Social Media for Information Dissemination among Students

Abstract

Social media usage trends have established a drastic jump from 5% in 2005 to 72% in 2021. This study, therefore, sought to investigate the extent to which social media is being used to facilitate information dissemination by students in Ghana Universities. The Uses and gratifications theory (UGT), which seeks to explain why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs was used as the theoretical framework for the study. A descriptive research design was used to gather both qualitative and quantitative data from respondents across tertiary institutions in Ghana. The study established that social media serves as one of the vital tools for learning and information dissemination among the students. The students used social media for academic work more than for recreational activities. They access social media through the mobile devices they own and are connected to the internet. While the majority of them had only one social media account, a significant proportion had more than one social media account. Although they somewhat trust the information on social media; they only consider it to be genuine unless it is related or find it relevant in the field of academics.