ABSTRACT

   The Crux of this study was to evaluate the Influence of Social Media Political campaign on the choice of candidate among the undergraduate student of The University of Benin during Election.

     A descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The population of the study comprises of One thousand two hundred and ninety six (1296) full time undergraduate of the university of Benin city, Department of curriculum and instructional technology and a total number of 150 made up the sample of the population study. The sample used  50% each of the entire population. The instrument for this study was twenty (20) items structured questionnaire which was designed by the researcher and to be administered to the respondents. To ascertain the reliability of the instrument, test-retest reliability method was used. This was done by an initial administration of the instrument of fifty  (50) respondents each drawn from the same population. After two weeks, the same instrument was re-administered to the same respondents. The scores from first and second administration were subjected to Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation. The instrument yielded a coefficient value of 0.72, which shows that the instrument is reliable.

The study was anchored on the Media equation theory and the Vale's Persuasion theory. The survey research method. Thus, 150 copies of the questionnaire were administered to a sample of 150 undergraduate students of the University of Benin, Benin City. The study revealed that majority of audience are expose to social media as a political tool and as such, has influenced their choice of candidates. Many of the respondents commend media projections because they perceived it to be an irreplaceable tool in Political activities in Nigeria and the entire work. They all are satisfy with the usage of social media in electioneering and political campaigns.