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Audience Perception Of Africa Independent Television (ait) Coverage Of Political News Programmes
[A CASE STUDY OF ENUGU METROPOLIS]
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The perception of audience regarding television news content has long
been of interest to communication researchers. Perceptions of
credibility have been found to be influenced by the content of the news
reports and characteristics of the news anchor, suggesting that
perceptions of credibility may be influenced by presentation variables.
Public perception is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs in
a system. It can also be seen as the complex collection of opinion of
many different people and the sum of all their views or as a single
opinion held by an individual about a socio-economic or political topic.
Key component in the formation of public perception is “framingâ€.
Framing is when a story or piece of news is portrayed in a particular
way and is meant to sway the consumers’ attitude one way or the other.
Social desirability is another key component in the formation of public
perception. Social desirability is the idea that people in general will
form their perceptions based on what they believe is the popular
opinion. Based on media agenda setting and media framing, most often a
particular opinion gets repeated throughout various news mediums and
social networking sites, until it creates a false vision where the
perceived truth is actually very far away from the actual truth. Public
perception can also be influenced by public relations and the political
media. Mass media utilizes a wide variety of advertising techniques to
get their message out and change the minds of people. From the 1950s,
television was one of the main media for moulding public perception, but
with the advent of the internet and social media, that has changed
considerably. Public perception starts from an idea or suggestion being
subtly mooted, mainly through the mass media. Questions such as why
would the North always rule? The government is filled with corrupt
politicians and what should the government do regarding public
transportation etc. So when citizens gather they talk about politics.
Generally, they proffer their opinions on what they think that their
governments ought to be doing on this or that issue (Agbo, 2013).
In
mass media, channels of transmission of news include: the press, radio,
television and internet. All this media have specific
technical-technological characteristics with which they transmit their
news. The role of the mass media in creating and strengthening public
opinion is very important. The advent of independent media houses in the
present democratic settings has contributed to the growth and freedom
of expression and perception. In modern societies, getting authentic
information is critical to the quality decision making by the citizens
and the legislators. The growth of the mass media and their capability
to transmit information and messages to a large population at the same
time combined with the ever ready good to go journalists have turned the
media world into a large social institution.
In the past, the
traditional media organizations have been the basic means of connecting
the public with news on social and political world. For a longer period
of time, such media have been observed as a means of preventing the
citizens from knowing some of the misdeeds of the government especially
in politics. Politics in the modern societies can be understood as a
system organizing and governing the public way of life and taking care
of the overall interests of the citizens. The role of the mass media in
creating and strengthening the public opinion is pivotal. Hence, with
the advent of independent media houses in the process of
democratization, expressions and thoughts of the general public have
been made easy.
Public perceptions could also be related to their
attitudes, opinions, and believes on certain political news and
political programmes; these sometimes influence their behavioural
patterns and dispositions toward their political leaders and
stakeholders. Public perceptions are also conditioned by three key
elements: public, the message and the channel through which the message
is passed. The television today represents a channel of information
dissemination, such as the political happenings, events, quarrels and
debates, the manner in which the television station package and transmit
the information has an influence on the audience, since it is through
the media the audience learn, judge, analyse, makes contexts and make
informed decisions about their political leaders. Politics cannot exist
without the voice of the media, because only through it, the public get
to know the plans, activities and agenda of the political parties
(Siljanovska and Ejupi, 2013).
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The aim of this study is to investigate Audience perception on coverage of political news programmes of Africa independent Television (AIT) in Enugu metropolis Enugu state. Three research questions guided the study. The data of this study were gathered through various Likert scale questionnaire. Statistical analyses of data collected were performed using, frequency distribution, percentages, and tables. A total of 400 copies of the questionnaire were distributed. The number of retrieved question ... Continue reading---
