THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN SHAPING RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE IN NIGERIA AND BEYOND: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ONLINE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES

Religious discourse, understood as the patterned production, negotiation and dissemination of religious meaning in public life, has not been adequately explained in relation to social media usage, particularly within Nigeria's densely connected religious field. This study examined the role of social media in shaping religious discourse in Nigeria and beyond through a comparative survey of Christian and Muslim online communities. The descriptive survey employed the self-designed Social Media and Religious Discourse Questionnaire (SMRDQ), validated by three experts and pilot-tested with 40 respondents, yielding a Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of 0.86. A sample of 400 members was drawn through multi-stage sampling comprising purposive, proportionate stratified and simple random techniques, with 372 usable responses returned. Findings showed a significant positive relationship between social media usage and religious discourse (r = .62, p < .05); a significant difference between Christian and Muslim communities (t = 2.71–3.34, df = 370, p < .05); and a significant joint influence of usage dimensions on discourse (R² = .50, F(3, 368) = 122.84, p < .05). All three null hypotheses were rejected. The study concludes that social media constitutes a consequential arena for religious discourse in Nigeria, recommending that religious communities develop deliberate digital ministry strategies and that policymakers support platform regulation sensitive to local religious idioms