INFLUENCE OF TELEVISION BROADCASTS ON VOTERS' CHOICE OF PARTIES: A STUDY OF 2007 NIGERIAN PRESIDENTIAl ElECTION
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Foundation for American Peace Studies and Global Initiative, Nsukka
Abstract
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Because of television's wide popularity, political parties and their contestants
have used it to reach and deliver various messages to a large number of
people in order to advertise and promote themselves. Since television wields
influence, these political institutions believe that canvassing from this
medium would confer on them added advantages, especially making the
voters to favour their points of opinion and consequently cast their votes for
them. It is therefore nothing to be wondered at that politicians have
vigorously engaged this medium to reach out to voters and to those who are
sympathetic to their causes. They believe that a relationship exists between
their appearances on television and electoral outcomes. Those campaigning
for public offices assume television broadcasts influence the manner in which
members of the electorate vote. This study sought to find out if the various
pieces of broadcasts from television on the 2007 Nigerian presidential
election influenced the choices of political parties that voters in Ado Odo/Ota
made. When the various variables were subjected to statistical tests
significant and positive relationships were found among all the variables
testing to see if the respondents' exposure to television influenced their
choices of the political parties that they voted for. It was discovered that
indeed television broadcasts influenced these choices. Because the values
were low, it was also found that there were some other underlying factors,
like partisanship, that also influenced the choice of the voters.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), HE Transportation and Communications