CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Propaganda is a unique device used in politics. This is mostly observed in most electioneering campaign process. According to the Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary, propaganda are ideas and statements that may be false or exaggerated and that are used in order to gain support for a political leader, party, etc. In his own view, Szanto (2008) sees propaganda as “a specific form of activated ideology.” He argues that propaganda is one of the manifestations of the ideology that involves the sales of specific concepts.
According to Longe and Ofuani, (2006) the sole purpose of propaganda is to misinform and mislead and to consciously indoctrinate. Propaganda aims at deliberate slanting of facts and arguments as well as displays of symbols in ways the propagandist thinks will have the most effects. For maximum effects, the propagandist may deliberately withhold pertinent facts, and try to divert the attention of the people he is trying to sway from every other thing but his own propaganda. This is why Szanto (2008) argues that propaganda could be “total falsehood, on the one hand, and on the other a totally valid depiction of reality or truth.
The role of the broadcasters and the broadcast media as agents of rural and national development, especially at the information dissemination level is now generally recognized and accepted by experts and policy makers. (Nwosu, 1990). In Nigeria, there are two main types of media ownership namely; government ownership and private ownership. In the case of government ownership, the government establishes, controls and finances the media outfit. Private ownership is when an individual or a group of persons establish, control and finance the media outfit in partnership.