YOUTH ENGAGEMENT AND POLITICS OF VOICE IN DIGITAL COMMUNICATION: CONCEPTUAL DISCOURSE
Keywords:
Digital Communication, Development, Youth Engagement, Politic of Voice, PoliticalAbstract
Digital communication is handy and foster easy interaction among citizens. It avails citizens the platform to engage in meaningful conversation, debates on important topics and lend their voices on controversial issues affecting their well-being while calling on government officials on issue of good governance for the sustainability of the society. The study objectives seeks to analyze how digital communication fosters diverse voices that translates to physical youth political participation and examines factors that posed as hindrance to physical participation. The library research approach was employed. Findings showed that digital communication significantly enhances youth political engagement and civic participation. However, the misunderstanding of the decline in youth participation in election generally ascribed to the rise in the unconventional political engagement among youth is rather a paradigm shift in political engagement and not apolitical. the obvious gap between online and offline activism which explains the lack of physical political involvement in youth is heavily influenced by factors beyond youth control. The study found that poor political awareness, political disillusionment, lack of access to political platforms, systemic corruption, misinformation, government censorship, low digital literacy, and socio-economic inequalities are major challenges hindering effective digital activism and inclusive youth mobilization across Nigeria’s digital space. Political mentorship, implementation of intervention, political support are among the measure that can encourage political participation among youth. This promote sustainable youth empowerment and inclusive national development.
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