| dc.description.abstract | This study examines the role that television debate shows have in creating political
awareness among the youth. The focus of this study is on the youth, who live in Nairobi.
Nairobi was chosen for this study because, it is the capital city of Kenya and therefore,
very cosmopolitan, with high television viewing rates among the youth aged between 18-
24 years and this youth may have, at one time or other watched the new flurry of
television debate programs being aired on all the major television stations. The same
youth in this age bracket form 75% of the total population and they are indeed the leaders
of tomorrow. Youth involvement in politics has become a bigger issue today, and more
youth and politicians are waking up, to the crucial realisation that it is time to steer more
youth into leadership.
The general idea behind this study was to establish the extent to which the television
debate programs have influenced the youth's knowledge and perceptions of politics and
politicians, and whether the discussions, on these television debate programs are relevant
to issues relating to the youth.
The study utilized Purposive and Snowballing techniques in the date collection. The data
was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), to process the
various frequencies and distribution tables.
Television debate programs have had a tremendous effect on the youth. Several of the
effects emerged from this study~ These include gaining knowledge on politics and
politicians, gaining a better understanding on various governance issues, and that through these programs the youth have somewhat, changed their perceptions about politics and
politicians. The youth also felt that, most of the shows may be good avenues to mentor
the youth into leadership and politics, however at the moment the current style and
format of the shows is still very much centred on the old generation politicians and the
youth's agenda is still not being heard.
The choice of content for discussion on these debate shows is largely dependant on the
politics of the day and often this translates into politics of the old generation.
This study ends by presenting a summary of the findings, which were used as a basis for
the conclusions and recommendations | en |
