Impact of Television on Socio-Political Life of Nigerian Youth (a Study of Students of Federal Polytechnic Offa)

Abstract This study titled "Impact of Television on Socio-Political life of Nigerian Youth (A Study of Students of Federal Polytechnic Offa)'. This topic is structured with four objectives which are: To determine the level of exposure among students of Federal Polytechnic Offa to political activities on Television, to examine the impact of television on youth political participation in Federal Polytechnic Offa, to also determine the involvement of youths in political activities and lastly to examine the factors hindering youths participation in politics. However, in order to explain this research topic for better understanding this researcher work adopts two communication theories which are: Democratic participant and social responsibility theory, which examines the role of television in a democracy. The theory emerged as a result of public disillusionment with both the libertarian and social responsibility theories because of their failure to deliver the expected social benefits; More so, the Uses and Gratifications theory considers the audience as active, that is, they actively seek out specific media and content to achieve certain results or gratifications that satisfy their personal needs (Nayyar, 2007). The method adopted to carry out research wasSurvey research method using questionnaires as the research instruments with 22,000 as the population of this study, using Taro Yamane to estimate the sample size to three hundred and ninety three (393). However, Findings from the study revealed that youths engage in political activities through the awareness on Television programme of which 71% among the respondents strongly agreed, showing more emphases on how television has influenced the youth, of which table 16 from the data collected revealed that programmes projected on Tv have an influence on the behavior of students and none among the respondents disagree. Therefore, recommendations were made that Political parties and governmental agencies should create an effective broadcast presence to inform and educate youths, especially on social media platforms which has a high concentration of Nigerian youths. This will help reduce the low turnout of voters on election days and reduce the spread of fake news.