Youth Engagement with Political Satire on Social Media in Oyo State

This study examines how young people in Oyo State, South West Nigeria, engage with political satire content on social media and what this engagement means for their political awareness and civic attitudes. Political satire has a long history as a tool for political commentary, and its migration to social media platforms has democratised satirical production and expanded its audience among younger demographics. This study uses a mixed-method design combining a survey of 280 youths aged 18 to 30 in Ibadan North, Ogbomoso, and Iseyin local government areas with focus group discussions involving 40 participants from the same age group. Survey instruments assess consumption of satire accounts and meme pages, frequency of satirical content sharing, perceived political insight derived from satire, and comparison with traditional political news consumption. Focus group discussions explore the role of satire in political identity and emotional processing of governance failures. Findings reveal that 78 percent of respondents regularly consume social media political satire, with a higher proportion spending more time on satirical pages than mainstream political news. Political satire is significantly associated with higher political cynicism but also greater conversational engagement with political topics. Humour functions as an emotional coping mechanism for perceptions of political corruption and incompetence. However, satire consumption is poorly correlated with formal civic participation such as voter registration and community engagement. The study concludes that political satire is an important gateway to political consciousness but does not translate automatically into civic action. Recommendations include leveraging satirical platforms for voter education messaging.

Keywords: political satire, social media, youth, civic engagement, Oyo State.