Digital government: Social media as a mediator in technology acceptance with political knowledge, interest, and participation

Tin Tin Ting 1 * , Mei Yuen Lee 2, Shu Xuan Chok 2, Yun Hung Huang 2, Xian Ni Choy 2, Kuok Tiung Lee 3 * , Omolayo M. Ikumapayi 4, Temitope Olumide Olugbade 5
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1 INTI International University, Nilai, MALAYSIA
2 Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Technology and Management, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
3 Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, MALAYSIA
4 University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA
5 University of Dundee, Dundee, SCOTLAND
* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Volume 14, Issue 4, Article No: e202454. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/15145
OPEN ACCESS   604 Views   256 Downloads   Published online: 10 Sep 2024
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ABSTRACT

Social media is an essential tool for governments to spread political information in the digital era. However, the influence of social media on political participation is significant but not well recognised in developing countries such as Malaysia. The main problem is the lack of clarity surrounding the factors that influence citizen adoption of political social networks and how this influences political interest, knowledge, and participation. The purpose of this study is to explore factors and social media as mediator in political dynamics. The study sampled 338 young people from the University Malaysia Sabah using convenient sampling. The online questionnaire is distributed through Google Form and the hypotheses are analysed using SPSS Process macro and AMOS. The results highlighted that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, political participation, and political interest are significantly related to government-political related social media usage. Social media usage mediated the relationship between all predictors and dependent variables (except for political knowledge). This study offers evidence-based suggestions within a theoretical framework to improve the government’s use of social media for civil engagement.
Keywords: political decision-making, digital government, social media, perceived usefulness, political knowledge, political participation, perceived ease of use, R&D investment

CITATION

Ting, T. T., Lee, M. Y., Chok, S. X., Huang, Y. H., Choy, X. N., Lee, K. T., Ikumapayi, O. M., & Olugbade, T. O. (2024). Digital government: Social media as a mediator in technology acceptance with political knowledge, interest, and participation. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 14(4), e202454. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/15145

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