Mass media exposure and its impact on family planning in Bangladesh

This paper analyses mass media exposure and its effect on family planning i n Bangladesh using data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Wealth Survey ( BDHS) 1993-94. The findings indicate that radio and television are two impo rtant mass media for disseminating family planning information in Banglades h, However, access to them and exposure to family planning through them are still limited. Slightly more than 40% (42.1%) of respondents reported that they had heard family planning messages via radio, while 17.2% said televi sion, 8.4% said poster and 5.4% said billboard. Respondent's place of resid ence, education, economic status, geographical region and number of living children appeared to be the most important variable determining mass media exposure to family planning. Multivariate analysis shows that both radio an d TV exposure to family planning messages and ownership of a radio and TV h ave a significant effect on current use of family planning methods. These f actors remain significant determinants of contraceptive use, even after con trolling socioeconomic and demographic factors. The study reveals that both socioeconomic development policies and family planning programmes with a s pecial emphasis on mass media, especially radio, may have a significant eff ect on contraceptive use in Bangladesh. The principal policy challenge is t o design communications strategies that will reach the less privileged, rur al and illiterate people who are by far the majority in Bangladesh.