Abstract
This study examined the effect of social media on voting behaviour in Nigeria. The study of voting behaviour has turn out to be increasingly complex in past years. In the past, only the political manifestos of politicians and parties determined their success in elections. However, success is no longer believed to be determined in this manner, as it is rare these days not to find a political candidate’s profile across all social media platforms.
Since the advent of online social media platforms, it has continued to remain the most popular and influential tool among internet users. However, despite the significance of social media tools on voting behaviour, it has a number of problems which are; how do social media influence voters’ behaviour; what are the attributes of social media that influences voters’ behaviour; how does the usage of social media affect the voting behaviour of voters; and o identify the challenges of using social media.
The research objectives were to; determine if Facebook influences voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State; find out the influence of Twitter on voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State; examine the effect of Instagram on voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State; and to investigate other factors that influence voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State. This research work made use of quantitative source of data, through which data were gathered using a self-structure questionnaire.
The findings showed that, there is a significant relationship between Facebook on voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu local government of Lagos State. The study as well revealed that, there is a significant relationship between Twitter on voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu local government of Lagos State. And lastly, the study found out that, there is a significant relationship between Instagram on voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu local government of Lagos State
The study recommends that, the use of social media should be adopted by politicians and political parties in order to engage the public in political discourse. In addition, the use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram be encouraged among the youths in order to keep them engaged in political discussion and keep them posted on political news.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1. Background of the Study
The issue of whether or not social media have an effect on voting behavior is a controversial topic, according to, (Trystan, Scully, & Jones, 2003). The study of voting behaviour has turn out to be increasingly complex in past years. In the past, only the political manifestos of politicians and parties determined their success in elections, (William & Gulati, 2014). However, success is no longer believed to be determined in this manner, as it is rare these days not to find a political candidate’s profile across all social media platforms.
Voting behavior is perceived to be a form of political behavior exhibited by voters which can be influenced by a lot of factors such as emotional, ethnicity, religion leading them to make certain decisions, (Bartel, 2012). A lot of factors like gender, race, culture or religion go a long way in influencing the way an electorate behaves and the decision the electorate makes concerning selection of a candidate of his/her choice. However, key external factors may as well affect a voter’s behaviour such as political socialization, socio-cultural views, forbearance of different political opinions and the media, internet inclusive. The effect of these influences on voting behavior is reliant on attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and the source of available information to the voter. However, for the purpose of this study, the focus shall be on the social media and how it influences the voting behaviour of voters in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area of Lagos State.
Ever since the revolution in the technological industry that started with the launching of the Internet in the mid-1990s paved way for social media and micro-blogging sites since the 2000s. The social media and by extension the internet, allows for instant dissemination of news. Sending and receiving information can no longer be limited by space and time, a huge break in the communication barrier that has stood since the beginning of space and time, (Omoera, 2010). Since the invention and popular use of digital technology like the internet, its political use and application has been a subject of study. It is however in more recent times, most especially at the turn of the century, (Wimmer & Dominic, 2014) when popular political uses of the internet by both the public and politicians to seek information, post information, comment on events, and interact between stakeholders and the public has studies become more focused and specialized
Social media are new information network and information technology using a form of communication utilizing interactive and user-produced content, and interpersonal relationships are created and maintained, (Prat & Strömberg, 2014). The evolution of the Internet as the new mass medium of the 21st century now changes the mass media to a large extent. Information can be disseminated at high speed, low cost, and broad scope and as a result, there is free and open access to the production and the consumption of news, (Prat & Strömberg, 2014)
Social media today has made the world a commercial and global village, due to its quick transfer of information by overriding the barriers of time and distance, (Friedman, 2012). Today, social media has steadily turn out to be one of the important means of influencing the society and this influence is based exclusively on its social aspects of interaction and participation. As social media gains more popularity and scope, its impact on voters’ political and cultural perceptions cannot be underestimated as social media practically influences the way users interact, communicate and make decisions on social, cultural, and political issues in today’s world, (Falade, 2014).
The social media is a powerful platform that may affect the voting behavior of electorates mainly because of its potential to provide direct and cheap access to the production and consumption of recent information at any part of the world without editorial filtering, (Sunstein, 2011). Not only do social media provide information about political affiliations, candidates and their party manifestoes, it as well offers a platform through which electorates across diverse culture can relate and interact with one and the other on issues about these candidates, (McCombs, 2016).
As observed in the March 28th Presidential elections in Nigeria, political parties, including the two prominent parties took to social media platforms such as online networking sites (like Facebook, Twitter, Instgram), blogs, mobile newspapers, news ads, among others, to campaign and mobilize not only youths but all class of internet users to vote for them, (Ayankoya, Calitz, & Cullen, 2019). This led to a variety of interesting news and drama online providing opportunity for users to read, respond, interact, argue and trash out issues online. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram became platforms for people to air their thoughts on different candidates, and sway others towards their line of thinking with various debates, hashtags and online campaigns, (Ayankoya, Calitz, & Cullen, 2019). This brought all Nigerians together irrespective of political divide, ethnicity and religion on national issues.
In Nigeria, almost all political parties made use of social media to campaign and advance its plans, message and manifesto to supporters including advertising, mobilization and organizing in all the states of the federation, (Oseni, 2015). Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were all used to let voters know how each party or particular candidate felt about important national issues ranging from security to power, (Issa, 2016). Therefore, social media turned out to be powerful enough to influence voter decisions and choices as many voters who had fixed their minds and conscience on voting a particular party or candidate began to change their minds based on certain information or idea they got online about the party or candidate, (Baker, 2013). Information gotten by a particular voter was as well not static, as the same voter would use a number of internet tools and buttons to broadcast same message to other voters like him through medium such as blogs, facebook, Nairaland, chat rooms etc. in order to influence them.
In Nigeria today, social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have proved to have impacted general elections as well as political activities of various kinds in recent years, (Victor, Ikechukwu, Gerald, & Chinedum, 2017). Studies on social media impact on Nigerian elections began to become popular after the 2011 general elections, (google published works). However, its impact at the 2015 elections became more evident and beyond public usages, as various institutions burdened with voter registration, provision of voting cards, as well as the Nigerian Independent Electoral Commission used web blogs, applications, and social media for mobilization for information dissemination, and posting of results, (Chinedu-Okeke, Chinonye, & Obi, 2016). On its disadvantages a scholar Oyenuga (2015) affirmed that, the unregulated nature of the social media, it is certain that many of the information aren’t subject to scrutiny and may be conjured, misrepresentation, or even misinformation. Most especially, the negative effects were experienced at the time of the release of the results, although, the independent electoral commission (INEC) eased the tension with a counter internet presence of it’s own, and rapid release of genuine results, (Oyenuga, 2015).
Furthermore, it was claimed that, twitter was ten times more active over the election period than at ‘normal’ times, as 12.4million tweets (were generated) as regards the elections over the period; and these tweets tended to be divided into ‘reportage’ (that is, individuals telling events) and ‘comment’ (that is, people making comments on events), (Bartlett, 2015). In another report from Premium Times, (Oseni, 2015) stated that, social media has turned out to be an important means of electioneering and the policing (defending) of election results. In the Ekiti State gubernatorial election, accredited election and citizen observers, the civil society situation room, and the APC, PDP and INEC situation rooms deployed observers to the field who relied mainly on SMS, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, BBM, Instagram, for the report of incidents.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
Since the advent of online social media platforms, it has continued to remain the most popular and influential tool among internet users. Social media is a powerful platform which has affected the voting behavior of electorates due to its potential to provide direct and cheap access to the production and consumption of current information at any part of the world without editorial filtering. Usage of social media is one of the most dominant forms of communication between politicians and the electorate, and it is massively and strategically exploited by the politicians across the globe to achieve their targeted goals as regard projecting positive images, retaining offices, and maintaining relationships with their publics. Social media has been useful in aiding exchange of information between the political candidates and electorate; it helps citizens to be informed and influence their political choices, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour towards certain political candidates, (Victor, Ikechukwu, Gerald & Chinedum, 2017).
However, despite the importance of the social media platforms like Facebook, Twiiter, Instagram, YouTube, among others on voting behaviour during Elections, these tools has both positive and negative influence on voting behaviour, in which the focus of the study will be to highlight the negative effect of its usage in election below.
The social media is a place full of rumors, lies, misinformation and derogatory information as regards individual candidates or parties and spread faster than anticipated, often with disastrous outcomes, (Akinlade, 2016). This is largely due to the lack of editorial filtering, and the anonymity of majority of online users. Generally, the internet encourages anonymity of its users, which implies that, those who write and comment often use nicknames or aliases. For this reason, anonymity offers an exceptional opportunity for writing fake stories or broadcasting rumors concerning candidates and their parties and this often leads to rancor fear and anxiety about the opposition party, (Chinedu-Okeke, et al., 2016). As a result, this has a significant influence on electorate behaviour, as majority of voters that read stories online tend to believe such stories without finding out the truth and thereby take decisions based on this propaganda. This is a widely known fact among political parties and they mostly use it to their advantage in order to bring down the candidates from other parties.
Furthermore, social media has made voters privy to all sorts of information as regards politicians and their lives as there is no more hiding place for them, mainly because the private and public lives of society’s most influential personalities as well as politicians have been made public to the internet users and the general public at large, (Akinlade, 2016). This is largely because in today’s world, the moment a politician declares his intention for a public post, his entire life as well as his educational background, family, job and any past mistakes or excesses are made public on social media platforms for people to comment, discuss and publicly judge. A lot of politicians have been found in compromising positions with their words or phrase taken out of context and magnified to huge proportions by opposition parties in order to discredit them, (Victor, et al., 2017).
Similarly, people go to the point of recording private conversations of these candidates and make the recorded audio or video public on various social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook quickly, with a view to elicit response and vicious backlash from voters and other online users, (Effing, Hillergersberg, & Huibert, 2014). The belief is that, it will go a long way in influencing voter’s behaviour and turning such voter against the candidate since the voter can now negatively make decisions about the candidate based on what he said, did or other information about him or her, (Muntcan, 2015). Even though, such information are refuted sometimes by the concerned party or individual, it remains valid in the minds of many voters who may have made up their mind already or simply are not aware of the true situation.
Although, the social media has the capacity to increase the popularity of a candidate and voting behaviour, and on the other hand, it equally has the capacity to mar their chances and voter’s perception of the party or candidates. Therefore, this study is examined to understand the impact of social media on voting behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government, Lagos State.
1.3. Research Objectives
The primary objective of this study is to examine the effect of social media on voter’s behaviour in Lagos State. The following specific objectives are to;
- determine if Facebook influences voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State
- find out the influence of Twitter on voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State
- examine the effect of Instagram on voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State
- investigate other factors that influence voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State
1.4. Research Questions
Based on the above research objectives, the following research questions will be poised.
- Does Facebook influence voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State?
- To what extent is the influence of Twitter on voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State?
- What is the influence of Instagram on voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State?
- What are the other factors that influence voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State?
1.5. Hypotheses
In order to enable the researcher assess the effect of social media on voter behaviour in Lagos state, the following hypotheses will be tested and formulated in their null form:
Ho1: Facebook has no significant influence on voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State.
Ho2: Twitter has no significant influence on voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State
Ho3: Instagram has no significant influence on voter behaviour in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area in Lagos State
1.6. Significance of the Study
This study will be beneficial to stakeholders such as political parties, candidates, and even the civil society on how social media can bring about awareness and campaign opportunities if properly utilized.
This research study will help political aspirants and other individuals at large understand that maintaining a good and healthy profile online with a cordial relationship between the party and voters can positively influence voter’s behaviour.
Further, this research work will add to the body of knowledge on the already existing scholarly materials on the impact of social media on voter behaviour.
Lastly, this study will be of significance to other researchers who would like to carry out a research in this field.
1.7. Scope of the Study
This study will examine the impact of social media on voter behaviour in Lagos state with special reference to the actual influence social media has on voter’s behaviour either positive or negative and the factors determining the behaviour and attitudes that an ordinary voter adopts based on available information gotten online. This study is confined to voters in Alimosho and Ikorodu Local Government area, and data will be gathered using the interview approach for the purpose of the study.
1.8. Operational Definition of Terms
Voter: a person who has attained the voting age and has the right to vote for a candidate in an election
Social media: are computer mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas and pictures/videos in virtual communities and online networks
Behaviour: is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals in conjunction with themselves or their environment.
Election: the formal process of selecting a person for public office or of accepting or rejecting a political proposition by voting.
