Leveraging radio messages to challenge cultural factors promoting gender-based violence in Nigeria

Purpose Gender-based violence is often culture-specific; hence, the media and other stakeholders must tackle it from its cultural roots. On the other hand, radio messages can play a significant role in combating cultural factors that promote gender-based violence by shaping attitudes, beliefs and behaviours within communities. This study aims to examine the impact of radio messages on challenging cultural factors that promote gender-based violence in Osun State, Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted among 368 respondents (out of 380 planned) in Osogbo, Osun State, to assess their awareness of and exposure to radio messages on gender-based violence. Findings The findings indicated a high awareness of and exposure to these messages (mean = 4.08–4.43 on a five-point Likert scale), with a strong agreement among respondents. Exposure to radio messages independently explained 75.3% of the variance in challenging cultural factors (β = 0.861, p 0.001; Cohen’s f2 = 3.04 – very large effect) even after controlling for demographics. The study concluded that radio messages are a powerful tool in addressing and combating gender-based violence in Nigeria. The study thus recommended the importance of promoting responsible journalism and reporting on gender-based violence. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to isolate radio as the medium and use regression analysis to quantify its predictive power on cultural norm change in a Yoruba context, distinguishing it from multi-media studies (Okafor and Anorue, 2023; Talabi et al., 2025).