Television is popularly used to offer information to viewers during elections. There will always be citizens who register to participate in an election and then refuse to take further steps, like casting their votes. This study sought to find out if television broadcasts made citizens like these experience the crystallization effect. This effect causes uninterested citizens to make crystal clear choices on particular contestants. This study sought to find out about the crystallization effect on voters in Ado Odo/Ota communities in Ogun State of Nigeria during the 2007 Nigerian presidential election. The survey method was used to get required data from 782 respondents who were not members of any political party, had no candidate preference, and were yet to decide on who to vote for in this election. It seems plain from this study that television broadcasts sharpened these citizens' decisions to make specific choices. These undecided, indifferent, or neutral voters had their ideas crystallized or decisively formed to vote for specific candidates after exposure to television broadcasts.
TopStatement Of The Problem
Some citizens may avoid participating in electoral campaigns and the processes of electing candidates into public offices because of their political ignorance, hostility, or plain indifference. This class of unconcerned voters often are not active members of any political parties, have no special attachments to candidates, and are disinterested in their campaigns. They are apolitical. They are not bothered that their voting can make a difference in electoral results. Mateus (2020) says they are silent: disengaged and disempowered until they arise to use same for power negotiations. Apathetic voters may cause major electoral result shifts if they decide to vote for a particular candidate at the proverbial last minute due to the information available to them.
Television broadcasts provide strategic pieces of information to these voters that can help them to form clear thoughts and make subsequent decisions on who to vote for. Esser and Pfetsch (2020) explain that political communication involves creating, shaping, disseminating, and processing information among politicians, the media, and citizens. The central premise is to encourage citizen participation. Television provides information about candidates and their political parties to voters. Its strength lies in its capability to reach millions of people simultaneously with electoral and campaign information. Some voters may not have direct access to the election contestants or even know the facts about them. Television gives them the privileges of identifying the candidates' faces, names, viability, and electability. However, Ely, Alexander, and Emir (2015) observe that viewers may see these as entertainment throughout a campaign.
Do television broadcasts influence voters in a presidential election? Aririguzoh (2011, 2015, 2012, 2014a) answers in the affirmative. This author says that television broadcasts influence voters' political knowledge, participation, choice of political parties, and candidates voted for. Aririguzoh (2015a, 2011a, 2014b) finds positive correlations between television broadcasts influencing voters who have not firmly decided on candidates' choices, making others change their candidates' preferences, and forcing women and other invisibles to participate. Schudson (1996) suggests that television's great power arises because people believe this channel is powerful. Thus, if a presidential candidate appears on television, he may significantly impact otherwise disengaged voters.
Many citizens register to vote in but are unwilling to take further steps by going to the polls and casting their votes. They are not members of any political party parties and have no candidate preferences. However, they have been exposed to television broadcasts during the campaign seasons leading to the elections. Did what the television show them cause them to be free from any lethargy, confusion, or ambiguity and then make definite and precise decisions on the election?