MASS MEDIA AND THE SUSTENANCE OF PEACE-BUILDING ROLE OF WOMEN'S AUGUST MEETING IN IGBO-LAND, NIGERIA

This paper investigates the mass media's role in sustaining the peace-building activities of the Women's August Meeting in Igboland with a focus on the Catholic and Anglican churches' women organisations. Specifically, it seeks to ascertain the importance of mass media as an essential instrument and to interrogate its use by the Women's August Meeting in actualising the goal of peace-building. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were adopted wherein a structured questionnaire was used to generate data from 500 respondents randomly drawn from the capitals of the five states in Igboland. Further data were generated from documentaries and published materials from libraries and the internet through literature review. Data from primary source was analysed using SPSS Version 20.0, while secondary source data was analysed using historical descriptive and analytical methods. The analysis reveals that the mass media is an inevitable instrument for Women's August Meeting peace-building activities. It further reveals that it has not been effectively employed by the Women's August Meeting to enhance its peace-building activities. The paper advocates for the application of mass media by the meeting as a viable approach to enhancing its peace-building potential.