ABSTRACT
This study investigated the impact of
social media on political marketing during the 2015 governorship election in
Delta State. The research objectives include to determine the determine the
political message aspirants share on social media, to ascertain the challenges
of political marketing on social media. The survey method was employed while
the questionnaire was research instrument. A total of 120 respondents who were
randomly selected were used. Data were
analysed using simple percentage and frequency tables. The findings show that many people are
politically inclined to use the social media often to source for political
information. This emphasized that political advertising on social media is
trusted by the electorates. Political marketing using the social media provide
opportunities for Nigeria politicians to have a wider coverage of the
electorates. The study recommends that political marketing agencies should
ensure that the marketing on the social media reflects the basic need of the
people so as to draw public attention and motivate them to make favourable
voting decision. Politician should use political advertising as a way to high
light their unique selling points as it is the most captivating message in
advertisement.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover page - - - - - - - - i
Abstract - - - - - - - - - ii
Certification - - - - - - - - iii
Dedication - - - - - - - - iv
Acknowledgements - - - - - - - v
Table of Contents - - - - - - - vii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the Study - - - - -
1.2 Statement of the Problem - - - - -
1.3 Objectives of the Study - - - - - `ial
munication, Faculty of
1.4 Research Questions - - - - - -
1.5 Significance of the study - - - - -
1.6 Scope of the Study - - - - - -
1.7 Definition of Terms - - - - - -
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE
REVIEW/THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 Literature Review - - - - - -
2.2
Theoretical framework- - - - - -
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1
Design of the Study - - - - - -
3.2 Population of the Study - - - - -
3.3 Sample Size - - - - - - -
3.4 Sampling Techniques - - - - -
3.5 Instrument of Data Collection - - - -
3.6 Procedure of data collection - - - -
3.7 Techniques of Data Analysis - - - -
3.8
Limitation of the Study - - - - -
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND
ANALYSIS
4.1
Data Presentation - - - - - -
4.2
Data Analysis - - - - - - -
4.3
Discussion of Findings - - - - -
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary - - - - - - - -
5.2 Conclusion - - - - - - -
5.3
Recommendations - - - - - -
BIBLOGRAPHY- - - - - - - -
APPENDIX - - - - - - - -
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
to the Study
Election
is a period of transition of government from one person to another. The mandate
of leadership is gotten from the majority votes from election exercise. The
voters are regarded as the most important parties to election. This can be seen
from the system of democracy which gives the citizens the right to choose their
leader through casting of their votes.
According to Elekwa (2008:21) “the
electoral process relates to entire cycle ranging from provision of voter
education to the dissolution of the National Assembly”. According to Akamere
(2001) “electoral process refers to all the activities and procedure involved
in the election of representatives by the electorates. It refers to all the pre
and post election activities without which an election is meaningless”.
These activities according to Nnamadi
(2014) include the registration of political parties, review of voters,
registers delineation of constituencies, resolution of electoral disputes,
return of elected representatives, securing elected representative”. This
process provide opportunity for candidates and their political parties to
canvas for voters in the political market. In a way to win more votes,
political parties and their candidates engage in political marketing. Gaining
support from the voters in electoral campaign, call for political marketing.
Thus political marketing is the engagement of marketing strategies to sell the
party and its candidates to the people.
In a way to canvas for more votes the
need to use political marketing came up recently in political environment. According
To Sudha (2008:22) “ Political marketing is a relatively new terminology in
mainstream political science literature”. The emergence of political marketing
brought about innovation and creativity in campaign for supporters. The factor
that promoted political marketing is the concept of competition. Politically,
competition is the order of the day. Sudha (2008:22) went on to define
political marketing as “the usage of marketing tools, techniques and methods in
political process. In order words, political marketing is the outcome of the
marriage between marketing and politics”
. According to Hairop in Sudha (2008:23) “political marketing is not just about
political advertising, party political broadcast and electoral speeches, but it
covers the whole area of party positioning in the electoral market”. Political
marketing is a set of political machineries to trace and study public opinion
before and during an electoral campaign, to develop campaign communication good
for the electorate in changing their behaviour towards supporting the party and
assess the impact of the strategies. Okan, Ayper and Serhat (2014:131) “
political marketing is the activities made by political parties to affect
voters and is focused on influencing the individuals regarding political
candidate, to reach the maximum number of votes. In today’s world, the
ideologies lose their importance especially because of the globalization and it
causes to differentiate from other political parties to improve different
strategies in their election campaigns”. According to Newman (1999), there is a
common consensus that political marketing has notable importance in politics.
It is extremely important for election, referenda, governing, lobbying, public
services management e.t.c they all represent the marketing triumph of an
approach that first originated in business and then transformed the nature of
modern politics.
Lack and Harris (1996), points out
that political marketing is concerned with communication between party members,
media and the electorates. According to
Henneberg (2004), political marketing application have change from a
communication instrument to a coherent way of managing politics, whether it is
policy making, election canvassing or exercuting decision. Sudha (2008) “often
the phenomenon of image in politics is said to have risen because of
television. However, images has almost as many as the number of people who use
it, combined concepts from consumer behaviour and political science to create a
model of voting, behavior in political marketing terms”.
As
marketing in view as tactical issues, Butter and Collins (1996) in Sudha (2008)
state the impact of strategy and its importance in governing the direction of
the campaign. Harns (2006) concluded, most of the elections markets of the west
are mature, the players are established and the position is set”.
Marketing
in political environment is on how to reach wider coverage of electorate in
their respective location. Having this challenge, the need to use the social
media becomes necessary. According to Tell magazine, Facebook have about 1.3
billion users which come 3rd as the world populated country if it is
a country. Social media is one of the recent channels which politicians have
used to engage the people in political campaign. According to Annie (2011),
politician and voters alike use Facebook and Twitter as a means for disclosure,
they post photographs, personal information and leave public messages to their
friends in cyber space. The benefit of this is that social media removes the
barrier between professional and consumer, showing the latter how the former
works and allowing the latter to actually contribute immediately to the work of
the former. Social media is regarded as a phrase among youth. Social media is a
website through which interactive information is generated. It is a group of
internet based application that allows the creation and exchange of users
generated content.
Waleed and mohd opined that social
media has become one of the most important communication means in recent times.
However, social networking exists so as to provide communication among people
regards of the distance, marketing it open to people easily. Share information,
files and pictures and video, create blogs and send messages, and conduct real-time
conversation. (http://seminar.utmspace.eud.my/jistri
)
The
social media sites use by people include social book marketing which is
interactive by tagging website and searching through website book marked by
others e.g (blink list, simple).
Social
news is another social media site that gives users opportunity to interact by
voting for articles and commenting on them (digs: propello) next is social
networking which is commonly used in interacting by adding friends, commenting
on photo and profiles sharing groups for discussion (facebook, 2go, bb chat,
whatsapp). Social photos and video sharing gives users opportunity to interact
with people by sharing photos or videos and commenting on the user. Submission
(youtube and fliki) and wikis enable users interact by adding articles and
editing existing articles (Wikipedia, wiki) www.wikipedia freencyclopedia.com)
Social media refers to the very means or method of interaction among people in
which they create, share, exchange and comment among themselves, in different
social networking site.
Social
media has become one of the major channel of chatting through platforms such as
2go, bb chat, blogger, whatsapp and wiki.
There has been an increase in the mobile social media which has created new
opportunity for browsing (www.census.gov). Awaka (feb 2012), “a
social network is a website that allows users to share information with a selected
group of friends social networking is also a convenient way to share
photos from trips to events”
Social
network are increasingly gaining momentum in the world of information and
communication. It has without doubt altered the conventional method of news
gathering and dissemination, a confirmation of what seems to be paradigm shift
from print and broadcast media.
Being
a new channel in Nigeria political marketing, many electoral candidates in the
just concluded general election used the social media for their electoral support. The same was use by Delta
State three candidates who are Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, PDP candidate who is the
present governor, Chief Great Ogboru, the labour party candidate, and Chief
Otega Emarhor for APC. The gubernatorial election was held on April 11th 2015.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
According
to Kaplan and Haelein (2010), the attributed challenges in social media usage
in political marketing is the disparity in the usage compared to opportunity it
avails. This can be attributed to the lack of understanding on how to deal with
issues such as negative publicity that can arise from user generated contents,
a loss of absolute control of their brand, legal and security issues. In recent
times, social media has been used for political marketing in 2015 governorship
election in Delta State by politicians, to sell their parties and candidates.
The argument for political marketing on social media is that social media lack
credibility and trust because many rumours and lies have been witnessed on
social media. Being uncensored channel, the content and information are held
with little trust as compared to traditional media like radio, television and
newspaper.
In addition, some people believed that
due to the lack of credibility of social media, stories from aspirants cannot
be viewed with trust and accountable as a time in Nigeria when political trust
has been retard.
1.3 OBJECTIVE
OF THE STUDY
This
study has the overall objective to study the influence of social media on
political marketing in 2015 governorship election on the electorate in Ethiope
East Local Government Area Of Delta State. Specifically, the objective of the
study therefore are:
1.
To ascertain the number of electorates
that follow politicians on social media in Ethiope East
2.
Determine the level of trust electorate
have on social media political marketing in Ethiope East.
3.
To find out if political marketing on
social media affects the electorates voting behavior in Ethiope East.
4.
Determine the usefulness of social media
to politicians in Ethiope East.
1.4 Research Questions
1.
What is the number of electorates that
follow politician on social media in Ethiope East?
2.
What is the level of trust electorate
having on social media political marketing in Ethiope East?
3.
Does
political marketing on social media affects the electorate voting behavior in
Ethiope East?
4.
What is the usefulness of social media
to politicians in Ethiope East?
1.5 Significance
of the Study
This
study will largely be beneficial to the media community and relevant to
political actors in Nigeria in winning the voting decision of the electorates.
The
findings from the study will serve in equipping the political aspirants in
winning the electorates through the use of social media.
It
will also serve as handy material for reference and encourage the use of social
media in political marketing during elections.
1.6
Scope
of the Study
In
examining the influence of social media in political marketing in 2015
gubernatorial election in Delta State, it will be difficult to study the
general election in Nigeria. Hence this study will be restricted to Delta State
governorship election in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State.
1.7 Operational
Definition of Terms
To
reduce the ambiguities and for the benefit of understanding the terms used in
this research will now be briefly clarified.
SOCIAL MEDIA:
This a social networking sites where members share information and pictures.
ELECTION:
A periodic selective exercise where the electorate cast their votes in
selection of who will become their leaders.
ELECTORATES:
These are people who the politicians market for political support during
election.
POLITICAL PARTY:
This is a group of politicians with the same political ideology canvassing for
voters for their candidates.
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