Youth political participation is indeed an engaging area of academic research that is increasingly evolving. However, some recent studies suggest that traditional form of political participation especially among youth has been declining in developed and developing countries which may likely create uncertain future for democracy. For instance, in many countries youth are not stimulated by the traditional media such as Radio, Television and Newspaper. Conversely, other findings illustrate the sudden and unprecedented increase in youth engagement in political activities through the use of Facebook. Youth now have access to political information and interact directly with political candidates. Nevertheless, researchers have not clearly examined why youth political participation suddenly changed and what it's the driving force is. In posing these questions, scholars have suggested that certain features of Facebook such as usage pattern, diversity network of Facebook friends and interactivity with political figures should be examined. The paper therefore concludes that there exists a positive linkage between Facebook usage and youth political participation.
Abstract. This paper focuses on the role of Facebook use, interactivity with politicians, quality of information and political interest as the predictors of online political participation among youth. The paper argues that Facebook use, interactivity, quality of information and political interests have the potential to engender online political participation among Nigerian youth. Also, by offering them an avenue for acquiring political information necessary for making an informed political decision through deliberations on Facebook; in order to bring new political changes and group mobilization. Therefore, the study was implemented with survey questionnaires collected from youth in Bauchi metropolis (N= 372). Findings reveal that Facebook use, quality of information and political interest positively correlates with online political participation while interactivity with the politicians did not significantly influence online political participation among youth.
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