PUBLIC PERCEPTION AND COMPLIANCE TOWARDS CELEBRITY’S CAMPAIGN

ABSTRACT

This study sought to find the perception and compliance of the public to celebrity campaigns on registration and collection of permanent voters cards with full time Mass Communication students of the University of Benin as its population of study. It was anchored on the perception theory and persuasion theory as it's theoretical framework. The study adopted the survey research method as its research design with the questionnaire as instrument to generate and collect data. One hundred copies of questionnaire were administered to respondents. The study discovered that the public are aware of what political campaigns are and they get exposed to such campaigns by celebrities through various media but most particularly, social media. It also revealed that the public tend to pay attention to these campaigns as they perceive it in a positive light and see it as a reasonable way to improve political participation. It however discovered that despite this attention given to celebrity campaigns on registration and collection of permanent voters cards, the compliance of the public to these campaigns are on the low side. This study recommends that more effort, resources, time should be invested into celebrity campaign messages to enable it reaches a greater number of the population. Also campaign messages should be made more attractive, captivating and persuasive to ensure it grabs and sustains the attention of the public while also passing across useful and convincing information.