A SURVEY OF THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISEMENT IN SELECTED NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS
CHAPTER ONE
- Background to the Study
Information is the key to a successful management, control, and decision making in every adverting agency, flourishing advertising is a key obligation for general success in national and international markets. Print and electronic media have served individual very well over the ages for the dissemination and exchange of information about innovations and developments in society. In this case, the messages communicated through adverts and other formats in the media often reflect development trends and issues in the societies where they are used. Thus, periodic analyses of the patterns of Patterns of Information Products Advertising in Newspaper Media in Nigeria advertising in various print and electronic media provide potentially very useful means for tracking trends in innovations in the different socio-economic sectors and in the markets for various products and services.
Advertising is a form of communication used to encourage or persuade on audience (viewer, reader or listeners) to continue to take some new action. Most commonly, the desired result is to influence consumers’ behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although, political and ideological advertising is also common. The purpose of advertising may also be to reassure employees or shareholders that a company is viable or successful. Advertising messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various traditional media: including mass media such as: newspaper, magazines, television commercials, radio advertisement, outdoor advertising or direct mail, or new media such as websites and text-messages.
Advertising has been defined as “a powerful communication force and a vital marketing tool helping to sell goods and services, images and ideas”…. (Wright, 2003:8). Similarly, Roderick (1980:4) defines advertising as “a message specified by its originator, carried by a communication system and intended to influence and/or inform an unknown audience.” Advertising may also be seen as “a group of activities aiming at and including dissemination of information in any paid product or service to compel actions in accordance with the intent of an identifiable sponsor” (Doughuge, 1985:8).
