The Impact of Social Media on Youths Participation in Nigeria’s Elections 2015-2019
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives Of The Study
The broad objectives of this study are
- To determine the impact of the social media on youths participation in the Nigeria general elections.
- To examine whether or not the social media influences the perception of youths on politicians’ image on social media.
- To examine whether one youths’ political activity on social media messages can affect other youths’ political thinking.
- To determine the level of credibility Nigerian youths attach to political messages on social media.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with the review of studies, related to the present study. The review was done under the following headlines.
Conceptual Framework
Theoretical Framework
Empirical Studies.
Conceptual Framework
Political Participation
Participation means ‘sharing in’ or ‘wrap oneself with’ every dimension of life, of culture or of economy, our educational system, our political system, our decision-making process. But there is less than a complete agreement among the scholars about the meaning of the concept ‘Political Participation’. Political participation is the involvement of the citizens in the political system (Falade, 2014). The citizens form the crux of any society and it is important they are part of the political process. According to Akamare (2003, as cited in Falade, 2014), political participation is an aspect of political behaviour and it focuses on the way in which individuals take part in politics. It is a voluntary activity and one may participate directly or indirectly. The various ways by which the people can be involved in the political system include selection or election of political leaders, formulation of policies, community activities and other civic engagements.
Empirical investigation of political participation could be split between two basic yet mutually interlinked approaches. The first approach deals with the realistic extant level of popular engagement in the processes of governance. The chief objects of interest are the level (local, regional, national etc.) and method (voting, campaigning, contacting, protesting etc.) of political participation. In this context, the influence of various manners of political participation and the motivation to either reject participation or indeed become an active part of it are studied. Individual and national patterns of political behaviour are also compared. Cross-national comparison of political participation patterns concentrate largely on voting because of the availability of internationally comparable data on voter turnout and the relevance of national elections for the given political system. As evidenced by such international comparisons, voter turnout shall be influenced largely by a number of institutional factors (e.g. voter registration systems, electoral procedures, degree of political competition in the society and the party system) which, taken together, create an institutional environment of the given country’s political system (Nekola, 2014).
The essence of political participation in any society, either civilized or primitive, is to seek control of power, acquisition of power and to influence decision making. Political participation is a means of contributing ones quota to the political system and overall development of the nation. Political participation is one of the fundamental requirements of democratic governance. This is the reason why Adelekan (2010, cited in Falade, 2014) emphasized that ideally, democracy means individual participation in the decisions that involves one’s life. In a democratic system, there is the necessity for the citizenry to be fully involved in the democratic procedures of the choice of rulers and effective communication of the public policies and attitudes. Any claim to democratic regime or state must essentially embrace a high degree of competitive choice, openness, and enjoyment of civic and political liberties and political participation that involves all groups of the society.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience viz. a vis, the study beneficiaries.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried out to examine the impact of social media on youths participation in Nigeria’s elections 2015-2019. The population for this study is the University of Abuja undergraduate students. The University of Abuja is a federal government owned university in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. The University has 15 Faculties and various units and departments. According to information obtained from the Registry Unit of the University, the population of undergraduates of the University of Abuja is currently 44919.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with the presentation of data gathered from the fieldwork with the aid of questionnaires. A total of four hundred (400) copies of the questionnaire were distributed to undergraduates of the University of Abuja. Three hundred and eighty-one (381) copies of the questionnaire were returned fully answered correctly while nineteen others were rejected for not being completely answered or invalid information. However, the 381 copies of the questionnaire returned fully completed out of the 400 distributed represents a response rate of 95.25% which is very good. The data is presented by means of frequency, percentages and tables.
Demographic Profile Of Respondents
The major demographic information sought in this study was respondent’s gender, age group, faculty and study level. The respondents’ demographic profile of this study is presented in frequency and percentage format as contained.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
INTRODUCTION
This study titled “The impact of social media on youths participation in Nigeria’s elections 2015-2019.” is aimed at exploring the impact of social media on the level of political participation of youths in the 2019 general elections among Nigerian youths with undergraduates of the University of Abuja as case study. Survey research design was adopted using questionnaire for data gathering. Based on the data collected, analyzed and discussed, this chapter focuses on the summary of findings, conclusion and recommendations from the study.
SUMMARY
The study was undertaken after the 2019 Nigerian general elections held in March 2019. The objectives of the study were to determine the impact of social media on youths’ political participation in the 2019 Nigeria general elections, with undergraduates of the University of Abuja as case study; to examine the perceptions of Nigerian youths about Nigerian politician’s image on social media; to examine the believability level of political news Nigerian youths read about on social media and to determine the level of credibility Nigerian youths attach to social media messages.
The study was guided by the agenda-setting theory. The research methodology adopted is primarily the survey method with questionnaires as the data collection instrument. Using the Krejcie and Morgan model for determining sample size, 400 undergraduates of the University of Abuja between the ages of 15 and 29 were drawn as the sample to represent the entire population (44, 919).
CONCLUSION
Findings from the study revealed that social media did have a positive influence on youths participation in the political and electoral process, especially the 2019 Nigeria general elections. Social media influenced youths’ choice of political candidate and party but, quite amazingly, did not actually guarantee that youths voted for any political candidate just because he or she has a social media account. Youths also regard social media as a credible medium for political discourses and majority also testified to the social media has making them become more politically active. This does not come as a surprise if one considers how often and how much time youths spend on social media daily. The findings of the study are summarized below:
- University of Abuja undergraduates, and by extension, Nigerian youths are very active on social media platforms which they use for many hours every day and WhatsApp is the social media platform mostly used by Nigerian youths.
- Social media had a positive influence on the youth participation in the 2019 electoral process as many youths became aware of political news on social media and also disseminated political news through them.
- A political candidate having a social media account did not guarantee that Nigerian youths voted for such candidate during the elections.
- Nigerian youths regard social media as a credible medium and believe political news they are exposed to through it.
Recommendations
The Federal Government of Nigeria should strengthen its efforts in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in every sector of the country. More and more Nigerian youths are gaining access to the internet every day and ensuring the information flow on the internet is uninterrupted is key to the information flow of the country.
The National Information and Technology Development Agency government should monitor what goes onto the social media as many people will believe what they read/see on it and the consequences wrong or misleading information can only better imagined.
Political parties, politicians, governmental agencies and ministries should create a robust and effective social media presence to inform and educate youths, especially on social media platforms which has a high concentration of Nigerian youths who believe political news on social media and regards them as credible. This will help reduce the low turnout of voters on election days and reduce the spread of fake news.
In future elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), should adopt the electronic voting system in order to allow youths who may not go out to vote physically do so online. 97.4% of respondents in this study claim to have an accessible device with 50.5% spending between 1-6 hours on social media daily while 35.4% spend above six hours daily.
REFERENCES
- Adams, A., Harf, A. & Ford, R. (2012). Agenda Setting Theory: A Critique of Maxwell McCombs & Donald Shaw’s Theory. A First Look at Communication Theory. Chapman University.
- Baran, S. J. & Davis, D.K. (2012). Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment and Future. (6th Ed.). Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
- Manning, J. (2014). Social media, Definition and Classes Of. In K. Harvey (Ed.),
- Encyclopedia of social media and politics. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Vauss, D.A., (2008). Research Design in Social Research. SAGE.
- Zhang, W., Johnson, T.J., Seltzer, T. & Bichard, S. (2010). The Revolution Will be Networked: The Influence of Social Networking Sites on Political Attitudes and Behaviour. Social Science Computer Review. SAGE Publication.
- Zucker, H. (1978). The Variable Nature of News Media Influence. Communication Yearbook 2. New Brunswick.
