Role of Mass Media in Immunisation Decisions

Following the 2002 Polio outbreak in India, the government launched a large-scale mass media campaign in 2003 featuring Amitabh Bachchan, the Bollywood superstar from the 1970s and 1980s, in public health advertisements on national and local television channels. This chapter uses the District Level Household Survey data for 2002–2004 and 2007–2008 and examines whether the 2003 campaign was sufficient in motivating people to vaccinate their children against Polio. Despite the popular perception about the effectiveness of mass media campaign, there was no immediate effect on vaccination participation in 2004. However, by 2007–2008, when mass media campaigns and social mobilisation networks were simultaneously active, the odds of children under 5 receiving the Polio vaccine increased significantly.