Utilization of Social Media Tools in Students Elections at Masinde Muliro University, Kenya

Abstract

The advent of social media has brought with its new ways of communicating and interacting. Social networking sites have become quite popular in the recent past especially among the youth. They are not only being accessed on computers but also on mobile devices. The capability of social media to allow individuals to share their experiences, opinions and ideas being seen as an enabler for political participation and democracy among youths. The study’s specific objectives are, assessing the frequency of use of social media, analyzing the type of social media used and assessing the effectiveness of social media on students’ elections. Survey design was used backed by Goffman’s framing theory. The study found out that social media is frequently used with WhatsApp the most common followed by Facebook, making WhatsApp an effective way of political communication among students and those who rigorously used social media in elections emerged victors.