School of Humanities, Society & Development

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Browsing School of Humanities, Society & Development by Advisor "Nengomasha, Catherine"

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    The use of social media to enhance public engagement with Namibian parliamentarians
    (University of Namibia, 2021) Mate, Pamela; Nengomasha, Catherine
    This thesis aimed to determine the extent to which social media can enhance public engagement between Members of Parliament and the public in Namibia. The purpose of the study was to determine how social media could be a vehicle or platform for Members of Parliament (MPs) to communicate matters of the legislature to the public, and how the public would use social media to communicate and interact with MPs. The study is founded on the Diffusion of Innovation Theory and, therefore, explored social media use at Parliament based on the five elements of innovation, namely relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability. A quantitative research approach was employed by way of survey research design, using a survey questionnaire to collect data. All 146 MPs and people in the Windhoek city centre at the time of the research formed the population. Several sampling methods were used - simple random sampling method for MPs and a combination of purposive, stratified and convenience sampling for members of the public. Purposive sampling was used to produce a representative sample of the Namibian public. Stratified sampling was used to ensure that there was equal representation of male and female while convenience sampling was used to ensure that all respondents were eighteen years and above and Namibian citizens. SPSS software was used to come up with descriptive and inferential statistics. The study’s key findings revealed on the information component, social media had relative advantage over traditional media while on predictability, structure and format, traditional media trumped social media. The study further found that social media use for engagement included a relatively small number of people separate from those already politically involved. The study concludes that social media has still not attained dominance and preference over traditional media as an engagement tool for MPs and the public. Additionally, the main barriers to social media use are the absence of a policy or framework, unaffordable data, skills training and general lack of interest in the work of Parliament. In addition, it was found that social media for engagement was perceived as ii complex, suggesting that social media use would be met with difficulty. The study, therefore, recommends the formulation of a social media use policy for MPs and social media training to encourage use. Furthermore, social media use for public engagement is still a new phenomenon in Namibia, hence, there is a need for a Namibian study on the effectiveness of social media in reaching the marginalised and disengaged