SOCIAL MEDIA AS A SOURCE OF POLITICAL INFORMATION AMONG VOTERS OF SINDH, PAKISTAN
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Keywords

Social media, political information, voters’ behaviors.

Abstract

Social media has developed a significant means to provide political information among voters of Sindh due to its convenient approach and accessibility at wide-reaching on a global scale Social media will not only provide information on political parties and their candidates, but it will also encourage voters to engage among themselves to discuss their concerns about their individual politicians. From such a systemic standpoint, the study addressed use of such social media platforms to obtain political information during the Pakistan General Elections 2018. This paper has primarily associated with political information obtained through the use and application of social media platforms by main political parties and voters. This study was restricted to the Hyderabad district. The information was compiled in accordance with the general election of 2018, with a focus on registered voters in the district of Hyderabad between the ages of 18 and 35. The data was gathered by employing with the technique of probability sampling. The study indicates that voters belong to Hyderabad district were generally the regular users of SNS, whereas Twitter and Facebook are the most frequently used SNS sites. They have sufficient disclosure to political information by using Facebook and twitter. The analysis and interpretation of collected data shows that the voters of Hyderabad district gain more political knowledge by employing SNS sites and have enough exposure of party manifesto which is disseminated by political campaign being run on social networks. Hence the conclusion of the study is ‘social media provide tremendous information regarding political communication, party’s manifestoes and political campaign, makes effect on voters and let them to change their voting behavior and perception, leading to change their party affiliation.

https://doi.org/10.52806/grassroots.v56i1.4611
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