THE IMPACT OF SMS POLITICAL ADVERTISING ON THE VOTING BEHAVIOUR OF VOTERS IN THE 2023 GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Introduction: Election is the central institution of democratic representative governments. This is because, in a democracy, the authority of the government derives solely from the consent of the governed. The principal mechanism for translating that consent into governmental authority is the holding of free and fair elections. Kirkpatrick (2018) identified the criteria of democratic election to include voters education and democratic elections among others. Elections are at the very heart of democracy, and are indeed the very essence of democracy. However, prior to the election proper, political parties, politicians, party members and other stakeholders engage in an equally important process called “electioneering”. electioneering are speeches and other activities that are intended to persuade people to vote for a particular person or political party”. It is popularly regarded as ‘campaigning’ in this part of the world.

An ‘election year’ is like no other year in any country practising democracy. Politicians and their respective political parties go to a great length to reach out to eligible citizens with persuasive messages in order to convince the electorates to vote for them. No stratum of the society is spared from the barrage of electioneering: market women, working class, traders, artisans, students, professional bodies, youths, etc are all targeted in order to secure their votes. The mass media has served as the tool of choice to reach the heterogeneous and widely dispersed electorates. Massive funds are usually earmarked by politicians and their parties for electioneering in the traditional mass media i.e. television, radio, newspapers and magazines. The popularity of the mass media is due to its wide reach/coverage. Nomadic herdsmen can be reached via their sms, transistor radios, elites and literati can be reached via newspapers, women can be reached via magazines and town/city dwellers mostly via the television.

 In the past two decades, political campaigns have adopted new media technologies, including the Internet and online social media and text messages.However, a very important component of the electorates – the youth  seem to be increasingly ‘unreachable’ through the traditional media, as they seem to be making a shift away from the traditional media to internet based applications like social media, smartphone and text messages. The decreasing influence of traditional media was noted by Thomas, Allen and Semenik (2014): as “an important issue propelling this search for new ways to reach electorates and how political advertising (messages) has influenced voting pattern of electorates in 2023 general elections.

​​​​​​​Statement of the problem

In recent years, usage of text messages sent by political parties and candidates to potential voters has been on the rise. Such messages may also offer response options, which create bilateral communications with potential voters.One method to promote political participation is to develop a political campaign: a series of actions taken by a party or a candidate designed to persuade voters to vote for them. Although youth and average masses apathy towards election obviously does not augur well for sustenance of democracy in the country, hence the sensitization and mobilization drive by the federal government to encourage youths of eligible age to participate in the electoral process by registering and also voting for candidates of their choices even as they send them persuasive message via their smartphones. Inspite of several literature on the importance of social media in political campaign, none has covered the role of SMS in voting pattern. The study wish to close this gap and hence seeks to  examine the use of SMS as a veritable mobilization tool for electioneering campaigns in general elections with a focus on south eastern Nigeria.

​​​​​​​Research objectives

The main focus of this study is to examine the influence of SMS political advertising (messages) on voting pattern of electorates in the 2023 governorship election. Specifically the study seeks:

1. To examine the role of SMS in voting pattern of SMS.
2. To what extent does SMS political advertising influence voting pattern.
3. What is the perception of electorates on SMS political advertising

1.4 Research question

1. What is the role of SMS in voting pattern of SMS?

2. To what extent does SMS political advertising influence voting pattern?

3. What is the perception of electorates on SMS political advertising?

1.5 Significance of Study

The findings of this study will add more knowledge to the existing literature on media effect theories. It will also serve as a reference for future researchers that may want to undertake a research on a similar study. Government  will find the result of this study useful, especially those that are in the business of disseminating public service announcements and national orientation messages. More often than not most of such messages are targeted toward the youths in particular e.g. “Voter Registration”. “Cool 2 Vote”, “Anti cultism”. Anti-abortion, HIV/AIDS prevention etc. The result of this study would be of interest to all political parties that want to sell their parties, manifestos, candidates, ideas to the youths in order to secure their votes.

The findings of the study will enable Political parties in the 21st century not to afford to be technologically bankrupt in this information age hence the need for them to device mechanisms for electioneering and campaigning in other to influence the voting pattern of the masses.The findings of this study will contribute to the sustainable development of democracy in Nigeria.

1.6 Scope of the study

The scope of this study borders on the influence of SMS political advertising (messages) on voting pattern of electorates in the 2023 governorship election. The study is however limited to Abia State in South East Nigeria.

1.7 Limitations of the study

The major limitations of this study is that the newness of the topics as assigned by the project supervisor posed a big challenge to the researcher. Lack of material such as textbook, journals, internet print-outs relevant to carry out the research and renovation of school library were banners to the study. The researcher also  encountered some constraint that was likely to hamper the pace of the study including the respondents unwillingness to participate in the study by refusing to give answers to the survey instrument, to overcome this kind of limitation, the researcher explained the purpose of the study to his respondents and solicited for their cooperation. Despite all these limitations, the research was successfully carried out.

​​​​​​​Definition of Terms

Awareness: Awareness is the state of being conscious of something. More specifically, it is the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events.

Electoral process: An electoral process or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined.Electoral process are the detailed constitutional arrangements and voting systems that convert the vote into a political decision. 

Voting behaviour: This has to do with youth response towards voting. There could be low voters turnout, average of large voters’ turnout. Influence: The power to affect the way someone or something behaves, thinks without using direct force or order.

Advertisement: It refers to any paid for or sponsored messages, which is disseminated through the media and aim at informing and persuading an audience to take an action in response to the advert

SMS: SMS (Short Message Service) is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet, and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text messages.