SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE AMONG STUDENTS DURING ENDSARS PROTEST
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SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE AMONG STUDENTS DURING ENDSARS PROTEST
ABSTRACT
The introduction of the Internet has resulted in the development of better and user-friendly media tools known as social media. These media channels enable the effective dissemination of audio-visual messages around the world in seconds with the push of a button.
Because of its (social media’s) efficacy in providing entertainment, information, and education across societies, they are viewed as useful in aiding political education and mobilisation of the people.
The study looked at the impact of social media during the Endars protest. Social media plays an important role in providing political education and mobilising the masses.
Against this backdrop, it is recommended that governments and non-governmental organisations alike integrate the use of Twitter with mainstream media for information sharing in order to provide the necessary education on politics and governance for further political mobilisation of the people. Political parties, politicians, and other political groups should also use Twitter to communicate their agendas, policies, and manifestos.
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background for the Study
Before the start of the millennium, the globe relied heavily on mainstream media for information. News dissemination was not as instantaneous as it is now since some of the tools accessible now were not available back then.
Correspondents had to travel many miles to and from news beats to deliver information, resulting in some news articles being published weeks or months after they occurred.
Gone are the days when you write a letter to a friend living overseas and he receives it in three months, and you have to wait that long for his response.
However, the technological revolution that began with the introduction of the Internet in the mid-1990s has prepared the way for social media and microblogging sites in the 2000s.
Social media, and by extension, the internet, allow for the instant distribution of news. Sending and receiving information is no longer limited by distance and time, marking a significant break in the communication barrier that has existed from the beginning of space and time.
Ayankoya, Calitz, and Cullen (2015) define social media as the use of internet-based apps and services for communication, collaboration, content creation, and sharing by individuals and groups.
The primary focus of social media is communication, how it occurs, and the connections that develop as a result of these communications. Individuals and groups can use social media to create, maintain, and stay connected to a network of people who share their interests (Ayankoya et al., 2015).
According to statistics, 2.38 billion individuals visit Facebook each month (zephoria.com, 2019). Further research has revealed that Facebook users spend 33% of their online time on Facebook, while individuals spend approximately 25% of their online time on the various social media networks available.
Social media is thus an essential platform for businesses and organisations to use in order to reach their target audiences (Ayankoya et al., 2015).
The concept of youth varies by culture and society. Most Nigerian civilizations have some formal rites of passage that mark the transition from childhood to youth. These ceremonies have symbolic value because simply partaking in them elevates an individual’s prestige and position. Such a new status obtains credibility through actual community activity and acknowledgment.
One thing is certain: the boundaries that define the transition from childhood to youth and from youth to adulthood are evolving, and each new stage is now manifested in a unique way.
Because the changes that young people must deal with are not as predictable as they once were, defining youth worldwide based on a specific age range can be a tough task.
The United Nations and others commonly use the age range 15-24 for statistical purposes, but this distinction can be too narrow for nations such as Nigeria. The term “youth” has evolved to reflect changing political, economic, and socio-cultural contexts, beyond its statistical definition.
In many African countries, for example, the male transition to maturity, in terms of gaining the economic and social stability that comes with consistent employment, may last until the late twenties or mid-thirties.
So far, several meanings and ideas have been proposed for the terms “young” and “youth”. However, there is no absolute agreement on these definitions and concepts. However, some definitions and notions are important.
The United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) describes youth as the age during which a person develops the capacities and social skills required to be prepared for the financial gain and responsibilities that adulthood brings.
As a result, youth can be defined as a distinct stage of life with distinct social, economic, psychological, and political aspects, rather than a time period restricted to specific age ranges (Melike, 2017). However, the Federal Republic of Nigeria defines youth as everyone aged 15 to 29 (Third National Youth Policy Document, 2019).
Nigeria is currently the world’s seventh most populous country and the fastest growing. Nigeria’s population is now estimated at 200, 950,000, with a median age of 17.9 years (worldometers.info, 2019).
According to the Census, Nigeria had 50 million people between the ages of 15 and 34 in 2006, which roughly corresponds to the age bracket of 18 to 35 years that was chronologically defined as youth in the 2009 National Youth Policy;
this youth population figure represented 35.6 percent of Nigeria’s population at the time. In 2006, 33.4 percent of men and 37.9 percent of women in Nigeria were between the ages of 15 and 34.
The National Bureau of Statistics, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, conducted the 2012 National Baseline Youth Survey, which estimated Nigeria’s population of youths aged 15-35 years to be 64.1 million and youths aged 18-35 years to be 52.2 million. Females made up 51.6% of youngsters aged 15 to 35 years, and
52.8 percent of youths aged 18 to 35 years. In 2012, Lagos State had the greatest percentage of youths (aged 18-35 years) in Nigeria (6.3%), while Kwara State had the lowest (1.3%) (third national youth policy document, 2019).
Youth involvement in elections has always been lower than other age groups, but it has declined in recent decades. A popular reason for this occurrence is that young people are sluggish, however today’s youngsters volunteer in greater numbers than earlier generations. Another possible cause is that young people do not feel like they belong in society.
Owning property and having children gives you a more direct interest in how hospitals and schools are run, which generates more political engagement (Erica, 2017).
Recent evidence from European democracies shows that not only is youth electoral participation declining faster than any other social group, but it is also systematically unequal when compared to adult participation levels (Sirinic, 2017).
In every democratised society, the desire for power and the desire for change have been recurring decimals. Politicians seeking control seek to achieve their objectives through political parties that support their ideology, ideals, and goals.
Similarly, those who wish to overturn the current quo and advocate for revolutionary ideas join groups to make their goals a reality. Both parties, however, cannot fulfil their goals and ambitions without the backing of the majority of the population.
However, the target supporters want persuasive information before they can join the train. This is where the media comes in as a powerful tool for political socialisation.
The introduction of globalisation into international politics has altered the sociopolitical landscape of global politics. Globalisation is like an Octopus, with tentacles reaching into every facet of human activity and contact.
However, the power of globalisation stems from transformations and technological breakthroughs in the nature, timeliness, and efficacy of the internet. The internet, which supports a variety of social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram
Telegram, and many others, is faster and more responsive than traditional media forums such as print media, television, radio, and telephony, and has thus become a veritable tool for information gathering, dissemination, and evaluation. With social networking, one is likely to agree with Friedman (2007),
As a result, in this era of globalisation, the internet plays an important role in forming political attitudes, boosting political participation, and influencing voting behaviour around the world.
Social media is defined as “the new information network and information technology that uses a form of communication utilising interactive and user-produced content to create and maintain interpersonal relationships.” (Sanatokeskus TSK: Sosaalisen median sanato; Helsinki, 2010).
Twitter thus encourages engagement and public participation in a variety of human concerns. As a result of Twitter’s unrestricted participatory nature, the public has had several opportunity to interact on a variety of Nigeria-related issues.
This study will indicate that Twitter’s opportunities have provided its users a significant amount of power to influence Nigeria’s political and social elements.
During the Twitter revolution, there was a dispute over online activity between “cyber-enthusiasts” and “cyber-skeptics” (Gadi et al, 2013, p.1).
Cyber-skeptics attributed little importance to new media in achieving social change through activism because the web gives people a false impression of political participation and prevents them from participating in physical protests, whereas cyber-enthusiasts saw the internet as a tool for mobilising and informing people for greater social transformation.
However, over the years, cyber-enthusiasts have won the debate because online activism, particularly hashtag activism, has been used to achieve social transformation, as seen in the examples of #OccupyWallStreet, #BlackLivesMatters, #BringBackOurGirls, #Ferguson, #ArabSpring, and, most recently, the #Endsars campaign in Nigeria, which has been very successful.
Online activism in Nigeria began in 2009, when former Nigerian rapper eLDee turned to Twitter to vent his dissatisfaction with the country’s unpredictable power supply. This arose after his pal was unable to undergo surgery due to a power outage.
He invited four other young Nigerians, Sheile Ojei, Amara Nwakpa, Seyi Kuyinu, and Nigerian singer Banky W, to participate in a public conversation about the country’s bad electricity condition (Odewale, 2014). During their internet conversation, the term “light up Nigeria”
Today, Nigerian politicians and political parties use social media to deliver critical information and education to the public about their policies and/or manifestos. That is, social media, particularly social media, can be used by politicians and others to provide citizens with meaningful political education.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of social media on the Endsar Protest. The study seeks to determine whether social media can be a legitimate weapon of social control, similar to traditional mass media.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Social media has evolved into a specialised platform for modern human communication, and it is now ingrained in the political culture of most democratic countries across the world, including Nigeria.
Social media is one of the most common forms of communication between politicians and the electorate, and politicians all over the world use it extensively and strategically to achieve their desired outcomes, such as projecting positive images, retaining offices, and maintaining relationships with their constituents.
Social media has facilitated the transmission of information between political candidates and the electorate; it informs citizens and influences their political choices, attitudes, beliefs, and conduct towards specific political candidates (Victor, Ikechukwu, Gerald, & Chinedum, 2017).
Incidentally, in Nigeria, politicians’ everyday usage of social media, as well as how users interact with politicians’ social network sites/pages, has garnered relatively less attention.
Essentially, politicians expect the communication relationship to be positive and beneficial to them; thus, political gladiators of all shades of opinion, ideologies, intents, and goals use the media in the hope that political communication through them will exert pressure or influence on people’s perceptions and behaviours.
This understanding of the impact of social media is similar to the historical and cultural dominance of print and electronic media, as well as the apparent hypodermic needle effect of mass media messaging.
Given the perceived impact of the media, whether from the’maximalists’ or’minimalists’ perspective, profit-driven mentality of competition for political space has given rise to both ethical and unethical political communication using all available platforms of interpersonal and mass communication (Victor et al., 2017).
Aside from traditional media, social media is another tool via which the government, particularly presidential contenders, sought out to mobilise youths for the EndSars protest.
The purpose of this study is to look into the use of social media as a legitimate mobilisation tool for electioneering campaigns in general elections. The study will also look at how social media use affects youth participation in the EndSars protest.
Despite the foregoing, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of using social media as a political platform in Nigeria, as well as how the increasing benefits of social media can be harnessed and applied to empower the electorate by transparently voting in and out of political office holders and governments democratically, without undue interference or hindrance (Chinedu- Okeke et al., 2016).
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of social media as a tool utilised by youngsters during the Endsars protest, as well as if social media is genuinely useful in creating a favourable picture of political reform.
1.3 GOALS OF THE STUDY
The broad objectives of this investigation are:
To assess the impact of social media on young engagement in the EndSars protests.
To investigate whether social media effects how young people perceive politicians’ images on social media.
To investigate whether one youth’s political participation on social media communications influences other teenagers’ political ideas.
To determine the level of trust Nigerian youths place in political messaging on social media.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
How has social media influenced youth political participation in the EndSars protest?
Do social media influence teenagers’ perceptions of politicians’ images?
What is the credibility level of what young people read on social media?
To what extent do youngsters believe social media statements are credible?
1.5 Significance of the Study
To begin, the significance of this study will be seen in the gap it fills by addressing its research questions.
Second, the research will be extremely beneficial to politicians, political parties, media consultants, electoral umpires, and government officials at all levels because it will help them understand and appreciate the benefits and efficacy of using social media tools and how to best use them for projecting their clients’ images and increasing awareness of political candidates.
This study’s conclusions will help to ensure the long-term development of Nigerian democracy. Youth are the future and drivers of any country, hence conducting research/studies into their political and social behaviour is critical (Adedeji, 2015).
Finally, this study will be extremely beneficial to scholars and other information seekers in academia, as it will add to the existing literature on the effectiveness of social media in politics while also broadening the current expansive knowledge in it.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to look into the impact of using social media as a political/mobilization tool during the Endsars protest.
Only undergraduate students at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai, aged 15 to 29, will be surveyed.
This study will focus on the aforementioned youths’ political participation in the EndSars protest.
This study will focus on undergraduate students at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University in Lapai, with the goal of understanding how social media influences their opinion of political candidates and involvement in elections.
The undergraduate students at Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University lapai are now pursuing their first degrees in the institution’s 15 faculties.
1.7 Operational Definition of Terms
1.7.1 Social Media: The term “social media” is commonly used to describe new types of media that require interactive engagement (Manning, 2014). They are internet-based technologies that enable people to communicate with one another virtually.
This study focuses on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram because they are extremely popular among Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University lapai students.
1.7.2 Political involvement: Enkman and Amna (2012) define political involvement as “those activities by private citizens that are more or less directly aimed at influencing the selection of governmental personnel and/or the actions they take”. This study investigates the amount of political activity among Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University lapai students.
1.7.3 Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University lapai undergraduates: These are undergraduates studying in diverse departments across the institution’s fifteen faculties.
Youths: According to Nigeria’s Third National youngster Policy Document (2019), a youngster is defined as any Nigerian aged 15 to 29.
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