The Impact of Facebook on Election Campaigns: (Case Study of Mogadishu Somalia)

Abdifatah Mukhtar Jama

doi:10.37284/ajhg.2.1.1476

Abdifatah Mukhtar Jama Somali National University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37284/ajhg.2.1.1476

Keywords: Facebook, Elections and Campaign

Share Article:

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of Facebook on election campaigns in Mogadishu, with a focus on identifying the positive and negative effects of using Facebook as a political tool. In Somalia, Facebook has emerged as one of the most popular social media platforms, with a significant portion of the population using the platform to communicate and access information. As such, it has become increasingly important to understand the impact of Facebook on election campaigns in Mogadishu. Although Facebook has become a popular platform for political campaigning globally, little is known about the impact of Facebook on election campaigns in Mogadishu, Somalia. Given the country's recent history of political instability and the increasing role of social media in shaping public opinion, there is a need to study the impact of Facebook on election campaigns in Mogadishu. The article used a descriptive research design employing a quantitative approach to quantify occurrences, describe current conditions, and investigate the impact of Facebook on election campaigns in Mogadishu, Somalia. The target populations that participated in the study were the faculty of social science and other administration staff at Somali National University, with a total of 100 participants. Data was collected through self-administered questionnaires, and SPSS was utilised for descriptive analysis. The research findings suggested that Facebook is a popular source of information and a common platform for receiving political messages during election campaigns in Mogadishu, Somalia. The majority of the participants use Facebook almost daily, and a significant proportion have used it as a source of information for the latest election campaign. Additionally, many participants have encountered political posts on Facebook during the campaign, with the majority reporting seeing them with a range of frequencies. This study recommends that Facebook implement measures to combat online harassment and protect users' safety during election campaigns, given that a significant proportion of respondents have witnessed or experienced online harassment related to election campaigns on Facebook

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Admire, M. (2018) Politics Unusual? Facebook and Political Campaigning during the 2013 Harmonised Elections in Zimbabwe, African Journalism Studies, 39:1, 90-110, DOI:10.1080/23743670.2018.1425150.

Aghara, V., Nwaizugbo, I., Chukwuemeka, E., & Onyeizugbe, C. (2005), Changing perspectives of politics marketing in Nigeria. Review of Business and Finance Studies, 6(2), 105-115.

Aharony, N. (2012). Twitter use by three political leaders: an exploratory analysis. Online Information Review, 36(4), 587-603. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521211254086.

Arbona. (July 24, 2019). Facebook i Instagram u Hrvatskoj: zanimljive statistike – 2019. Retrieved April 10, 2020. Retrieved from https://www.arbona.hr/blog/drustveni-marketing/facebook-i-instagram-u-hrvatskoj-zanimljive-statistike-2019/2832.

Bond, R. M., Fariss, C. J., Jones, J. J., Kramer, A. D., Marlow, C., Settle, J. E., & Fowler, J. H. (2012). A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilisation. Nature, 489(7415), 295-298.

Boulianne, S. (2015). Social media use and participation: A meta-analysis of current research. Information, Communication & Society, 18, 524–538.

Boyd, D. (2008). Can social network sites enable political action? International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, 4(2), 241-244.

Castells, M. (2012). Networks of outrage and hope: Social movements in the Internet age. John Wiley & Sons.

Chan, M. (2016). Social network sites and political engagement: Exploring the impact of Facebook connections and uses on political protest and participation. Mass communication and society, 19(4), 430-451.

Cohen, C. J., Kahne, J., Bowyer, B., Middaugh, E., & Rogowski, J. (2012). Participatory politics. New Media and Youth Political Action. https://ypp.dmlcentral.net/sites/default/files/publications/Participatory_Politics_New_Media_and_ Youth_Political_Action.2012.pdf

Dimitrova, D. V., Shehata, A., Strömbäck, J., & Nord, L. W. (2014). The effects of digital media on political knowledge and participation in election campaigns: Evidence from panel data. Communication Research, 41(1), 95-118.

Feng, S., Wong, Y. K., Wong, L. Y., & Hossain, L. (2019). The Internet and Facebook usage are academic distractions for college students. Computers & Education, 134, 41-49.

Floreddu, P. B. & Cabiddu, F. (2016). Social media communication strategies. Journal of Services Marketing, 30(5), 490-503.

Gerbaudo, P. (2012). Tweets and the streets: Social media and contemporary activism. Pluto Press.

Gerodimos, R., & Justinussen, J. (2015). Obama's 2012 Facebook campaign: Political communication in the age of the like button. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 12(2), 113–132. doi:10.1080/19331681.2014.982266

Gibson, R. K. (2015). Party change, social media and the rise of'citizen-initiated' campaigning. Party Politics, 21(2), 183–197. doi:10.1177/1354068812472575

Gustafsson, N. (2012). The subtle nature of Facebook politics: Swedish social network site users and political participation. New media & society, 14(7), 1111-1127.

Hanley, S. (2012). Dynamics of new party formation in the Czech Republic 1996–2010: looking for the origins of a 'political earthquake'. East European Politics, 28(2), 119-143.

Hassan, D. A. (2023). The Effect of Social Media Technology on Politics and Democracy: The Case Study of Somalia. Daha International University Academic Journal (DIUAJ), 2(1), 45-57.

Hodzi, O. (2014). The youth factor in Zimbabwe's 2013 harmonised elections. Journal of African Elections, 13(2), 48-70.

Howard, P. N., & Parks, M. R. (2012). Social media and political change: Capacity, constraint,and consequence. Journal of Communication, 62, 359–362.

Hsu, L. C., Wang, K. Y., Chih, W. H., & Lin, K. Y. (2015). Investigating the ripple effect in virtual communities: An example of Facebook Fan Pages. Computers in Human Behavior, 51, 483-494.

Jacobson, G. C. (2015). How do campaigns matter? Annual Review of Political Science, 18, 3147.

Jacuński, M., & Baranowski, P. (2015). The development of online political communication in Poland in European Parliamentary elections 2014: Technological innovation versus old habits. Central European Journal of Communication, 8(2).

Vitak, J., Zube, P., Smock, A., Carr, C. T., Ellison, N., & Lampe, C. (2011). It's complicated: Facebook users' political participation in the 2008 election. CyberPsychology, behavior, and social networking, 14(3), 107-114.

Johnson, J. Thomas, and Perlmutter, D. Davis (2010) 'Introduction: The Facebook Election'. Mass Communication and Society, 13(5): 554–559

Kahne, J., & Middaugh, E. (2012). Digital media shapes youth participation in politics. Phi Delta Kappan, 94(3), 52-56.

Kamau, S. C. (2017). Democratic engagement in the digital age: youth, social media and participatory politics in Kenya. Communicatio, 43(2), 128-146.

Koc-Michalska, Karolina; Lilleker, Darren G., Surowiec, Paweł, and Baranowski, Paweł(2014)‘Poland’s 2011 Online Election Campaign: New Tools, New Professionalism, New Ways to Win Votes’. Journal of Information Technology and Politics, 11(2): 186–205.

Larsson, A. O. 2015. "Green Light for Interaction: Party Use of Social Media during the 2014 Swedish Election Year." First Monday 20 (12). Accessed October 22, 2017. http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/5966/5162.

Lilleker, D. G., Tenscher, J., & Štětka, V. (2015). Towards hypermedia campaigning? Perceptions of new media's importance for campaigning by party strategists in comparative perspective. Information, communication & society, 18(7), 747-765.

Lim, M. (2012). Clicks, cabs, and coffee houses: Social media and oppositional movements in Egypt, 2004–2011. Journal of Communication, 62(2), 231-248.

Martinović, M., Pirić, V., & Krkač, K. (2020). The Implications of Facebook in Political Marketing Campaigns in Croatia. Central European Business Review, 9(4), 1-21.https://doi.org/10.18267/j.cebr.244

Ndlovu, M., & Mbenga, C. (2013). Are Facebook groups/pages of youth leagues of political parties an extension of public sphere in South Africa? Journal of African Media Studies, 5(2), 169-186.

Neti, S. (2011). Social Media and it's Role in Marketing. International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business Systems, 1(2).

Norris, P., & Curtice, J. (2008). Getting the message out: A two-step model of the role of the internet in campaign communication flows during the 2005 British general election. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 4 (4), 3–13. doi:10.1080/19331680801975359

Orfan, S. N. (2021). Political participation of Afghan Youths on Facebook: A case study of Northeastern Afghanistan. Cogent Social Sciences, 7(1), 1857916.

Perez, S. (March 26, 2020). Report: WhatsApp has seen a 40% increase in usage due to the COVID- 19 pandemic. https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/26/report whatsapp-has-seen-a-40-increase-in-usage-due-to-covid-19-pandemic/.

Rainie, L., Smith, A., Schlozman, K. L., Brady, H. E., & Verba, S. (2012). Social Media and Political Engagement. http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/10/19/social media-and-political engagement

Seungahn, N., & Gregory, D. S. (2013). Modeling the adoption and use of social media by nonprofit organisations. New Media & Society, 15(2), 294– 313. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444812452411 2019.1621870

Smrekar, M. (February 6, 2020). Statistika ne laže: Živimo u digitalnom svijetu, 40 posto budnog vremena provodimo – na internetu, https://www.tportal.hr/tehno/clanak/statistika-ne-laze-zivimo-u-digitalnom-svijetu-40 posto-budnog-vremena-provodimo-na-internetu-20200206, Tportal, 06.02.2020.

Štětka, Václav, and Vochocová, Lenka (2014) A dialogue of the deaf, or communities of debate? The use of Facebook in the 2013 Czech Parliamentary Elections campaign. Teorija in Praksa 51(6),1361-1380.

Sutkutė, R. (2016). Social media as a tool of resistance or a new form of slacktivism?. Tiltas į ateitį [elektroninis išteklius]= The bridge to the future. Kaunas: Technologija, 10.

Tang, G., & Lee, F. L. F. (2013). Facebook use and political participation: The impact of exposure to shared political information, connections with public political actors, and network structural heterogeneity. Social Science Computer Review, 31, 763–773.

Bosch, T. E., Admire, M., & Ncube, M. (2020). Facebook and politics in Africa: Zimbabwe and Kenya. Media, Culture & Society, 42(3), 349-364.

Wattal, S., Schuff, D., Mandviwalla, M. & Williams, C. B. (2010). Web 2.0 and Politics: The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election and an E-Politics Research Agenda. MIS Quarterly, 34(4), 669 688.

Westling, M. (2007). Expanding the public sphere: the impact of Facebook on political communication. The New Vernacular 28: 835–860.