Youth Online Political Participation: The Role of Facebook Use, Interactivity, Quality Information and Political Interest

This paper focuses on the role of Facebook use, interactivity with politicians, quality of information and political interest as the predictors of online political participation among youth. The paper argues that Facebook use, interactivity, quality of information and political interests have the potential to engender online political participation among Nigerian youth. Also, by offering them an avenue for acquiring political information necessary for making an informed political decision through deliberations on Facebook; in order to bring new political changes and group mobilization. Therefore, the study was implemented with survey questionnaires collected from youth in Bauchi metropolis (N= 372). Findings reveal that Facebook use, quality of information and political interest positively correlates with online political participation while interactivity with the politicians did not significantly influence online political participation among youth.