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TRADITIONAL MODES OF COMMUNICATION AND COMPARISM OF THE STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF TRADITIONAL MEDIA OVER MODERN WESTERN MEDIA

The modes of traditional communication can be divided into two major categories, namely verbal and non-verbal communication. VERBAL TRADITIONAL COMMUNICATION MODE •	Idiophones: These are self-sounding instruments or technical wares which produce sound without the addition or use of an intermediary medium. The sound or message emanates from the materials from which the instruments are made and they could be shaken, scratched, struck, pricked (pulled) or pressed with the feet. In this group we have the gong, wood lock, wooden drum, bell and rattle. •	Membranophones: These are media on which sound is produced through the vibration of membranes. They include all varieties of skin or leather drum. These drums are beaten or struck with well-carved stick. •	Aerophones: These are media which produce sound as a result of the vibration of a column of air. They comprise media of the flute family, whistle reed pipes, horns and trumpets. •	Symbolic display: This simply means symbolic writing or representation. Communication takes place when an encoder uses graphic representations to convey a message which is understood within the context of a known social event and an accompanying verbal message. •	Signals: These are the physical embodiments of a message. Many ancient signals are still being used for modern communication today. For example, in Nigeria, there is hardly a broadcasting station which does not utilize drum signals to draw the attention of its listeners to the fact that they are about to begin transmission for the day, deliver their main news broadcast or announce time, close down or prepare for the broadcast of the local or national leader .Some of the signals include fire, gunshots, canon shots, drum e.tc. •	Objectifies: Media presented in concrete forms which may have significance for a specific society only or may be universal through their traditional association with specific contextual meanings. These include: kola nut, the young unopened bud of the palm frond, charcoal, White Pigeon or fowl, white egg, feather, e.t.c. •	Colour schemes: This is the general conception and use of combination of colours in a design to convey some meanings. Colour uses the advantages of pictorial communication by combining the speed of its impact and freedom from linguistic boundaries to achieve instant and effective communication. Among the prominent colours used to communicate different meanings among the Cross River people are: red, white black, green, yellow, brown and turquoise. Combinations of these colours produce certain significant meanings for the society. •	Extra-mundane communication: This is the mode of communication between the living and the dead, the supernatural or Supreme Being. This is usually done through incantation, spiritual chants, ritual, prayers, sacrifice, invocation, séance, trance, hysterics or liberation. •	Symbolic displays: These would be cultural-specific or may have universal significance and some of their characteristics are shared even with primates e.g. smiling, sticking out the tongue, expression of anger, disgust, happiness, and fear, the way we walk, or sit, gestures we use, voice qualities and other facial expression.

VERBAL TRADITIONAL COMMUNICATION MODES Verbal traditional communication can be discussed under the following headings: •	VILLAGE SQARE: The village square in the rural areas is a venue for meetings and a centre of activity during festivals. People converge at the village square for crucial meetings that concern the village. Information and announcements can be made during such occasions. •	FAMILY: Family institute plays significant role in the communication about life, movement, leadership, cooperation e.t.c take place within the family. The molding of the self was the function of the family. •	RELIGION: Traditional religion has played a vital role in traditional communication of African societies. African traditional societies have different ways of communication with their gods. These gods communicate differently to the people depending on the types of occasion and needs. By this, diseases, natural disasters, man- made disasters such as theft, prostitution and other vices were controlled and sometimes averted. Where there is such outbreak of diseases, the priest carried out some certain sacrifices and speaks to the gods and such diseases are taken away from the people. •	POLITICS: The terrain of traditional politics system was just like any other form of communication. There were no written constitution but it has laid down structures, rules, and regulations that guided the political system. The tenets and essence of politics were coded orally. The administration of government was characterized by accountability, adjudication of legal matters. Prudence and other forms of administrative procedures were made to function well. •	MARKET PLACE: The market place is very important in the lives of the African people. It is a place where people from different parts of the community converge for purpose of buying and selling. The market place can be used effectively to disseminate information to the entire community.

THE STREGHTH OF TRADITIONAL MEDIA OVER WESTERN MEDIA •	Traditional media cater for the illiterates as they may not understand the language of western modern communication system. In fact, traditional media is nothing but tools of communication having special characteristics to express social-cultural, religion, moral and emotional needs of the people of society to which they belong. •	Traditional media used for education purposes and as a tool to reform society. It helps to convey educational message through entertainment, colour, costume, music and dance. As these elements constitute an integral part of their culture, the audience will be able to indentify easily with the experience provided by traditional media which the western modern media can be simply achieved. •	Traditional media plays an important role in sustaining agriculture. It helps farmers to make efficient, productive and sustainable use of their land and other agriculture resources by providing information, training and education. Certain traditional media forms are identified in their dialect which they could understand easily to assist the farmers to improve farming method and techniques, to increase production, efficiency and income which the western modern communication cannot be achieved by using English language. This will be ultimately improved their standard of living and lift the social and educational standards of rural life. •	Traditional media cater to small audience at a time; the impact is at a much deeper level. Unlike the western media, the folk media involves audience participation. These art forms preserve and disseminate the tradition and culture of our forefathers. Traditional media performs an important role in changing the society for better. Some forms of modern communication are not seen to have the required impact when it comes to developmental messages. In terms of motivating change and development, traditional media is often seen to be more effective. •	Traditional media has no need for special training and mostly embedded in one’s own culture and tradition compare to western modern communication media that need special training and adopted western language to send messages to heterogeneous audience. •	Traditional media provide room for immediate feedback which is a little beat delay in the western modern communication system •	Traditional media could be employed as message carriers to the audience through face to face situation makes rural communication meaningful and convincing which is not possible in the western modern communication.

WEAKNESSES OF TRADITIONAL MEDIA OVER WESTERN MODERN MEDIA •	Traditional media was restricted to the place of performance and cater only to a limited audience while the western modern media is meant for the general audience and can be accessed all over the world irrespective of the geographical location. •	Traditional media cannot combine audio, video and text in single channel while western modern media use variety of audio, video and text in one single medium. Western media has great possibility of recording and achieving the content for future which was the weakness of traditional media. •	Traditional media faced challenges of time-value orientation of most African cultures. •	Traditional media lies in the technology of traditional communication arts, principles and practices. Since the “LANGUAGE” of the subject is not yet standardized, it has weakness of creating universal awareness seems to loom large alongside the limitation of opportunities in traditional practice. •	Traditional media society’s technology does not have the capacity to transcend space and other barriers in the same manner as the apparent differences in time value of information between western media and traditional communication systems.

REFERENCES Bran, S. (2004). Introduction to mass communication: Media Literacy and Culture. New York, Megraw hill. Fiske, John (1990).Introduction to communication studies.(Cited in Okuma, C.S 1999) Introduction to mass communication.Enugu:New Generation books. Jayameera, Neville (1991) Folk media and development communication. Mamila: Asian social institute. John, Willis (1998).Communication and the individual. Cardiff: University of Wales press.