| Abstract: |
Political advertising is an integral part of the political process in
every democracy. In this, the political actors employ various media
to reach and influence the voters. One of the methods they use is
billboards which announce their participation in the electoral
process. In doing this, the electorate remains the target. This work
sets out to ascertain if the electorate in Anambra state were exposed
to billboard advertisements during the 2023 presidential election in
Nigeria; if billboard advertisements have significant effect on their
voting pattern and if there are other factors that influence their voting
behaviour. The study was anchored on the Agenda Setting theory
and adopted the survey research design. Out of a population of 2.5
million registered voters in Anambra State, a sample of 400 was
selected using the Taro Yamani formulae for sample size selection.
The area of study is the three major towns in Anambra state (Awka,
Onitsha and Nnewi) purposively selected to represent each of the
three senatorial zones in the state. The finding showed that the
electorate was exposed to billboard advertisements during the
presidential election and the billboards played a major part in
influencing their behaviour during the election since it introduces
the candidates to the electorate. The respondents however stated that
apart from billboards, there are other factors that influenced voting
behaviour. These include political affiliation, campaign promises
and ethnic or religious affiliations. Based on these findings, the
researcher recommends an admixture of different campaign
methods to address other issues which billboards cannot handle. The
use of different media genres should also be adopted to appeal to
different segments of the society. |
