Vuniwaqa Bola-Bari
SUVA (The Fiji Times/Pacific Media Watch): Social media platforms such as Facebook are an increasingly prominent and popular means of social networking and political online engagement in Fiji.
This was revealed in a research report in the The Journal of Pacific Studies, (v35:2, 2015), where it stated that online engagement in the country would accelerate with increasing Internet access and cheaper Internet costs.
The Journal of Pacific Studies is a multidisciplinary journal of the University of the South Pacific which focuses on development issues.
In exploring the contemporary phenomenon of online political campaigning in last year's general election, the researchers sought to see the new trend by analysing the Facebook pages of candidates and parties who vied for a seat in the general elections.
The article stated "evidence suggests social media changed the traditional political campaigning methods as manifested in the 2014 general elections".
"The results found that the internet has been increasingly utilised in political campaigns, with rising appeal to the youth population," the report said.
The report also said the increase in Facebook account users, the internet and specifically social media enabled political participation in Fiji.
Facebook users
JPacS also revealed the total number of Facebook account users during the month of the elections in Fiji was 298,000 and this indicated the expanding reach of Facebook.
Jope Tarai, Romitesh Kant, Glen Finau and Jason Titifanue, who were authors of the research report with the assistance of the Fiji Women's Rights Movement, were able to purchase social media analytics tools for their research.
Executive director Tara Chetty of FWRM said the movement was pleased to support the research into the social media and the elections.
"FWRM has a strong interest in this area, particularly in the engagement of young women in the democratisation process in Fiji. We had been working closely with young women in preparing for the elections, through initiatives such as the "My Guide to Voting".
Jope Tarai said the social media research team was able to use, "Social Bakers" and "Fanpage Karma" as social media analytics tools.
"The credibility of these tools has been validated by the fact that varying companies, use them for social media data and analysis on their products and marketing campaigns. Social Bakers has also been referenced in social media academic sources such as "Digital Islands - by Danielle Cave".
The team is also working in the final stages on another report titled, "Social Media and Its Impact on Youth and Women's political participation in Fiji'," Tarai said.
The Political Social Media Campaigning In Fiji's 2014 Elections draft stages were reviewed by ANU-based academics and scholars, including Professor Stewart Firth, Dr John Cox and Dr Sarah Logan.
It was also moderated, when presented in ANU by Prof Brij Lal.
After this, the research then underwent another review process for The Journal of Pacific Studies, by editors Professor Vijay Naidu and Associate Professor Sandra Tarte.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
