The Influence of the Nigeria Media on the 2015 Presidential Election on Voters

Filed in Mass Communication Project Topics by on October 21, 2020

The Influence of the Nigeria Media on the 2015 Presidential Election on Voters.

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

A number of previous studies have shown that the media are powerful agenda-setters for the public and have significant impact on the political process.

The effective functioning of democratic institutions is assumed to rest on the pervasiveness of the media in the society.

Thus, media are often deployed by different power interests in the society to achieve power leverage. However, in so far as each society consists of different cleavages and social, political,

and economic interests, each concerned with furthering its own objective, the influence of the media should be examined within the nuanced context in which they operate.

Looking at the past history of Nigeria, one must surely observe the concert efforts Nigerians had made to install and maintain a lasting but genuine democracy.

In many countries of the world, the trend towards democratization of political regions has been forced upon the powers that be.

Third world countries have not be left or his global democratic evolution blowing around and engulfing the entire world.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The 2015 General Elections in Nigeria shall go down in the country’s annals of electoral process as the most historic and revolutionary.

The elections are historic and revolutionary and, in my estimation, shall ever remain so for a long time in many respects: firstly, they were devoid of so much premeditated violence, especially in their post-elections experience and analyses.

Secondly, this is what many an analyst has been focusing on, the elections led to the comprehensive defeat of incumbents at both the federal and state levels.

Thirdly, the media were actively involved in this election especially in the angle of propaganda and agenda setting, a role many consider highly abused and compromised yet very influential on the voters and their eventual choice of candidate in the said election.

This paper is much more concerned about the role the mass media had played. In most cases, the role was negative, condemnable, utterly and blatantly partisan as well as unpatriotic.

That, in spite of such an unwholesome role, the emergent result tended to affirm the foregoing reason of great media influence that has been adduced as one of the manifestations of long-term impact of electoral politics in the country.

References

Ajebode, A. (2010). Yesterday’s Guerilla Press men in Today’s Democratic Nigeria: Dissatisfaction and Disillusionment. Paper Presented at Seminar, African Study Centre Leiden, Netherlands, March 23.

Busari, S. (2012). Goodluck Jonathan: Nigeria’s Embattled President. January 30. Accessed on cnn website

Chibuike, J.N. and Fafiolu, G. (2015). Promoting Good Governance in Nigeria through PreElection Discourse: The Challenges for the Media. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences. Vol. 5, No.2. Electoral Act 2010.

Fatoba, W.O. (2012). Media Law and Ethics in Nigeria, A Comparative Analysis, Second Edition, ISBN 978-32781-8-5.

Iyare, T. (2004). “The Role of the Press in Promoting Responsible Leadership”. In: S. OdionAkhaine (ed.), Governance: Nigeria and the World. Lagos: Centre for Constitutionalism and Democracy.

Malaolu, O. (2004). The Effects of Militant Press on Nigeria’s Democratic Evolution. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Mass Communications, College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Florida Major.

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