ABSTRACT
This research work seeks to examine to what extent
the press content (restricting it to print media) affect the choice made by the
public toward a particular political candidate. It examines theories as related
to the field of mass communication, which emphasis the media key role in
determine what perception the public build on a political figure. To this end,
the study is pattern along the Instructive Stimulus Response Theory or the
“Hypodermic needle/magic bullet” theory of the print media and the social responsibility
theory of the press as reinforced by the Hut Plus commission of 1947. be that
the research is quantitative as the case provide, a survey method was use along
side the instrument of questionnaire, where the simple random sampling
technique was used to gathered data from the resident of the three local
government areas of Igabi, Kaduna South and Kaduna North which make up the
Kaduna metropolis. Understanding the limitation as associated with the print
media, being that it is more prominent among the elite, the research work after
analyzing and interpretating the gathered data in chapter four went further in
chapter five (being the provision for conclusion and recommendation) to proffer
ways in which the press will be used, when the right atmosphere is provided, as
the only machinery through which information can be transfer to the general
public and perception build and shape thereafter, in their bid to choose a
political candidate of their choice during election, citing our current dive as
a nation into the fourth republic with a proper functioning of democratic
principle.
TABLE OF
CONTENT
Cover Page
Title Page
Declaration
Approval Page
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table of content
CHAPTER
ONE
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Purpose of the Study
1.3 Significance of the Study
1.4 Statement of Problem
1.5 Theoretical Framework
1.6 Scope and Limitation of Study
1.7 Research Hypothesis
1.8 Definition of Terminologies
CHAPTER
TWO
Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Growth and Early Historical Development of the
Nigeria Newspaper
2.3 The Newspaper Message
2.4 Newspaper in the Service of the State
2.4.1Public Watch-Dog
2.4.2Information Role
2.4.3Representation Role
2.4.4Realization of Common Objective
2.5 Relative Importance of the Nigeria Press (Newspaper)
to the Society
2.6 The Newspaper, Politics and the Choice of Political
Candidate.
CHAPTER
THREE
Research Methodology
3.1 Research Design Techniques
3.1.1Historical Research Method
3.1.2Descriptive Research Method
3.1.3Survey Research Method
3.1.4Experimental
3.2 Sources of Data
3.2.1Primary Source
3.2.2Secondary Source
3.3 Data Gathering Instrument
3.4 Statistical Technique in Data Gathering
3.5 Sample/Population of Study
3.6 Sample Size
3.7 Data Analysis and Technique
CHAPTER
FOUR
Data
Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation
4.1 Section
A: Personal Data of Respondent
4.2 Section
B: Testing the Research Questions
4.3 Discussion
of Research Findings
CHAPTER FIVE
Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation
5.1 Summary
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Recommendation
Bibliography
Appendix
Chapter
one
INTRODUCTION
Mass
communication is defined as messages directed towards a large group of people
using a mass medium. It involves disseminating information to a large, diverse,
homogenous/heterogeneous audience. Mass communication is made possible through the
help of mass media. That is to say mass media makes mass communication a
reality. Mass media includes television, radio, newspaper, magazine etc.
For every human society the
successful conduct of her internal/external affairs depends largely on the extent
of the reliability of government apparatus and the government successfully
communicating, understanding and accepting themselves in a mutual and symbiotic
relationship”- Obaze .A et al (2004:1)
The need for information is such
that man can hardly function or determine his course of life with out
communication. On account of this, the influential role of the media is cited
in her caprice to direct, redirect, and shoulder the course of altitude change
and instilling/building public perception towards societal affair.
There is no modern society that
can dispense with the press especially newspapers. The newspapers especially to
places where there are no radio stations rapidly spread important news. The
newspapers give us reliable information about towns and countries. Many social
tools are exposed in one newspaper to attract the attention of the government,
police and the citizens as a whole so that such evils may be immediately
combated. Many articles written by intelligent people and carried by newspapers
contain good ideas with which we can experiment in our bid to reform the
society. These articles have suggested ways and means by which we can combat
tribalism, fraud, serious crimes, avarice, greed, and extravagance, which are
disintegrating forces in the society.
By impacting meaningfully through
the involvement of Nigeria press vis-à-vis as a social system in society
positioning, it is her duty, responsibility and obligation to enhance the
survival of the vital ingredient of society demand. Which are unity; structure;
inter-dependence; compliance, commitment and conformity; and transmission of
social norms, culture and value. The media is by this gear towards enhancing
the continuity and survival of the total social “gadget.”
The print media, particularly the
medium of newspaper has become the major source of information dissemination
over the years, and also the major means of political mobilization in Nigeria.
Newspaper has the ability to inform, educate, entertain, enlighten and mobilize
the public. That is why the government and other private bodies give much
attention to it. The ability of newspaper to also mobilize the people and make
them behave in a given manner and to perform certain actions has made it a tool
in the hands of the government. The medium serves as an intermediary between
the government and the people, because it assists the government in getting it
plans and policies across to the people, and the people in return gets their
response, feeling and plight back to the government.
Footnoting this trend on the
national scale, the challenges that confront us as young democracy nation in a
country of diverse ethnic divide, is to establish an ideological and structural
homogeneity with a common political destiny and purpose among our diverse
ethnic groups, forthwith, the media being an institution of the larger society
is virtually needed to shoulder this course.
After many years of military rule in Nigeria,
democracy became a much needed endeavour and newspaper serves as a major tool
through which the people were fully informed, educated, enlightened and
mobilized to actively participate in the decision making in the country during
transition period.
Newspaper to a large extent
helped in making the people of Nigeria to get all the political awareness, and
it mobilized the people to both contest election and be voted for, or to vote
for a candidate of their choice as an electorate. The importance of newspaper
in ensuring a successful transition in Nigeria cannot be underestimated.
Pinpointing the decisive measure
the Nigeria press has attained, it is for her to maintain her effort to
accumulate and accommodate the structural pattern of the social unit into the
mainstream of our society entity, hence creating a platform for an all rounds
stability of societal struggle. During this attempt by the press in this
fortified struggle; and her nature of place in societal positioning it came to
interest that, politic or the political sphere falls as one of the social
system. The society today which is acknowledge as a contingent of each
social sphere/system(s), need the collaboration and support of each system in
order to get herself “alive”.
In our modern
society, the remarkable role of newspapers in political affairs of a free and
democratic society or nation is that they educate and influence public opinion
relative to political issues. They carry manifestos of political parties before
the elections, publish what certain political leaders think of other parties
and give adequate publicity to political activities.
The value of newspapers in a political society
cannot be over emphasized. John Bittner (1980) wrote,
“On whether there should be a society without a
newspapers or a newspapers without a society I will chose the later because its
newspapers that made the society”.
Bittner simply mean that newspapers play the
remarkable role of making or marring a society. This supposition Jeremy
Turnstel agreed with when he wrote the books titled.
“The media is America” and a decade later he wrote
another book “The media is still America”
Politically, it is the above supposition that
prompted the study of this work into analyzing, using audience research, to
determine the impact of the Nigeria press, in this case the newspaper, on the
choice of political candidate. This is because, among other things discussed
earlier the newspaper influences its readers by shaping their thinking towards
believing what ordinary they wouldn’t have believe. Onagoruwa (1973) most have
seen through this, agree with the supposition when he wrote that: “The power of
the press is the power of the written word – its first quality is performance”.
Unlike the spear arrow or the fired bullet a written word can be in ages.
In other word, newspaper readership has a lasting memory
of whatever interesting that appears on pages of newspaper. And it is for this
reason that some politicians and political elections candidates have device
means of manipulating the mind of their supporters and non-supporters alike
into believing their ability to performed better when elected into any
political office position. The means they use through the newspaper includes,
writing of article directly or, using other latent to write a favourable
article that will increase their personality and credibility; they also write
opinion and advertisement using their picture; some even newspaper. Columnists
who exploit these advantages promote themselves in the name of gaining cheap
popularity before the masses that are able to vote. No wonder Mark Levin (2000)
said,
“Just as the Government becomes
necessary to society for even development, the press becomes inevitable to the
political development of that society”.
By this foremost discussion, I
will through this piece of study bring the relevance needs and impact the
Nigeria press (print restrictive) plays on politics. Citing the players of this
system (i.e. politic, as political candidate) I will do well, centered the work
on how widely the media promulgate the interest/yearning and goals of these
candidate and how on a better ground have the Nigeria press being able to
influence and implant a sustainable touch on the political system, through her
“conscientizing” of the political public on choosing a political candidate as
their choice.
It is in light of the above that
this project research work intends to study the impact of the Nigeria press on
the choice of political candidates using as case study residence of Kaduna
metropolis.
PURPOSE
OF THE STUDY
As pose by contemporary scholars
of the Instinctive Stimulus (S.I) theory and those of the Agenda Setting theory
on the powerful influence of the media as a mind-controlling agent, it is on
account of their posits the research will drive home a point.
Citing possible ways the media
could play or improve in her “bi–literal” relationship with the political
system, the researcher will as a matter of fact, present the media on a
cross-road to verify (as being claimed by the “magic-bullet” theorist}, if at
all, the media have gain such a great influence in the affairs of the political
system.
The main objective of the study
is to stress the roles of newspaper (a branch of the Nigeria press) as a tool
for political sensitization and mobilization in Nigeria. With this, it is among
the aims of this study to find out the effects of Newspaper report on political
affairs in Nigeria.
Furthermore, the study will be
carried out to know the effect of newspaper content on its reader in relation
to other medium of Mass Communication. Our study of the Nigeria press effect on
choice of political candidate will be lowered to cover only the print
discourse, in that it exist as the encompassing knowledge of what we
appreciation as press.
Through this study, a design will
be made to make various politicians contesting for electoral position as well
as the electorate to see the importance of newspaper in political mobilization,
information, awareness, enlightenment and education. With a provision of
two-edge paramedic against arguments to ascertain which from which better
spread the goodwill of politicians to the public – be it the party, which the
candidate belong or the print medium.
In the mean time, the objective
will enable us see the relative importance of newspaper to the society and why
the government rely more on newspaper content to mobilize Nigerians to fully
participate in the general elections in Nigeria which will be pattern to
reflect how the choice made by residence of Kaduna state metropolis is
influenced by the newspaper coverage.
SIGNIFICANT
OF THE STUDY
Amidst the gross look of our
study, it is perceive that the outcome herewith will provide a colossal
approach towards discovery a whole new directive on the basis of mending the
role of the media in her consolidating effort of unifying the diver “Sparta”
system that make up the phoenix of the larger society.
As highlighted in the
introduction page, there is no modern society that can dispense with the press.
As such the study of their message becomes imperative.
Through knowledge on the
relationship between the Nigerian press on the choice of political candidate,
will not only enhance our understanding of the nature of the print media, let
it will also give us clearer knowledge of how these newspaper are been used by
political candidate to gain popularity among the electorate.
The relevance in it own, will
pattern the thinking of these political candidate toward establishing perfect
answer to the hostile debate over whom do the greater tasks of public
influence, be it the candidate manifestoes, or the print media.
More so, the importance of this
research work will guide regulators of the Nigeria press on how to regulate
their practice in order not to mislead their conscious reader. And from the
recommendation/conclusion that will be giving in this study it will assist to
improve the act of newspapering.
In general, the study is expected
to emerge a clearer picture on how the electorates get influence by newspaper
coverage on the choice made of political candidate. Vies, examine the
effectiveness of her content in the choice of political candidate, the study
will determine how the electorate (respondent) perceive newspaper in term of
their coverage of political activities and political candidate.
The relevance which will serve as
a reference materials to interested person who would want to carry out future
research in this direction, will analyze how often newspapers cover political
stories, and how the ownership pattern of newspaper affect its coverage of
political issues in term of favoring one candidate to the other.
On a final note it is believe
that today’s work will not only become a syndrome of impetus on the triple
parties, i.e. the newspaper, the political candidates and the public: but that
by this noble piece, the press will have a touch at heart to always see their
noble calling as one which will assist in the sensitization; education;
awareness and enlightenment of the larger Nigeria populace towards accepting
and understanding their role in the development, growth and survival of our
nascent democracy, being our stepping-stone into the 4th republic of
our Nations political history for a sustain democratic state.
STATEMENT OF THE
PROBLEM
Saddling the press as all
instinctive and influencing from the judgment of the “hypodermic needle” theory
it is of interest to accept related works of critics who have through their
argument become a torn in the flesh of media acceptance.
From this point of view, it is notice that there
exist diviations in acceptance of the newspaper message by the public. Which
have in long way affected the “transmission belt” of the medium message?
The remarkable role of the newspaper in society
juxtapose with the ownership pattern inference being that most Nigeria dailies
are privately own have been kindled the general assumption that newspaper have
been bias in influencing the masses on the choice of some candidate into
political office.
Likewise, it has being a problem in the society to
know the extent to which newspaper act as mobilization agents on the electorate
towards the choice of a political candidate.
It should be stated categorically here that the
ownership pattern of the Nigeria press affects the coverage of the activities
of political parties, which in term affects their candidates into holding
political position. This of cause is a problem.
The problem of newspaper characteristic also poses a
torn in the flesh over her calculation, strength, target readers, and the cost
of purchase. This poses a problem as to how frequent the readers access these
newspapers to see through their content.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
To
support this research work with close reference to the field of mass
communication, I will like to use the social responsibility theory; the agenda
setting and that of stimulate instinctive response theory of the press. The Hut
Plus commission in 1947 emphasized that the mass media should be much more
responsible to the society. The theory attempts to reconcile media independence
with its obligation to the society. It stated that it is the duty of the print
media (newspaper) to instruct and inform the public to make her capable of self
– government as well as protecting the rights of individuals against the
government through its watchdog functions.
If the press should be taken as
an “hypodermic needle” in the influence it exert in altering and sharpening the
altitude, perception and thinking of those expose to it message, we will stand
at a vantage point to judge the claim by Wilbur Schramm who developed the
“stimulus response” or the “magic bullet theory”.
The theory simply state that, if
people listen to a message they comply, all that the communicator needed to do
is to get audience to listen, and the deal would be considered done. The basic
idea of the following is that every member of the audience and that receives
newspaper message in a uniform way immediate and direct responses are triggered
by such stimuli. The theory further assumed that communication is something
someone does to the consumer elsewhere, the communication not the consumer or
receiver is the causative person”- Ifedayo. D (2001, p45).
In line with the above-mentioned theories, newspaper
serves as an important tool in mobilizing the people through its various
contents. Certain messages carried by the newspaper make the people to become
politically aware and to actively participate in the decision making of the
country (Nigeria) during transition period. Through newspaper the people are
also enlightened on their right to vote and to be voted for as well as making
sure the people exercise these rights by reporting any cases of infringement by
either the government or private individuals.
It is necessary to drive home the
level of influence the media has on us. This influence becomes even more
prevalent if a given medium (newspaper) has proven over a span of time that it
has credibility and a sense of responsibility. Couple with influence and the
sense of responsibility displayed by newspaper house in Nigeria manifested
during the 1999 transition from military to civilian government. The newspaper
didn’t cover the transition programmes in a way that would have been capable of
bringing about disastrous consequences.
SCOPE AND
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The scope of coverage for this research is limited
only to the residences of Kaduna metropolis who are literate. The reason for
this is that it is almost impossible, if not impossible to interview all
newspaper readers in Kaduna state.
Likewise, this study is not without limitations as
there are bound to be some at the cause of gathering materials in this project
work.
The time allowed for this project work is limited
and thereby work against obtaining the so much information that are require to
make this project a ‘gospel truth’.
The level of the
respondent’s sincerity towards answering the questionnaire will also affect
this study. It is however hoped that the error margin will not be wide as to
void the study. The researcher will do everything at its disposal to ensure
high level of sincerity on the part of the respondents.
RESEARCH
QUESTION
To some extent the research work
is to measure the quantitative and qualitative role of the Nigeria press in the
choice of political candidate particularly among the residence of Kaduna
metropolis. The following research hypotheses have been draft out to measure
the public (resident) responses toward the newspaper message.
1. Is the newspaper successfully playing her role of
correlation in term of political issue?
2. Is it the press that places priority on political
candidate in the general public?
3. Is there any lapse, in terms of bias, in the
newspaper coverage of activities of political candidate?
4. What is the ownership status of the Nigeria press
coverage of political parties’ activities and that of their candidate?
5. Does the media content determine
who emerges successful in political elections?
6. How effective have newspaper
being able to influence the general public?
DEFINITION
OF TERMS
Mass
Media – The
people and organization that provide information and news for the public,
including newspaper etc.
Press
– Agency that
carry out the function of mass communication.
“Conscientize
– To instill
enlightenment and awareness through persuasive communication.
Newspapering
– A conscious
effort by the press toward promoting the act of good newspaper reporting.
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