SOCIAL MEDIA POLITICAL ADVERTISING AND ITS INFLUENCE ON VOTERS CHOICE OF CANDIDATES IN BENIN DURING THE 2023 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

ABSTRACT

The study is focused on the Social Media Political Advertising and its Influence on Voters Choice of Candidates in Benin during the 2023 Presidential Elections. The objectives of the study were to ascertain the extent at which voters in Benin are exposed to social media political advertising during the 2023 presidential elections, evaluate the attitude of voters toward social media political advertising during the 2023 presidential election in Benin, determine the roles played by social media advertising in the 2023 presidential election and scertain the influence of social media advertising on voters during the 2023 presidential election. For its methodology, the survey research method was used to gather the data used for the study. Findings of the study revealed that social media political advertising was used as a tool for propaganda during the 2023 presidential election campaig. The findings also indicated that social media political advertising played a role in influencing and shaping the opinion of social media users and voters to a high extent. Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that social media political advertising plays an important role in shaping the opinion of social media users and that political advertising promotes ethnic division and religious hate. The researcher therefore recommended among other things that social media political advertising should be used more to promote peace, unity and manifestoes of political parties instead of hate and religious divide. The researcher also recommended that Government should implement policies and mechanism that will be able to fact-check political advertisements