The Role of Social Media in the Police Reformation in Nigeria: A Case Study of 2020 ENDSARS Protest
Chapter One
Objective of the study
The primary aim of this study is to find out the role of social media in the police reformation in Nigeria: a case study of 2020 endsars protest. Specifically, the study seeks to:
- Find out how the social media contributed to the 2020 EndSARS protest in Nigeria.
- To ascertain if social media played a significant role in the reformation of police in Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
Our focus in this chapter is to critically examine relevant literatures that would assist in explaining the research problem and furthermore recognize the efforts of scholars who had previously contributed immensely to similar research. The chapter intends to deepen the understanding of the study and close the perceived gaps.
Precisely, the chapter will be considered in three sub-headings:
- Conceptual Framework
- Theoretical Framework
- Empirical Review and
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Social Media
The term “Social media” is defined as the application that allows users to converse and interact with each other; to create, edit and share new forms of textual, visual and audio content, and to categorize, label and recommend existing forms of content (Selwyn 2012). Social media therefore denotes to the wide collection of Internet based and mobile services that connect people together to communicate, participate, collaboratively interact, discuss and exchange ideas and information on an online community.
Social Media Sites
In recent time, the world has witnessed what could be referred to as communication revolution through ‘technological advances and increased use of the Internet’ (Moqbel, 2012). This communication revolution, as well as the more technologically empowered lifestyle of individual users, has changed the way people communicate and connect with each other (Coyle, 2008; O’Murchu, Breslin & Decker, 2004). Social networking sites are a recent trend in this revolution (Moqbel, 2012).
Social networking sites therefore, are web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system, (Boyd and Ellison, 2007).
Social networking sites are created to take care of variety of human needs and could be classified using that format. For instance, Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007:143) classified SNSs into: work-related contexts (LinkedIn.com), romantic relationship initiation (Friendster.com), connecting those with shared interests such as music or politics (MySpace.com), or the college student population (Facebook). It should however be noted that the examples mentioned above were based on the original intentions of founders of the SNSs, though these intentions have been taken to another level by users.
This is why latter classification of SNSs takes somewhat different approach and put different factors into consideration. To Fraser and Dutta (2008), SNSs should better be classified into the following five categories- egocentric/identity construction social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace; opportunistic social networking sites for business connections such as LinkedIn; community social networking sites representing cultural or neighborhood groups; media-sharing social networking sites such as YouTube and Flickr; and Passion-centric social networking sites for sharing common interests such as Dogster.
Social networking sites came on board in the mid 1990s. One of the first social networking sites was Classmates, a site initiated in 1995 (Rooksby, 2009). The uniqueness of social networking sites is that they not only allow individuals to meet strangers but enables users to discuss and make visible their social networks. This results into connections between individuals which otherwise is not possible through any other media already existing. Maximum time is often used on social networking sites to communicate with people who are already friends or acquaintances in the social network, sharing same mindset or same interests and views (Raj Jain, Gupta & Anand, 2012).
While SNSs have implemented a wide variety of technical features, their backbone consists of visible profiles that display an articulated list of friends who are also users of the system. Profiles are unique pages where one can type oneself into being. After joining an SNS, an individual is asked to fill out forms containing a series of questions. The profile is generated using the answers to these questions, which typically include descriptors such as age, location, interests, etc. Most sites also encourage users to upload a profile photo. Some sites allow users to enhance their profiles by adding multimedia content or modifying their profile’s look and feel. Others, such as Facebook, allow users to add modules that enhance their profile. Structural variations around visibility and access are one of the primary ways that SNSs differentiate themselves from each other.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried out to examine the role of social media in the police reformation in Nigeria using the 2020 EndSARS protest as a case study. The residents of Lagos State form the population of the study.
SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION
A study sample is simply a systematic selected part of a population that infers its result on the population. In essence, it is that part of a whole that represents the whole and its members share characteristics in like similitude (Udoyen, 2019). In this study, the researcher adopted the simple random sampling (srs.) method to determine the sample size.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
DATA PRESENTATION
The table below shows the summary of the survey. A sample of 388 was calculated for this study. A total of 258 responses were received, while a total of 230 were validated. This was due to irregular, incomplete and inappropriate responses to some questionnaire. For this study a total of 230 was validated for the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
CONCLUSION
In this study, our focus was to examine the role of social media on the police reformation in Nigeria using the 2020 EndSARS protest as a case study. The study specifically was aimed at ascertaining if social media significantly contributed to the reformation of police in Nigeria.
The study adopted the survey research design and randomly enrolled participants in the study. A total of 270 responses were validated from the enrolled participants where all respondent are residents of Lagos State.
The findings revealed that social media contributed to the 2020 EndSARS protest in Nigeria. The findings also revealed that social media played a significant role in the reformation of police in Nigeria.
RECOMMENDATION
Based on the responses obtained, the researcher proffers the following recommendations:
- The federal government of Nigeria should look into the reasons behind the protest that caused chaos and uproar in all the 36 states in Nigeria and enact laws and structures that bring to an end the brutality of SARS in Nigeria.
- The government of Nigeria should endeavor to orientate the SWAT properly so that they will not be like pouring new wine in an old wine skin. That is the SWAT being another version of SARS.
- The federal of Nigeria should carry out a thorough check on all members of the SWAT force and their academic qualifications to ascertain their eligibility for the work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
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