ASSESSMENT OF PRINT MEDIA AS A TOOL FOR POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Abstract

Print media since its inception has always been playing the role of disseminating dissipating information to the audience, and the oldest form of this publication is the newspaper, which can be easily accessed at cheaper rate. It has the tendency of influencing the readers’ political consciousness and decisions whether positively or negatively based on the content of the newspaper. This paper therefore investigates the impact of print media as a tool for political consciousness. To achieve this aim, 300 students from the Department of Political science were randomly chosen from five Public tertiary institutions in Lagos state. The research instrument used for this study was self-structured questionnaire titled “Print Media and Political Consciousness Questionnaire (PMPCQ) It was subjected to analysis using Cronbach alpha to determine the reliability and the reliability coefficient of 0.912 was ascertained.  The data collected were analyzed using inferential statistics at 0.05 alpha level. From the study, there is significant relevant of print media to the Nigerian people and there is significant impact of print media on political consciousness of Nigerian populace.  The study concludes that the role of the print media through its constitutionally recognized empowered duty in developing reader’s political consciousness cannot be over-emphasized. The study recommends that there is need for relevant government agencies to the nation’s communication policy to reflect current realities and global expectations in order to enable print media play their constitutionally empowered role more adequately.  Also, the researcher recommended that training and re-training of print media practitioners is important in order to instill in them the  act of professionalism and sense of duty.