Social Media's Impact on Political Engagement During Ethiopian Elections: A Systematic Literature Review

The increasing use of social media platforms in Ethiopia has raised concerns about their impact on political engagement during elections. A comprehensive search strategy was employed using databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Studies published in English between and were included, with a focus on those discussing the relationship between social media use and electoral behaviour. The review identified themes indicating that social media platforms can either enhance or diminish political engagement depending on user demographics and content quality. Social media's impact on voter participation is multifaceted, influenced by factors such as platform type, post frequency, and message specificity. Future research should explore these variables in more depth. Researchers are encouraged to consider the contextual nuances of social media use within Ethiopian political contexts when evaluating its effects on engagement levels. Social Media, Political Engagement, Elections, Ethiopia, Systematic Literature Review Model estimation used $\hat{\theta}=argmin_{\theta}\sum_i\ell(y_i,f_\theta(x_i))+\lambda\lVert\theta\rVert_2^2$, with performance evaluated using out-of-sample error.