PERCEPTION OF GUBERNATORIAL NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE 2015 ELECTION
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PERCEPTION OF GUBERNATORIAL NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE 2015 ELECTION
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background for the Study
Newspaper advertising is defined as daily or weekly publicity in the form of paper or newsprint. It also refers to a serial magazine that includes news and other educational items. It is typically printed on inexpensive, low-quality paper, such as newspaper.
Newspapers are frequently metonymically referred to by the news organisations that print them. According to Udeze and Akpan (2013), newspaper advertising aims to convince, inform, educate, entertain, enlighten, and mobilise the general public.
This is why the government and other private organisations are paying so much attention to it. Newspapers’ capacity to mobilise people and force them to behave in a specific way and execute certain tasks made them a tool in the hands of governments or political parties.
The medium acts as an intermediary between the government, political parties, and the people, assisting the government in communicating plans and policies to citizens while also receiving their responses, sentiments, and plight.
For any democratic system to exist, political parties and candidates must give voters with appropriate information on party policies, clear visions, and political agendas so that voters can actively choose their candidate based on this knowledge.
To accomplish this, political parties use the media in campaign advertisements, and the media helps voters make educated decisions at election time. This takes the shape of sponsored political advertising, social media campaigns, commentary, and news reports.
For an election to be called free and fair, voters must have a thorough understanding of the candidates, political parties, and election programmes.
It follows that the media plays a vital role in this process, and the forum provided by them during election days serves as an important platform for presenting political beliefs by various parties.
Elections are thought to be the most fundamental and vital aspect of democracy. Elections in democratic societies require that the public have the opportunity to choose representatives and parties based on their free will, as elections are the central instrument for exercising national sovereignty and measuring societal quality (Yaser, Nawaz, Mashud, Chaudhry, & Amhead, 2011).
The print media, particularly newspaper advertising, has long been a vital source of information distribution and political mobilisation in Nigeria.
Contestants use a variety of political techniques to emerge as their party’s candidate before competing against candidates from other parties in a general election. Lobbying, personal contacts, political rallies, and campaigns are examples of political techniques, but they are no longer effective in mobilising support and voters for elections (Olujide, Adeyemi, & Gbadeyan, 2011).
The 2015 general election in Delta State represents a situation in which various political parties made heavy use of newspaper advertising to sell their respective political viewpoints and candidates to voters.
The implication of the preceding remark is that political parties’ chances may have been increased by advertising campaigns. In light of the foregoing, this study investigated how the electorate of Oleh metropolis in Delta State perceived gubernatorial newspaper advertisements during the 2015 election.
1.2 Statement of Problem
During the 2015 gubernatorial elections in Delta State, political parties used newspaper advertising to market their parties and candidates on their platforms, influencing the behaviour of the Oleh community’s electorate.
However, some argue that political parties use newspaper advertisements to blackmail rival political parties and to publicise information that may mislead voters into casting incorrect votes. However, voters today have incorrect judgements of the news provided in newspapers as containing false stories.
Practically, newspaper advertising should be used to raise political awareness and mobilise people, but readers have misinterpreted this. Despite readers’ incorrect assumptions, there have been few or no studies investigating the abnormalities linked with their perception.
This is the gap that the researcher hopes to fill by looking into how the electorate of Oleh metropolis in Delta State perceived gubernatorial newspaper advertisements during the 2015 election.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The overarching goal of this research is to analyse how the electorate of Oleh metropolis in Delta State perceived gubernatorial newspaper advertisements during the 2015 election cycle. The precise aims include:
1. Determine the extent to which newspaper advertisements act as a vehicle for political sensitization and mobilisation in Oleh metropolis.
2. To investigate the impact of newspaper advertising on political issues in Oleh Metropolis.
3. Determine the impact of newspaper content on its readers in comparison to other forms of mass communication in Oleh metropolis.
4. Determine the extent to which newspaper advertisements reinforce voters’ decisions for certain gubernatorial candidates in Oleh metropolis.
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