Social Media as a Transformative Agent of Political Behavior Among Political Science Students in a Component City

Abstract

The political future of the Philippines depends on young people getting involved. This study investigated the use of social media as a transformative agent in changing the political behavior of political science students in a component city. This study was done in the City of San Fernando, La Union. Marshall McLuhan's Media Ecology Theory and Herbert Blumer's Uses and Gratification Theory was used as the theoretical bases. Both descriptive-correlational and quantitative methods were employed in this study. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data. The researchers included 350 political science students. The results showed that the respondents were frequently exposed to political and election-related information on social media. Also, social media was regarded as relevant in changing respondents’ political participation. However, this information was only appropriate for a limited range and was not strong enough to change their political behavior. The findings suggest that social media is still significant to students' political lives. The findings revealed no critical link between the level of exposure to political and election-related content and its relevance in changing political behavior among respondents, with a p-value of 0.574 (Negligible Positive Relationship). A validated curriculum review and recommendation for special topics for Bachelor of Arts in Political Science is recommended to help improve the identified weaknesses.