Political Advertising and Voters’ Decision: A Study of the 2015 Governorship Election in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Keyword : Political Advertising .Opinion .Democracy .Political parties

Author(s) : Chike Emma Onwe

Abstract :

Through the agency of the mass media, political actors set the agenda for the electorate during campaigns. They seek to reach potential voters with wellarticulated and aesthetically designed messages to persuade them to vote in a desired way. This study examined the influence of political advertising on the voting decision among the Ebonyi State electorate in the 2015 governorship election in the South East State. The objective was to determine the extent to which the electorate in Ebonyi State was exposed to political advertising, which group of media users were most disposed to political advertising as well as the extent such political advertising messages influenced the voting decisions of the electorate. To achieve this, the study used the survey method with the questionnaire as research instrument, employing multi-stage sampling to select the respondents. On the whole, 300 respondents were selected in the six federal constituencies that make up the three senatorial zones in the State. The findings indicated, among other things, that the electorate in Ebonyi State was well exposed to political advertising; that the voters who were both partisan and active constitute the group most disposed to political advertising messages and were therefore influenced more in their voting choice in the election. In the light of the findings, it was confirmed that political advertising was essential factor in the political decisions of majority of the electorate in Ebonyi State. Flowing from this, it was recommended that candidates seeking political offices should strive to understand their target audience in packaging their political messages and utilize effective strategies and tactics in designing and placement of political messages.

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