Influence of Social Media in Addressing Farmers-herdsmen’s Conflict in Nigeria: a Case Study of Enugu State
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of social media in addressing farmers-herdsmen’s conflict in Nigeria by using Enugu state as a case study. However, the specific objectives of the study are: to;
- Determine the prevalence of social media in addressing farmers-herdsmen’s conflict in Enugu state.
- Examine the effects of farmers-herdsmen’s conflict on the people of Enugu state.
- Investigate the measures taken by the government in addressing the farmers-herdsmen’s conflict in Enugu state.
- Identify the reasons for farmers-herdsmen’s conflict in Enugu state.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Introduction
This chapter reviews the existing relevant literature on social media reporting from conflict and peace perspectives to assess the roles that social media play or could play in escalation or deescalation of conflicts and peace building. It commences with the analysis of the influence of social media in conflict from global, regional and local perspective. This chapter also discusses theories of social media reporting with reference to libertarian and social responsibility theories and highlights on the developed conceptual framework based on the social responsibility theory of social media reporting. It concludes with the analysis of identified gaps in the reviewed literature.
The General Influence of media in Conflict
In order to objectively understand the nature and the influence of media in peace and conflict management, it is important to understand the various ways through which media influence conflict and conflict management. Newbold (1995) points out that majority of scholars and researchers have concentrated on the influence of media in economic, social and political issues affecting states with little attention being given to conflicts. Further, he posed that media impact on conflict management is an emerging area that has been under studied due to lack of multidisciplinary models and concepts that would view media‟s role from peace and conflict realm.
The total number of conflicts today remains at a significantly lower level than at the end of the Cold War. According to the Conflict Data Project (CDP) – a data collection project on organized crimes and armed conflict, Uppsala University, Sweden, it is estimated that for the year 2001, there were 34 ongoing armed conflicts in the world; a number that roughly reflects the average number of ongoing conflicts recorded since the mid-1990 to
2001 including armed conflicts in Eritrea-Ethiopia, India (Manipur), Sierra Leone, Uzbekistan among others. Africa is the most war torn continent with a total of 19 major armed conflicts in the last 12 years (Eriksson, Sollenberg, & Wallensteel, 2002).
The general statistic overview of armed political conflicts provides a basic understanding of the situation today in terms of destruction, loss of human lives and suffering. Several scholars have insisted on the fact that globalization has led to important qualitative changes in the purposes and dynamics of violent conflict. Some, such as Kaldor (2001) argue that it is the revolution in information technology during the 1980’s and 1990’s that has led to a particular type of globalization, which in turn, has led to the need for a redefinition of what we think of as media and conflict. Even though the media can give us the intensity of the violence, where they are fought, why, how and who does the fighting, the biggest problem of media influence on people which ultimately determines conflict direction has not been determined.
media has also been used in several cases to promote peace and reconciliation. For example, in Northern Uganda, media has been used to create the common good for the people to promote peace (Struges, 2007). Mega FM has promoted peace in Northern Uganda with positive effects since 2002. Evidence also suggests that the station played a major part in encouraging LRA members to come out of the bush. Struges (2007) further noted that the LRA leadership was encouraged to listen to the station and on a number of occasions joined radio phone-in talk shows and held discussions with government and civil society representatives, a good step in peace building. Thus mass media played a role in creating peace.
Perceived Influence of social media in Nigeria
The Nigerian social media has played a significant role in economic, social, political and educational issues affecting the nation thus contributing immensely towards development. However, this has come with disgust especially in political issues resulting into violent conflicts (Ibrahim & Jenner, 1997). Apart from the positive roles, social media could have played negative roles towards the cause and escalation of election violence. As would be deduced from Nigeria during 2007 farmer herdsmen conflict coverage, social media portrayed a volatile political environment marred with abhorrence, violence, and a stiff race between two protagonists through biased coverage. Furthermore, major social media houses such as NTV and KTN predicted a flawed and highly manipulated election to favor the ruling party. Therefore, the perceived attempt to bungle the vote tallying exercise by only served to confirm the prediction of the social media (KNCHR, 2008b). This certainly could have prompted the conflict.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter provides an overview of the detailed description of the locale of the study, research design, sample size, sampling techniques, variables, instrumentation, and procedures for data collection, data analysis and interpretation. It also highlights the ethical considerations which were adhered to in the research.
Research Design
The study used a mixture of survey and qualitative methods of research design. The choice of these methods was influenced by the perceived varying degrees of opinions, views and perception of divergent respondents sampled. (Croswell, 2009) argues that qualitative research design is suitable in natural settings. Since the study mostly focused on respondents‟ perceptions of social media and conflict management issues, qualitative approach gave more room for interpretation and understanding. Strauss & Corbin (1999) have further shown that those who use qualitative research obtain satisfactory results and appropriate answers to the central research questions being investigated. Therefore, this design was chosen because of its usefulness in obtaining an overall picture of the study.
Variables
This study used the independent, dependent and intervening variables as the three major variables to help the researcher to analyze and interpret the data. According to Gray (2009), an independent variable is the one used to explain or predict outcome on the dependent variable; the intervening variable is one that influences the relationship between the observed variables or independent and the dependent variables, while the dependent variable is one that forms the focus of research and depends on independent or explanatory variable. In this study, the independent variable is the approach of social media coverage and reporting of armed conflict situations. The dependent variable is the reaction on social media reports with regard to a conflict which would assume two outcomes i.e. escalation or de-escalation. Intervening variables are the effect of social media reports on human factors which ultimately determine the course of conflict. The identified human factors are delimited to gender, age, social status, religion and residence.
Sampling Technique and Sample Size
The study employed mixed sampling techniques approach. The strategy combined both stochastic (stratified simple random), and non stochastic (purposive and snowball) sampling approaches. Convenience sampling was used in selection of administrative divisions, locations and sub-locations as follows; the first level of sample involved the selection of three identified divisions of the state; the second level involved selection of one location in each of the sampled divisions while the third level involved the selection of sample population from three sub-locations, one each from the sampled locations.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION
Introduction
This chapter contains findings of the investigation made to determine the influence of social media in conflict management. It provides the detailed analysis of gathered data, presentation of the findings together with illustrations and discussions on the same. It also provides the interpretation of the results.
Data Presentation
Response Rate
The study targeted a sample size of 373 respondents. All the issued questionnaires were returned but only 328 were duly filled. The researcher only considered the dully filled questionnaires for analysis. This accounted for approximately 88% response rate thus ideal for the study analysis to progress.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusions
The study also concludes that social media greatly played conflict escalation roles during the 2007 farmer herdsmen conflict and subsequent conflict. Some of the roles included; encouraging hate speeches to greater extent; running parallel tallying centers to a large extent; withholding of vital information about conflict to a small extent; misrepresentation of information to a great extent; incitement to a large extent; partisan or taking political sides to a very great extent; and corruption to a small extent. Some positive roles played by social media were conducting civic education to a great extent; preaching peace and calling for unity to a very great extent; public awareness and fair coverage of political campaigns to a great extent; and airing of contentious issues during negotiations to a very great extent.
The study concludes that social media significantly influenced people based on age factor; highly influence people based on gender factor; high influence on people based on religious factor; moderately influence people based on status factor and low influence on people based on residence factor.
The study findings confirmed that social media significantly influenced people‟s perceptions and actions towards the conflict. Therefore, based on this fact, the researcher concludes that social media generally influence people‟s perceptions and actions towards violent conflict.
Recommendations
The study made the following recommendations:
Based on the findings that there exists a significant variation amongst news reported by various social media houses, the study recommends that social media houses should adopt a common conflict reporting approach. This will help in mitigating the discrepancies in coverage to unearth areas of dispute and consensus objectively with a view of encouraging amicable solution to the matters at hand.
Since social media played both conflict escalation and conflict de-escalation roles during the 2007 farmer herdsmen conflict and subsequent conflict as per the findings of the study,
the study recommends that social media regulatory and law enforcers should design stern laws, rules and penalties for both social media houses and personalities who use social media for negative purposes.
The study recommends that social media should not be allowed to run parallel tallying centres alongside that of the official body. However, they should be encouraged to report on the accuracy of the body results and to objectively highlight on any discrepancies noted on these results.
The study also recommends that social media reports should not be constructed to target particular listeners. As deduced from the findings that people respond to conflict issues differently based on age, gender, social status, religion and residence, conflict reports should cut across all listeners and impact all equally.
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