AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF NEWSPAPER IN MOBILIZING WOMEN FOR POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA

ABSTARCT: This study was carried out on the role of newspaper in mobilizing women for political participation in Nigeria. To achieve this, four significant research objectives were formulated. The survey design was adopted and the simple random sampling techniques were employed in this study. The population size comprise of politically ambitious women in Ikeja, Lagos State. In determining the sample size, the researcher conveniently selected 70 respondents while 55 were received and 50 were validated. Self-constructed and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected and validated questionnaires were analyzed using frequency tables and percentage. The result of the findings reveals that print media contribute towards mobilizing women for political participation. The findings also revealed that societal culture and norms affects women participation in politics in Nigeria. Furthermore, the study showed that the problems facing women in participating in politics include; cultural and religious factors, gender imbalance, lack of internal democracy, lack of funds, and violent nature of Nigerian politics. In regard to the findings, the study recommends that the mass  media such like the newspaper should  continue to  set  women  agenda  during  and  after political  campaigns.  They  should  continue  to  educate  women  on  the  need  to  be politically conscious in the society. And since  women  are  politically  conscious  to  participate  in  the  political process, they should be encouraged by all stakeholders in the society to continue in this direction. With stakeholders encouraging them, they will break the barriers of religion and traditional  belief  systems that have kept women  bound not to express themselves freely when it comes to politics.