Contributions of Radio Programmes to Women Political Participation in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria
Author(s): | Seember Franca Mbaave |
Abstract: | Background: Globally, women political participation is pivotal in achieving sustainable development. It helps provide more responsibility to women and allows women to participate directly in public decision-making. However, concerns about women's political participation are becoming more widespread in Nigeria, particularly in Benue State. Accordingly, the use of radio to enhance meaningful participation of women in national, local, and community leadership roles has become an important focus the Benue State Government initiatives.
Objective: This study investigated how radio programmes contributed to women political participation in Makurdi Local Government Area, Benue State. Method: Using descriptive survey research design, 400 women residing in Makurdi Local Government Area were sampled using three sampling techniques namely; purposive, simple random, and snowball sampling. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire with a consistency coefficient of 0.95, while analysis was done using descriptive statistics and presented using frequency tables. Results: There was a high level of listenership to the Platform Radio Benue and Political Trend of Joy FM and both programmes have contributed considerable to women political participation. More so, the most preferred radio programmes formats were discussion and Phone-in segment. Conclusion: The study concludes that majority of women in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State preferred discussion and phone-in programmes used in promoting women political participation. This could be attributed to the ability of both programmes to give listeners access to experts, public figures, and political leaders while they participated in the program, offering a forum for democratised discourse and unrestricted public participation. This means that concerns of women's political mobilization and involvement have been addressed to a considerable extent by a variety of perspectives. Unique Contribution: This study has provided fresh perspective on how radio broadcasts contributed to women political participation. It has also provided a valuable insight into the most preferred radio programmes format that appealed to women. Hopefully, policymakers, political parties/politicians, and communication experts will find this fresh insight useful in planning future mobilisation programmes to enhance political participation of women across the Nigeria. Key Recommendation: As a potent tool for social mobilisation, the radio need to be used more to encourage and support women's progress towards full political involvement. In the light of this, additional media political programs have to be produced, since the ones employed in this study greatly encourage women to get involved in politics. |
Keywords: | Radio Programme, listenership, Women Political Participation and mobilization, |
Issue | IJSSAR Volume 2, Issue 4, December 2024 |
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Copyright | Copyright © 2024 Seember Franca Mbaave ![]() This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. |
Journal Identifiers
eISSN: 3043-4459
pISSN: 3043-4467