TABLE OF CONTENT
Page
COVER PAGE …………………………………………………………….. i.
TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………….……ii.
DECLARATION PAGE ………………………….…..………………..… .iii.
APPROVAL PAGE …………………………….…….……………….……iv.
DEDICATION …………………..………………….….……………………v.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ………………………………..…………………vi.
TABLE OF CONTENT ………………………….…………………………vii.
LIST OF TABLAS………………………………….……………….………x.
ABSTRACT ………..………………………………….…………..………..xi.
CHAPTER ONE:
1.1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………….………..1
1.2 Background of the Study ………………….…………………………….5
1.3 Statement of the Problem ……………………………………………….9
1.4 Objective of the Study ………………………………………….……….11
1.5 Research Questions………………………………………………..……12
1.7 Significance of the Study…………………………………….………….12
1.8 Research Hypothesis…………………………………………..………..13
1.9 Scope of the Study…………………………………………….….…….14
1.10 Operational definition of Terms……………………………………..…14
CHAPTER TWO:
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE.
2.1 Theoretical framework…………………………………………………16
2.2 Review of Related Literature……………………………………………17
2.2.1 Source of Literature……………………………………………………17
2.2.2 The Review…………………………………………………………….18
CHAPTER THREE:
METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………….……..37
Validation of the Instrument………………………………………………..…38
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
Description of respondents location…………………………………………..39
Description of respondents’ literacy level…………………………..……….40
Description of respondents’ party membership………………………………41
Responses of Respondent………………………………………………….…41
Analysis of Responses ……………………………………………………….43
Literacy level of respondents………………………………………………….44
Descriptive statistics of no/low skilled respondents……………………….46
Descriptive statistics of non-party member respondents…………………48
Descriptive statistics of the responses of respondents based on location…………………………………………………………………………50
Relationship between Exposures to broadcast media And Political Participation…………………………..………………………………………52
Major Finding…………………………………………………………………57
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary………………………………………………………………………60
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….61
Recommendations……………………………………………………………62
Limitation of the study……………………………………………………….64
Suggestion for further research……………………………………………65
REFERENCE
Appendix A
Appendix B
LIST OF TABLES AND
Description of respondents location 39
Description of respondents literacy level 40
Description of respondents skilled level 40
Description of respondents’ party membership 41
Responses of respondents 41
Literacy level of respondents 44
Descriptive statistics of no/low skilled respondents 46
Descriptive statistics of non-party member respondents 48
Descriptive statistics of the responses of respondents based
on location 50
Correlation coefficients between exposures to Broadcast
Media and rural respondents 52
Correlation variables based on literacy level 54
Correlation coefficients between exposures to broadcast
media and respondents’ job skill level 55
Correlation coefficients between exposures to Broadcast
Media and respondents’ non-party membership 56
ABSTRACT
This study undertook a critical analysis of the impact of broadcast media in increasing citizen’s participation in election in Nigeria. This is with a view of finding out if effect media broadcast and awareness strategies could be used to arrest the low citizen participation in Nigeria. The study relied on opinion survey technique of questionnaire administration in gathering data, which were analyzed in simple percentage variable. The sample size was statistically determined while the study area is Rivers State.Again, this study assesses the impact of broadcast media in mobilizing the masses for peaceful election in Rivers State. Also, assess the press as having operated more as player than as neutral reporters or informants that sensitize the masses on political events. The lessons one should learn are the problem that hamper peaceful election all this while in Nigeria, Rivers State to be precise. The solutions to these problems and the important roles of the broadcast media for mobilizing the masses for peaceful election are also stated.A 17-item structured questionnaire was used to investigate the impact of Broadcast Media in increasing citizen’s participation in election in Nigeria (case study of 2017 Re-run Election). From an estimated population of citizens, a sample of 500 subjects was drawn for the survey research.Findings show, among other things that, It is self-evident that democracy, usually defined as government by consent, is crucially dependent on a sufficient degree of two-way communication and horizontal communication at the grassroots, otherwise there cannot be consensus building and responsiveness. Consequently, the study recommends fair reportage and coverage of all political interests, factions and parties in an objective and constructive manner to reduce tension and promote peace and that equal access be availed candidates in the quality of broadcast contents to prevent imbalances in the information dissemination process by aspiring for completeness, accuracy and full information to help place the masses on a better pedestal for making informed, electoral/voting decisions.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Citizen’s participation is at the heart of democracy. Indeed, democracy is unthinkable without the ability of citizens to participate freely in the governing process. Through their activity, citizens in a democracy seek to control who will hold public office and to influence what the government does. Political participation provides the mechanism by which citizens can communicate information about their interests, preferences and needs and generate pressure to respond.
Voice and equality are central to democratic participation. In a meaningful democracy, the peoples’ voice must be clear and loud- clear so that policy makers understand citizens concerns and loud so that they have an incentive to pay attention to what is said. Since democracy implies not only governmental responsiveness to citizens interest but also equal consideration of the interest of each citizens, democratic participation must also be equal.
No democratic nation- certainly not Nigeria- lives up to the ideal participatory equality. Some citizens are active; they vote or engage in more demanding form of participation. Others are not. In fact, a good number of Nigeria undertakes no other political activity aside from going to the polls. In addition, those who do take part are in critical ways not representative of the citizenry as a whole. They differ in their social characteristics and in their preferences, needs and priorities.
In consequence, the voice of the people as expressed through participation comes from limited and unrepresentative sets of citizens. The democratic ideal may be equal consideration for the needs and preferences for all, but the reality of participation is quite different.
In every society, from the most primitive to the most complex, the communication system performs four broad tasks Harold lasswell (1949) had defined three of these as, surveillance of the environment, correlation of the components of society in responding to the environment and transmission of social heritage Wilbur Schramm (1954) has use the simple terms, “watcher. Forum, teacher and entertainment” every society has its watchers who provide other members with information and interpretation of events, they survey the environment and report on possible threats and dangers as well as good of bad omens approaching it from the fundamentals a watcher may be the teacher who complains or observed foreign tendencies of younger generation, or an opinion leader who tries to explain situations and trends of occurrence in a given environment. Whichever the case a group of people, who live together, require an identifiable means through which to relate with each other, discussing and sharing meanings with one another. This is where the role of communication comes in. Communication serves as the vehicle through which different segment of people relate with each other. Society relies on communicating systems as a teacher to pass institutionalized patterns to all members as acceptable norms and ways of conduct adopted as standard approach to its aims and objectives. Communication systems are a force for bringing about information that is expected to transform people’s approaches to issues, irrespective of their personality. It is assumed that, the dominant pattern of behavior accepted by a large number of people in society depend on the information process by the mass media. The spiral of silence theory propounded by Noelle-Neumann between (1971 and 1973) maintains that, “individuals receive information from two sources, personal observation and the media. According to Anaeto, Onabajo and Osifeso (2003), “ the theory concerns the interplay among four elements; mass media, interpersonal communication and social relations, individual expression of opinions and perceptions which individuals have of the surrounding climate of opinion in their own social environment” this comment under scores, the Pretoria of organized structures of society in which the various element in society interrelate, that is the institutions in which different members of society have to subscribe to as they relate with one another. Bierstedt (1970) in Oshaikphai States that; an institution is an organized system of social relationships which embodies certain common values and procedures and meets certain basic needs of society.The word values as used here refer to shared ideas and goals through common procedures or standards that the group follows and as a system of relationships. The group enormously identifies a network o roles and statues to adhere to and this forms the social relationships through which their acts are assessed. According to Oshaekphai (2003) there are five most basic important institutions in complex societies, family, religions governmental, economic, and educational institutions. In recent times science has been added because of the important place of science in modern society.
He further explained that:
Institutionalization is processes which emerge as unplanned products of living in groups as they sought practical ways of meeting their needs. They find some patterns which gets better through repetition into standardized customs.
From this comments it is clear that, what communication does is, to identify this institutions within society and mobilize different segments or members of society to participate in them. This way communication is able to correlate different components of society, through constant presentation, or reputation the media is able to enlighten, educate and inform members of society. Invariably what this means is that, for the different institutions to interplay with one another effectively there must be mass communication. In other words mass communication stands at the center of this institutional relationship. Through effective mass communication, various institutions are able to learn about the activities of others and how these activities intermingle. However in other to achieve effective mass communication, the following communication strategy comes readily to mind and some of them are, the print, and the broadcast media. This paper limits its scope to, the broadcast media and its relevance in democracies in the Nigeria context.
Broadcast media refers to the use of electrical impulse to transmit voice or visual messages to a large audience. The broadcast media has an enormous power to inform, enlighten and or educate a large audience at the same time.
The broadcast media are a very powerful instrument for mass mobilization. They are capable of making things, they can make or destroy, they can be used as instruments to instigate war under certain conditions or even foster peace initiatives; they can promote or hinder development. As one of the major components of mass communication, the Broadcast media have been very instrumental to the success or otherwise of democracy in Nigeria.
1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Political participation affords citizens in a democracy an opportunity to communicate information to government officials about their concerns and preferences and to put pressure on them to respond. Nigerians who wish to take part politically have an array of options; they may express their views directly by communicating with public officials of indirectly by attempting to influence electoral outcomes; they may give time and effort or contribute money; they may work alone or in concert with others; they may be active at the national, state or local level. Since different forms of political activity are differently effective in conveying information or exerting pressure, it matters how citizens take part.
For many decades, mainstream research on broadcast media and politics in democracies has taken place within a fairly stable interpretive framework. The foundations of this have been the Westphalia nation state, political parties, elections, the broadcast media and citizen’s engagement. Most theorist of democracy (Held, 2006) has not discussed broadcast media per se but has assumed the public communication plays an essential part. Debate, ion the ways the state establishes legitimate authority without recourse to violence, how political leaders are best selected, act according to the public will, and are regularly held accountable for their actions, clearly involves broadcast media. With the rise of broadcast media, several political philosophers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Pame, Jefferson, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, Benthaun) awarded broadcast media a role in developing nation state democracies. In some cases such views were enshrined in national Constitution. With the expansion of the state, electorate and broadcast media, in the twentieth century, the role of public opinion and media in democratic politics was hotly debated (Lippmann, Dewey, the Frankfurt School). Such discussions have been reframed most recently through Habermas early writing on the “public Sphere” (Habermas, 1989). His early work, despite drawing a range of criticism offered a clear and robust set of conceptual terms media systems in contemporary nation state democracies.
Accordingly, a set of normative “ideal” media and public communication function in democracies have emerged. These include providing: a source of “objective” information widely available to all citizens and interest groups; a check (“watch dog”) on the activities of powerful institutions, organizations and individuals; an arena for rational deliberation and debate on the issues and policies affecting society and the state; and access to a truly pluralist range of citizens and interest groups to put forward their views. Indeed, many works in media and politics, in effect, attempt to observe and asses one or more of these public media ideal. Accordingly, this has directed much work in media and politics towards an investigation of those political institutions, actors and media perceived to be at heart to democracies. One common focus is the study of election campaign. Another is political party and government communication with journalist and broadcast media. A third concentrates on the production of broadcast, particularly news journalism. A fourth dominant topic has been the media effect tradition. These works variously debate and document: the question of whether rising public apathy and lower electoral turnout constitute a political crisis: the “watch dog” qualities of the “fourth estate” media when set against professional news management operation; the professionalism, objectivity and pluralism of news broadcasting set against the systematic biases imposed b political, corporate and market influences; and the “strong” or “limited” effects of media on citizens “understanding and behavior.
In any development initiative or agenda to be successful, the people involved must be mobilized. The mass media with their power of reaching a very large and heterogeneous audience are therefore come in handy as tools for bringing people together for development. Broadcast media in particular is said to be more effective in mobilizing the people for development. Aliede (2003:30) says, ‘the broadcast or electronic media are… the most convenient, speedily and reliable means of transmitting values, information, ideas, message and culture as a result of their unique attribute like immediately, audio-visual qualities, linguistic barrier breakage, massive outreach, portability and availability’. Ugande (2007:3) also agrees that the broadcast media are indeed very pervasive. Otherware and Kur (2003:57) have said that the broadcast media are capable of many things. They can make or destroyed: they can instigate war under certain conditions or even foster peace initiatives. They can promote or hinder development. Umechukwu (1997) quoting Haruna reiterated the power o the broadcast media when he said that they are purveyors of information and whoever is in the position to control information exercise enormous power. As formidable tools for development, the broadcast media such as radio and television are used as channels for political mobilization and development.
The mass media especially the broadcast media (radio and television) is the means by which the citizens of Nigeria are informed of current events in politics.
According to Justice Lewis F.(1974) “An informed public depends upon accurate and effective sporting by the news media. No individual can obtain for himself the information needed for the intelligent discharge of his political responsibilities”
It is no storing that television and radio reporting affects politics in Nigeria. This is largely because owners of broadcasting companies can choose which side of a view they want. Hence, the media has a transforming effect on all aspect of Nigeria politics. The most important effects the broadcast media had on our political system today is within our foreign affairs and policy making.
1.3 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
The role media in every society is often to educate, inform and enlighten. It is assumed that, where those roles are adequately carried out, elections are bound to be free and fair. However, in Nigeria, several elections have been married. The question is, how the mass media has mobilized the Nigerian populace. How come electoral processes have not been successful? Is the broadcast media system not commensurate to other media systems elsewhere? This and many others are questions that this study hopes to identify.
Again, Broadcast Media are probably the most powerful propaganda mediums yet discussed. As a potential for aiding or injuring civilization in the present democratic dispensation, in addition to supplying verbal messages through dialogues, the media like ‘television’ provides an instantaneous accompanying visual messages that supplies the viewer with a picture to bulwark what has been learnt through language.
Question at stake is “does these media provides useful information to the politicians as they expect? The problem here lies between media coverage of political activities and how these media relates with the politicians and the society in their reportage.
Thus, this embarks on to discover what Broadcast Media has contributed or how Broadcast Media will help in mobilizing and enlightening the people of Rivers State to participate in political programmes. But, there are some problems caused by communication and other social problems.
There are problems of apathy, indifference or alienated on the people towards political activities and programmes. Most citizens show no interest and do not contribute their opinions or information about political issues in general. Majority of the people show no interest, but few minority give attention to political issues that even concern them to solve the problem stated above, we need information campaign, which helps to breakdown any barrier to politics and as well win the acceptance and support of people. But at the side of Rivers State there is lack of this information campaign by the media operators. This information campaign involves Educating, mobilizing and sensitizing the host community to fully participate in politics.
One of the problems was pre-project research. Pre-project research entails going down to the people, mixing with them and finding out their different characters, styles and the priority of their participatory need.
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
There are many objectives for this study that aimed at finding out the impact of Broadcast Media in increasing citizen’s participation among Nigeria, a case study of Rivers State.
These purposes are as follows:
- To discover how effective Broadcast Media has been or will be in influencing electoral participation in Rivers State.
- To find out the effectiveness of Broadcast Media in mobilizing the Rivers populace to participate in politics.
- To discover all the existing channels of communication in Rivers State.
- To find out the most effective and accessible channels of communication among Rivers State.
- To know there is preference for a particular type of media.
- To find out whether the whole Rivers State people are resistant to broadcast message on political participation or give their support to them.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions have been posed for consideration in this study:
- Did Broadcast Media affect Political Party membership?
- What is the relationship between Broadcast Media and Political Participation?
- How did Broadcast Media relate Political message to the citizens ( based on skilled level, education and location)
- What is the role of the Broadcast Media in the 2017 re-run elections?
- Does the Broadcast Media in increase citizen’s participation in the 2017 re-run elections?
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will help to create awareness on the impact broadcast media play during or before election to persuade and enlighten the citizens in the political activities and participation, and bringing to limelight the responsibilities of broadcast media as an aid to government and electoral commission in integrating urban and rural dwellers into political process.
This study will help to know how effective broadcasting media can be when used in implementing political oriented programmes and other programmes meant for people living in Rivers State.
The contestants and the electoral body will be opportune to see and be convinced of the relevance of correct choice and selection of communication channels involving the whole Nigeria or Rivers State dwellers in executing any political programmes.
When this research study is readily made, it will serve as a point of reference or consultation for present and future study in terms of media strength and selection.
Finally, this study will encourage and motivate people of Rivers State to participate in politics and the media operators on how to channel their messages to reach their target audience in Rivers State.
1.7 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
To actualize the objectives of this study, the following hypothesis are drafted thus;
H1: The role of broadcast media is so important that compared to other media of communication in influencing people of Nigeria, precisely Rivers State.
H0: Broadcast media has played no important impact compared to other media of communication in influencing people.
H2: People prefer Broadcast media to other media of communication
H0: People do not prefer Broadcast media to other media of communication
H3: people react positively to broadcast message on political issues
H0: people react negatively to broadcast message on political issues
1.8 SCOPE TO THE STUDY
This work was restricted to the analysis of the impact of broadcast media in increasing citizen’s participation in election in Nigeria.
1.9 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS
This aspect of study is devoted to defining the key terms central to the study.
Media: Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary defined media as “the main ways that large numbers of people receive information and entertainment that is television, radio, newspaper and internet.
Broadcast Media: refers to the use of electrical impulse to transmit voice or visual messages to a large audience. The broadcast media has an enormous power to inform, enlighten and or educate a large audience at the same time.
Analysis: a method of researching and writing on the impact of broadcast media in increasing citizen’s participation in election.
Impact: the action of one object coming forcibly into contact with another; a marked effect or influence; have a strong effect on someone or something
Citizen: a legally recognized subject or national of a state or commonwealth, either native or naturalized; an inhabitant of a particular town or city
Election: a formal and organized choice by vote of a person for a political office or other position; to elect means “to choose or make a decision”, and so sometimes other forms of ballot such as referendums are referred to as elections, especially in Nigeria
Re-run:show, stage, or perform again; an event or programme which is run again.
Participation: the action of taking part in something; in social science refers to different mechanisms for the public to express opinions – and ideally exert influence – regarding political, economic, management or other social decisions.
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