ANALYSIS OF LEVEL AND DIMENSIONS OF NEWSPAPER POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENTS FOR THE 2019 GENERAL ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Different dimensions of electioneering political advertisements explore framing in attempts to win votes and newspapers are veritable channels, since they are important media for political mobilization in Nigeria. This study relied on framing theory to investigate the level of political advertising in newspapers for the 2019 general elections in Nigeria to ascertain which political parties advertised and the dimensions of their electioneering political advertisements. 136 issues of two leading national newspapers in Nigeria: Guardian and Vanguard were content analyzed. Findings show that only 10.42% of advertisements published during the campaigns were political advertising and less than 4% of political parties that participated in the elections advertised in the selected newspapers. The dimensions of the political advertisements were mainly direct advocacy and indirect positive portrayal while direct attack, direct contrast, indirect negative portrayal and direct opposition joint advocacy political advertisement were minimally engaged. The findings suggest that Nigerian politicians are shunning electioneering political advertising in newspapers and that this multiplicity of dimensions shows the peculiarities in Nigerian politics and attempts to explore different frames in the presentation of campaign messages to voters. The study recommends that researchers should investigate the reason for the continual decline in newspaper electioneering political advertisements in Nigeria while political advertisers should see winning the confidence of the public as more important than manipulating communication frames to win their votes.