Influence of Live Broadcast of Parliamentary Proceedings on the Knowledge, Attitude and Perception Amongst Members of Civil Society Organizations in Nairobi

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of live broadcast of Parliamentary Proceedings on the knowledge, attitude, and perception of members of Civil Society Organizations in Nairobi County towards the 11th Parliament and its work. The study applied mixed research design. This method involves the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data separately then integrating them at the interpretation stage. Quantitative data was collected using survey questionnaires. The researcher administered 158 questionnaires, and all the responses were received. The responses were then analysedwith the aid of the Statistical Programme for Social Science Text Editor Software Version 20. The findings were summarized and presented using percentages, bar charts, pie charts, and tables. For the qualitative data, ten in-depth interviews were conducted using a detailed interview guide and thematically analysed. After assigning codes to the themes, the Statistical Programme for Social Science Text Editor Software Version 20 was used for analysis. The study established that live broadcast of Parliamentary Proceedings increased the levels of knowledge amongst members of Civil Society Organizations in Nairobi County about the 11th Parliament and its work. The live broadcast of Parliamentary Proceedings has also led to increased levels of awareness of the daily activities of Parliament. A majority of the respondents admitted to being more aware of the business of the 11th Parliament as a result of watching or listening to live broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings. On the other hand, this study established that the live broadcast of Parliamentary Proceedings had a negative influence in a majority of the members’ attitude and perception towards the 11th Parliament. A majority of the respondents rated the 11th Parliament as average and occasionally listen to or watch the live broadcast of Parliament. The researcher recommends the following: that Parliament explores the use of social media and the internet as a channel of Parliamentary business. This would enable Parliament to reach the youth more and engage them in its business, Members of Parliament should improve on their attendance of House sittings as lack of quorum was mentioned by a majority of respondents as being the reason behind them feeling that the current Members of Parliament do not take their work seriously and thus perceive Parliament as not being serious and as a result develop a negative attitude towards the 11th Parliament, a rerun of the sittings of Parliament would also provide an opportunity for those who do not get time to listen to and watch live broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings to watch later and Parliament should include in its order of business, issues that affect Civil Society Organizations directly.