Assessing the Effects of Changing Media Technology and Alternative Media on Political Communication in Nigeria

The rapidly changing media environment, as a result of technological advances, is proving hard to track and control for those who hold stake in the way information reaches people of interest, such as politicians and their voters. As a result, political communication has been facing several challenges in recent years. The mediation role of professional media seems to be losing grounds to a growing echo of alternative media voices, for example, leading to increased personalization or skewing of electoral campaigns to personalities rather than national issues, just as imagery and perception of individual candidates through political marketing by the media become more mainstream. With that in mind, 300 questionnaires were distributed to voter age population in Nigeria out of which 289 were retrieved and used. The intent was to see how alternative media is shaping political discourse and to what extent. The result shows an extensive use of alternative media at 64%. One of the most significant findings is: a much higher rate of citizen participation recorded at 84% of respondents brought about by popular use of alternative media, has not translated into satisfaction with the current state of politics and politicians which was rated at 48% and dissatisfaction at 52%. With 44% of the same respondents citing non relevance of contents disseminated by professional media as the main reason for the shift to alternative media, recommendations include the need for professional media to make concerted efforts in following new developments in technologies and user taste, in order to match those changes with favorable contents.