CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Study
The advent of internet and technology has exposed majority of the universal population to diverse interactive platforms on which various types of information is exchanged which might greatly have an effect on human behaviour, decision making and judgment, (CES, 2012). In the present day, social media are perceived to be a new information network and information technology using a form of communication utilizing interactive and user-produced content, and interpersonal relationships are created and maintained, (Manning, 2014). The emergence of the Internet as the new mass medium of the 21st century now changes the mass media substantially. Information can be distributed at high speed, low cost, and broad scope and as a result, there is egalitarian access to the production and the consumption of news, (Prat & Strömberg, 2011).
According to Trystan, Scully, and Jones (2003), the issue of whether or not social media have an effect on voting behavior is a controversial topic. The study of voting behaviour has turn out to be increasingly complex in past years. In the past, just 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 uncommon in today’s contemporary day not to find a political candidate’s profile across all social media platforms.
Voting behavior is seen to be a kind of political behavior displayed by voters which can be influenced by numerous factors which include 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, tolerance of different political opinions and the media, internet inclusive, (Prat & Strömberg, 2011). 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 as a determinant of voting behaviour in National Assembly Election, using Ogun State and 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, 2016) 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). 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).
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 turned out to be one of the essential 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). 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) about the elections over the period; and these tweets tended to be divided into ‘reportage’ (i.e. people describing events) and ‘comment’ (i.e. people commenting on events), (Bartlett, 2020).
For instance, in the last National Assembly Election held in Ogun State, it was observed that, the political parties, including the two prominent parties (APC and PDP) took to social media platforms such as online networking sites (like Facebook, Instgram, Nairaland, and Twitter), news ads, etc., to campaign and mobilize not only youths but all class of internet users to vote for them, (Ayankoya, Calitz, & Cullen, 2020). 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 Lagos State National Assembly 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 depended largely on SMS, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, BBM, Instagram, for the report of incidents. This however resulted to a range of exciting news and online drama that provides the opportunity for users to read, respond, interact, argue and trash out issues online. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram became platforms for people to express their opinions on different candidates, and sway others in their line of thinking with different debates, hashtags and online campaigns, (Ayankoya, Calitz, & Cullen, 2020).
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 affect the decisions of voters and choices as many voters who had fixed their minds and conscience on voting a particular party or candidate started to have a change of mind based on particular information or idea they got online concerning the party or candidate, (Baker, 2016). 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, among others, in order to influence them.
In contemporary Nigeria, social networking sites which include Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have been established to have impacted all kinds of elections across the country 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 and 2019 elections became more apparent and beyond public usages, as different government agencies saddled with voter registration, provision of voting cards, as well as the Nigerian Independent Electoral Commission used the social media platforms for mobilization for information dissemination, and posting of results, (Chinedu-Okeke, Chinonye, & Obi, 2020). On its disadvantages, Oyenuga (2015) mentioned that, the unfettered nature of the social media, it is sure that quite a lot of the information are not subject to inquiry 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 its own, and rapid release of genuine results, (Oyenuga, 2015).
1.2. Statement of the Problem
Social media has served as a specialized platform of contemporary human communication and is now part of the political culture of most democratic nations across the globe, Nigeria inclusive. 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 in Nigeria to accomplish their targeted goals as regard projecting positive images, retaining offices, and maintaining relationships with the public, (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. According to Megan (2017), it has been found that, social media influence an individual's attitudes toward a political candidate using carefully crafted information about such candidate online, which in turn may influence the voter’s behavior towards the candidate.
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 social media as determinant of voting behaviour in National Assembly Elections in Ogun State and Lagos State for the period of 2015-2019.
1.3. Research Objectives
The primary objective of this study is to examine social media as determinant of voting behaviour in National Assembly Elections in Ogun State for the period of 2015-2023. However, the following specific objectives are to;
- determine if the use of Facebook as a social media tool impact voting behaviour of electorates in National Assembly election in Ogun
- find out if the use of Twitter as a social media tool influence voting behaviour of electorates in National Assembly election in Ogun State
- examine if the use of Instagram as a social media tool affect voting behaviour of electorates in National Assembly election in Ogun State
1.4. Research Questions
Based on the above research objectives, the following research questions will be poised.
- To what extent does Facebook as a social media tool impact voting behaviour of electorates in National Assembly election in Ogun State?
- Does the use of Twitter as a social media tool influence voting behaviour of electorates in National Assembly election in Ogun State?
- To what extent is the impact of Instagram as a social media tool on voting behaviour of electorates in National Assembly election in Ogun State?
1.5. Hypotheses
In order to enable the researcher assess social media as determinant of voter behaviour in National Assembly election in Ogun State and Lagos state, the following hypotheses will be tested and formulated in their null form:
Ho1: Facebook as a social media tool has no significant influence on voting behaviour of electorates in National Assembly election in Ogun State.
Ho2: Twitter as a social media tool has no significant influence on voting behaviour of electorates in National Assembly election in Ogun State.
Ho3: Instagram as a social media tool has no significant influence on voting behaviour of electorates in National Assembly election in Ogun State.
1.6. Significance of the Study
The research will be of enormous benefit to stakeholders such as politicians, political parties, media consultants, electoral umpires and government across all levels as it will help them to know and appreciate the gains and efficacy of using social media tools and how best to handle it for projecting the image of their clients and increasing awareness of the political candidates.
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.
Lastly, this study will be of significant benefit to researchers and other seekers of knowledge in the academia, as it will contribute to the existing literature on usefulness of social media in politics and as well widen the current expansive knowledge in it.
1.7. Scope of the Study
This study will examine social media as determinant of voting behaviour in Ogun State with special reference to the actual influence it 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 will focus on undergraduate students of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, with the aim of determining how social media influence their perception of political candidates and their participation in elections. The reason for the choice of undergraduate is because they are more knowledgeable when it comes to social media usage and this will enable the researcher gather first hand information with accuracy on the subject matter.
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: Social media is the term often used to refer to new forms of media that involve interactive participation
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.
Undergraduates: These are undergraduates of universities in various departments in their institutions
