Browsing by Author "Ahmed, I.S.Y."

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    Incidental news exposure and political behaviour among young social media users in Nigeria
    (Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, Online, Published by Intellect, Bristol, United Kingdom, 2025) Mande, M.A.; Mustapha, L.K.; Omar, B.; Ahmed, I.S.Y.; Udende, P.; Abdulbaqi, S.S.
    The explosion of social media is widely believed to have invigorated incidental exposure to news content, transforming how users in the present digital dispen sation encounter and consume news. Consequently, scholars have examined the determinants of incidental news exposure and its consequences on different political outcomes among social media users, with studies reaching divergent conclusions. However, intellectual diagnosis into the rebranded concept of inci dental news exposure has predominantly been concentrated in advanced, west ern democracies, hence having research conducted in settings other than advanced democracies is essential to cross-culturally generalize the resurged concept and consequences of incidental news exposure. Thus, this study investigates the factors that animate incidental news exposure and the corresponding effects on online and offline political participation among social media users between the ages of 18 and 35 in Nigeria. The network sampling method was used to sample a total of 387 respondents who chiefly use social media routinely. The study found that generic social media use, social media use for news and political interest are significantly correlated with incidental news exposure among respondents. While incidental news exposure was a positive and significant predictor of online political partici pation, it did not correlate with offline political participation among respondents. We conclude that incidental news exposure contributes to aspects of political outcomes among social media users and recommend the need for further studies on this phenomenon as well as the introduction of political education to assist politi cal enculturation of the youths within the Nigerian democratic space due to its strategic role on Africa’s political emancipation.