Social media engagement and democracy: Understanding the impact of social media on youth civic engagement in Tanzania

Abstract

This study examined how the use of social media among youth influences their offline civic participation outside the election period in Tanzania. Unlike previous studies, this study used multidimensional aspects of civic participation. Civic participation was studied using the concurrent qualitative dominant mixed-methods approach. The study conducted four focus group discussions (FGD) with the aid of an FGD guide and surveyed 372 young people with the help of a questionnaire. Narrative responses were analyzed thematically with the aid of NVivo-12, whereas statistical data were analyzed with the aid of SPSS 26 software. The participants in this study agreed that they comment and share messages, photos, voice messages and videos related to civic activities using social media, and that they actively participate in their own community offline. The research findings confirmed the connection between the social media interactivity of youth and their active offline civic participation. This study lays the foundation for further research and theory development.