When Our Expectations Are Met: An Analysis of Voters’ Perception of the Media Coverage of 2011 General Elections in Nigeria

Abstract

The foremost thrust of this study is to investigate how voters in Enugu State perceived the media coverage of the 2011 general elections in Nigeria.  To provide a compass for this investigation, research objectives, questions and hypotheses were raised. Among the questions raised in this study were: were voters exposed to electoral issues? how did voters perceive the media coverage of 2011 general elections? How did voters’ perception of the media coverage influence their participation in the 2011 general elections? The research hypotheses include: there is significant relationship between voters’ exposure to electoral issues in the media and their level of knowledge about the 2011 general elections; there is a significant relationship between voters’ perception of media coverage of the 2011 general elections and their participation in the elections.   A number of relevant literatures were reviewed to ascertain the state of the existing corpus of knowledge in this area and consequently establish the gap in literature. Explanatory mixed method design was used to achieve the objective of this study. Since this design allowed the use of two methods, questionnaire and in-depth interview techniques were used to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data for the study. The qualitative data were generated to shed more light on the quantitative data. The study concentrated on registered voters in the south-eastern part of Nigeria. The Australian calculator was used to derive the sample size which stood at 405. Cluster sampling method was used to select respondents randomly to represent the population. The three hypotheses tested in the study using Chi-square formula received empirical support which showed that voters’ exposure to electoral information in the media influenced their knowledge; their perception of the 2011 general election was influenced by their knowledge and their perception of media coverage of the 2011 general elections influenced their participation in the elections. The key findings of the study include that: radio remains a veritable means of reaching the electorates with information on electoral issues; the electorates have confidence in media reports; the electorates have high of knowledge of electoral issues; electorates’ exposure to the media influenced their participation. It was recommended that radio should be used in disseminating information about election in Enugu State since voters have confidence in their reports. Media literacy should be included as a general course in Nigeria’s  higher institutions of learning.