Influence of Advertisements on Voter’s Behavior in Anambra State.
ABSTRACT
This research work centered on analyzing how advertisements affect voters choice in voting a candidate during elections.
The study was necessitated due to the fact that politicians have shown over the years that they do not understand the power and do’s and don’ts of advertisements in political victory especially in Nigeria.
The study made use of a simple random sampling method. 398 staff of the citizens of local government area was drawn from a population of 87,798 using the Yero Yamani Formula.
The multi-stage sampling method was also used to arrive at the study sample. The study found out that political advertisements have a great influence on voters’ choice and that voters prefer certain mediums and methods of adverts to others.
INTRODUCTION
Advertisements have over the years remained a persuasive tool for convincing potential buyers/customers to patronize and remain loyal to a particular goods line.
It was further used for persuading loyalty and patronage to ideas, beliefs and opinions thus the integration of politicians into chronic users of advertisements as a veritable tool for securing political victories as it facilitates their outreach and conviction of a large number of persons at ease and at once to key into their vision and unfathomable render their support to them.
This study, therefore, focuses on how advertisements by political parties and candidates influence voters behavior in Nigeria.
1.1 Background of the Study
The study of voting behavior began in 1940 at Columbia University by Paul Lazarsfeld and his group of social scientists. They conducted various studies to assess changes in individual voting intentions over the course of a presidential campaign (Bartels, 2008).
Although greater focus has been invested in understanding consumer behavior, there is an emergence of renewed interest in analyzing voting behavior. Political communication is one of the key differentiating tools of any democratic system and political campaigning during election time is one of the widely experienced political communications.
Political campaigning involves the use of varied modes of communication to reach out to the voters to inform, as well as to persuade them for their favorable voting behavior towards the party and the candidate concerned.
As a collection of campaigning tools, political communication has grown from a simple form of one-to-one communication for a political candidate or the party to sophisticated technology-driven strategic decision making involving the use of a mix of campaigning tools.
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