Examining Social Media as a Gateway to Accelerate Inclusive Growth: A Focus of Youth Citizens in Dodoma City, Tanzania

Abstract

The current perspective of understanding development focuses on including all members of the society to participate in the growth process especially through the context of digital technology. This paper reflects the examination of social media for promoting inclusive growth in Tanzania. More specifically, the study aims to investigate the social media site which is widely used by youth citizens to discuss government economic issues for promoting inclusive growth; how do youth citizens use the perceived widely used social media to participate in discussing government issues for inclusive growth; and how does the government promote citizens’ use of social media to discuss government issues for inclusive growth. The study employed mixed research methods using survey and interviews methods of data collection. Findings show that youth citizens mainly prefer to use WhatsApp social media site to engage in discussions regarding economic issues for promoting inclusive economic growth in the study area. Furthermore, it found out that youth citizens use WhatsApp social media to spot government actions and voice their opinions for inclusive growth. In addition, the government provides a legal framework to guide the use of digital communication in an effort to promote citizens’ digital inclusiveness in the development process. The study concludes that WhatsApp social media is a gateway to accelerate inclusive growth in the study area. It suggests a networked digital policymaking framework to promote citizens to discuss and publish government issues on social media openly without fear to accelerate inclusive growth in the country. Also, it suggests an established framework for collecting citizens’ opinions on social media for government decision-making practices to imply that citizens’ views are considered for inclusive growth in Tanzania.