Photojournalist

Edeh Joy Chinazaekpere 2018/250470 ABSTRACT Behaviour change communication is an important aspect of disseminating information, data, fact and ideas to the people in regards to their healthy living. This study talks about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle and the cost of living a care free life. The media instead of persuading and compelling people with lengthy writing, has taken communication to another level which has made the dissemination of information easier by introducing visuals in every aspect of communication. Visuals saves people's time by giving them the gist of a story at a glance. Visuals helps to counsel people by creating proper awareness on the risk of living in unpleasant environments, and preaches healthy lifestyle to the people. This study also talked about how visuals promotes development in the community. When the members of a community are healthy, they put more effort to see that their is development in every aspect, and this is only possible when there is awareness on the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. Other researchers were cited in this study to enhance easy comprehension and comparism. Conclusion parts points out visuals should be encouraged and appreciated in helping both primary and secondary school students learn faster without much stress. INTRODUCTION Behavioural change communication is a strategy which involves communicating with groups, individuals or community in order to promote healthy living. It is also a means of interacting with members of the community in a bid to persuade them to take their health serious which in turn helps promote a healthy society. It has to do with compelling or persuading individuals, groups or persons to live in certain ways in order to promote their life styles in a favourable way. People's reception toward treating themselves in today's world is very low. Living a care free live also includes taking ones health serious but people's behaviour towards the collection of the COVID-19 vaccine is very low. According to the research study on the topic "Expanding the boundaries of vaccine discourse: impact of visual illustrations communication intervention on intention towards COVID-19 vaccination among victims of insecurity in Nigeria" by Joel O. Ugwuoke et al, some findings were discovered on people's perception towards the collection of the vaccines which made the turn out so low. Three findings were stated at the end of the research work and they are as follows "In the first hypothesis, it was assumed that victims of conflict who are exposed to visual messages on COVID-19 vaccination will report greater self-efficacy than those who are not. This assumption was supported. In the second hypothesis, it was assumed that victims of conflict who are exposed to visual messages on COVID-19 vaccination will report greater task efficacy than those who are not. This assumption was equally supported. In the third hypothesis, it was argued that victims of conflict who are exposed to visual arts on COVID-19 vaccination will report more positive outcome expectancy from the vaccine than those who are not. This assumption was equally supported. In the last assumption, it was argued that victims of conflict who are exposed to visual messages on COVID-19 vaccination will report intention to make themselves available for vaccination than those who are not. Behaviour change communication helps in creating awareness on how groups or person(s) should live their lives. It helps to promotes awareness on balance diet which in turn makes people to always look fit. As a crucial pillar of health care, it helps people to gain adequate knowledge on healthy living and also the implications of not making their health a priority. Behaviour change communication helps the people to see and know the cost of living an unhealthy live or behaving in certain ways. Lack of care of the body breeds sickness which is very expensive because sickness as an expensive commodity takes away valueable time as ill persons would not be able to go about their normal activities. Behaviour change communication is an essential tool for creating awareness about healthy living in order to promote individual, groups or members of the society health and also helps to control resources in the community. This implies that when person(s) or members of the community are healthy, then the progress and development of the community is assured. Sick people do not engage in excessive work because the status of their health won't let them do so. Behaviour change communication creates awareness on how people can manage health problems and also teach them how to go about it. An instance is the case of pregnant women who refuses to go for antenatal during and after pregnancy, knowing fully well the implications of self medications during these periods. According to the study on "Impact of counseling visual multimedia on use of family planning methods among displaced Nigerian families", Tsai et al,(2018) show that the environment within which pregnant women live is an essential determinant of their health as well as comfort throughout the time of nurturing the pregnancy. Even the newborns require special care and attention but it will be difficult to get such care at IDP camps. When women give birth, they equally need to feed properly with strict adherence to a balanced diet so that they will be able to breastfeed their newborns but this is also difficult under the IDP camp situation. Chen et al, in the same study show that the diet of nursing g mothers is an important requirement that could significantly impact the health of both the mother and the infants. Bringing up children in an unhealthy environment tends to make them ill at every slightest opportunity thereby, making parents spend hard earned money on drugs at intervals. These can be prevented or minimized when one's body is fit. The popular saying, health is wealth, has said it all. Until the people know the implications and cost of living an unhealthy lifestyle, no amount of persuasion can change them. Resting is also a way of keeping the body fit. If you as a person don't pick a day to rest, then the body will surely pick some days or weeks for you to rest. IMPORTANCE OF MULTIMEDIA VISUALS IN BEHAVIOUR CHANGE COMMUNICATION A visual multimedia refers to using a visual item, such as an object, photograph, sign or picture, to communicate. Visual supports aid and enhance communication. They provide children and adults with speech, language and communication needs with an alternative mode of communication. Visual objects makes communication easier especially in today's world where everyone is busy. No one got the whole time to read lengthy stories. Print media and broadcast media has also evolve with the change in communication, because so many wouldn't squeeze time to sit and read or listen to lengthy stories. But visuals have been made available in such a way that barely looking at them, the gist behind the pictures are clearly explained. Gever 2016, explains multimedia in it simplest term. In his words, "advances in technologies have changed the communication landscape substantially. Before now, communication was limited to face-to-face, use of symbols and later, mass media of communication such as radio, newspapers, magazines and television (TV). During such times, the impact of media was measured based on the individual media genre or a combination of different media. One unique thing at that time was that the characteristics of each media were unique to it. For example, radio was known for sound, television for video while newspapers and magazines were known for text and still pictures. However, advances in technologies now allow for the combination of the characteristics of otherwise independent media and these are presented in digital format known as multimedia". Here, he summarized the advent of the multimedia and gave examples such as radio, sounds, TV ecetera. Television as one of the visual multimedia has diverse purposes which includes educational purposes for the benefits of all especially children. Lytras et al in a research study "Visual media and learning: Effect of interactive television instruction as an intervention strategy for improving the critical thinking skills and disposition of out-of-school nomadic children in Nigeria" highlighted some factors that makes television useful for educational purposes. which says that television is substantially available to viewers; many people are used to television as a medium; people typically have trust in the contents which they receive from television, plus the quality of the content is high and rich enough to improve on the knowledge of the audience. Lytras et al. add further that television has the capacity to generate large content that can also motivate users to learn and acquire knew knowledge. Also, bringing visual multimedia aid into the classroom opens up a whole new realm of educational opportunities. Showing students images can boost their understanding of a topic. For example, it can be tough for students to understand the concept of where a place is located just by hearing their teacher describe it. Showing students on a map will improve their success. Deaf students are not left out with the use of multimedia in every institutions. Nikolaraizi et al, in a study reported that visual multimedia are effective for promoting reading comprehension among deaf students. Within this context, it can be said that visual multimedia can be effective in aiding learning. Visual draws attention and also creates awareness in every sectors. Every hospital for instance, has pictures pertaining to various illness especially visuals of women who attends antenatal. Pictures explaining how healthy those who strictly take their medications and also follow their doctors description will look during and after pregnancy. Also pictures explaining the consequences of going against doctors prescription are pasted everywhere. All these is done to ensure effective communication in every aspect. In conclusion, multimedia gets students attention and paying rapt attention will enable them retain what they are being taught which helps them want to produce or explore whatever they think they know, this will go a long way to serve as motivation to both the students and teachers. Multimedia promotes healthy living which in turns increases productivity in every aspect of one's endeavour. Multimedia is also therapeutic as victims of circumstances having difficulty to concentrate on important issues are required that they watch and listen to certain programmes In order to help them heal quickly. References 1. Tsai et al., 2018, Nikolaraizi et al, 2. Visual media and learning: Effect of interactive television instruction as an intervention strategy for improving the critical thinking skills and disposition of out-of-school nomadic children in Nigeria by (Gever et al) 3. Chen et al, 2004 4. Expanding the boundaries of vaccine discourse: impact of visual illustrations communication intervention on intention towards COVID-19 vaccination among victims of insecurity in Nigeria by Joel C. Ugwuoke et al