Social Media Usage and Freedom of Expression Among Undergraduate Students of Nigerian Universities in Oyo State (Published)
The study aimed to examine social media usage and freedom of expression among undergraduate students in Oyo State Universities. The study focused on undergraduate students of public and private Universities in Oyo State. With a large and dynamic population, Cochran (1977) formula for an infinite population was employed to arrive at a sample size of 384 respondents. The data were gathered by using a structured questionnaire of which 374 valid questionnaires were retrieved and analyzed with descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression with the help of SPSS 27.0 software. Results showed that the use of social media had a significant joint effect on freedom of expression (R = 0.614, R² = 0.377, F = 74.748, p < .001). In particular, social media engagement had a significant positive effect on freedom of expression (β = 0.586, p < .001), and frequency of social media use a significant negative effect (β = –0.111, p = .008). But exposure to social media content did not significantly impact freedom of expression (β = –0.001, p = .987). The study found that the key to free expression for undergraduate students was not how often they used social media but rather their engagement with social media. The study recommends that universities foster responsible use of social media, in particular by implementing digital literacy programs, engaging and collaborative learning experiences, and policies that encourage positive and responsible use while protecting responsible freedom of expression online.
Keywords: Freedom Of Expression, exposure to social media content, social media engagement, social media usage