Television broadcasts’ influence on voters in a presidential election.
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Academic Publishing/OmniScriptum GmbH & Co. K.G.
Abstract
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We live in an environment immersed in the mass media. Television is an
important mass communication channel. Among its functions is the political
education of the members of the audience. Television broadcasts may influence
the voting behaviour of those exposed to its broadcasts. It is, therefore, not
surprising that politicians have attempted improving their chances of winning
more votes by using it to reach millions of voters simultaneously. Television is a
channel for providing the electorate with useful information on the political
parties, the contestants and the voting procedures. The operation of a
functional political system and the election of contestants into some public
offices depend on an informed electorate. This study set out to investigate if
television broadcasts influenced the voting behaviour of the voters in Ado‐
Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State of Nigerian in their choices of
presidential candidates that they voted for in the election of 2007. The main
objectives of the study were to know whether television broadcasts increased
the political knowledge and participation of the respondents and consequently
influenced their voting behaviour in this election. Copies of the questionnaire
were administered to a sample of 3,635 respondents. In addition, some of these
respondents were also interviewed. The Pearson Moment Bivariate Two‐Tailed
Correlation tests were used to measure the linear associations between the
respondents’ exposure to television broadcasts and their subsequent voting
behaviour. The chi‐square tests measured the significance between the
variables. The qualitative analysis discussed the possible reasons behind the
respondents’ behaviours. This study found positive and statistically relevant
correlations between respondents’ exposure to television broadcasts and their
voting. The data show that television broadcasts actually influenced the voting
decisions of the respondents in different degrees. Specifically, exposure to
television broadcasts increased the voters’ knowledge of the presidential
election, of the candidates and of the political parties; made the voters to
increase their level of political participation before the presidential election, for
example, by registering to vote and actually going to the polling centres to vote
and influenced the candidates and parties that they voted for. Lastly, television
broadcasts made some of the voters change their minds from voting for their
initial choices of candidates, to vote for another candidate.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), PE English