| Title: | Social Media And Access To Political Messages For Community Enlightenment Among Residents Of Mafoluku Community In Oshodi L.g.a. Of Lagos State |
| Author(s): | Felix Akinkoya, Comfort E. Adeluwoye & Adesola O. Bello |
| Abstract: | People’s perception about social media has been affected to believe that it is mainly a tool of propaganda in the area of politics. The objectives of the study were to determine the social media platforms residents of Mafoluku Community in Oshodi Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria access mostly for their political messages, ascertain the type of messages they are engaging themselves with, and the political messages hierarchical level. The study employed the Uses and Gratification theory as theoretical foundation. The survey design was adopted. Systematic sampling technique was used to select nine streets out of the 49 streets in Mafoluku; while simple random sampling was employed to select the sample size of 385 from the unknown population of the community using the Cochran’s sample size formula. Questionnaire was used for data gathering and analysed using simple percentage and frequency distribution executed with the statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22. Findings show that most inhabitants of Mafoluku Community mostly access Facebook and Whatsapp for their political messages and have political information about political activities and news in their local council area as dominant in their political messages engagement followed by the state before the federal level. Sport and not political is the cynosure of their attention when they hook up unto the Internet. This study recommends that political actors should create more awareness on the use of the social media for the disseminating and reception of political messages so as to enhance communication between them and the electorates especially at the community level and also, seminars, symposium and workshops that will enlighten the public on how to use the new media to communicate and respond to political messages. |
| Keywords: | Social media, Political message, Enlightenment, Community, Mafoluku-Oshodi |
