Clicktivism to Activism: The Impact of Social Media on Pakistani Youth for Political Knowledge and Participation

Abstract

The communication world is becoming more and more complex and participatory, social media have developed as a stage with the potential to stimulate popular government and political engagement. Research paper was based on a of 600 university students between18 and 26, to examine the relationship between social media utilize and political engagement among the youth in Pakistan. Participants were selected by using stratified random sampling, from students across different academic disciplines within the selected universities of Islamabad. Data collection was carried out through self-administered questionnaires; there were a total of 512 valid respondents. The study focused on the extent to which social media facilitates consumption of political information and its influencing political interest, knowledge and participation among the youth. The result found that reliance on social media is positively associated with political participation; but according to the result, the influence is limited, and though useful. The capacity of Social media to shaping the opinion and influencing political activity is limited but internet based political activities like posting and distributing campaign information and utilization of political substance have a bearing on political cooperation, According to the results that the social media  do not have a strong and direct impact on political interest of youth and other campaign actors cannot ignore the opportunity provided by these platforms in the voter mobilization process.

Keywords: Social Media, Politics, Performance, Impact, Awareness, Participation