This research work seeks to examine to what extent the press content (restricting it to print media) affect the choice made by the public toward a particular political candidate. It examines theories as related to the field of mass communication, which emphasis the media key role in determine what perception the public build on a political figure. To this end, the study is pattern along the Instructive Stimulus Response Theory or the “Hypodermic needle/magic bullet” theory of the print media and the social responsibility theory of the press as reinforced by the Hut Plus commission of 1947. be that the research is quantitative as the case provide, a survey method was use along side the instrument of questionnaire, where the simple random sampling technique was used to gathered data from the resident of the three local government areas of Igabi, Kaduna South and Kaduna North which make up the Kaduna metropolis. Understanding the limitation as associated with the print media, being that it is more prominent among the elite, the research work after analyzing and interpretating the gathered data in chapter four went further in chapter five (being the provision for conclusion and recommendation) to proffer ways in which the press will be used, when the right atmosphere is provided, as the only machinery through which information can be transfer to the general public and perception build and shape thereafter, in their bid to choose a political candidate of their choice during election, citing our current dive as a nation into the fourth republic with a proper functioning of democratic principle.
Mass communication is defined as messages directed towards a large group of people using a mass medium. It involves disseminating information to a large, diverse, homogenous/heterogeneous audience. Mass communication is made possible through the help of mass media. That is to say mass media makes mass communication a reality. Mass media includes television, radio, newspaper, magazine etc.
For every human society the successful conduct of her internal/external affairs depends largely on the extent of the reliability of government apparatus and the government successfully communicating, understanding and accepting themselves in a mutual and symbiotic relationship”- Obaze .A et al (2004:1)
The need for information is such that man can hardly function or determine his course of life with out communication. On account of this, the influential role of the media is cited in her caprice to direct, redirect, and shoulder the course of altitude change and instilling/building public perception towards societal affair.
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