The Role of the Press in the Free and Fair Election
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are;
- To examine how the press has fared and legally performed its role for a free and fair election
- To ascertain the relationship between press and free and fair election
- To assess the press performance in an election and the general contribution of the Nigeria press to a stable policy
- To ascertain the impact of press report on free and fair election to general public
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN ELECTORAL CAMPAIGNS
As a public institution, and given its responsibilities not only to disseminate electoral information and determine electoral results, but also to encourage civic electoral education, the electoral authority takes on a very public role. Its relationship with the media is therefore essential to the effective dissemination of its messages. However, unlike the electoral authority, the media is not, despite its public character, a public good. In Latin America, the media is usually privately owned, has its own political interests, and therefore represents one more actor in the electoral process. Its ability to reach wide audiences makes it a powerful actor, at that, capable of setting the mood for an election. The media determines who, what, and how they will cover an electoral process, the effect of which spills over onto the general public’s opinion. As such, the relationship between the media and electoral authorities can become delicate and even contentious during the electoral campaign. Nonetheless, this relationship also has a potentially positive dynamic in which the media serve as a helpful ally to electoral authorities in their efforts at transparency and credibility. Similarly, the media is a tool for large scale dissemination of electoral information to the public. As a result, the management and coordination of this relationship is a critical aspect of the functioning of electoral authorities throughout the hemisphere, and an essential point for strengthening the electoral process. As such, the presentations in this chapter reflect the idea that, rather than disallow the media from providing coverage during the electoral process, electoral authorities should formulate solutions or regulations to procure balanced coverage during electoral processes. In doing so, electoral authorities in each country should be mindful of the political context within which they and the media operate. In this chapter, Dr. Rafael Roncagliolo of International IDEA and Dr. Raul Trejo of the Universidad Autónoma Nacional de México provided a general overview of this relationship and its implications for governance throughout the region. In addition, as Mr. Wesley Gibbings explained in his presentation on Media and Elections in the English-speaking Caribbean, media regulation is something that needs to be weighed carefully depending on the context, given potential negative effects on access to information. John Enright, Director of Media Relations at Elections Canada, explained in detail the media relations strategy of Canada’s electoral authority, which has led to a streamlined, transparent relationship. Lastly, Gineen Beach of the U.S. Federal Electoral Commission, discussed the impact of the media on U.S. elections, with a special emphasis on the role of new technologies.
ELECTORAL CYCLE
It’s vital that the media do not see elections as simply a few weeks of campaigning, the polling days, and the announcement of results. Instead, the media have a duty to provide election coverage that gives the voter comprehensive, accurate and reliable information on all aspects of the electoral process. This information will also help to ensure that the voters know and understand their democratic rights and exercise them free from fear, intimidation or coercion. This means that the media coverage of elections should start with covering electoral reform, delimitation (demarcation of constituency boundaries), and voter registration long before the campaigning starts in earnest. In order to ensure elections are covered in detail and in all aspects, media houses should ensure that their journalists are familiar with the legislative framework governing the electoral process and are fully conversant with all aspects of the electoral process, including how electoral institutions operate. In addition journalists should be familiar with regional and continental principles and benchmarks on democracy and elections. To ensure comprehensive and quality coverage of elections, it is advisable for media houses to set up specialised election desks or units within the newsroom.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought the role of the press in the free and fair election
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information the role of the press in the free and fair election. 200 staff of INEC, Abuja was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
DATA ANALYSIS
The data collected from the respondents were analyzed in tabular form with simple percentage for easy understanding.
A total of 133(one hundred and thirty three) questionnaires were distributed and 133 questionnaires were returned.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain the role of the press in the free and fair election. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenge of press in the free and fair election
Summary
This study was on the role of the press in the free and fair election. Four objectives were raised which included: To examine how the press has fared and legally performed its role for a free and fair election, to ascertain the relationship between press and free and fair election, to assess the press performance in an election and the general contribution of the Nigeria press to a stable policy, to ascertain the impact of press report on free and fair election to general public. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staff of INEC, Abuja. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made electoral commissioners, presiding officers, senior staff and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
It is the conclusion of the study, therefore, that in order to attain that improvement, the next time around, it is imperative that all hands must be on deck. Starting from the mass media that could not be alive to its responsibilities in terms of reporting news factually, shunning hate campaigns, unable to stand by its code of ethics, and posing as potential agent of destroying the country; to the Nigeria Press Council that has a law it is diffident to implement; to the Independent Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC) that is limited by law to prosecute airing mass media and good-for-nothing political party that failed woefully in moving the country a notch higher than when it took over power after the previous (2011) General Elections, the paper advises that let all the weaknesses be addressed with seriousness, a sense of sincerity, focus and purpose, as well as the discipline that shall ensure the shenanigans that have held us up from developing shall be extirpated. In short, the success of the 2015 General Elections should actually be the defining moment for the quantum takes off of the country to higher and nobler achievements. From the foregoing discussions, this paper therefore supports the notion that while media as an institution exerts a lot of influence due to the centrality of their function to the running of contemporary societies, the power the media wield in any society is tangentially related to the political orientation on the holders of political power in the society who only use the media to leverage on their already existing powers.
Recommendation
Based on the findings and conclusion of the study, we made the following recommendations:
- Government owned media should be more proactive in handling electoral reports in Nigeria, and should report on free and fair elections at all times no matter who such report favours.
- Government should allow public owned media to be run professionally so that they should emphasize fairness in their report of elections in the country.
REFERENCES
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