THE INFLUENCE OF MASS MEDIA ON YOUTH POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION IN NIGERIA

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THE INFLUENCE OF MASS MEDIA ON YOUTH POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION IN NIGERIA

(A STUDY OF BAYERO UNIVERSITY KANO UNDERGRADUATES).

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In our present world of technological advancement where the world has become a global village, the influence of mass media on the entire life of an individual cannot be over emphasized as the media serves as a window to societies that are worlds apart from one another and also remain a unifying element across diverse cultures.

Mass media is a significant force in modern culture and Nigeria being an advancing country is not excluded from the grasp of this media force. Sociologists refer to this, as a mediated culture where media reflects and creates the culture. Communities and individuals are bombarded constantly with messages from a multitude of sources including TV, billboards, and magazines, to name a few. These messages promote not only products, but moods, attitudes, and a sense of what is and what is not important. People learn through watching television. Some of the things they learn are beneficial while others are not. They learn about the world and the ways of the society. They learn new ideas, cultures and many other things. For example getting an idea about what a nurse does, what a doctor does, and how the two relate to each other. They learn about the institutions of the society like what goes on in court, for example. They also learn the languages to go with these roles and settings. Individuals also learn about current themes and issues, both from newscasts and dramas such as kidnapping, homelessness, and the spread of AIDS. Most of these issues and themes are not happy ones, and many are very frightening, especially when children watch programs that are intended for adults.

Roberts et al. (2005) opined that with the average person spending over four hours a day in front of the TV (and children averaging even more screen time), media greatly influences social norms. The above statement suggests and points to the fact that mass media has the power to influence and alter an individuals’ believes and views about his immediate environment. This confirms the notion that mass media is a socializing agent. Legislators, media experts, school officials and sociologists have all debated this controversial question as to what role the mass media play in the political socialization of youths. While opinions vary as to the extent and type of influence the media wields, all sides agree that mass media is a permanent part of modern culture.

1.1     STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

In the field of social sciences it is believed that a social problem is one which negatively affects the majority of the people of a society in several ways. In other words, it is sufficient to state that a social problem is that which affects the peaceful existence of a society negatively and thereby tampering or altering with the stability of the society. Many individuals may wonder as to how the issue of political socialization may constitute a social problem. The answer to this is simple because since political socialization involves or connotes the level of political awareness or consciousness amongst the people of a given society, state or nation, that when properly learnt and internalized, can lead to, tolerance, patriotism, loyalty, respect for constitution, and a sense of nationalism on the part of the citizenry while on the part of the society as a whole, it can bring about peaceful and harmonious coexistence between the government of a given state and  its citizen. On the other hand if the citizens of such a given state are not properly socialized politically, the quality of the citizens is utterly the reverse or opposite of the .first case and the general implication is that it can lead to a state whereby the citizens do not have or show any regards for those in public offices, the national symbols, the constitution and sometimes the nation itself.

The implication of this political disorientation is very detrimental to both individuals and the society at large. For example the issues of electoral violence, fraud, looting of national treasury, corruption in public office and government in general are all issues that are rooted in bad or total lack of political socialization. Oddih (2007) was of the view that up till date, an electoral fraud arises from the desire to control resources at local, state and federal levels of governments. In effect, the incidence of manipulation of census figures, rigging of elections, siphoning of public funds and other anti-social vices associated with Nigeria’s electoral processes is born out of the desire to have access and control over material resources. The statement above represents a clear cut example of the Nigerian scenario. In Nigeria today the level of improper political socialization being exhibited by both the young and old, male and female, rich and poor, public servants and masses is rather a shame to the people and country as a whole. Due to the these political disorientation and socialization, Nigerians have witnessed several politically inclined violence, upheavals, chaos, anarchy from pre to post electoral violence resulting from rigging an election, coup d’états, civil wars and many others which has consequently resulted in the lost of many lives and destruction of properties. Political socialization is to this extent, a two edged sword which can yield both positive and negative outcomes depending on the level of awareness and consciousness amongst citizens of a given state.

The mass media through the art and principle of mass communication is responsible for dissemination of information and in turn serves as our major source of learning. It is no doubt that mass media is an agent of socialization as rightly expressed by Roberts et. al. above. Although there are several other agents of socialization such as family, school, religion or even peer groups but none of these other agents have the capacity to influence an individual as much as the mass media. This is adequately stressed by Huesmann (1995) when he characterized the time since the introduction of television in the 1950s as a period in which the mass media steadily gained influence in socializing children while parents and more traditional socializing organizations (e.g., schools, churches) steadily lost influence. This is particularly because not everyone was brought up within the fold of family love and care as some people were brought up in broken homes, others in orphanages and as such may not have the necessary primary form of socialization. Also not every individual had the privilege of going to school or even belonging to any religious group or faith. As a result, individuals may not be socialized by any one of these agents. Because media is all around us today, it is  reasonable to believe that every individual has watched television, read a newspaper, a magazine, an article, seen  a billboard, listened to a radio or browsed the internet at one time or the other due to the pervasiveness of these media. To this extent, the mass media becomes the most powerful and pervasive means of learning and educating one’s self and others in a growing mediated world.

As Hyman (1963) has rightly stated that “the media package, designed merely to entertain an audience, or to sell a product and make money for a producer, may serve the latent function of political socialization” (pg.129). This statement shows that the mass media has a political socialization function in the society. Through political programs like talk shows, propaganda, advertisements, interviews and many others, the mass media can incite individuals to be either politically radical or conforming. In this regard the mass media has the ability to positively or negatively influence an individual political views and ideologies thereby becoming an agent for peaceful, harmonious social construction as well as provide for a stable status quo or an agent of destruction, chaos and anarchy. In other words

1.2     AIM AND OBJECTIVES

This research is aimed at analyzing the influence of mass media on the political socialization of youths amongst undergraduate students of Bayero University Kano. Thus, this study was set to analyze the following issue:

1. Find out the role of mass media in political socialization of youths in recent times
2. Determine the extent to which the mass media influence political participation among youths through socialization
3. Find out whether the massive political socialization campaign carried out by the mass media has any impact on the peaceful outcome of the 2015 general elections.

1.3     HYPOTHESES

For the purpose of this research, the following hypotheses were tested and subjected to acceptance or rejection.

1. The mass media plays a vital role in political socialization amongst youths in recent times
2. The level of political participation amongst youths has not increased even with increased socialization efforts by the mass media
3. The mass media political socialization effort had little or no influence on the peaceful outcome of the 2015 general elections

1.4     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

The need to study the impact of mass media on youth political socialization in Nigeria cannot be over emphasized. For the fact that socialization is a very important issue in the life course of an individual, analyzing the problems associated with improper socialization and proffering solutions to them is the most basic significance of this study.

Many people today, continue to suffer and linger in a certain problem only because they make little or no effort at all to search and comprehend the root cause of the problem and thereby find out what possible ways are open for them to tackle the problem. In other words, the need for this study stems from the incessant reoccurrence of the social and political consequence associated with the lack of proper political socialization before, during and long after elections.

Firstly, this survey would give significant and comprehensive understanding of the concepts of mass media, youth socialization, political socialization and and the relationship between the concepts.

Secondly, the project would help in understanding if the mass media is a powerful tool for learning being an important agent of socialization and equally if it has any impact on political socialization process of youths especially through its advertisement content, talk shows, propaganda, lectures, jingles, etc.

Thirdly, the study can help government and other related stakeholders understand the role of mass media in political socialization process and therefore, determine whether to increase their level of involvement in the promotion of media contents that will facilitate such socialization.

Fourthly, it can also serve as a source of knowledge for the government and other policy makers in the state to refer to in terms of whether the media should play any active role in political socialization or not. In other words, whether to restrict media contents pertaining to certain political issues or matter.

Lastly, the research can serve as a source of knowledge or reference for students and academicians willing to know more about the influence of mass media on political socialization process generally. And it can also open a window for more researches and advanced studies concerning the topic.

1.5     SCOPE AND LIMITATION

The scope of this research is limited to undergraduate students of Bayero University Kano state. The study covered the students’ assessment on the influence of mass media on political socialization amongst youths. There were some challenges faced by the researcher during the course of this study.  Some of them are mentioned briefly below

• Time limit: the issue of time was a very limiting factor to the completion of this research work. This was because of the university’s stipulated time frame for the completion and submission, and the fact that this study was conducted alongside lectures, assignments, tests and exams. So time was not a luxury the researcher had.
• Financial constraints: Readily available finances when it was needed also constituted a constraint to the research. The researcher was buoyant enough to incur necessary expenses whenever there was a need for it. This constituted a limiting factor to the progress and probably the success of the work.
• Access to materials: access to relevant and reliable information, data and materials may was also a constituting limitation to the study.

In conclusion, the above mentioned factors and more accounts for the limitations the researcher encountered during the research process.

1.6     OPERATIONALIZATION OF CONCEPTS

Here, key concepts in the research are given an operational definition below. Although there are definitions that scholars may give for the following terms, but for the purpose of easy comprehension and understanding, the terms are defined in their simplest forms and without necessarily omitting any essential part(s) of the term.

Mass media: the mass media here refers to those multiple means through which mass communication contents are disseminated from a source to a large and anonymous audience. They include the radio, TV, billboards, handbills, posters, internet, newspapers, magazines etc.

Youths: The term youth here can be defined here to mean any male or female who is beyond infancy, who on the other hand may or may not have reached a voting age, but who is able to account for his or her actions e.g. 16years above.

Socialization: The whole process by which an individual acquires dispositions toward behavior that is positively valued by society and the elimination of dispositions toward behavior that is disvalued. Socialization is the process whereby an individual member of a society becomes educated and learned about the customs and norms attainable in his society, and as such internalizes these norms and customs so that he or she begins to act in accordance with what he has learnt.

Political socialization: A developmental and learning process through which persons acquire political orientations, social norms regarding politics and acceptable patterns of political behavior. In the light of the above definition of socialization, we may operate with a definition of political sociology as the political education that one gets from his society. In simple terms, political socialization can be referred to as the amount of political knowledge, understanding and level of political awareness that citizens of a particular country have.

Political violence: This is simply any harmful action which has a political orientation and undertone and perpetuated by an individual or group of individuals that may consequentially lead to loss of lives, destruction of properties and sometimes put a community, state or country in a state of anarchy and chaos.

Political participation: the term participation here is used to refer to those respondents who registered for the respective electoral exercise, collected their voter’s cards and casted their votes on the days of the respective elections.

Advertisement: this is used here to refer to those political programs aired on air or any other media for the promotion of political ideas and personality.

Propaganda: this refers to those programs aired on TV, radio and other media platforms which include false or exaggerated ideas or statements that are intended to gain support for a party or member(s) of such party. Propagandas too can be used for tarnishing a person’s image or reputation, destroy an idea etc.

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