in an era of infodemic occasioned by the internet and new media when receivers are
also content creators and cannot be easily influenced by messages from the mainstream media unless
self-mediated content. As Koskei (undated) wrote, post modernism has tried to reject the existence of
objective reality or realism and refers to a school of thought that denies the existence of an objective
realism that is independent of media creation and influence.
Agreeing, Valkenberg and Peter (2013) postulated that new media technology enabled reception and
creation of messages is important for media effect theory and research as it results in self-generated
media effects which can be direct or indirect. Participation in a development process and feedback from
the recipients of self-generated content media effects could be either benign or toxic, depending on the
proclivity of the recipients as well as environmental and psychological factors which influence the recep-
tion that stimulates response to mediated content. An example of this manifested in Nigeria during the
2023 general election when the older political parties such as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)
and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which had structures and funding that outpaced the advertisements
and publicity of the Labour party. They were, however, shocked at the performance of the little-known
Labour Party which was backed by youths mobilised through the Obidients movement. New media or
social media messages which were created individually and collectively among members were shared
to the larger society and this caused the bigger parties to lose election in their strongholds dramatically.
There was no/an? omnibus effect on the populace; the messages of APC and PDP was passed through
to the traditional media to toe the old pattern of voting them.
Furthermore, Cornell (2006) posited that post-modernism extremized relativism and individualism
and then applied them to all provinces of knowledge including science and media. In a post-modern
world, media effects are individually shaped by personal history, social class, culture, religion, and gender
which combine to influence responses to stimuli and narratives that give meaning to our lives (Cornell,
2006; Rotaru et al., 2010, Jameson, 1997). This implies that the variables are culturally embedded, lo-
calized social constructs without any universal application; there is no single defining source for truth
and reality beyond the individual (Cornell, 2006). Unlike the narratives of theories of two-step flow,
agenda-setting, and third-person effect, the limitations in explaining media effects on society because
of the linear, omnibus and unidirectional assumptions is based on homogeneity. The three theories are
anchored on a universal truth of a linear media effect on society as against post-modernism which abhors
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Media and Contemporary African Society
totalizing ways of viewing any dimension of life and rejects any single defining source for truth and
reality albeit the effects of media on society (Cornell, 2006).
Supporting, Valkenberg and Peter (2013) opined that the vast majority of media-effects studies
conceptualised it as a unidirectional influence of a given medium on an outcome of interest, which is
transactional. Empirical studies that ignore transaction effects, Valkenberg and Peter (2013) said are not
consistent with contemporary media effect theories. Thus, the Environmental Dynamo theory falls under
recent media effect theories that propose transactional and symbiotic relationships between media use
and outcome variables. This is prevalent in these days when spiral news circles that can source content
from mainstream media and mainstream media can equally source content from new media particularly
where the content producer also uses the same media. In transactional media relationships, Valkenberg
and Peter (2013), affirmed that media use and effects are seen as part of a reciprocal influence process
in which media outcomes are the reason for disruptions in media use. For instance, in Nigeria, there was
a time, in the 1970s and 1980s, when many people were glued to the NTA 9 O’clock news as a major
source of information but now owing to avalanche of 740 broadcast stations, most people have switched
their loyalty to other television stations. The result is that NTA which once claimed that about 30 mil-
lion viewers watching its programmes can no longer do so. They can no longer lay claims to having an
omnibus and unidirectional influence on how Nigerians think and behave as advanced by the agenda
setting, two-step and third person effect theories.
Conversely, the Environmental Dynamo model takes cognisance of the entire media environment
variables to explain media outcome on the audience. In other words, Environmental Dynamo falls within
the ambit of transactional models of complementary media influence process. Valkenburg and Peter
(2013) recognised this when they stressed the appropriateness of complementary media effect models
that explain studies in behavioural genetics and development where traits variables (personality factors
such as extroversion, neuroticism temperament - shyness, emotionality, sociability) show less heritability
than was previously assumed. Another variability - environmental influence on individual from peers,
friends, parental treatment, and illness can change over time. These unpredictable exogenous variables
have to be factored in media effect theories due to their influence on content outcomes (Valkenberg &
Peter, 2013). For instance, despite the media messages on Child Rights Act over the years, Abdulmalik
Sarkindaji, Speaker of Niger State House of Assembly under his Mariga Constituency project in the
Muslim dominated Northern Nigeria, undertook to finance the mass wedding of 100 girls some of whom
are under-aged (Igwe, 2024). To the Muslim and those from the North, not much emotion ought to be
dissipated over what they consider normal. But the minister of Women Affairs from the South East where
such customs and traditions are rare, appealed to the Inspector General of Police who has yet to join the
fray to stop the wedding. The fact remains that the Speaker’s action will be a welcome development to
the people who are likely to view the actions of the minister negatively for challenging their religion
and custom in the North despite her offer to send the under-aged girls to school. Another illustration
of how religion influences content outcomes can be seen in Mauritania, where divorce is treated as a
normal way of life and female divorcees can easily remarry. The scenario also obtains in the Muslim
communities In Northern Nigeria where divorce is also common. But in the Christian dominated South
East Nigeria, divorce is frowned upon and divorcees find it difficult to remarry.
Another cultural practice, in most parts of South Eastern Nigeria, with the exception of few commu-
nities in Abia State, which will make media messages on DNA test irrelevant is because traditionally, the
man who paid the bride price inherits all the children from a marriage and whether he is the biological
father or not is immaterial. These influence media effect from content beamed on audience in different
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Media and Contemporary African Society
parts of the world who will respond based on religious, cultural, and educational norms in their society
without an omnibus outcome. Hence, this research aims to correct the flaws by proposing the environ-
ment dynamo theory that recognizes the differences and plurality in society about media and its effect
based on Borah (2016) who observed that communication research on media effects includes theories
that explain how the mass media influences attitudes and perception of audience members. For Borah
(2016), the history of media effects remains a contested space, especially as new theories and methods
interrogate the findings of earlier researchers. Also, theorists have increasingly propounded alternative
models of media effect theory to expand and examine the various iterations of the phase model. Lang and
Lang (1993) argued against the phase model and instead proposed a model that emphasizes investigations
of cumulative effects. Perse (2001) proposes an alternative model based on four types of media effects:
direct, conditional, cumulative, and cognitive transactional. Perse’s model seeks to demonstrate a more
nuanced understanding of the interplay of media content variables and audience variables regardless of
time or media. Postelnicu (2016) posited that mass communication researchers cannot, therefore, treat
the public as a homogenous mass audience that actively processes and responds to media messages uni-
formly, as had been postulated by initial theories of mass communication which assumed that audiences
respond to media messages directly.
Similarly, Rotaru et al. (2010) (citing Featherstone, 1988, 203-205; Bauman, 1988, 225-226) opined
that post-modernism narrows the borders between art and everyday life, high culture and mass culture;
the pluralism of cultures and knowledge, radicalism, realism, and fundamentalism which are influenced
by technology, globalization, capitalism, and socialization which affects the ways messages communi-
cated in the media are received and interpreted by different people of the world. Hence, the research is
targeted at proffering a solution for the inadequacies of agenda-setting, two-step, and third-person effect
theories in explaining media effect on society in post-modernism.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the research are to:
1. establish the limitations of demography, ethno-religious, culture, politics, socio-economy - all com-
bine to influence media outcome using the linear-based theories of agenda-setting, two-step flow,
and third person in explaining media effects on society in a postmodern era;
2. examine who is communicating what to whom and the public perception of the Environmental
Dynamo theory; and
3. illustrate how the spiral of news source in an inclusive environment dynamo theory can remedy the
inadequacies in the theories of agenda-setting, two-step flow, and third person.
METHODOLOGY
The quantitative study deployed a multistage sampling technique to select 493 respondents compris-
ing lecturers and students from the Mass Communication Departments of the Alex Ekwueme Federal
University, Ndufu-Alike, Abakiliki, Ebonyi State; Bayero University, Kano State, and Lagos State Uni-
versity, Lagos State. Apart from the lecturers, the students selected were 400 level students who have
been exposed to communication theories over the years; so, it is believed that they are conversant with
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Media and Contemporary African Society
the assumptions of the agenda setting, two-step flow and third person effect stories. Two hundred ques-
tionnaires were given to the Mass Communication department of each university to fill. Distribution and
collection of the questionnaire lasted for two months from September to October 2023. The universities
were selected to reflect the three major regions in Northern, Western, and Eastern Nigeria. This method
is justified since the research is based on Yarahmadi's (2020) argument that the multistage sampling
technique divides large populations into smaller groups to make the selection process more practical.
Also, he stated that this technique is used when the population is spread over a wide geographical region
and it is difficult to procure a representative sample with only one technique.
Similarly, McCombes (2022) said the technique is good for exploratory and qualitative research in
order to have an initial understanding of a large, small, or under-researched population. Dudovskiy (2022)
stated that although multistage sampling is more complex, it helps to divide large clusters of popula-
tion into smaller groups in several stages and this makes primary data collection more manageable. He
also argued that multistage sampling is not as effective as true random sampling though it is not overly
expensive or time-consuming. This method fits this research because, as recommended by Dudovskiy
(2022), the multistage sampling technique is effective in primary data collection from the geographically
dispersed population; it is cost and time effective with high-level flexibility.
Against this background, the three-stage sampling used considered geographical areas of North, East
and West regions in Nigeria. It then narrowed on the universities that offer Mass Communication as a
course and picked one university each from the regions and finally determined that the questionnaire
can only be administered to level four students and lecturers in Mass Communication departments of
the universities who have been exposed to mass media theories in their four-year study and understand
issues raised in the questionnaire. It is pertinent to state that the students and lecturers are of different
demography, ethno-religious, culture, politics, socio-economy status that influence their perception
of media content and the impact such will have on them. Therefore, this sampling method is in line
with Bhat (2024) that described multistage sampling as a method that splits selected population into
sub-groups at various stages to make it simpler for primary data collection and is considered the best
option for this study.
LIMITATIONS OF STUDY
The environmental dynamo theory is envisaged as a complementary model to older models of mass
media in explaining media content outcomes in postmodernism where individualism is the basis for ascer-
taining truth, and elasticity of meanings of ideas inf luenced by advancement in technological innovations.
As with all previous research, the study notes some delimitations. Firstly, the findings were limited to
the framework of the categories and definitions used in the investigation. The limitations of the study lie
in the fact that only three Departments of Mass Communication in three different universities located in
the three regions (East, West and North) of Nigeria were used for the study. The focus was on the final
year (400-level) students of these universities who are believed to have been exposed to lectures in mass
communication theories for at least 3 years prior to this study. Some Mass Communication lecturers
were equally selected for participation. Although the 400-level students before graduation are expect-
ed to conduct their seminars and research projects based on any of the mass communication theories,
there is a lingering doubt about their capacity to fully understand theoretical arguments advanced in the
study on environmental dynamo theory. This limitation can be remedied by further empirical studies
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Media and Contemporary African Society
to expand the scope of the sample population to include more schools of mass communication where
research instrument can only be tested on only lecturers of mass communication or only those teaching
theories of mass communication in order to validate the findings of the research. This, of course, will
require more resources of time and funding to accomplish. Nevertheless, this study made a contribution
in questioning the efficacies of the existing theories and their postulations on the relationships between
the media and their audience using scientific research methods.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Synthesis of Agenda-Setting, Two-Step Flow and Third-Person Effect Theories
In its expose on media effects and environment, Klinger and Metag (2021) listed three levels of in-
fluences - the micro (individual’s cognition, emotion, or action), meso (relationships between groups of
individuals or organizations), and macro (relationships within social systems). These pervade Brubaker's
(2008) thoughts on agenda-setting by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1968 that mass audiences
determine the salient issues covered by media; Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet's
expose in 1948 about the two-step theory of information flow from media to certain persons who wield
influence and Phillips Davison’s third-person effect theory that mass media messages have more impact
on others than on themselves. Hence, in Africa, communication takes place among diverse communal age
groups, town unions, institutions, and the larger society. For instance, Nigeria’s 200 million population
has 371 ethnic groups with diverse religious, cultural, educational, economic, and political inclinations,
and at the various levels, information on government economic programs transmitted through the media
elicits different stimuli that could not be explained fully with theories of agenda setting, two-step flow
and third-person effect in post-modernism. Thus, the theories whittle in significance given Takov and
Balanjo’s (2021) and Adebumiti and Ofomegbe’s (2021) postulation that post-modernism drastically
modified human beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in social relationships: sexuality, ethics, morality, religion,
education, and politics. Ezaka (2022) expressed the need for the era to exert more intellectual energy on
media landscape trends in order to unravel their influence on content production and consumption. Given
that science and technology expanded the frontiers of knowledge on media and society (Brubaker, 2008)
with television and internet users, the public possesses agendas that differed significantly from that of
the media and this failed to support agenda-setting. The implication is that the media is not powerful in
setting the public agenda in post-modernism (Brubaker, 2008).
Furthermore, Messner and Distaso (2008) established that sources have the power to influence the
news agenda of the media and that media, under certain circumstances can act as sources for each other
with weblogs serving as sources for the traditional media and the use of sources in weblogs in general.
Through content analysis of 2059 articles over a six-year-period from the New York Times and the
Washington Post, it found that the newspapers increasingly legitimized weblogs as credible sources.
They separately content-analyzed 120 weblogs and found that they relied heavily on traditional media
as sources. By mutually influencing their news agendas, the traditional media and weblogs create what
the researchers introduce and define as a news source cycle through which news content can be passed
back and forth from media to media (Messner & Distaso, 2008).
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Media and Contemporary African Society
Consequently, Brubaker (2008) agreed that the changed role of traditional media has turned
agenda-setting theory from its “offensive” posture of placing items on the public agenda, to a “defensive”
one requiring report or coverage on certain issues in a certain way because those issues were first placed
on the agenda by the political blogosphere (Messner & DiStaso, 2008) and expanded the traditional
agenda-building process by sending traditional media content into the digital universe (Brubaker, 2008).
Hence, agenda-setting occurs because of how frequently issues are discussed in the mass media and not
how they are treated (Borah, 2016; Cappella & Jamieson, 1977).
Similarly, Weimann (2015) viewed the two-step flow of communication theory as the flow of infor-
mation and influence from the mass media to certain individuals (i.e., the opinion leaders) and from them
to the public. However, the cycle of news sources (Borah 2016) implies that changes in new frontiers
of communication sources show a growing trend of a spiral web of information flow and the decline in
popularity of the two-step flow (Weimann, 2015).
Agreeing, Postelnicu (2016) opined that two-step flow oversimplified the actual flow of informa-
tion from mass media to consumers which has more than two steps as additional research revealed that
conversations based on media content are more frequent among opinion leaders themselves and not
just between them and less-informed individuals. This creates the extra step of opinion sharing among
equally informed individuals, compared with only a vertical flow of information from opinion leaders
to followers (Postelnicu, 2016).
Allied to Postelnicu’s argument is the third-person effect theory by Davison (1983), which is limited
in determining media influence in society given that a person exposed to persuasive communication in
the mass media believes the effect will be greater on others than himself as each individual believes he
will not be influenced, but others may well be persuaded by media messages. In some cases, communi-
cation leads to action not because of its impact on those to whom it is ostensibly directed, but because
others (third persons) think that it will have an impact on its audience. Contrarily, Sun, Shen and Pan
(2008) through web-based survey data results established that the third-person perception was a robust
and significant predictor across all three messages, although the directions of such effects differed across
messages with desirable or undesirable presumed influence.
Postmodernism and Media Effects on Society
What is common among the linear theories is that the agenda-setting, two-step flow, and third-person
effect explained media effects majorly based on the truth and reality, not on individualism (Bazargani &
Larsari, 2015). They do not take into account the individual psychology, philosophy, and environmental
factors that can derail or amplify messages to make them acceptable or not. For instance, in Nigeria,
COVID-19 vaccination messages that conveyed via traditional media were received with great suspicion
nationwide because of fake information and half-truths that were spread on social media despite mass
media messages to the contrary.
Consequently, many people failed to take the vaccination which resulted in some deaths that could
have been prevented had the media truly set the agenda on the health issue in the country then. The re-
jection of the COVID-19 vaccine demonstrates that, variables such as: demographics, culture, religion,
education, technology, politics, and socio-economic and environmental conditions in the society to a
large extent determine audience response to the media messages. The defects of the sequenced theories
of agenda-setting, two-step flow, and third-person in explaining media effects in society birthed the
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Media and Contemporary African Society
Environmental Dynamo model to holistically appraise the dynamics of the plural audience, media, and
environment and the interplay that determines the effects of the media on the society in a postmodern era.
Furthermore, in a postmodern world, major changes in the characteristics of the media, audience,
and environment elicit varied responses to media messages. Unlike in the past when the media analysis
and effects were centered on dominant values of truth, religion, and cultural beliefs on audience and
environment, advancements in technology and science have pushed the frontiers of knowledge and awak-
ened the consciousness that demography, psychology, ethno-religious, culture, politics, and economy
influence the media content and its effect on society (Hariharasudan, Pandeeswari & Hassan, 2022). The
reactions across continents to the recent visit of Prince Harry and Megan Markle to Nigeria to promote
the Invictus game which the Prince founded 10 years ago at the instance of Nigeria’s Chief of Defence
Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, vividly illustrates the need for a complementary model to ex-
plain the outcome of media content. Sequel to the visit, Christopher Wilson, a British Journalist, tweeted
on May 14, 2024, that Nigeria’s human rights record is not far short of Nazi German with a picture of
Prince Harry and Megan and that of Duke of Windsor and his wife, Wallis, in Germany in 1937. Trolled
by swift negative reactions of netizens, Wilson deleted the tweet because of what he described as “the
unintended consequences”. This can only be possible in postmodernism that the internet and social media
has expanded the frontiers of communication and not the era when BBC and CNN controlled narrative
of global events. In addition, technology innovation has inspired the growth of other media such as Arise
Television and Al Jazeera that provide counter narrative to the Western media.
This development reinforces the fact that a single variable cannot explain fully the media's effect on
society. Whereas, Hariharasudan, Pandeeswari and Hassan (2022) emphasized technological influence
in a postmodern era, Cornell (2006) characterized the pre-modern as truth and reality while science is
the hallmark of modernity as against the postmodern era where there is no single defining source for
truth and reality beyond the individual. Cornell’s (2006) notion is that post-modernism extremized rel-
ativism and individualism and then applied them to all provinces of knowledge and even to science and
media. In a postmodern world, media effects are individually shaped by personal history, social class,
culture, religion, and gender, which combine to influence the narratives and meanings of our lives (Cor-
nell, 2006). This implies the variables are culturally embedded, localized social constructions without
any universal application, unlike the single-story explanation of theories of agenda setting, two-step
flow, and third-person effect in their perspective of media effects on a homogenous society. As Cornell
(2006) stated, the most important value of postmodernity is the inadmissibility of generalizations of any
dimension of life. Post-modernity, he said, rejects any single defining source for truth and reality while
emphasizing difference, plurality, and selective forms of tolerance.
Postmodernism's Influence on Audience, Environment, and Mass Media
In post-modernism era, Luedecke and Boykoff (2017) posited that media bridge different ways of
knowing about the environment, and often mediate public perceptions, attitudes, perspectives, and
behaviors related to environmental issues. For instance, people from different cultural backgrounds in
Nigeria and Africa get to know about one another’s festivals, religious practices, and culinary practices
through the media and this may facilitate acculturation and assimilation. Understanding these practices
helps in coaching media content that will be acceptable to different communities with different religious
practices and cultures. The mindset is that there is no universality to the realities and truth of audience
peculiarities; for example, Northern Nigeria is made up of predominantly Muslims while the Southern
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part is predominantly Christian and more educationally advantaged. Even within the Southern region,
some areas which are more educationally advanced than others, are bound to receive media content
differently. For instance, according to UNDP Nigeria/Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Human
Development Indicators showed that at state levels all the North East States scored below the national
level of 0.521, with Taraba, and Bauchi having 0.4286 and 0.6515, respectively, while Lagos (Southern
Nigeria) had the highest score of 0.6515. This implies that even though they are in the country, media
messages to the states will most likely not have the same media effect because of their peculiarities and
this also applies to African countries with different human development indexes.
Allied to this reality is that in Africa, the rich geodiversity is underreported among ear th’s geo-heritage,
prompting the need for policy initiatives to identify geo-sites, promote and increase the awareness among
policymakers and the general public, especially local communities which need to protect geo-parks set
aside for sustainable socio-economic development (Neto & Henriques, 2022). It throws up the need to
formulate appropriate messages to sensitize the local population on how to conserve and protect geo-heritage
(Neto & Henriques, 2022). As Luedecke and Boykoff (2017) posited, from entertainment and economy
to news, the media including television, films, books, flyers, newspapers, magazines, radio, and the In-
ternet, provide critical links between formal environmental change science and policy decision-making,
and the realities of how people experience and interact with their environments on the ground.
Another happenstance that characterizes post-modernism is what Reichard (2011) wrote about Alvin
Toffler’s prediction of a move by developed nations from mass industrial societies to demassified infor-
mation communities. Tofler talked about how masses receive the same messages while small de-massified
groups receive and send large amounts of their evocation to one another disrupting consensus with the
only challenge being economic disparities between regions and people and not the whole countries of
the world have equal access to technologies. As explained earlier, the reaction of netizens to Christopher
Wilson’s Nazi comment about Nigeria would not have been possible in a pre-modern or modern world
where the world media and technology was dominated by the Western world. With advancement in tech-
nology, the world has become a global village as predicted by Marshal McLuhan. Hence the immediacy
of reaction and counterreaction that followed Wilson’s tweet.
Against the foregoing, the Environmental Dynamo theory is strengthened by the need to review the
notions that underlie the theories studied in the research as contemplated by Barry (2002) that many of
the notions previously regarded as universal and fixed (gender identity, individual selfhood) are actu-
ally fluid and unstable as they are socially constructed or contingent categories rather than absolute or
essential ones. All thinking and investigation are affected by prior ideological commitments. There is
no disinterested inquiry. Language itself conditions, limits, and predetermines what we see. Language
does not record reality but constructs it (Barry, 2002). Meaning in texts is jointly constructed by the
reader and writer. Stating that theorists distrust all totalizing notions (great books, human nature) Barry
(2002) sums these ideas up in five key points: - politics is pervasive - language is constitutive - truth is
provincial - meaning is contingent - human nature is a myth.
Insight into the Environmental Dynamo Theory
Over the years, many mass media scholars have debated the relationship between theory to under-
standing communication behaviour. As far back as 1976, P.R.R Sinha said that it was difficult to think
any practice without a theory and cited Kurt Lewin as saying: “There is nothing so practical as good
theory” and that practitioners lethargy and negative dispositions to theory was caused by poor theories
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Media and Contemporary African Society
over a long period of time and a basic misunderstanding about meaning and ramifications of a theory
(Sinha, 1976) According to him, the quality of a good theory is measured not on its applicability at
the individual (personal level alone, but at the society and community levels while scholars must be
conscious of shortcoming in the absence of the practical base as communication as a field of study has
emerged from practical life situations. Communication provides the impetus for actual decoding of the
economic, sociological, psychological, political, cultural and religious spheres of the individual and
society. Similarly, Kreft (2011) affirmed that communication theories help in explaining communica-
tion behaviour notwithstanding the debate as to the practicability of theories which help to discern the
causes and effects in a communication process. For Kreft (2011), the challenge for non practicalism
of a theory is to state what value might be and that without any substantial account of the value of a
true impractical theory, it becomes easier for practicalists to bite the bullet and accept counter-intuitive
consequence of his position.
Deviating slightly, Ramirez (2024), a biopsychologist, who wrote in this era of postmodernism, the
basis for proposing a new contemporary theory that will complement agenda setting, two step flow and
third person theories in explaining mass media outcome, opined that most theories about the behaviour of
large numbers of people are untestable even when they are reasonable. By Ramirez’s view, sociologists,
political scientists, and economists all have the same problem, adding that “Their most common tool
is correlation, showing that two things happen together. But showing that two things go together isn’t
the same as showing that one causes the other. Proper experiments could settle the issue but, for these
fields, they are usually too difficult to conduct.”
However, a new theory is only likely to be required if there is a fundamental change in the forms of
social organization of media technologies, in the social relations that are promoted, or in what is seen as
the ‘dominant structures of taste and feeling’ (McQuail, 2010). The mass media have already changed
very much, starting from the early-twentieth-century days of one-way, one-directional and undifferen-
tiated flow to an undifferentiated mass. There are social and economic as well as technological reasons
for this shift, but it is real enough (McQuail, 2010).
In this regard and for a proper understanding of the environmental dynamo theory in explaining me-
dia effect in a contemporary African society, there is need for a historical background on the continent.
Historically, the media environment in Africa has been characterized by the struggle for existence
and freedom from oppression by the ruling class typified by colonialism, military dictatorship and the
current wave of mixed democratic practices. The media, in order to survive, have leaned towards parti-
sanship, becoming highly politicized and militant in informing the populace (Nyamnjoh, 2010, Chigbo
& Okocha, 2023). In the fight against colonialism, military dictators and civilian administration, the
media as Nyamnjoh stated, divided citizens into righteous and wicked, depending on their party-political
leanings, ideologies, regional, cultural, ethnic and religious inclinations. During colonial, military
(pre-modern and modern era) and civilian rule postmodernism) in Africa, the state has remained the
major source of patronage of resources. In addition, economic institutions, are used to detract the flow of
resources, employment at all levels of governance and in the case of Nigeria this operates at the federal,
state and local government levels from which heterogeneous urban initially derive (Nyamnjoh, 2010).
This is contrary to what obtains in the Western economies that are based on capitalism and resources
are controlled by the private individuals. For instance, in Cameroun, citizens look towards the elites
including journalists and media owners wade into modern centers of accruement as newbie big men and
women. These people manage and redistribute their personal wealth to those back home in the villages
in exchange for neo-traditional titles while taking advantage of economic and political opportunities
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Media and Contemporary African Society
in the cities to participate actively in the cultural and religious affairs, government and development
of their hinterland. In these places, the customary laws and local opinion influence the outcome of na-
tional policy making decision at the federal, state and local government levels (Nyamnjoh, 2010). As
African transitioned from old traditional to modernism and postmodernism, it has witnessed sustained
changes in social values, norms, personal, institutions, relationships and stratifications that influence
media outcomes which cannot rely only on linear based media theories to be explained (Oludele, 2020).
These changes are occasioned by internal and external and forces like climate change and small-scale
structural rearrangements with far reaching influence on the demography of the society. For instance,
apart from colonial inherited structures that split indigenous ethnic people into different countries, the
military in Nigeria bequeathed civilian administration with 36 states. The split resulted in ethnic groups
that became the minority and this has resulted in constant agitations of marginalization and tension in
the society which in turn affects how media content is perceived from primordial sentiments that has
negative effects on national cohesion and the consequent effect on media ownership. In addition, some
of the countries in Africa have witnessed civil wars - Nigeria (1967 -1970), Liberia (1989 to 1997 and
1999 to 2003) and Sierra Leone (1991 - 2002) - that left indelible marks on the defeated even though
the governments in peace agreements vouched to ensure there was no victor and no vanquished, they
have continued to implement skewed political, economic and development programs that marginalize
the defeated leading to tension and agitations in the society. These are reflected in media content out-
comes that impact differently on various segments of the society with different individual and collective
realities that shape their existence in other localities. Hence, social change in Nigeria emanates from
unresolved social challenges of continuous social structures, social relationships and social institutions
that requires understanding of the driving forces of social change and the eventual global integration
of socio-cultural, economic and political environment that shapes media content outcomes in postmod-
ernism (Oludele, 2020).
Furthermore, the past 41 years saw the masses in Africa alienated by their rulers and elites as they
navigated through military dictatorship to democracy with neocolonialism powers still controlling in-
struments of political and economic powers stealthily. The flapping from ineffectual political apologists,
civil society groups dancing to the piper of foreign funders; pseudo-intellectual apologists and the im-
poverished and disenchanted masses who have suffered egregiously from bad governance, deification of
power and numbed acquiescence of shared misery and pain are palpable (Imoh, 2013). The worrisome
aspect is that African leaders consumed by corrupt absolute power mentality continue to see the State
as the sole source of personal aggrandizement and flourish (Imoh, 2013). Unlike their counterparts in
the Western world, leaders are elected to serve the people; they cannot deviate from century old insti-
tutionalized norms and values. A case in point was in 2019 when former President Donald Trump was
forced to leave office and hand over to President Joe Biden who was declared winner amidst the claim
of election rigging.
In Africa, leaders have been known to perpetuate themselves in office by thwarting the wishes of the
people in electoral processes. Imoh (2013), observed that African leaders cleverly use political powers
for private ends, and guided by mercenary ethos or kleptocratic instincts become reticent upholding
popular democracy. They prefer to hold onto power by conducting fraudulent and violent elections as
exemplified by the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, an election that was grossly condemned by national
and international civil society organizations, European Union and National Democratic Institute. It is
against these realities in Africa context that the agenda setting, two-step flow and third person theories
is deemed insufficient in explaining media outcomes especially given that new media and internet have
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changed media landscape. Hence the complementary environmental dynamo model below proposed to
capture all the dynamics in a mass communication process in a postmodernism era where truth is elastic
and individualistic. The above is depicted by the diagram below:
Figure 1. Model of environmental dynamo of mass communication effect
Researchers’ Construct, (2023)
The above model of the Environmental Dynamo of mass communication effect shows variables
that could act individually or collectively to influence media effects on society at the meso, micro, and
macro media environment. The variables include personal history, gender, culture, cognition, intellect,
experiences, perception, economy, age, religion, and income. That these variables disrupt the communi-
cation process as in the case of technology on social media and traditional media of print and broadcast
media can be seen in the argument of Cornell (2006) on postmodernism which asserts that there is no
one definition of truth and reality beyond the individual as the media audience.
Corroborating, O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy (2002) posit that so long as the influence of
post-modernism has been benign or progressive, results from being dramatized and intensified criticism
that only the physical sciences represent the gateway to certain knowledge. Thus, the disadvantage of
post-modernism is the indefensible addition of this awareness that would, if taken by marketing, be
highly disruptive. In effect, there is an attempt to bring back aesthetic approaches to human discourse,
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Media and Contemporary African Society
elevate linguistic and symbolic spheres of life, project visuals and scenes to levels of critical discourse,
the recognition of subjective experience as meaningful part of human practices, and the redefinition of
the human subject as both a cognitive and aesthetic subject. O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy (2002)
cited Friedrich Nietzsche from 1844 -1900 as associating postmodernism with the fact that reality is too
complex to be encompassed by a single perspective, and a multi-perspective is needed. This, if accepted,
may lead to undermining the claims of absolute truth. In other words, postmodernism encompasses a
pot-pourri of ideas and languages and meanings which determine media behaviour and outcomes that
will be based on principally jaundiced assumptions. Embedded, in these assumptions is social class
which vary in different societies. In Nigeria, the determination of social class differs from what is ob-
tainable in England, its colonial master. In England, social class is determined at birth though this has
been rejected in the United States since the American revolution. This practice varies in Nigeria: it is
accepted in Northern Nigeria, rejected in South East Nigeria while the South West Nigeria is neutral.
The social class syndrome explains one of the raging outcomes of the recent visit Prince Harry and
Megan Markle to Nigeria as discussed earlier and this can only happen in a postmodern world. This
is contrary to the assumptions of agenda-setting, two-step flow, and third-person theory that rely on
stage-by-stage transmission of information based on variables that are constant to explain the outcome.
This tallies with Valkenburg and Peter’s (2013) postulation that hardly any contemporary media model
assumes that media exert a direct influence on a passive audience. At present, media effect theories posit
that outcomes of media use on certain effects are explained by the way in which media are processed
(Valkenberg & Perter, 2013). Also, this resonates with Mcleod et al. (2009) communication mediation
model: Changes in media systems, political environments, and electoral campaign demand that these
influences, and the communication mediation model be revised to account for the growing convergence
of media and conversation, heightened partisan polarization, and deepening social contentiousness in
media politics (Shah, et al, 2017).
Also, the model resonates with the meso, micro, and macro levels of Klinger and Metag's (2021)
theory on media effects and environment. In the model, the communication process in a broader/macro
environment is affected by internet access, nationality, imperialism, human rights, standard of living,
economy, neocolonialism, international politics, diplomacy, and closed /open society. The model echoed
the thoughts of Luedecke and Boykoff (2017) on the interplay of variables in content production in a given
media environment and submitted that media bridge different ways of knowing about the environment, and
often mediate public perceptions, attitudes, perspectives, and behaviors related to environmental issues.
Also, in a media environment, variables such as news framing, censorship, media regime, media free-
dom, cyberspace and digital integration, language, media ownership, gatekeepers, media philosophy, and
media economy work to determine the effects of the media in society. This implies that a combination
of the variables dispels the idea that the media can simply set the agenda for the society; or that leaders
wield total influence on media impact and that the media will influence others other than the originator
or bearer of the information.
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DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION
Table 1. Demographic data of respondents
Frequency Percentage (%)
Gender
Males 229 46.45
Females 264 53.55
Age
18-30 468 94.93
31-50 18 3.65
51-60 5 1.01
Above 2 0.41
Participating Universities
Alex Ekwueme University 158
Bayero University 152
Lagos State University 183
Occupation
Students 469 95.13
Lecturers 24 4.87
Educational Qualification
Ph. D 17 3.45
Masters 7 1.42
HND/BSc 63 12.78
OND 3 0.61
Undergraduate 403 81.74
Source: Field Data, 2023
The demographic data in Table 1 showed that there were more female respondents 264 (53.55
percent) as against the males numbering 229 (46.45 percent) out of a total of 493. The majority of the
respondents were within the age bracket of 18 - 30 numbering 468 (94.93 percent); This age group were
mostly undergraduates who were optimistic about the Environmental Dynamo theory in explaining
media effects on society in postmodern era. This age groups are avid users of technological innovations
that have pushed the frontiers of knowledge and are more individualistic in determining the reality of
their environment unlike those in the age bracket of 51 and above whose truth and reality are not fluid.
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Table 2. Respondents' perception of agenda-setting, two-step flow, and third-person effect
Variables Strongly
Agree
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree
1. The limitation of agenda-setting theory in
explaining media effects in society is that they are
based on the concept of a homogenous society
and the same universal reactions of audiences to a
stimulus.
116(24%) 251(51%) 95(19%) 26(5%) 5(1%)
2. The limitation of the two-step theory in explaining
media effects in society is that they are primarily
based on the concept of a homogenous society
and the same universal reactions of audiences to a
stimulus.
83(17%) 236(47.8%) 94(19.1%) 69(13.9%) 11(2.2%)
3. The limitation of third-person effect theory in
explaining media effects in society is that they are
primarily based on the concept of a homogenous
society and the same universal reactions of audiences
to a stimulus.
74(15%) 200(40.6%) 130(26.4%) 70(14.2%) 19(3.8%)
4. Inadequacies of the agenda-setting theory in
explaining media effects in a postmodern era
could be remedied with a new media theory that
accommodates all variables that show societies are
not homogenous and respond to media messages
differently.
116(23.5%) 220(45%) 114(23.1%) 31(6%) 12(2.4%)
5. Inadequacies of the two-step theory in explaining
media effects in a postmodern era could be remedied
with a new media theory that accommodates all
variables that show societies are not homogenous and
respond to media messages differently.
95((19.3%) 203(41%) 127(26%) 57(11.5%) 11(2.2%)
6. Inadequacies of the third-person theory in
explaining media effects in a postmodern era
could be remedied with a new media theory that
accommodates all variables that show societies are
not homogenous and respond to media messages
differently.
93(19%) 201(41%) 137(28%) 49(10%) 13(2%)
7. A new media theory that takes cognizance of both
covert and overt variables akin to the audiences,
environment, and media is needed to properly
understand the whole ramifications of media effects
in society.
117(24%) 175(35.5%) 157(32%) 32(6.5%) 12(2%)
8. The media effect is complex and
multi-dimensional and the interaction between the
media and audience is dynamic as many variables are
involved that affect the way communication stimuli
are received hence the need for an integrated theory
to explain those dynamics and complexity.
132(27%) 198(40%) 113(23%) 33(7%) 17(3%)
Source: Field Data, 2023
Table 2 shows that 487(98.8 percent) of the respondents agreed that the limitations of the agenda
setting, two-step flow, and third-person effect theories are based on the concept of homogenous society
and universal reactions of audiences. Significantly, 67 percent of respondents affirmed that media effect
is complex and multi-dimensional and the interaction between the media and audience is dynamic as
many variables are involved that affect the way communication stimuli are received hence the need for
an integrated theory to explain those dynamics and complexity. Corroborating, respondents agreed that
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Media and Contemporary African Society
theories under study are limited in explaining media effects in a postmodern era based on the concept
of a homogenous society with the same universal reactions of audiences to a stimulus.
Table 3. Audience factors in relations to media effect
Variables Strongly
Agree
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree
1. The educational level of the audience influences
their responses to media messages with the result that
those with higher education could respond differently to
stimuli compared to those with lower qualifications or no
education at all.
195(39%) 182(37%) 79(16.0%) 28(6%) 9(2%)
2. The psychological disposition of audiences from
different backgrounds is certain to have different
influences on the reception of media content.
171((35%) 180(36%) 105(21%) 28(6%) 9(2%)
3. The level of economic empowerment of varying
audiences will elicit different levels of understanding of
media messages.
125(25%) 221(45%) 101(20%) 38(8%) 8(2%)
4. People of different age groups will not have a universal
way of reacting to media content and will need different
theories to accommodate these differences.
162(33%) 189(38%) 83(17%) 50(10%) 9(2%)
Source: Field Data, 2023
Table 3 shows the belief of the respondents on the fact that educational, psychological, economic
empowerment, and age groups influence their response to media messages. 410 (83%) respondents
agreed to this, while 88(18%) of the respondents disagreed that the above factors do not influence audi-
ence responses to media messages. This implies that not just one reality or truth can determine how an
audience reacts to media messages but the fluidity of variables shape media effects in society. This is
reinforced by majority of the respondents (68 percent) who believe that people of different age groups
will not have a universal way of reacting to media content and will need different theories to accommo-
date these differences compared to 12 percent who disagreed.
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Table 4. Technology and environmental influence on the media space
Variables Strongly
Agree
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree
1. Technological innovation has democratized the
media space and has created a news source cycle
whose influence on media effect on society cannot be
explained with agenda-setting theory.
135(27.4%) 184(37.3%) 120(24.3%) 49(10%) 6(1%)
2. Technological innovation has democratized the
media space and has created a news source cycle
whose influence on media effect on society cannot be
explained with the two-step flow theory
92(19%) 188(38%) 142(29%) 62(12%) 9(2%)
3. Technological innovation has democratized the
media space and has created a news source cycle
whose influence on media effect on society cannot
be explained with third-person effect theories under
study.
94(19.0%) 197(39.9%) 146(29.6%) 49(9.9%) 8(1.6%)
4. Technology advancement and innovation influence
audience response to media messages and are
accommodated in the Environmental Dynamo theory
in understanding media's effect on society.
112(22.7%) 214(43.4%) 120(24.3%) 40(8.2%) 7(1.4%)
Source: Field Data, 2023
Table 4 shows that the influence of technological innovation on media effect cannot be explained
with agenda-setting, two-step flow, and third-person effect theory. This showed in the majority of respon-
dents 411(83percent) who confirmed that technological advancement and innovation influence audience
response to media messages and are accommodated in the Environmental Dynamo in understanding
media effects compared to only 9.6 percent who disagreed.
Table 5. International environment and the impact on the media space
Variables Strongly
Agree
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree
1. The international environment is a complex
network of economic, legal, and cultural forces that
can influence the outcome of media messages on
society.
142(29%) 213(43.2%) 99(20%) 26(5.2%) 13(2.6%)
2. The international environment is not
homogenous and this affects the way media
messages on issues are received in different
societies in the United States and Africa.
129(26.1%) 196(39.8%) 108(22%) 48(9.7%) 12(2.4%)
3. Different political systems in different societies
will influence audience reaction to media messages
and this cannot be explained with agenda-setting
theory.
95(19.3%) 190(38.5%) 136(27.6%) 65(13.2%) 7(1.4%)
4. Different political systems in different societies
will influence audience reaction to media messages
and this cannot be explained with two-step theory.
88(18%) 193(39.1%) 126(25.5) 70(14.2%) 16(3.2%)
5. Different political systems in different societies
will influence audience reaction to media messages
and this cannot be explained with the third-person
effect theory
84(17%) 200(40.6%) 129(26.1%) 55(11.2%) 25(5.1%)
Source: Field Data, 2023
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Table 5 shows that the international environment is not homogenous and different political systems in
different societies influence audience reaction to media messages. Significantly, 413(83.8%) respondents
agreed while 264(53.5%) disagreed, implying that in a broader macro media environment prevailing
political systems must be factored in to fully explain media effect on society as espoused in the inte-
grated Environmental Dynamo theory that takes cognizant of complex network of economic, legal, and
cultural forces that can influence the outcome of media messages on society in a broader international
media environment.
Table 6. The place of culture and religion on media effect
Variables Strongly
Agree
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree
1. Culture and religion are instrumental to audience
reaction to media messages
187(38%) 202(41%) 73(15%) 25(5%) 6(1%)
2. A very religious society will respond to media
messages on gender differently from a very liberal
society and the agenda-setting theory will not fully
explain the underlying factors determining how
people respond to the content.
154(31%) 204(41%) 87(18%) 38(8%) 10(2%)
3. A very religious society will respond to media
messages on gender differently from a very liberal
society and the two-step flow theory will not fully
explain the underlying factors determining how
people from the different societies respond to the
content.
122(24.7%) 204(41.4%) 113(23%) 42(8.5%) 12(2.4%)
4. A very religious society will respond to media
messages on gender differently from a very liberal
society and the third-person effect theory will not
fully explain the underlying factors determining
how people in the two societies will respond to the
content.
91(18%) 193(39%) 132(27%) 64(13%) 13(3%)
5. Environmental Dynamo theory can help to
understand how a very religious society will respond
to media messages on gender differently from a very
liberal society.
126(25%) 207(42%) 117(24%) 34(7%) 9(2%)
6. Environmental Dynamo theory can help to fully
explain the underlying factors determining how
people in religious and liberal societies will respond
to media messages.
103(20.9%) 224(45.4%) 122(24.8%) 33(6.7%) 11(2.2%)
Source: Field Data, 2023
Table 6 shows that 406(82 percent) of the respondents agree that the culture and religion of the people
are instrumental to audience reaction to media messages. 431(87.4 percent) also agreed that Environ-
mental Dynamo theory can help to understand a religious society. While 236(48.2 percent) respondents
disagree with the fact that religion and culture cannot influence audience media messages. Significantly,
the majority of the respondents numbering 103 (20.9 percent) and 224 (45.4 percent) strongly agree and
agree, respectively, that Environmental Dynamo theory can help to fully explain the underlying factors
determining how people in religious and liberal societies will respond to media messages.
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Media and Contemporary African Society
Table 7. The media ecosystem and nature of content
Variables Strongly
Agree
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree
1. Media and the way they are consumed are
changing so rapidly that it can be overwhelming
to easily explain all its ramifications in society by
agenda-setting theory.
129(26.1%) 228(46.2%) 99(20%) 23(4.7%) 14(3%)
2. Media and the way they are consumed are
changing so rapidly that it can be overwhelming to
easily explain all its ramifications in society with a
two-step theory.
90(18.2%) 232(47.1%) 123(25%) 32(6.5%) 16(3.2%)
3. Media and the way they are consumed are
changing so rapidly that it can be overwhelming to
easily explain all its ramifications in the society with
third-person effect theory.
101(20.5%) 188(38.1%) 133(27%) 58(11.8%) 13(2.6%)
4. Environmental Dynamo theory anchored on
post-modernism can explain the media and the way it
is consumed in a rapidly changing society.
96(19.5%) 204(41.4%) 142(29%) 35(7.1%) 16(3%)
Source: Field Data, 2023
Table 7 shows affirmation by the majority of the respondents 357 (72.3 percent) that media con-
sumptions are changing rapidly that it cannot fully be explained by agenda-setting, two-step flow and
third-person effect theories. However, lesser number of respondents, 300, representing 60.9 percent,
also concur that an Environmental Dynamo theory anchored on post-modernism is required to explain
the media and the way it is consumed in a rapidly changing society.
Table 8. Psychological disposition of audience and media outcomes
Variables Strongly
Agree
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly
Disagree
1. In a plural society, the psychological disposition
of people affects media outcomes which the
agenda-setting theory will not capture in explaining
media effects on society.
114(23.1%) 209(42%) 113(23%) 47(9.5%) 10(2%)
2. In a plural society, the psychological disposition
of people affects media outcomes which the two-step
theory will not capture in explaining media effects on
society.
84(17%) 222(45%) 131(27%) 46(9%) 10(2%)
3. In a plural society, the psychological disposition of
people affects media outcomes which the third-person
effect theory will not capture in explaining media
effects on society.
81(16.4%) 197(40%) 148(30%) 55(11.2%) 12(2.4%)
4. In a plural society, the psychological disposition
of people affects media outcomes which the
Environmental Dynamo theory will capture in
explaining media effects on society.
97(20%) 200(40%) 134(27%) 44(9%) 18(4%)
5. The proposed diagram/model effectively explains
the media's effect on society based on the integrated
Environmental Dynamo theory that accommodates
the plurality of variables in the postmodern era.
101(20.5%) 220(44.6%) 133(27%) 28(5.7%) 11(2.2%)
Source: Field Data, 2023
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Media and Contemporary African Society
Table 8 shows affirmation by the majority of the respondents, 279 (56.5 percent) of the psychological
disposition of the audience and media outcomes which the agenda-setting, two-step, and third-person
effect theory will not capture in explaining media effects in a plural society. More importantly, 200 (40
percent) of the respondents concur that in a plural society, the psychological disposition of people affects
media outcomes which the Environmental Dynamo theory will capture in explaining media effects on
society. Also, 220(44.6 percent) of respondents agreed that the proposed diagram/model effectively
explains the media's effects on society based on the integrated Environmental Dynamo theory that ac-
commodates the plurality of variables in the postmodern era.
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
The quantitative and qualitative data obtained from the literature review and field data from re-
spondents met the objectives of the study to establish that demography, psychology, ethno-religious,
culture, politics, socio-economy - all combine to influence the outcome of the media content, who is
communicating what to whom and with what effect and vice versa in a spiral of news source (Musa,
2011; Imoh, 2013, Oludele, 2020).
They were used to establish the limitations of the agenda-setting, two-step flow, and third-person
effect; examine public perception of the Environmental Dynamo theory, and illustrate that it can remedy
the defects the three theories studied. Based on analysis of field data from respondents, the research
established the inadequacy of the theories in explaining media effects in a postmodern world as differ-
ent variables act individually or combine to influence media effects on society. For instance, 487 (98.8
percent) of the respondents affirmed their limitations based on the concept of a homogenous society
and no universal reactions of audiences in a plural society.
The literature review corroborated the finding of Bazargani and Larsari’s (2015) that the theories studied
do not capture pluralism and variables such as the individual psychology, philosophy, and environmental
variables in both micro, meso, and macro levels that influence mass media messages in society. Again, the
model of the Environmental Dynamo theories showed there are three levels at which different variables
can have varying media effects – the media audience, the broader/macro environment, and the media
environment. This is in line with Klinger and Metag's (2021) three levels of viewing media effect - the
micro, meso, and macro. That is why the Environmental Dynamo model listed variables interfacing at the
level of media audiences as personal history, gender, culture, cognition, intellect, experiences, perception,
economy, age, religion, and income. Other elements in the broader/macro environment include internet
access, economics, international politics, nationality, imperialism, neocolonialism, diplomacy, closed/
open society, human rights, and standards of living. In the media environment, variables such as news
framing, censorship, media regime, media freedom, cyberspace and digital integration, language, media
ownership, gatekeepers, media philosophy, and media economy influence the communication process.
The implication is that the intricately interwoven interplay of variables ensure fluidity of media effects
in a postmodern era that centers on what is real to the individual as against a predetermined truth that
defined media effects in a pre-modern era when the theories of agenda-setting, two-person flow, and
third-person effect were propounded.
It is instructive that 487 (98.8 percent) of the respondents agreed that the limitations of the agenda
setting, two-step flow, and third-person effect theories are based on the concept of a homogenous soci-
ety and the universal reactions of audiences while the reverse is so in post-modernism. Also, 378 (77.1
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percent) of the respondents affirmed that the defects of the theories can be cured with a new media
theory that accommodates all the variables; while 65(13.5 percent) rejected the idea that there is no
need for the assumption that a new media theory with certain variables is needed to properly understand
the ramifications of media effects in society while overwhelming majority (98.8 percent) concur that
agenda-setting has limitations in explaining media effects and reinforces the need for an inclusive Envi-
ronmental Dynamo model to establish the influence of media on society in a post-modern era.
The study established that the majority of respondents believed that educational, psychological, eco-
nomic empowerment, and age groups influence their response to media messages. Also, the majority
of respondents strongly agree that the educational level of the audience influences their responses to
media messages with the result that those with higher education could respond differently to stimuli
compared to those with lower qualifications or no education. Field data also showed that many of the
respondents believe that the psychological disposition of audiences from different backgrounds is cer-
tain to have different influences on the reception of media content. Responding to the statement that
the level of economic empowerment of varying audiences will elicit different levels of understanding
of media messages, the majority of the respondents agreed with a few disagreeing. This feedback from
respondents tallies with the views of Luedecke and Boykoff (2017) that media bridge different ways
of knowing about the environment, and often mediate public perceptions, attitudes, perspectives, and
behaviors related to environmental issues.
The same goes for the influence of technological innovation on media effect that respondents said
could not be explained with agenda-setting, two-step flow, and third-person effect theory. The field
data showed that the majority of respondents numbering 214 (43.4 percent) agreed that technological
advancement and innovation influence audience response to media messages and is accommodated in
the Environmental Dynamo theory in understanding media effect on society. Comparatively, 197 (39.9
percent) agreed that technological innovation has democratized the media space and has created a news
source cycle whose influence on media effect on society cannot be explained with third-person effect
theories under study; two-step theory, 188 (38percent); while agenda-setting is 184(37.3%). This syn-
chronizes with the postulation of Hariharasudan, Pandeeswari and Hassan (2022), and Cornell (2006)
emphasis on technological influences on media effects in a postmodern where there is no single defining
source for truth and reality beyond the individual. The implication is that researchers studying media
effect in a plural postmodern society should consider testing their hypotheses not only with the theories
of agenda-setting, two-step flow, and third-person effect but also with the Environmental Dynamo theory
for a much more reliable explanation of media messages and their effects on society.
CONCLUSION
The fulcrum of this research is to construct a theory that will complement other theories such as
agenda-setting, two-step flow, and third-person effect to sufficiently explain media effects in Africa, in
a postmodern era media. This is an era in which different variables such as cultural values, religion, and
technology among others act individually or combine to influence the outcome of media messages in
society based on the truth and reality the individual faces as against a predetermined truth and reality
of the pre-modern era, and scientific-based realism of modernity. Based on quantitative and qualitative
data from field data, the study established that at the different levels of media audience, broader or
macro-environment, and media environment, variables are intricately interwoven to influence the process
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of communication and its effect on society, especially in a postmodern African society as can be seen in
the example of how messages on COVID-19 were received on the continent. Hence, the proposition of
the Environmental Dynamo theory is sufficient to remedy the inadequacies and also complement other
theories in explaining media effects in society.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the conclusions, the study recommends:
1. Further empirical testing of the Environmental Dynamo theory on a much larger audience in different
countries and institutions of mass communication.
2. The Environmental Dynamo theory should be used to understand the media ecosystem and the nature
of content for different audiences.
3. The study recommends the use of Environmental Dynamo theory in explaining complex media
consumption patterns among different meso, micro, and macro media audiences and environments.
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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Agenda-Setting Theory: In a nutshell, agenda setting refers to the process by which mass media — in-
cluding journalistic media — present certain issues (e.g., gun violence) frequently and prominently, with
the result being that large segments of the public come to perceive those issues as being more important
than others.
Communication: The exchange of information, ideas, or thoughts between individuals or groups.
Culture: Culture is a term that refers to a large and diverse set of mostly intangible aspects of social
life. According to sociologists, culture consists of the values, beliefs, systems of language, communi-
cation, and practices that people share in common and that can be used to define them as a collective.
Environmental Dynamo Theory: This is a postmodern mass communication theory propounded
in the year 2024 by Dr. Desmond Onyemechi Okocha and Maureen Chigbo from Bingham University,
Nigeria. Aside principally factoring the social-cultural dynamics of the African media ecosystem, the
theory sought to remedy the deficiencies of selected linear theories such as the agenda-setting, two-step
flow and third-person theories. Its central argument is that the nature and elements defining three major
environments (1. the physiological, psychological and sociological make-up of media audience, 2. The
external economic and political environments of the audience, and 3. The media, ownership structure,
contents and the environment within which the media exist and operate) are responsible for the dynamics
and interactions between the media and their audience.
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Mass Media: refers to the technologies used as channels for a small group of people to commu-
nicate with a larger number of people. The concept was first addressed during the Progressive Era of
the 1920s, as a response to new opportunities for elites to reach large audiences via the mass media of
the time: newspapers, radio, and film. Indeed, the three forms of traditional mass media today are still
the same: print (newspapers, books, magazines), broadcast (television, radio), and cinema (movies and
documentaries).
Media Ecosystem: It is the study of media environments, the idea that technology and techniques,
modes of information and codes of communication play a leading role in human affairs.
Third-Person Effect Theory: Audience perceptions regarding media influence have been exten-
sively studied since the 1980s. Originating with a landmark article by W. Phillip Davison, the term “the
third-person effect” (TPE, later on also referred to in the literature as the “third-person perception,” or
TPP) relates to people’s tendency to perceive that mass-media messages have only minimal influence
on them but greater influence on other people—the “third persons.” Much research has been dedicated
to documenting such perceptions in various contexts and to exploring the psychological mechanisms
behind them.
Two-Step Flow Theory: The concept of the ‘two-step flow of communication’ suggests that the
flow of information and influence from the mass media to their audiences involves two steps: from the
media to certain individuals (i.e., the opinion leaders) and from them to the public.
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