UTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR THE PROMOTION OF BENIN IGUE FESTIVAL

ABSTRACT

The study on the utilization of social media in the promotion of the Benin Igue festival. It aimed at finding out the extent at which social media is used to promote the Benin Igue festival, assess the social media platforms used in promoting the Benin Igue festival, evaluate the attitude of youths toward the use of social media in promoting Benin Igue festival and also ascertain the impact of social media on the Benin Igue festival. For its theoretical framework, the study adopted the agenda setting theory and uses and gratification theory to further buttress the point of the study. While the survey research method was used to gather the data used for the study. Findings of the study revealed that social media has been used to promote the Igue festival to a high extent and Benin residents have a positive attitude towards the Igue festival. The researcher concluded that the social media helps in creating awareness and promoting cultural knowledge, values and norms in Nigeria. The researcher therefore recommended amongst other things that Information about the Igue festival should be posted frequently to keep the people abreast of events and activities before and during the festival. The researcher also recommended that the Edo state government and relevant stakeholders should invest in digital skills, human capacity development and technical training so as to improve the manner at which information about the Igue festival is handled and published on social media.