Examining the Influence of Social Media as Platforms for Voter Mobilisation and Participation in Nigeria’s Southern Region
Keywords:
Campaigns, Electoral umpire, Electorates, Mobilisation, Social mediaAbstract
The subject matter of social media as platforms for voter mobilisation and participation in Nigeria has continued to generate interest in the academic and social domains. The influence of the platforms remains an issue of raging debates and academic exercises leading to greater insights. Despite the focus and interest, little is known about the use of certain mechanisms and messages in the mobilisation of the electorate. Accordingly, this study was conducted to examine the influence of social media as platforms for voter mobilisation and participation in Nigeria. Anchored on the cognitive mobilisation and agenda-setting theory, the study sought to examine social media mechanisms, specific messages and their influence during 2023 election. The study is based on a cross-sectional survey research design and relied on questionnaire as instrument of data collected administered to 587 sample of respondents statically determined from 9,259,968 which is the population of registered voters in the three select states of Delta, Edo and Rivers. Mixed-sampling technique of purposive, stratification, and simple random were adopted to select respondents. Results of the study demonstrate that Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) were the two most prominent social media platforms utilised for mobilisation as mechanisms like regular posts, narratives, counter-narratives, influencers, and emotionally-charged messaging were utilised. Various emotionally-charged messages were crafted, particularly bordering on faith on the electoral umpire and the vote cast as power to shape the future. The researcher concludes that though social media have great influence, it is not, however, absolute in respect of the behaviour and decisions of voters. The practical implication of the study is for political stakeholders to learn about the need for messaging in future polls
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Accepted 2026-01-27
Published 2025-12-31