CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
The mass media have always remained a key factor in the political sphere, in democracy and they perform diverse functions in the society. These functions include providing entertainment to the public, giving information and educating the public. One of the avenues in which the mass media play their education function is in electioneering. The mass media provide a link between the political parties/candidates and the electorate.
The media serve critical roles throughout the electoral process. In addition to promoting public debate and educating citizens, they monitor the integrity of the process and can be a primary vehicle for accountability demands. The media supplies the political information that voters base their decisions on. Although, the mass media may not be the only source of information for voters, in a world dominated by mass communication it is increasingly the mass media that determine the political agenda in the society.
According to Norris (1997) cited in Oboh (2016:3) noted that one of the primary function of the media in electioneering is to increase information about the choices on offer, stimulating interest in public involvement in the process and watching politicians debate. This will make the media audience to feel better informed, more aware of the choices on offer, and therefore better equipped to exercise their choice at the ballot box.
Mass media are indispensable avenues for political parties/candidates to reach a large percentage of the electorate who would otherwise have been unreached by political campaign messages delivered at rallies. The mass media through their coverage of electioneering and airing of political advertisements have the potential of influencing voting decision of the electorate Obot (2013:173).
In every election, citizens must not only decide on the party or candidate they wish to vote for or support, they must also decide whether they will vote at all. Across board, electorates learn about the choices they face in national elections not from personal contact with-politicians nor from interpersonal conversations but from the mass media. The Mass media voter education has been found to be the main source of voters’ information (Okon, 2014:2). The foregoing implies that the media have a crucial role to play in electioneering. This may be unconnected with the fact that the mass media are the most common sources for information about elections in democracies and societies in transition around the world. Concerns about political bias in the mass media are at the heart of debates about the role and responsibility of the media at election time due to the possibility that the media will intentionally or unintentionally influence the electorate.