IMPACT OF BROADCASTING SERVICE (E.S.B.S) RADIO ON VOTERS’ MOBILIZAITON DURING ELECTION IN 2011

This research work examined the impact of radio on voters mobilization with Enugu North municipality as a case study. The survey method was used for the study, this method was done to enable the researcher discuss findings especially as there is a widespread variables. In this research, the random sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 100 respondents from ten(10) wards in Enugu North municipality and 12 items questionnaire were used for data collection. Data was analyzed based on 100 returned copies of the questionnaire. Finding has revealed that radio has effectively mobilized voters based on the findings in table 7 reveal that at of 100 respondents 84 percentage of the sample population agreed that radio message gas great impact on them while 16 respondents disagreed that radio has no impact on them. Findings also shows in table 9 that 20 percent of the total sample population agreed that the radio has not been alive to the responsibility. In the conclusion from findings, radio is supposed to be a very effective tool for voters mobilization but until radio become alive to its social responsibility to the public by adopting better and effective strategies that will enhance effective mobilization of voters during election.

The  electronic  media  began  with  radio  transmission  services.

According to Agba (2006), radio began between 1887 and 1888, a German scientist Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894) and a scientific breakthrough to demonstrate the liberation of electric curren6t into space in the form of waves like beams. He was laying the foundation for the transmission of sound through radio waves.

Marconi successfully proved Hertz’s theory of electromagnetic waves by making a compass needle turn at the same time a spark jumped between two wires on the other side of the room, constructing a more elaborate transmitter, Marconi sent signals across the hillside outside the family home near Bologna (Bitnner 1989:93). So in 1906 it was possible for the Canadian immigrant to USA, Reginald Hessenden to broadcasr human voice and music over the air waves, which could pick up by crystal set receiver, (Agba, 2006) thus the birth of radio station in the world.