IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON YOUTHS PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA’S ELECTIONS
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IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON YOUTHS PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA’S ELECTIONS
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background for the Study
Before the millennium, the majority of the world’s knowledge came from the mainstream media. Because of the lack of various modern technologies, news dissemination was not as immediate as it is today.
Some news pieces were published weeks or months after they occurred because reporters had to travel long distances between news beats to relay information.
The days of writing a letter to a friend who lives overseas and waiting three months or more for him to receive it, followed by another three months or more for him to respond are long gone.
However, the technological revolution that began with the introduction of the Internet in the mid-1990s paved the ground for social media and microblogging websites to emerge in the 2000s.
Social media and, by extension, the internet allow for the immediate distribution of news. When sending and receiving information is no longer limited by space and time, a massive breach in the communication barrier that has existed since the beginning of space and time occurs.
Ayankoya, Calitz, and Cullen (2015) define social media as the use of web-based tools and services for communication, collaboration, content creation, and sharing by individuals and groups.
Social media is primarily concerned with communication, how it occurs, and the connections that arise as a result of these talks. individuals and groups can use social media to build, maintain, and stay connected to a network of other individuals who share their interests (Ayankoya et al., 2015).
According to data from 2019 (zephoria.com), 2.38 billion people use Facebook every month. According to supplementary study, consumers spend approximately 25% of their internet time on the different social media platforms available, with Facebook users accounting for 33% of total online time.
Thus, social media is an important medium for businesses and organisations to communicate with their target audiences (Ayankoya et al., 2015).
According to the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (2012, reported in Adedeji, 2015), social media was used extensively for political communication during the 2011 Nigerian elections.
It was used to launch campaigns across a range of media platforms, including blogs, social media sites, and personal websites. In addition, social media was used to undermine and even damage the reputations of other political parties, particularly the People’s Democratic Party and the All Progressive Party.
During the 2015 general election, social media gained influence and became a more dangerous weapon. Many political parties and individuals have had their reputations boosted or harmed by revelations in the form of films, voice notes, headlines, and broadcasts.
For example, Senator Buruji Kashamu’s political ambitions and subsequent oath of office were nearly jeopardised as a result of a publication on him.
A hate video targeted both General Muhammadu Buhari and Senator Bola Tinubu. Typically, these recordings would have put an end to these individuals’ political ambitions in other countries (Adedeji, 2015).
Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs were heavily used during the 2015 Nigerian general elections. Because of its participative, interactive, and cost-effective nature, social media has emerged as a legitimate and important instrument for political campaign planners in carrying out election campaigns and other electioneering operations, as well as political involvement and mobilisation. As a result, it is evident how essential social media is in mobilising political support (Chinedu-Okeke, Chinonye, & Obi, 2016).
Youth is defined differently among civilizations and cultures. In most Nigerian societies, the transition from infancy to youth is marked by formalised rites of passage. These ceremonies have symbolic meaning because they allow a person to ascend in rank and status.
This new status becomes valid once it receives actual community support and activity. One thing is certain: the boundaries between childhood and adolescence, as well as adolescence and adulthood, are becoming increasingly blurred, and the transition to each new period takes various forms.
It may be difficult to define youth globally in terms of a specific age range since the changes that young people must deal with are not as predictable as they were in the past.
The United Nations and other organisations typically use the age range of 15 to 24 for statistical purposes, however in many cases, this distinction is too tight for countries such as Nigeria.
Aside from the statistical definition, the term “youth” has evolved into new connotations as a result of changing political, economic, and sociocultural contexts.
For example, in many African countries, boys may not reach maturity until their late twenties or early thirties in order to acquire the economic and social stability that comes with a steady employment (Second National Youth Policy Document of Nigeria, 2009).
The terms “young” and “youth” have been subject to a variety of interpretations and approaches. There is, however, some disagreement over these names and concepts. However, some notions and definitions are critical.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), youth is the period during which a person develops the abilities and social skills required to prepare for the financial benefits and obligations of adulthood.
As a result, rather than a time period with fixed age boundaries, youth can be viewed as a separate stage of life with distinct social, economic, psychological, and political characteristics (Melike, 2017).
However, the Federal Republic of Nigeria defines a youngster as anyone aged 15 to 29 (Third National Youngster Policy Document, 2019).
Nigeria is now the world’s fastest growing and sixth most populous country. According to worldometers.info (2019), Nigeria’s population is currently predicted to be 200,950,000, with a median age of 17.9 years.
According to the census, Nigeria has 50 million persons between the ages of 15 and 34 in 2006, which largely correlates to the 18 and 35 age range used in the 2009 National Youth Policy to define youth.
This figure for the youth population represented 35.6% of Nigeria’s overall population at the time. In Nigeria, 33.4 percent of men and 37.9 percent of women were aged 15 to 34 in 2006.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics and the Federal Ministry of Youth Development’s 2012 National Baseline Youth Survey, Nigeria has 64.1 million youths between the ages of 15 and 35, with 52.2 million aged 18 to 35. 51.6 percent of teenagers aged 15 to 35 and 52.8 percent of young people aged 18 to 35 were female.
According to the Third National Youth Policy Document (2019), Lagos State had the highest proportion of youths in Nigeria (aged 18 to 35) (6.3%), while Kwara State had the lowest (1.3%) in 2012.
Youth involvement in elections has historically been lower than that of other age groups, though this has been decreasing over the last several decades. Youth idleness is a typical reason for this problem, despite the fact that today’s youth volunteer more than previous generations.
Another possible explanation is that young people do not feel included in society. Owning a home and having children gives you a more direct voice in how hospitals and schools are operated, which leads to increased political participation (Erica, 2017).
Recent research from European democracies shows that, in addition to dropping far faster than any other social group, teenage electoral involvement is consistently unequal when compared to adult levels of participation (Sirinic, 2017). This is quite troubling.
When Prof. Atthahiru Jega, the then-chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), presented the election results live on television in 2015, residents at home and abroad who couldn’t see the programme could follow along via live feeds on various social media channels. In fact, as the INEC Chairman announced the results, citizens shared them on social media.
And, with a fresh general election having concluded in 2019, political parties and their candidates have once again made extensive use of social media.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate for this year’s election publicly announced his decision to run via Facebook, much as Dr Goodluck Jonathan did in 2011, when he originally announced his candidature.
Omoyele Sowore, a candidate for the African Democratic Congress, Kingsley Moghalu, a candidate for the Young Progressives Party, and even Muhammadu Buhari, a candidate for the All Progressives Congress, all maintained a strong social media presence, highlighting the importance of social media in any political process.
The purpose of this research is to assess how undergraduate students at the University of Abuja use social media and their level of political involvement. The study investigates if social media may be utilised as a tool of social control, similar to traditional mass media.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The majority of democratic countries around the world, including Nigeria, have embraced social media as a specialist medium for modern human communication.
Social media is one of the most popular forms of communication between politicians and the electorate, and politicians all over the world use it heavily and strategically to achieve their specific goals of projecting positive images, winning elections, and maintaining relationships with their constituents.
Social media has helped to facilitate information exchange between political candidates and the electorate. It informs and influences voters’ political choices, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour towards certain political candidates (Victor, Ikechukwu, Gerald, and Chinedum, 2017).
In Nigeria, however, politicians’ daily use of social media and how user-citizens interact with political social network sites and pages has received less attention.
Political gladiators of all shades, ideologies, intentions, and aims use the media in the hope that political communication through them can exert pressure or influence on people’s views and behaviours. Politicians expect the communication relationship to be positive and advantageous to them.
The historical and cultural dominance of print and electronic media, as well as the imagined hypodermic needle effect of mass media messaging, are related to this perspective on social media’s influence.
Profit-driven competition for political space has resulted in both ethical and unethical political communication using all available platforms of interpersonal and mass communication, regardless of the perceived impact of the media, whether from the perspective of “maximalists” or “minimalists” (Victor et al., 2017).
The administration, particularly the presidential candidates, has used social media as well as traditional media to mobilise young people for the 2019 general elections.
This study will look at how social media is used as a legitimate mobilisation tool during general election campaigns. The study will also examine how young people voted in the recent presidential election and used social media.
Despite the foregoing, the purpose of this study is to investigate how well social media is used as a political platform in Nigeria, and how its growing benefits can be used to empower voters to exercise their political sovereignty by transparently electing and removing representatives and governments in a democratic manner, free of undue interference or obstruction (Chinedu- Okeke et al., 2016).
To establish whether social media has a genuine impact in building a positive image of political candidates, this study investigates the influence of social media as a tool used to urge teenagers to vote.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The broad objectives of this investigation are:
To assess the impact of social media on youth participation in Nigeria’s general elections.
To investigate whether social media effects how young people perceive politicians’ images on social media.
To investigate whether one youth’s political participation on social media communications influences other teenagers’ political ideas.
To determine the level of trust Nigerian youths place in political messaging on social media.
1.4 Research Questions.
What impact does social media have on youth political involvement in Nigeria’s general elections?
Do social media influence teenagers’ perceptions of politicians’ images?
What is the credibility level of what young people read on social media?
To what extent do youngsters believe social media statements are credible?
1.5 Significance of the Study
First and foremost, the significance of this study will be demonstrated by the gap it bridges through the resolution of its research questions.
Second, the study will be extremely beneficial to politicians, political parties, media consultants, election judges, and government officials at all levels because it will help them understand the benefits and effectiveness of using social media tools, as well as the best ways to project their clients’ images and raise public awareness of candidates.
The findings of this study will assist Nigeria’s democracy in growing steadily over time. It is critical to conduct research and studies on young people’s political and social behaviour because they are the nation’s future and engine (Adedeji, 2015).
Finally, because it will contribute to the body of knowledge already accessible on the effectiveness of social media in politics while also broadening the existing substantial knowledge, this study will be immensely beneficial to academic scholars and other knowledge seekers.
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