Role of digital media as political communication tools in elections: A study on political science students at a public university in Ghana

Role of digital media as political communication tools in elections: A study on political science students at a public university in Ghana

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Digital media is often understood through technical lenses that do not include the central issues of how and for what purposes they are used by citizens.Studies on social and personal factors that determine the use and outcome of digital political communication on elections are limited.Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how individual attitudes of cynicism, political efficacy, and elaboration influence the motivations of university students to use digital media as political communication tools in elections.The ventilationstejp study addresses this gap by employing the mixed methods approach to survey 400 students and engage 40 students through focus group discussions.

Findings indicate that notwithstanding that university students experience cynicism and reduced political efficacy due to distrust of and minimal feedback from political actors on political issues, the students are motivated largely by entertainment, communication, and social utility gratifications to deploy digital media for peer-to-peer read more political communication on elections.The implications of the findings are that political actors must engage in symmetrical communication with young people to foster a greater sense of political efficacy.