Diffusion Theory

Introduction

Diffusion can be  defined as the process by which an innovation is adopted and gains acceptance by members of a certain community.

It can also be defined as the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. Diffusion is a special type of communication concerned with the spread of messages that are perceived as new ideas.

A number of factors interact to influence the diffusion of an innovation. The four major factors that influence the diffusion process are the innovation itself, how information about the innovation is communicated, time, and the nature of the social system into which the innovation is being introduced (Rogers, 1995).

Four Main Elements in the Diffusion of Innovations

Innovation


Rogers offered the following description of an innovation: “An innovation is an idea, practice, or project that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption” (Rogers, 2003, p. 12). An innovation may have been invented a long time ago, but if individuals perceive it as new, then it may still be an innovation for them. The newness characteristic of an adoption is more related to the three steps (knowledge, persuasion, and decision) of the innovation-decision process that will be discussed later.

Communication Channels

The second element of the diffusion of innovations process is communication channels. For Rogers (2003), communication is “a process in which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding” (p. 5). This communication occurs through channels between sources. Rogers states that “a source is an individual or an institution that originates a message. A channel is the means by which a message gets from the source to the receiver” (p. 204). Rogers states that diffusion is a specific kind of communication and includes these communication elements: an innovation, two individuals or other units of adoption, and a communication channel.

Time

According to Rogers (2003), the time aspect is ignored in most behavioral research. He argues that including the time dimension in diffusion research illustrates one of its strengths. The innovation-diffusion process, adopter categorization, and rate of adoptions all include a time dimension. These aspects of Rogers’ theory will be discussed later in more detail.

Social System

The social system is the last element in the diffusion process. Rogers (2003) defined the social system as “a set of interrelated units engaged in joint problem solving to accomplish a common goal” (p. 23). Since diffusion of innovations takes place in the social system, it is influenced by the social structure of the social system. For Rogers (2003), structure is “the patterned arrangements of the units in a system” (p. 24). He further claimed that the nature of the social system affects individuals’ innovativeness, which is the main criterion for categorizing adopters.

REFERENCES

Dooley, K.E. (1999). Towards a holistic model for the diffusion of educational technologies: An integrative review of educational innovation studies. Educational Technology & Society 2(4), 35-45.

Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations (4th ed.). New York: The Free Press.
Ryan, B. & Gross, N. C. (1943). The diffusion of hybrid seed corn in two Iowa communities. Rural Sociology (8) 15-24.

Stuart, W.D. (2000). Influence of sources of communication, user characteristics and innovation characteristics on adoption of a communication technology (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Kansas, 2000). ProQuest DigitalDissertations. (UMI No. AAT 9998115).

Surendra, S.S. (2001). Acceptance of Web technology-based education by professors and administrators of a college of applied arts and technology in Ontario (Doctoral dissertation, University of Toronto, 2001). ProQuest DigitalDissertations. (UMI No. AAT NQ58603).

Zakaria, Z. (2001). Factors related to information technology implementation in the Malaysian Ministry of Education Polytechnic. (Doctoral dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2001).

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M.anifest Gets expressPay Deal

Rapper M.anifest has been selected by expressPay, an eCommerce company, as its brand ambassador in Ghana.

Over the years, expressPay has been touted as one of the most secure and convenient online and mobile phone sources for paying bills in Ghana. With highly rated security features, comparable to credit card companies like MasterCard and Visa, expressPay makes payment of utility bills easy.

M.anifest stated that he had been using the expressPay service for close to eight months and was happy to be the ambassador for the company.

“I have been using expressPay for the past eight months and I can personally vouch for how awesome, convenient and safe it is. It’s made my life easier. I haven’t had to run out of the house in the middle of the night searching for phone credits, having been able to do that with only a few clicks using expressPay,” he disclosed.

ExpressPay is an indigenous company that recognises the need for easy solutions to payment challenges. It was established in 2012. In two minutes, users can download the app onto their phones and begin making payments for water, internet and television bills among others.

“I have always believed in African solutions to our problems, so this is an easy fit for me,” M.anifest added.

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Be Proud of Who You Are -Reggie Rockstone tells Ghanaian Youth

Reggie Rockstone

HIPLIFE LEGEND Reggie Rockstone has revealed that the hiplife genre was created to give a voice to young people and to enable them to be proud of who they are.

Reggie Rockstone is part of the few Ghanaian celebrities who have been selected by Guinness Ghana Brewery Limited (GGBL) for the #madeofblack campaign which is part of the global Guinness Made of More campaign. The campaign is to celebrate Ghanaians who are not afraid to express themselves and are carving their own path in life.

“The same thing I have been telling them from the very inception of hiplife; be yourself, represent who you are and be proud of who you are. That is the reason why hiplife was invented. Hiplife was invented to uplift and give a voice to the young ones and it worked,” he told Nii Ogbamey Tetteh.

According to Reggie, who is also known in show business as ‘Grandpapa’, it is a very proud defining moment for him to be alive to witness the fulfilment of the dream behind the invention of hiplife.

“Today, this same hiplife is giving you the likes of Shatta Wale, E.L and all these brothers who I stand side by side with. It is actually a very proud defining moment for somebody like me to be alive to witness something like this,” he stated.

He however commended GGBL for coming up with such an initiative that promotes creativity and uniqueness among black people.

“Black people have always known about themselves, no doubt. It has just become apparent
that it is on the forefront now. I pray that it continues to be so. For me this is perfect. I’m made of hiplife, I’m made of music and I’m #madeofblack,” he added.

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EL Shares His Secretes to Success

EL

Award winning Ghanaian rapper EL born Elom Adablah has  over the years been labeled  as one of the few musicians putting Ghana on the map with his works.

E.L. shared with  NEWS-ONE  during the unveiling of the ambassadors for Guinness #madeofblack campaign the secretes to the road his successful music career.

“I’m made of passion, l’m made of the will to succeed, I’m made of asking ‘why not’ and most of all, I’m made of Ambition,” he stated.

According to E.L. who is currently signed to the leading multi-purpose entertainment company BBnZ live, the Guniess #madeofblack campaign was the best initiative he had been associated with.

“It is definitely one of the best initiatives that I have been proud to be associated with. Made of Black is a mental thing, it is intangible, it is the way that you think, a way that you behave and it is also us influencing each other to do positive things in society,” he said

The #madeofblack Campaign is part of the global Guinness Made of More campaign which celebrates Ghanaians who are not afraid to express themselves and are carving their own path in life. 

“The campaign is not about being black or white or skin color. It is an inside thing, it is about being who you want to be and showing the rest of the world who you are,   not outside but inside,” he added.

 E.L  who is  one of the ambassadors for the campaign recently declared himself as the “Best African Rapper”  in Ghana

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Socrates Fights TV Stations

Socrates

Renowned movie maker, Socrates Sarfo, has taken a swipe at television stations that broadcast Ghanaian home video movies for free without consulting the producers of the said movies.

According to Socrates, the practice is on the rise these days and is a major factor responsible for destroying the country’s movie industry.

“Television is the one thing killing the market today. People are watching our movies for free on TV, so Ghanaians do not see the need in buying the movies if they can watch them for free on TV,” the ‘Hot Fork’ producer told NEWS-ONE.

Socrates stated that in western countries, television stations pay producers before attempting to show any movie on their stations because it costs a lot to produce movies.

However checks by the paper revealed that most Ghanaian movie producers go into some form of barter with these TV stations that allows the stations to telecast their old movies for free on condition that the movie producers also get to advertise their new movies on the networks for free.

But Socrates explained; “any movie producer who does that shows that he is ignorant about the very industry he is even operating in.”

“There is nothing in the world like an old movie. When you make a movie, at least every 10 years you have a new generation who haven’t seen that particular movie before. You can bring back that movie into the market and sell them. Once someone hasn’t seen the story, it is still new,” he added.

He attributes what he terms an act of “ignorance”, which is affecting the movie market, to the fact that most of the new movie producers are not being educated by the veterans in the industry.

“Some of these producers do things that will affect the market by giving it to the TV stations to be shown for free. It is only in Ghana that these things happen. It is affecting the whole market. It is one of the reasons why our movies are not selling now. This also happens because we have not educated the new producers who are coming into the business,” he said.

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Ghana is Not Serious About Creative Arts -Wanlov

Wanlov the Kubolor

Controversial rapper Wanlov the Kubolor says Ghana as a country has never been serious about the creative arts industry; but has rather been interested in the money the industry generates.

According to Wanlov, successive governments have never been ready to help the creative industry grow by putting in place training centres or systems to help improve the industry.

“As long as I have lived, Ghana has never been serious about the creative industry; they are only serious about the money they can make from that industry. When they see the creative industry making money, they just come and chop some but they never help for it to grow.”

“There are no centres training artisans, there are no subsidies helping the craft people, and to make it worse, I don’t see any system in place. If Ghana cared about the creative arts industry, they would have looked out for some of these people who are being harshly ejected,” Wanlov told NEWS-ONE after the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) demolished structures belonging to some artisans behind the Art Centre.

The AMA on Sunday led their taskforce, together with heavily armed policemen, to demolish what they term ‘unauthorised’ structures behind the Arts Centre in Accra.

Reports say the AMA carried out the exercise as one of the ways of fighting cholera and addressing sanitation issues in that community.

“The AMA is also saying that they demolished the structures because of diseases like cholera, Ebola and the rest. But if sanitation issues were really the aim of the AMA, they would have cleaned the Korle Lagoon long ago, so I doubt they did it because of sanitation issues,” the barefoot-walking musician stated.

Wanlov added that: “If AMA and Vanderpuije were serious about sanitation issues, they will be cleaning Korle Lagoon, they will be dealing with the liquid waste being dumped at Korle Gonno, providing better ways for waste disposal and better recycling measures and holding companies producing plastic accountable.”

“Companies, churches and organisations who are throwing the rubbish out on the streets are the people the AMA should be policing. One Rastaman there told me that Vanderpuije has vandalised the poor and it really rang in my head that vandalising the poor is what Vanderpuije is here for.”

The ‘Beatrice’ singer therefore added that the AMA should consider providing alternative housing for the victims since most of them were paying rent to some ‘landlords’ at the place.

“The people come from all over Ghana and West Africa because of poverty in different parts of where they come from, and have built their families there. However, the main issue is that they haven’t provided alternative housing for the people living there. Most of the people there were paying rent to some self-appointed landlords. So if they are given an alternative place to stay, they will be able to pay the rent. The shops of the Arts Centre are there but some of the artisans were living in those places that were demolished. If these guys go and live off-site and factor in transport and other things, it will end up affecting the prices of the things they sell there, which is not good for the industry,” he said.

The Art Centre happens to be one of the tourist attractions where most tourists go to purchase memorabilia artworks from Ghana.

“No tourist comes to Ghana without going through the Arts Centre. The place is the number one ambassador for the Ghanaian tourism industry,” he noted.

Meanwhile, some shop owners at the Art Centre have appealed to the AMA to give them more time to relocate, following discussions between their leaders and city authorities.

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E.L Shares His Secrets to Success

EL

Award winning Ghanaian rapper, E.L, born Elom Adablah, has over the years been labelled as one of the few musicians putting Ghana on the map with his works.

E.L shared with NEWS-ONE, during the unveiling of the ambassadors for Guinness #madeofblack campaign, the secrets behind his successful music career.

“I’m made of passion; I’m made of the will to succeed; I’m made of asking, ‘why not’; and most of all, I’m made of ambition,” he stated.

According to E.L, who is currently signed to the leading multi-purpose entertainment company BBnZ live, the Guinness #madeofblack campaign is the best initiative he has so far been proud to be associated with.

“It is definitely one of the best initiatives that I have been proud to be associated with. ‘Made of Black’ is a mental thing; it is intangible; it is the way that you think, a way that you behave and it is also us influencing each other to do positive things in society,” he said.

The #madeofblack campaign is part of the global Guinness Made of More campaign which celebrates Ghanaians who are not afraid to express themselves and are carving their own path in life.

“The campaign is not about being black or white; it is an inside thing; it is about being who you want to be and showing the rest of the world who you are,   not outside but inside,” he added.

E.L, who is one of the ambassadors for the campaign, recently declared himself as the “Best African Rapper” in Ghana.

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Baby Jet In Fresh Trouble – Janet Bandu’s Father Calls For His Arrest

Castro and Janet

Staff Sergeant Joe Bandu (retd.), father of Janet Bandu, the lady who supposedly drowned with rapper Castro in the Volta Lake at Ada, has called on the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to arrest Asamoah Gyan over the disappearance of his daughter and Castro.

“The whole thing now is, I don’t know what to do. I am therefore appealing to CDS, the IGP and all those in authority to help me to arrest Asamoah Gyan so that we can question him because he is the one who sent them there. I know that with this appeal they will take this up,” Mr Bandu stated on NEAT FM’s ‘Entertainment Ghana’ show on Tuesday.

According to him, Janet only followed her friend Alberta—who is suspected to be Asamoah Gyan’s girlfriend—to have fun at Ada when the incident happened. But as it stands, Alberta has deliberately avoided all opportunities to sit and narrate what exactly happened on that trip.

“As it stands, I don’t have peace at all. From what we gathered, it was Asamoah Gyan’s girlfriend, Alberta, and their team who took my daughter to Ada. Since then, Asamoah Gyan and his team have come home but my daughter Janet and Castro have still not come back. No one has been able to come to us to tell us that this is what happened at Ada,” he added.

The man, who sounded very furious, explained that his daughter is equally a citizen of the country; therefore all seriousness should be attached to her disappearance.

“When they are talking about the issue, they always mention Castro and leave out my daughter. Are they saying that my daughter is not a citizen of this nation? Nobody is questioning Asamoah Gyan and his aide, Sammy. Is it not painful?

“They should come out and tell us where Castro and my daughter are. I don’t want to take the law into my hands. There are laws in this country, so if somebody does something which is not good, the authorities are there to take action.”

Castro went missing on Sunday, July 6, 2014, while jet skiing with Janet Bandu on the Volta Lake at Ada, where he was holidaying with Black Stars’ captain, Asamoah Gyan, and some other friends. Reports say Castro—born Theophilus Tagoe—drowned while trying to save Janet Bandu from the lake.

But Mr Bandu says the Black Stars’ captain and his friend have not officially come to inform the family about what exactly happened on their trip, therefore raising suspicion that there may be more to his daughter’s disappearance than what is making rounds in the media.

A search party led by the Marine Unit of the Ghana Police Service, with assistance from the Ghana Navy and local folks, have since been searching tirelessly to find both Castro and Janet.

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‘Vodafone Icons Is to Empower Youth’

M.anifest 

Ruth Maafo, Events and Sponsorship Manager for Vodafone Ghana, says this year’s edition of the Vodafone Icons is to empower young people to be creative in their quest to become music icons.

According to Miss Maafo, the rationale behind this year’s edition, dubbed Vodafone Icons ‘Remix’, is to give contestants the platform to perform their remixed versions of popular songs.

She stated that the music reality show seeks to discover and groom local music talents for international stage in an intense ‘Boot Camp’ session. 20 contestants will be selected from the nationwide audition and then shortlisted to 12 for the main event.

“Contestants will receive professional training from top-notch voice trainers and chorographers through competitive tasks to promote self-confidence and creativity,” she added.

This season the award-winning musician, M.anifest, singer Gena West and radio presenter Ms Naa will be the judges for the 13 weeks music reality show.

The reality show, which started in 2010, has produced amazing singers including Afro Rock singer, Noella Wiyaala and Ryan.

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FIPAG Admits Piracy Is A Problem

Asare Hackman

Steve Asare Hackman, President of the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG), has admitted that the production and sale of pirated movies are affecting the movie industry.

Though FIPAG has a taskforce responsible for fighting the act which is reported to be on the rise, Mr Hackman told NEWS-ONE that piracy is broader than what people think.

“We have an anti-piracy taskforce who occasional go round to arrest those who deal in the pirated Ghanaian movies. The issue with piracy is that it cannot be eradicated but you can only minimise it. Whiles  our producers are selling their CDs for let’s say GH¢5 or GH¢7, these pirates will be selling the same movie on DVD at a cheaper price, and with the current economic situation, people will prefer to buy the pirated one to the original ones,” he stated.

When the paper interacted with some Ghanaian movie producers, they noted that sales of movies had gone down because most people are only interested in pirating the movies rather than buying the original ones.

But the FIPAG boss explained that the association’s anti-piracy taskforce was working tirelessly to curb the issue.

According to him the taskforce, who works in collaboration with the police and FIPAG executives, is divided into two; one for the southern sector—who take care of Greater Accra, Western, Eastern and Volta Regions; and another for the northern sector—responsible for Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and the Northern Regions.

“In recent times, when these producers talk about piracy, it is not only about people remaking the CDs or DVDs for sale, but some people are now uploading the pirated  movies onto the internet whiles  others  are distributing them on pen drives. Piracy is broader than what people look at.  As it stands now, the sales of our movies on CDs and DVDs are going down so we at FIPAG are looking at another market like the internet. We are trying to create our own internet market so we can also sell our movies there as well,” he added.

Over the years, piracy has been considered   internationally as a crime which is punishable by law.

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Ghanaians Make Piracy Very Beautiful -Socrates Sarfo

Socrates Sarfo

Controversial movie producer, Socrates Sarfo, has for the umpteenth time complained about ‘piracy’ in Ghana’s movie industry.

Socrates told NEWS-ONE that even though piracy is considered a more serious crime than armed robbery in other countries, Ghanaians make the act look very beautiful and more attractive than armed robbery.

“Piracy is an old canker. In the first place, the TV stations showing our movies for free and piracy are the two main issues that are affecting the industry. As for piracy it is so beautiful now because we have made it so attractive. Pirates are not scared of engaging in the act again. It is more beautiful to be a pirate than to be an armed robber, even though piracy is more serious than armed robbery. We have made piracy so attractive, “the ‘Hot Fork’ producer stated.

According to him, the legal system in Ghana makes it very stressful to pursue piracy issues, which in a way encourages the act.

After the movie producers are done with the production phase and get the movie on CDs, these pirates make their own copies of the same movie and market them separately.

“Now when you catch a pirate and send him to the police station, the police will keep asking you to go and come till you get tired; then the pirate is granted bail and goes away. Since the pirates know this, they are somewhat encouraged to do the act. Even if by some miracle you get to court over the issue, there is also another delay: they will keep adjourning the case, and since we producers cannot keep up with the delay, they get tired and stop going to the court. Those who manage to pursue the case end up getting some few prison years for the pirate,” he added.

Socrates noted that Ghana needs to start seeing piracy as a serious crime, which is also a major ingredient responsible for killing the movie industry.

“To me, it is about time we treated piracy as a high crime and did something to the culprits; that will deter others from venturing into the act. Let’s treat pirates in such a way that their colleagues will advise themselves to quit the act because they are killing the industry, people’s investments are going down the drain and they are having a field day because we have given them so much room to operate,” he said.

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