Influence of Social Media Political Campaigns on Online Political Participation of Postgraduate Students

Political parties, politicians, and voters are sharing more political information on social media due to its broad use. Researchers and politicians have explored how social media has been used over time for political participation; although there is a dearth of studies on the usage of social media a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAfrican journal of democracy and election research Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 25 - 41
Main Authors Olajide Talabi, Felix, Zechariah Olanihun, Sunday, Alex Adaja, Tokunbo, Adedapo Bello, Samson, Adewunmi Aderibigbe, Adebola, Kayode Okunade, Joshua, Nunayon Zannu, Prosper
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd 01.06.2024
Subjects
Communication
Elections
Graduate students
Information dissemination
Instant messaging
Internet
Mass media effects
Participation
Political advertising
Political behavior
Political campaigns
Political participation
Political parties
Politicians
Sampling
Social media
Social networks
Virtual communities
Voter behavior
Voters
Nigeria
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Summary:Political parties, politicians, and voters are sharing more political information on social media due to its broad use. Researchers and politicians have explored how social media has been used over time for political participation; although there is a dearth of studies on the usage of social media among postgraduate students for online political campaigns, there is a need to fill the gap. This study assessed how the online political participation of postgraduate students affected social media political campaigns using agenda melding theory to support the study. The study employed the descriptive survey methodology, and 309 postgraduate students were sampled using the simple random sampling technique. Findings revealed that the credibility of the source emerged as the major factor that shaped online political participation. Also, findings established a significantly positive relationship between social media political campaigns and online political participation. The researchers concluded that political campaigns on social media were effective in influencing online participation. It is thus the recommendation of this study that political actors should engage more with social media campaigns to make it more issue-based to engage in online political participation.
ISSN:2752-6011
2752-602X
DOI:10.31920/2752-602X/2024/v4n1a2