EFFECT OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA ON THE VOTING BEHAVIOUR OF IMO STATE ELECTORATE IN THE 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS

Abstract

The study seeks to examine the influence of political messages on selected electronic media platforms on electorates voting behaviour during the 2023 general elections. The objectives are to examine the extent to which the Imo electorate was exposed to political campaigns on radio and television during the 2023 elections, know the voters’ perceptions of political campaigns on radio and television during the 2023 election and find out if political campaigns on radio and television influence the Imo electorate to vote for the candidates of their choice. The study was anchored on Sherrif et al (1961), social judgment theory. The survey design was adopted for this study due to the nature of the study. It focused on a representative sample derived from the entire population of a study. The survey design was adopted to study 385 eligible voters from selected LGAs in Imo State. The study found that various political parties extensively deployed campaigns on radio and television during the elections but the electronic media campaigns were not well received by all the electorate except based on party affiliation [x2 (df, 8) = 253.248, p <.0005]; and those campaigns on radio and television did not holistically influence electoral decisions even when they might be appealing enough to do so. It was recommended that political parties and politicians should use other media to complement radio or television in their campaigns since they do not have a wholesale effect on voter behaviour.