Newspapers Readers’ Perception of Federal Government Ban on Twitter (A Study of Readers in Bida Niger State)
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The primary aim of this research is to investigate the perception of newspaper readers on the Federal Government ban on Twitter. Thus, the following;
- To determine the effects of Twitter ban on the residents of Bida.
- To investigate the perception of Newspaper readers on the Twitter ban.
- To determine the extent to which this has affected the residents of Bida.
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 four sub-headings:
REVIEW OF CONCEPTS
Twitter is a social platform that provides users to follow one other and send messages that are limited to 140 characters. Relationships on Twitter may be entirely one-sided, unlike on other social networking platforms. For example, one user may follow another without the later being obligated to follow the first. Twitter burst onto the scene in March 2006, owing to its simple user interface, which stood in sharp contrast to its rivals, who were allowing users complete customization of their personal pages at the time, resulting in a crowded, gaudy appearance (Experian, 2009).
Twitter has always welcomed third-party developers, providing a flexible application programming interface (API) and enjoying unparalleled celebrity appeal (Twitter Counter, 2010). However, despite its widespread popularity and extensive mainstream media attention, Twitter’s growth has lagged behind that of Google and Facebook after their respective first three years. Google has 18 million users, Facebook has 27 million, and Twitter has 8 million (Battelle, 2009). As Twitter approaches its fifteenth year of operation, it can no longer be considered a new kid on the block, but many people are still unsure of its purpose or if it has any value for them. It’s “for finding and sharing what’s going on in your life right now,” according to Twitter. While this is accurate, and regrettably, by its very nature, most of the material posted is ‘pointless chatter,’ it fails to see Twitter’s economic potential (Java et al., 2007).
Year after year, the internet advertising industry expands, and with technological advancements, there are now more methods than ever to advertise goods and businesses. The ‘people,’ on the other hand, now demand power, and they have the ‘acute editing abilities’ to listen to whatever messages they want to hear. With consumers’ ability to block media messages from being displayed to them, marketers must find a means to contact their customers without them realizing it is a kind of advertising. Curran, O’Hara, and O’Brien (2011) define media buying as “the practice of contacting the owner of a website and acquiring advertising space, typically in the form of a banner placement, on their website.” Media purchasing placements are available on popular websites like YouTube and Facebook. Businesses depend on the data given by these websites to predict the percentage of their target audience that they will reach. When a company buys a spot on a high-traffic website, they may reach the bulk of their target market, but they will also be spending a lot of money on people that have little interest in what the company has to offer. One out of every five advertisements individuals see online today comes from social networking sites like Facebook (Curran, O’Hara, & O’Brien, 2011).
Each Social Networking website has a variety of features that may be utilized to advertise a company. On certain social networking sites, users may publish links, videos, photos, fan pages, groups, and even advertisements. Businesses may build generic pages in the same way that users can. Once the page is up and running, ‘friends’ may be added in the hopes of gaining additional followers via ‘word of mouth’ marketing. Once the original group of friends has been exhausted, events may be planned and more friends invited. However, unlike YouTube and Facebook, Twitter has tremendous potential to foster a vibrant and inventive ecosystem of users, businesses, and media sources, allowing people to participate in conversation on subjects that are relevant and important to them. In its early days, Twitter used the slogan “What are you doing?” which fit their model (Curran, O’Hara, & O’Brien, 2011).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience vis a vis, the study beneficiaries.
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. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
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 constitutes of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried out to investigate Newspaper readers perception of Federal Government ban on Twitter.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered. A total of two hundred and sixty-six (266) questionnaires were administered to respondents of which only two hundred and fifty-nine (259) were returned and validated. This was due to irregular, incomplete and inappropriate responses to some questionnaire. For this study a total of 259 was validated for the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
CONCLUSION
In this study, the focus was to carry out an investigation Newspaper reader’s perception on Federal Governments ban on Twitter. The study specifically was aimed at ascertaining the perception of newspaper readers on and how the Twitter ban affected their lives. This study reviewed and anchored its framework on the Perception theory.
The study adopted the survey research design and randomly enrolled participants in the study. A total of 259 responses were validated from the enrolled participants where all respondents were females in Abuja.
The findings revealed that there are indeed more than just one cause to cancer and any of these is extremely dangerous as cancer is incurable.
RECOMMENDATION
Based on the responses obtained, the researcher proffers the following recommendations:
- Government should be more accountable to its citizens when making huge decisions because they do not serve themselves but the citizens as is meant to be in a democratic state.
- The Government should take down the Twitter ban and allow for freedom of expression on social media platforms without taking aggravated decisions.
- Residents of Bida should use other means and other social media platforms to pass across information and conduct their businesses.
REFERENCES
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- Battelle, J. (2009). Comparing Twitter’s growth to Facebook and Google. Retrieved from http://www. businessinsider.com/comparing-twitters-growth-to- facebook-and-google-2009-3
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