-
Elections And Social Media In Nigeria
-
-
-
Elections in Nigeria prior to 2011, were characterized by high level of propaganda, dissemination of fake and uncoordinated information, scarcity of airtime and space for citizen’s participation and other forms of traditional media fostered electoral prejudices. Electorates were at the mercy of the tradition media; Television, Radio, Newspaper, Magazines, etc. to interact with their candidates. The wide gap that existed between the electorates and the candidates denied them their rights to properly asses such candidates before the polls, and in the process, the average class often stayed away from elections, because they believe that their votes never count. With the advent of the social media, following the productive USA social media political usage experience, where the then Senator Barack Obama, successfully used the social media for online fundraising and support accumulation that won him the presidential position in 2008. Many nations and politicians across the globe have continued to embrace the platform to mobilise their citizens and candidates towards active participation in the political process. Nigeria had the first real test of social media use for political purpose during the 2011 General Elections. This study examines the experiment of social media use for political participation in Nigeria, using the 2015 Presidential elections as the case study of analysis. The study is anchored on Cybernetics or Communications Theory, and employed Data Content analysis in interpreting the findings of the study. The findings revealed that social media grossly influenced the 2015 presidential elections, it was pivotal in the dethroning of the political stereotype pervasive in the country before then; it introduced a paradigm shift on who constitutes the political power brokers, as social media users were discovered to be among the factors that influenced the results of the 2015 presidential elections. The research made some recommendations which included: (A) Establishment of social media regulating agencies in Nigeria to manage social media sites and online communities and (B) Social media oriented sensitizations to enable the percentage of Nigerian with little or no knowledge of its workability politically, to embrace and get more acquainted with it.
-
-
-
CHAPTER ONE - [ Total Page(s): 4 ]CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTION1.1 Background of the study Social
media sites, applications and packages each targets a specific different
audience, and uses different tools to allow people to share ideas,
videos, photos, links and chats, and to form networks of people
connected by common interests. The increasing number of social media
users has attracted the attention of even the business sectors to the
extent that they now include social media or internet advertising to
their marketing ... Continue reading---
-
CHAPTER ONE - [ Total Page(s): 4 ]CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTION1.1 Background of the study Social
media sites, applications and packages each targets a specific different
audience, and uses different tools to allow people to share ideas,
videos, photos, links and chats, and to form networks of people
connected by common interests. The increasing number of social media
users has attracted the attention of even the business sectors to the
extent that they now include social media or internet advertising to
their marketing ... Continue reading---
ABSRACT -- [Total Page(s) 1]
Page 1 of 1
ABSRACT -- [Total Page(s) 1]
Page 1 of 1