Influence of Ideological Themes in Social Media Political Campaigns on Voters’ Education and Participation in Nigeria’s 2023 General Elections

Abstract

This study adopted mixed research methods to investigate how ideological themes in social media political campaigns have influenced voters’ education and participation in Nigeria’s 2023 general elections. Through questionnaire and interview research instruments, the study found that in the last 2023 General Elections, Facebook was more often used for political campaigns in Nigeria compared to Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, google+, Facebook, WhatsApp and Blogs. These social media platforms, as the findings demonstrated, were more accessible to the voters thus, have easily became tools for political campaigns and were used to a great extent for that purpose. Unfortunately, as finding indicated, the ideological themes dominant in these platforms (social media) were to a great extent, negative as they were dominated by insults, abuse of opponents, hate speeches, falsehood, blame shifting, ethnocentric and religious undertones, anxiety and apathy among others, thereby, to a great extent, contributing to apathy among majority of voters in participating in the elections. Posting, commenting and sharing were the various ways through which those ideological campaign messages were spread to voters during the period of the last elections. The study concluded that social media has come to stay as platforms for use among stakeholders during political campaigns but its influence is abused by negative ideological construction which to a great extent, affects voters’ education and turn up in elections in Nigeria.