research proposal

Annotated bibliography on the role of social media in enhancing political awareness in Saudi Arabia.

Bohler-Muller N. & Merwe C. (2011). The potential of social media to influence socio-political change on the African continent. Policy Brief. African Institute of South Africa. Retrieved from http://www.ai.org.za/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2011/11/No-46.-The-potential-of-social-media-to-influence-socio-political-change-on-the-African-Continent.pdf

This article does not only look at the impact of social media in enhancing political awareness, but it also investigates the gravity of the impacts. The theoretical approach guiding this research is that the ability of social media to speedily spread and share any information facilitates political awareness. Basing their arguments and theory on the political movements and changes that have occurred in the countries in the Northern part of Africa, the two authors extend their findings to other countries in Africa. The sample size is a small number of African countries where their investigations detected a threshold impact of social media in various socio-political changes. Of particular interest are the revolutionary movements that took place in African countries such as Egypt and Tunisia. One important finding is that African countries that have embraced technology over a longer period of time have citizens with better or greater levels of political awareness. The Arab Spring was a good example for political change via social, so that can be used in creating the introduction.

Duggan M. & Smith A. (2016). The political environment in social media. PewResearchCenter. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/25/the-political-environment-on-social-media/

Even though this article seems to publish how prominent and frequent politics is in social media, it provides very useful in information for the research topic. Already the research topic states that there is politics in social media but not its prevalence therefore this article is a good source for proving this aspect. The theoretical approach in this article is the fact that politics is one of the most frequent topics that are discussed in social media irrespective of the platforms. The methodologies of the research are online observations and surveys. The sample size includes Americans on majority of social media platforms. Their ages and genders are not factors for consideration . The main finding of this research is that two-thirds of American social media users have divided opinions on the existent of politics in various social media platforms. However 59% of these users say they are tired of the number of times they encounter politics in social media . The methodology used in this article will be value for creating survey questions.

Kanagavel R. & Chandrasekaran V. (2011). ‘Creating’ Political Awareness through Social Networking – An Empirical Study with Special Reference to Tamil Nadu Elections, 2011. Journal of Social Media Studies 2014.

This article is a publication that emerges shortly after the assembly elections in Tamul Nadu- one of the largest states in India. The authors believed that social media had a lot of impact on these elections and therefore they decided to research about this. The methodologies that were used are survey and online observation. A total of 110 participants were surveyed of which 107 were male and just 3 were female. Because of this huge disparity in the nature of the sample size, it was difficult to investigate gender was a factor of biasness in the research. On the other hand, online observation was done on various pro-political activities that took place in various social media platforms especially Facebook. The campaigns that were conducted in Facebook during these elections and how effective they emerged were also observed. One of the main findings is that, because youths engage more in politics in virtual world than in real world, social media had a lot of impact in the politics of Tamul Nadu in 2011. The methodology used in this article can be borrowed and used in the research question.

Pickard J. (2016). When politics and social media collide. Financial Times. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/27a7d6c8-702f-11e6-a0c9-1365ce54b926

This article was published in the Financial Times magazine and it focuses mainly on two political figures in the recently concluded United States of America elections. Pickard before delving into the main focus of the paper gives an account of various events that occurred during and before the Election Day. The sample size is particularly defined but they can be pointed. The two candidates and their followers form the sample size. The research methodology is online observation of political trends in social media. The author concludes that social media does not necessarily change the fundamentals of politics but it does magnify the events that take place in politics.

Yunus E. (2013). The role of social media in creating political awareness and mobilizing political protests- a focus on Turkey. Royal Institute of Technology, School of Computer Science and Communication. Retrieved from: https://www.divaportal.org/smash/get/diva2:844954/FULLTEXT01.pdf

This article focuses on the role of social media in creating political awareness in Turkey. In the thesis, the author accounts for the events that took place in the political atmosphere of Turkey following three major changes that took place in technology and enhanced by the merger of various internet service providers. The main research problem is that political activists in Turkey for a long time had faced challenges when communicating with their supporters through the mainstream media. The regimes in power then, had denied both the activists and their supporters access to the mainstream media. Examples of research questions that are looked at are how wisely social media can be used in Turkey and the advantages it may bring effecting political changes. Various methods including interviewing, quantitative and qualitative research methods are used. As an answer to one of the research questions, one of the findings is that Turkey is a country that has most of areas with access to internet, therefore it would be greatly influential if activists used to social media to create political awareness, so that can be used in creating the introduction.