Role of Social Media in Politics and Perception of Youth about Political Accountability

Abstract

The present study was conducted to explore and examine role of social media and social media applications about politics and perception of youth about political accountability among the youth of District Mansehra. This research design for this specific research study was cross sectional and survey technique was to record response of the selected sample youth of District Mansehra. 400 respondents were selected as sample and comprising of 224 females and 176 males having the age between 18 to 24 i.e. voting age and using social media had been selected from city of Mansehra. The researcher used purposive sampling technique. The demographic variables of the respondents were age, sex, and educational level. A well-planned questionnaire was distributed having close end questions for convenience of the respondents. There were so many theories of media effects relevant to this research work, but KAP model was very much relevant to this study. Data tabulation and subsequent analysis revealed that there was very little level of knowledge and understanding about politics and political accountability amongst the young of Mansehra city, followed by different levels of knowledge. The findings also revealed that overall majority of the youth had negative perception about politics and political accountability in Pakistan followed by respondents that positively perceived political accountability. It was also revealed that there was no significant influence of social media on perception about politics and political accountability.