Politicking in the Digital Age: Engagement in Computer-Mediated Political Communication and Citizens’ Perception of Political Parties, Politicians and the Government

The shape and approaches to politicking the new media era have changed drastically. Such changes make studies in this area very attractive to researchers. This study examined engagement in computer-mediated political communication and citizens’ perception of political parties, politicians and the government. The study tested seven alternate hypotheses. The survey research design was used for the study while the questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. Engagement was measured using four indices like point of engagement, period of engagement, disengagement and re-engagement. Perception about political parties, politicians and the government was measured using indices like competence, trustworthiness and antecedent. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the analysis of data for the study. The result showed that engagement significantly predict perception, perception significantly correlate selective exposure, selective perception, selective attention and selective retention to computer-mediated political messages. Computer-mediated political communication also significantly correlate voting decision