The online political participation of the Kabataan Partylist Cagayan Valley (KPLCV): A mixed method analysis

The advent of social media has come to affect strategies for political participation most especially of the youth. Yet there is an increasing debate as to whether the use of social media is an effective means for political participation. This research assesses the role of social media (i.e. as Facebook, Twitter, Online News Sites and Political Blogs) in the political participation of the Kabataan Partylist Cagayan Valley (KPLCV) thru analyzing the extent of online political participation and determining the political activities and strategies that are being performed both online and offline. This study is local in context that focuses in Region II with the KPLCV as respondents. A mixed method using quantitative and qualitative was employed to develop a deeper analysis and provide richer detail on the use of social media to engage in political matters. Some 77 respondents aged between18-35 were selected for the survey and 13 KPLCV members for the focus group discussion (FGD). The KPLCV Facebook group page was also used for the content analysis. From the results, it was found out that, generally there is a low level of online participation among the members of the KPLCV. Some factors that affect the low usage of social media include financial problem, low and slow Internet connectivity and the access to Internet. It must however be taken into account that they actively participate in politics using offline strategies. Furthermore, this study has revealed that there is a high positive correlation or strong association exist on the online and offline political participation of the respondents. One possible contribution this study has to offer is on how online political participation would actually cascade to translate to offline political participation at least in the local study. It must be noted that online political participation significantly affects offline political participation