Social Media Usage Among Students During ENDSARS Protest: A Study of IBBUL
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The broad objectives of this study are
- To determine the impact of the social media on youths participation in the EndSars protest.
- To examine whether or not the social media influences the perception of youths on politicians’ image on social media.
- To examine whether one youths’ political activity on social media messages can affect other youths’ political thinking.
- To determine the level of credibility Nigerian youths attach to political messages on social media.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Social Media
Social media, basically, concerns all forms of new media technology that offers interactive sharing of information, videos, pictures, text and comments with such websites as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, Youtube and Blogs. These social media channels serve effectively in facilitating communication locally and globally. Facebook, for example, have today gained global prominence among the people as it serves reasonably in the sharing of audio-visual and/or textual messages.
In 2004, Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook as a way to connect with fellow students. Initially adopted by high school and college students, the social network, according to its 2012 initial public offering filing, has grown to 845 million active users worldwide, with ap-proximately 161 million active monthly users in the US, making it the premiere social media service in the world. If Facebook were a country it would be the third largest behind China and India. Launched in July 2006, Twitter is an online social networking and micro blogging service that has grown to over 300 million users as of 2011, according to account tracker Twopcharts. It allows users to exchange photos, videos, and messages of 140 characters or less. Founded in 2005 by Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, YouTube provides a forum for the distribution of video content – everything from cute kittens sleeping to first-run television programs to eyewitness videos of political protests. The two created the site based on their own frustration when trying to share video files.
Part of the attraction of these “big three” social media services and independent blogging is that the average person, with little or no advanced computer skills, can have good success using them; content can be created and accessed with as little as a smart phone; and it can be easily intertwined. Links to videos posted on YouTube can be embed-ded in blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. A Twitter post can appear on a Facebook page. In other words, large numbers of people can be easily and inexpensively contacted via a variety of services.
Political Education
Political Education is an essential element for the development and consolidation of democratic societies, and also an indispensable tool for the success of political parties. In general, political education comprises all those processes that influence and shape people politically as members of a social and political system. This can happen by formal institutions like schools or universities, mass media or membership in groups and organizations.
In a more specific sense, political education refers to consciously planned and organised continuous and targeted activities of forma institutions to train and prepare youths and adults for their active participation in political and social life. Basically, Political education aims:
- to develop and strengthen awareness about the values of a liberal democracy to transmit understanding of the main political institutions (parliament, government, elections and voting, political parties) and the functioning of the political decision-making process,
- to promote a basic knowledge in all of the most important political issues to teach certain skills such as how to approach information, media etc.
Political Mobilization
This concerns motivating people towards participating in political activities such as contesting for elective positions, registering as voters, voting and a host of other activities relating to politics and governance.
Political Participation
Participation means ‘sharing in’ or ‘wrap oneself with’ every dimension of life, of culture or of economy, our educational system, our political system, our decision-making process. But there is less than a complete agreement among the scholars about the meaning of the concept ‘Political Participation’. Political participation is the involvement of the citizens in the political system (Falade, 2014). The citizens form the crux of any society and it is important they are part of the political process. According to Akamare (2003, as cited in Falade, 2014), political participation is an aspect of political behaviour and it focuses on the way in which individuals take part in politics. It is a voluntary activity and one may participate directly or indirectly. The various ways by which the people can be involved in the political system include selection or election of political leaders, formulation of policies, community activities and other civic engagements.
Empirical investigation of political participation could be split between two basic yet mutually interlinked approaches. The first approach deals with the realistic extant level of popular engagement in the processes of governance. The chief objects of interest are the level (local, regional, national etc.) and method (voting, campaigning, contacting, protesting etc.) of political participation. In this context, the influence of various manners of political participation and the motivation to either reject participation or indeed become an active part of it are studied. Individual and national patterns of political behaviour are also compared. Cross-national comparison of political participation patterns concentrate largely on voting because of the availability of internationally comparable data on voter turnout and the relevance of national elections for the given political system. As evidenced by such international comparisons, voter turnout shall be influenced largely by a number of institutional factors (e.g. voter registration systems, electoral procedures, degree of political competition in the society and the party system) which, taken together, create an institutional environment of the given country’s political system (Nekola, 2014).
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
NTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the research methodologies adopted for this research. It explains the research design, method of data collection, the sample size of the population and the sampling technique.
RESEARCH DESIGN
The function of a research design is to ensure that the evidence obtained enables you to effectively address the research problem logically and as unambiguously as possible.
For the purpose of this study, quantitative research design specifically survey research method will be used. This is because descriptive research is primarily concerned with the collection and analysis of data for the purpose of describing, evaluating or comparing current or prevailing practices, event and occurrences. This study will be adopting the survey design aimed at collecting data in order to answer the various research questions this study intends to answer.
Also, unlike the qualitative research, which is subjective in its approach, quantitative research is objective as it is a systematic method of data gathering through carefully drafted questions directed to the sample size.
Population of the study
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 (Prince Udoyen: 2019). The population for this study is the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University lapai undergraduate students. The Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University lapai is a federal government owned Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University lapai, the capital city of Niger State in North-Central Nigeria. The University has 15 Faculties and various units and departments.
According to information obtained from the Registry Unit of the University, the population of undergraduates of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University lapai is currently 44919.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with the presentation of data gathered from the fieldwork with the aid of questionnaires. A total of four hundred (400) copies of the questionnaire were distributed to youths in Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University lapai. Three hundred and eighty-one
(381) copies of the questionnaire were returned fully answered correctly while nineteen others were rejected for not being completely answered or invalid information. However, the 381 copies of the questionnaire returned fully completed out of the 400 distributed represents a response rate of 95.25% which is very good.
The data is presented by means of frequency, percentages and tables.
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS
The major demographic information sought in this study was respondent’s gender, age group, faculty and study level. The respondents’ demographic profile of this study is presented in frequency and percentage format as contained in Table 4.1.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
INTRODUCTION
This study is aimed at exploring the impact of Twitter on the level of political education of youths in the 2020 EndSars protest among Nigerian youths with Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University lapai Lagos state as case study. Survey research design was adopted using questionnaire for data gathering. Based on the data collected, analyzed and discussed, this chapter focuses on the summary of findings, conclusion and recommendations from the study.
SUMMARY
The study was undertaken after the 2020 Endsars protest held in October 2020. The objectives of the study were to determine the impact of Twitter on youths’ political education and participation in the 2020 Endsars protest, with Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University lapai as case study; to examine the perceptions of Nigerian youths about Nigerian politician’s image on Twitter; to examine the believability level of political news Nigerian youths read about on Twitter and to determine the level of credibility Nigerian youths attach to Twitter messages.
The study was guided by the agenda-setting theory. The research methodology adopted is primarily the survey method with questionnaires as the data collection instrument. Using the Krejcie and Morgan model for determining sample size, 400 youths between the ages of 15 and 29 were drawn as the sample to represent the entire population (44, 919).
CONCLUSION
Findings from the study revealed that Twitter did have a positive influence on youths participation in the political education. Twitter influenced youths’ choice of political candidate and party but, quite amazingly, did not actually guarantee that youths voted for any political candidate just because he or she has a Twitter account. Youths also regard Twitter as a credible medium for political discourses and majority also testified to the Twitter has making them become more politically active. This does not come as a surprise if one considers how often and how much time youths spend on Twitter daily. The findings of the study are summarized below:
- IBBUL undergraduates, and by extension, Nigerian youths are very active on Twitter platforms which they use for many hours every day.
- Twitter had a positive influence on the youth participation in the 2020 peaceful protest process as many youths became aware of political news on Twitter and also disseminated political news through them.
- A political candidate having a Twitter account did not guarantee that Nigerian youths voted for such candidate during the elections.
- Nigerian youths regard Twitter as a credible medium and believe political news they are exposed to through it.
Recommendations
Based the findings from the literature and empirical result, it is pertinent to recommend that:
-Governments and non-governmental organisations alike should ensure that they incorporate the use of social media with the mainstream media of information sharing for the provision of the needed education on politics and governance.
-Political parties, candidates and other political movements should not leave behind social media outlets while embarking on the political communication of their programmes, policies and manifestoes. This is due largely to the capability of social media outfits in the provision of political education to the people. This can also enhance the political mobilization of the people.
Media outfits and their personnel should incorporate their political communication strategies with the social media in a bid to reach larger number of audience with messages that bring about political education and mobilization.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
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- Manning, J. (2014). Social media, Definition and Classes Of. In K. Harvey (Ed.),
- Encyclopedia of social media and politics. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Vauss, D.A., (2008). Research Design in Social Research. SAGE.
- Zhang, W., Johnson, T.J., Seltzer, T. & Bichard, S. (2010). The Revolution Will be Networked: The Influence of Social Networking Sites on Political Attitudes and Behaviour. Social Science Computer Review. SAGE Publication.
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JOURNAL ARTICLES
- Baker, M. (2009). The Impact of Social Networking Sites on Politics. The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research.
- Chinedu-Okeke., Chinonye, F., & Obi, J., (2016). Social Media As A Political Platform In Nigeria: A Focus On Electorates In South-Eastern Nigeria. IOSR Journal of Humanities And Social Science.
- Enkman, J. & Amna, A. (2012). Political Paticipation and Civic Engagement: Towards a New Typology. Human Affairs. Institute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences.
