ABSTRACT
This
research examined the influence of television political advertising on electorate
perception of candidate in the 2015 presidential election using Akure south
local government as a case study. The study sought to find out the extent to
which the electorates’ in Ondo state were exposed to political advertisement
and limited to advertisement on television
which mostly portray the vision of the presidential candidates.
The
study employed the survey research design using a structured questionnaire to
gather data from respondents. Five hundred and ninety two copies of
questionnaires were distributed across the four selected wards in Akure South
local government, with four hundred and fifty six copies duly completed and
returned. The research work relied on three theories: Perception theory, Source
credibility theory and Agenda setting theory.
Descriptive statistics was used to analyze and provide answers to the
research questions of the study while inferential statistics were used for the
hypotheses. The multi-stage sampling technique was adopted for this study, a
state was randomly selected through balloting in South-West Nigeria; this was
carried out so as to give equal chance of representation for all the states in
South-West to be part of the study.
The
findings indicated that; the electorates’ in Ondo state were well exposed to
political advertisement on television, the respondents were influenced in their
choice of presidential candidate to the extent that they perceived the messages
to be credible and changed their perception towards the candidate. In support
of the above, over 76% of the respondents watched the Presidential televised
advertisement in 2015.
In the light of the findings, the study
concluded that television political advertisement was an essential factor in
the political decisions of the electorates’,Television, an electronic
audio-visual media aid use for disseminating information, has gained wide
acceptance and use among Nigerians as observed in this study. Finally, it was recommended that since
literacy level among Nigerians is on the increase, more authentic source of
accessing information about political candidates should be sourced.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
to the Study
Communication
is very vital in human relationship; it is through it we get to know more about
happenings around us. In this sense, it is a viable means of influencing
people’s opinion either positively or negatively. Opubor (1976) asserts that human
communication is a flexible technique through which man adapts to his
environment and adapts the environment to himself for the purpose of achieving
greater control over it. In essence, human activities and aspirations cannot be
achieved without communication. Clegg(2005)notes that “communication is not
just the sharing of information among people but also a process of ‘‘creating,
shaping, and maintaining relationships and enacting shared values, common
culture, agreed goals, and means for their achievement’’ (p.76). While man is
said to be a political animal with a natural inclination to be partisan,
communication drives the political activities of man.
In
political communication (political advertisement),the primary aim of the
political party and candidates is to get the electorates favourably disposed to
the party. Electorates are lured through messages or statements projecting the
party in a positive light, dissuading the electorate from whatever misgivings
they might harbor against the party and persuading them to abandon the
opposition. Due to the relevance of communication to governance and democracy,
political advertisements have become an essential aspect of communication in the
democracies of the world”. (Kaid, 2005).
Politics
as the dynamics surrounding power is a universal process which occurs at all times.
Politics is described as issues that are concerned with acquiring or exercising
power within a group or organization, the science and art of government. Hornby
(1995) defines politics as the form of organization, administration and management
of the state. It may be said, that politics is the generalized process by which
the struggle over power in the society is resolved, the form or arena where
control of the economy and issues concerning a nation are negotiated and
addressed. Wilson (1983) describes it as a humble way of getting votes from the
poor and campaign funds from the rich by assuring to protect each against the
other. (p. 32). In other words, politics entails interaction by all parties
involved in persuading and mobilizing to fit into the socio-political system
through effective communication.
Eyre
(1953) posits that, “communication is not just the sharing of information; it
is the giving of understandable information and receiving and understanding the
message” (p. 26). This means that communication is instrumental and has effect
in political process. In political election, therefore, the parties involved
canvass to win the sympathy of the electorates. Political parties/ candidates
in a bid to interact with the voters employ every available means of
communication to educate and enlighten the audience. It is through these
messages that the audience learns consciously or unconsciously certain things
about parties and their candidate. Nigeria politics since inception has also thrived
on political communication.
As
a form of communication, advertising is important in any business venture,
starting from hawkers on the street, market men and women who on a daily basis
try to convince buyers, to the manufacturers that engage in the production of
goods and services. To have and keep buyers, one has to advertise. In the
process of advertising, mouthwatering and interesting promises are made.
Advertising has grown to be an important branch of politics in every democratic
system of government to the extent that parties engage the services of
advertising agencies who express the need for better leadership in the most
convincing way to the electorate.
Kaid
and Holtz-Bacha (2006) define political advertising as “any controlled message communicated
through any channel designed to promote the political interests of individuals,
parties, groups, government, or other organizations” (p. 4). Using this broader
definition, political advertising is distinguished from other campaign
communication by the source control of the message and the absence of media
interpretation or framing, and from interpersonal communication by the use of
mass communication channels. Furthermore, this broader definition of the
concept applies to different political marketing campaign contexts.
Political
advert can be categorized as either paid or free media messages. The paid messages are information from the mass media
(radio, television, newspapers and magazines) controlled by campaign sources of
which scope and content are limited only by libel laws, ethics and money
available for them. While free media messages are news stories, analysis,
editorial comments, interviews, debates and discussion programmes. These are
solely source by the mass media as part of their functions to enlighten and
educate the electorate during political campaigns through their various
programmes.Political advertising is all forms of adverts pertaining to building
support for any and all political campaigns including candidates running for office,
ballot measures, and political activism.
Ansolabere and Iyenga (1995) argue that political advertising has become
a veritable tool for selling candidates of political parties during elections
campaign. One of the most significant changes in Nigerian politics in the past
few years has been the increase in audience exposure to political adverts
especially presidential candidates of various political parties. Political
advertising are majorly designed to achieve a specific objective in political
communication.
During
the first and second republics, election rallies served as the major forms of
advertising for the candidates and the past two decades have witnessed an
increase in the use of political advertising. Television has been used to
convey political candidate’s message to the people. Making adverts on
television has turned into a big industry engaging photographers, videographers
that will produce the adverts to make it colourful, artists who compose songs
and mostly engaging a brand manager who gives the candidate a good packaging
taking away the fact that one their primary function is to give a product good
packaging and not people
In
the past, electoral candidates were selected in backroom caucuses of
politicians, business leaders, elites, who select candidates that would protect
their interests. This undemocratic practice, which put disproportionate men in
position of leadership either at state or federal level, has now faded into
history. In the 2015 presidential election, Nigeria witnessed an increase in
the number and style of political advertising. Political parties mounted one
form of political advertising or the other, to bring to the attention of the
electorates, the political parties, manifesto and contestant for the office.
Even though different media were used, this study focuses on television
advertisement and how it affected electorates’ perception of presidential
candidates. Nkana (2015) the most common form of political advertisement is
television advertisement because of its pictorial impact.
Prior
to the 2015 elections, there have been other elections (1979, 1983, 2004, 2009,
and 2011) where TV adverts were used. However, the 2015 presidential election
may be described as a turning point in the history of the country, witnessing
the emergence of a man who had lost at three different times. Therefore the
study examines how Television adverts influenced the perception of electorate.
1.2 Statement
of the Problem
Over
the years, Nigeria’s elections have usually witnessed low turnouts of voters
regardless of the several appeals made through various adverts on television.
The voting age population of Nigeria was put at 91,669,056 in 2015. While
67,422,005 people registered and just 29,432,083people turned out to vote in
the 2015 presidential election according to the International Institute for
Democracy and Electoral Assistance (2015).
Interestingly, despite the dwindling turnouts
of electorates, political parties still spend huge amount of money on
television adverts and others loaded with exaggerated promises, hate and
negative messages about their opponents targeted at gaining the sympathy of the
electorates. The 2015 presidential advertisements witnessed loads of name
calling, mudslinging candidates’ images, hate and attack messages. Researchers
have directed their apparatus towards finding a relationship between candidate
success in election and political advertising. The decision on whom to vote for
depends on variables such as political interest, political efficacy,
discharging of civil duties and psychological pressure. The question then is
why do political parties still spend so much money on television advertising?
The 2015 presidential election was filled with deadly adverts, PDP supporters
referred the APC candidate as someone with analogue brain, dictator and too old
to rule while APC supporters saw PDP
candidate as clueless and man who used
his poor background of having no shoes to deceive the masses and rip them off
their votes.
There were several negative and derogatory
advertisements from the two most popular parties, but despite that, electorates
went ahead and voted for the old dictator who was referred to as a man with
analogue brain. The hates advertisements were enough for both PDP and APC to
lose the election and give room for other party candidate. It has been observed
that instead of these intervening variables helping or heightening the effect
of television political adverts on electorate, they actually combine to only
serve as, reinforcement of pre-existing attitudes, crystallization of latent
loyalties and activation of those predisposed to support the campaign.
This
research work aims to find out the influence of Television political
advertisements on electorates’ perception and choice of candidates in the 2015
presidential election
1.3 Objective
of the Study
The
general objective of this study is to find out the influence of television
political advertising on electorate perception of 2015presidential candidates.
The specific objectives are to:
1.
find out the extent to which
television advertisements create awareness for the 2015 presidential
candidates;
2.
determine electorates’ perception
of the nature of television political advertisements on the 2015 presidential
candidates;
3.
examine the extent to which
exposure to television advertisements influence electorates’ perception of the
2015 presidential candidates; and
4.
Find out the extent to which
messages portrayed in the television advertisements influenced electorates’
choice of 2015 presidential candidates.
1.4 Research Questions
This
research set out to answer the following questions:
1.
To what extent does television
advertisements create awareness for the 2015 presidential candidates?
2.
How do electorates’ perceive the nature
of television advertisements on 2015 presidential candidates?
3.
In what ways does exposure to television
advertisements influence electorates’ perception of the 2015 presidential
candidates?
4.
To what extent does the messages
portrayed in the television advertisements influence electorates’ choice of
2015 presidential candidates?
1.5 Hypotheses
The
following hypotheses were tested at 0.05
level of significance for this study:
H01: Television
political advertisements did not significantly influence electorates’
perception of the 2015 presidential candidates.
H02: Television political advertisements did not
significantly influence electorates’ attitude towards the 2015 presidential
candidates.
1.6 Significance
of the Study
This
study would be significant to the political campaign planners, the political
parties, the academic community, the media, broadcasters and the general
public.
It
is hoped that the findings of this study would reveal the extent to which
television adverts influenced electorates’ perception of the campaign the
electorates watched on Television during the last presidential election in
Nigeria. It would reveal areas of weaknesses and strengths and where changes
could be effected in the future so as to achieve the goal of any campaign set
out for the purpose of winning the audience favour towards a political
candidate. It is hoped that the study would reveal new challenges in the area
of the influence of political campaign on electorates’ thus redefining research
and expanding knowledge. This study would provide empirical data on the role
political advertisements play in influencing the choice of electoral
candidates.
1.7 Scope
of the Study
The
study is restricted to the influence of television campaign on electorates’
perceptionand choice of candidates in the 2015 presidential election. Thus the
scope of the research is limited to the 2015 presidential election in exclusion
to other elections during the period. Equally, the work focused on analyzing
audience reaction towards the televised campaign during the presidential
election not other campaign in the other media of communication. Choosing the
period frame is to help define “a moment in time” and allow for replicability.
Registered
voters during the 2015 presidential election (public servants, lecturers,
bankers, stock brokers, etc) residing in Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo
State who were exposed to the televised presidential campaign in the 2015 election
would be the public considered in this study. The study is restricted to the influence
of television political advertising on electorate’s perception of 2015
presidential candidates and not the Gubernatorial, Senatorial or House of
Representatives’ televised adverts in the 2015 elections.
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
Awareness:
strategy
designed to increase and promote electorates knowledge about the 2015
presidential candidate.
Exposure: presentation of
political advertisement to the electorates.
Political advertising objective is to motivate electorate to vote and
support the 2015 presidential candidates. To change the thinking about a
candidate or build excitement around the television advertisements electorates
watch and listened to prior to the 2015 presidential elections.
Nature
of message: electorates were exposed to different
types of messages
Political/Election Campaigns: organized
effort by the political parties or candidates to attract the support of
electorates in the election. These include: image of the candidate, party
loyalty, credibility,
Influence:
the extent to which television political advertisement was able to change
electorates choice to vote the candidate they watched on television. Political
advertisement on television positively shaped electorate perception and choice.
Perception:
the way in which the 2015 presidential candidates were regarded and understood
by the electorates
Television Advertisement:
the promotion of awareness of political agenda by the presidential candidates
among the masses, and the use of persuasive messages to influence their
perception in a way that it favours the candidates.
Advertising Messages:
Messages sent out in the form of advertising campaigns through the media, with
the aim of influencing electorate perception at the 2015 presidential election.
Electorate:
electorates are citizens of Nigeria usually between the age bracket of 18 and
above who are residents in the country. It is believed that a person has grown
enough to be held responsible for their decision at the age of 18. They are the
main target of political advertising.
2015 presidential Candidates: they
are major stakeholders and facilitators of political advertising. These are
people vying to hold public offices and use political advertising as a means to
achieve their aspirations.
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