Social Media and Youth Political Participation in Ghana

Abstract

The development of Social Media (web 2.0) in the early years of the twenty-first century has had a dramatic impact on the way people interact, especially across long distances. With social media, barriers of distance and cost have been overcome with some remarkable ease and this ease in interaction has permeated various facets of human activity. This study adopts a mixed method to collect and analyze data to ascertain the impact Social Media is having on youth political participation in Ghana. Conceptually underpinned by the Resource Model of political participation, this study assesses the level of political participation in Ghana and proceeds to measure to what extent Social Media is making up for factors known to inhibit the capacity of the youth to participate in politics. The paper mainly finds that Social Media is not widely used by youth towards issues of politics and participation in civic life. The paper also notes the continued dominance of traditional media such as radio and television as preferred media for youth engagement. However, it is also observed in this study that although Social Media is hardly the dominant mode of youth participation in Ghana, users of Social Media show a more positive outlook toward political participation than non-users. Crucially, the study reveals that a lot needs to be done to optimize Social Media use towards political participation among Ghanaian youth.