Hausa Language Practices and Audience Engagement in Facebook Journalism: A Study of News Production in Sokoto State, Nigeria

The growing use of social media for news production and distribution has created new opportunities for indigenous-language journalism, particularly in multilingual societies such as Nigeria. However, limited research has examined how linguistic practices in Hausa digital journalism relate to audience engagement and how journalists explain their language choices. This study examines Hausa language practices and audience engagement in Facebook journalism in Sokoto State, Nigeria. Guided by Audience Design Theory, the study adopts an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, combining quantitative content analysis of 360 Hausa news posts from six digital news platforms with semi-structured interviews involving 12 journalists and digital content producers. The findings reveals that standard Hausa is the most common dominant linguistic pattern, followed by Hausa-English combinations, borrowed terminology, local expressions and orthographic variations. A chi-square test indicates a statistically significant association between dominant linguistic patterns and audience engagement, although the effect size is small. The interview findings identify audience accessibility, familiarity with contemporary terminology, headline construction and audience feedback as important considerations in language selection. The study concludes that Hausa digital journalism combines established linguistic practices with multilingual and digitally adapted expressions, while audience engagement reflects factors beyond language choice alone. It recommends developing practical Hausa digital writing guidelines, strengthening journalists' training in indigenous-language digital communication and using audience feedback to improve news presentation without compromising accuracy and clarity.