2.2.2.5 Social Networking and Nigeria
Social networks are increasingly gaining momentum in the world of information and communication. It has without doubt altered the conventional method of news gathering and dissemination, a confirmation of what seems to be paradigm shift from print and broadcast media to the more effective and efficient rave of the moment (Oshavire 2015). Social networking played a pivotal role in information and communication in Nigeria. For instance, recently, the social media have provided a veritable platform for political campaigns. It is not out of place to say that various social network platforms were employed by politicians in the then opposition party-All Progressive Party (APC) to campaign against the then ruling party-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The APC explored these platforms optimally to sell their Presidential Candidate in the 2015 General Elections and this eventually brought APC into power. In fact, the platforms were used to conduct online polls before real election to know the best selling candidate.
Nowadays, there are on the spot news of happening around being circulated via SNS. A lot of unreported news is now coming to the limelight with the development of social media even from the remotest of all places via internet enabled mobile phones. Elections results are gathered and collated via SNS ever before the electoral body would announce results. Businesses are marketed fast through SNS than the conventional ways. Also, the removal of fuel subsidy on New Year day in 2012, witnessed an overwhelming power of networking. Daily protest were organized and sustained severally through the help of social networks. It was a powerful tool that it was rumored that the President considered suspending their operations. Hence, social media has become a unifying and integrating factor among people.
Another incident is the case of Cynthia Okojie, who was murdered by “Facebook friendsâ€. The role of social network is quiet overwhelming in this scenario considering the very fact that this ordeal started and ended on Facebook. Everyone became interested. This development among others proved that social networks are becoming tools in the hands of government and weapons for criminals. One of the most shocking and angering thrillers ever was the video and pictures of the “Aluu4â€. It was a horrible site to behold, inhumanity at its peak. It was evidently one of the biggest news that rocked 2012. It wasn’t the first “criminals†were butchered and burnt alive by angry uncivilized barbaric mobs. The difference between Aluu4 and other similar occurrences was simply the presence of social networking which led to empathy from the public and resultant involvement of the government.
Social Networking Sites (SNS) have been popular since the year 2002 and have attracted and fascinated tens of millions of Internet users (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Though only a few have gained worldwide publicity and attention, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that there are over 200 different sites that are used for social networking (Duven & Timm, 2008) quoted in (Osharive 2015). Most people who are members of these sites, such as Facebook (over 400 million users) and MySpace (over 100 million users) participate in them on a daily basis. In a recent statistics released by Facebook company in Sept 2015, at least 7.1 million people use Facebook daily in Nigeria, making the country Africa’s biggest users of the social media platform ahead of South Africa and Kenya’s 2.2 million daily users. The three countries make up the bulk of 120 million active users of Facebook in Africa at the end of June 2015. The Facebook data shows that 100 per cent of its 15 million active monthly users in Nigeria do so on their mobile phones while 95 per cent of the 4.5 million monthly users work on social network from their mobile in Kenya. Meanwhile, South Africa has 12 million monthly users. The data emphasizes the growing mobile-first trend in the digital services richest in Africa. In April 2015, the Nigeria’s National Communication Commission (NCC) in a release said that the number of Nigerians accessing the internet using their mobile phones had hit 80.3 million while the commission recently noted that the users increased to 92.3 million as at June 2016. Mobile phone is not a trend; it is the fastest adoption of disruptive technology in Nigeria. It is also an incredibly personal device regardless of where a person lives or how they connect, and businesses need to reach people where they are, not where they were, in an authentic, personal and relevant way. So media industry is changing rapidly with the growth of Nigerian smartphones culture. This foster lower advertising cost with higher reach and precise targeting, besides integrating people among others. Therefore, Nigerian digital media space is expanding rapidly.
2.2.2.6 Examples of SNSs
There are varieties of social networks like 2go, WhatsApp Messenger, Blackberry Messenger, Facebook, twitter and a host of others that students have access to.
‘2go’ is a free mobile social networking application developed by 2go interactive limited in Cape Town, South Africa in 2007. 2go supports over 1,500 different devices, including feature phones. 2go has over 50 million registered users across Africa with 13 million active users based within Nigeria. It is a Social Networking Site, chat, and Instant Messaging (IM) application. It enables users to chat on their mobile phones free. You can meet users and 2go users as friends. Chat rooms on different topics are opened where you can join in the discussion and socialize with others and also, 2go have gateways that enable users chat with friends on Gtalk, Mxit, and facebook. One of the greatest points of 2go chat is its simplicity and light weight, making it available to lots of low-end phones. 2go runs on any java enabled phone, Nokia, LG, Samsung, and Sony Ericson. Blackberry users can use 2go on their Pc as part of an experimental service by the company and with it, they can chat anywhere and anytime of the day as they so please (Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia).
