The Contribution of the Broadcast Media to Public Policy Formulation in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria

Abstract

The study set out to investigate the contribution of the broadcast media to public policy formulation in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. The broadcast media selected for the study were Radio Akwa Ibom and NTA Uyo, both based in the State. Five programmes of the broadcast media were selected for the study. The work employed content analysis and survey as the research design.  A purposive sample of respondents was drawn from a population of members of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly and higher civil servants, comprising permanent secretaries and heads of directorates in 17 ministries and two bureaus. It was found out that the broadcast media made input that was incorporated into public policy, and such input was incorporated to the extent that it tended to agree with the proposals already made by public policy formulators. Incorporation of policy input from the broadcast media also depended on the attitude of the public policy formulators to such media organisations. The policy makers also considered policy input from the broadcast media as reliable and representative of public opinion. Hence when policies succeed or fail, the accolades or blame should not be restricted to policy makers alone.

Key words: policy actors, policy input, agenda-setting model, opinion-management process