THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN CREATING OF AWARENESS DURING 2015 GENERAL ELECTION IN NIGERIA

(A STUDY OF FACEBOOK AND TWITTER)

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49 Pages 7,147 Words 1,504 Views Microsoft Word Format No. of Chapters: 1 to 5 Chapters

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The emergence of the Internet as the new mass medium of the 21st century now

changes the mass media substantially. Information can be distributed at high speed,

low cost, and broad scope and as a result, there is egalitarian access to the production

and the consumption of news (Prat and Strömberg, 2011)

The recent election of Muhammadu Buhari as president of Nigeria has been hailed

internationally as a historic transfer of power for Africaâ€“s most populous nation with

social media playing greater role or influenced the fairness of the election. Social

media with all their flaws had the power of immediacy. Theyâ€“re also very

participatory. In an election where you have citizens who are participating, they were

also providing the news and information surrounding the elections. It was an

empowerment of people through their votes, and also through their ability to

disseminate information. That is not to say that traditional media didnâ€“t play a role.

But the social media role was central. The world is becoming increasingly connected

via the power of the Internet; Facebook launched internet.org an initiative to gain

even the most remote parts of society access to the World Wide Web. Political

movements have begun to see social media as a major organizing and recruiting tool

and the reverse can be said for society. Social media (done right) gives you all this

because itâ€“s inherently a two-way communication system. Rather than getting brand

messages, you get recommendations from friends in the form of re-shares and

recommended posts, which de-commercializes the brand message.

Social media is that space, the many tools helping to amplify the voices of average

Nigerians, taking ordinary voice sand making them extraordinary by bringing them to

homes, offices, and places most of them would have probably never reached under

different circumstances It started out as a playground for mostly young jobless

people Today, it has become the battle ground of what would arguably be the most

competitive election in Nigeria‘s history

The advent of internet and technology has exposed majority of the global population

to different interactive platforms on which different kind of information is exchanged

which might significantly have effect on human behavior, decision and judgment

(CES,2012) Social media are new information network and information technology

using a form of communication utilizing interactive and user-produced content, and

interpersonal relationships are created and maintained

According to Eugene, 2015 The popularity of getting political news from social

media platforms is greatly increasing A 2014 study showed that 62% of web users

turn to Facebook to find political news This social phenomenon allows for political

information, true or not, spreading quickly and easily among peer networks

Furthermore, social media sites are now encouraging political involvement by uniting

like-minded people, reminding users to vote in elections, and analyzing usersâ€“

political affiliation data to find cultural similarities and differences As social media

gains more popularity and scope, its impact on voters‘ political and cultural

perceptions cannot be underestimated as social media practically influences the way

users interact, communicate and make decisions on social, cultural, and political

issues in today‘s world

The social media has become a powerful medium which may affect voting behavior

because of its potential to provide direct and cheap access to the production and consumption of current information at any part of the world without editorial filtering

(Sunstein, 2001) Not only do social media provide information about political

affiliations, candidates and their party manifestoes, it also provides a platform through

which voters across cultural divides can relate and interact with themselves on issues

about these candidates Social media can help taint the reputation of political figures

fairly quickly with information that may or may not be true Information spreads like

wildfire and before a politician can even get an opportunity to address the

information, either to confirm, deny, or explain, the public has already formed an

opinion about the politician based on that information However, when conducted on

purpose, the spread of information on social media for political means can help

campaigns immensely Open forums online have also been the root of negative and

positive effects in the political sphere Some politicians have made the mistake of

using open forums to try and reach a broader audience and thus more potential voters

What they forgot to account for was that the forums would be open to everyone,

including those in opposition Having no control the comments being posted, negative

included, has been damaging for some with unfortunate oversight Additionally, a

constraint of social media as a tool for public political discourse is that if oppressive

governments recognize the ability social media has to cause change

Today‘s social media has made the world a â€•global villageâ€–, with the quick transfer of

information overriding the challenges of time and distance (Friedman, 2007) Social

media has gradually become one of the important means of influencing the society

and this influence is based exclusively on its social aspects of interaction and

participation

Nearly every political party in the country used social media to campaign and advance

its plans, message and manifestos to supporters including advertising, mobilization and organizing in all the states of the federation, and even fundraising Facebook,

YouTube and especially Twitter were used to let voters know how each party or

particular candidate felt about important national issues ranging from security to

power Hence social media became powerful enough to influence voter decisions and

choices as many voters who had fixed their minds and conscience on voting a

particular party or candidate began to change their minds based on certain information

or idea they got online about the party or candidate Information gotten by a particular

voter was also not static, as the same voter would use several internet tools and

buttons to broadcast same message to other voters like him through medium such as

blogs, Facebook, Nairaland, chat rooms etc in order to influence them

12 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The use of emotional appeals in political campaigns to increase support for a

candidate or decrease support for a challenger is a widely recognized practice and a

common element of any campaign strategy (Brader, T 2006) Campaigns often seek

to instill positive emotions such as zeal and hopefulness about their candidate to

improve turnout and political activism while seeking to raise fear and anxiety about

the opposition Zeal tends to reinforce preference for the candidate and party, while

fear and anxiety interrupt voter behavioral patterns and leads individual voters to look

for new sources of information on divergent political issues (Marcus et al, 2000)

Sources of information available to a voter vary widely including the traditional

media, TV, radio and newspapers However, with the advent of online social media

forum, most voters can access information, debate on the information and also give

feedback on his own views, opinions and expectations from the party and candidate

Although the social media has helped in increasing the awareness about 2015 general

election Rumors, falsehood, propaganda and derogatory information about individual candidates or parties are commonplace online and spread faster than anticipated, often

with disastrous outcomes This is largely attributed to the lack of editorial filtering,

and the anonymity of most online users The internet encourages anonymity of its

users, which means that those who write and comment often use nicknames or aliases

This has a huge influence on voter behavior, as most voters who read stories online

have a tendency to believe such stories without crosschecking facts and take decisions

based on this propaganda This is a widely known fact among political parties and

they use it to their advantage in bringing down their opponents

Previous research has found that it is possible to influence a person' attitudes toward a

political candidate using carefully crafted information about such candidate online,

which in turn may influence the voter‘s behavior towards the candidate Social media

can also be used by various parties to propagate false news and propaganda about the

opposition in order to disfavor such party or candidate in the eyes of the electorates

while exonerating theirs This has a huge influence on voter behavior as many voters

make decisions based on such news they read online

Furthermore, social media has made voters privy to any kind of information about

2015 general election as there are no longer any isolated places or hiding holes The

private and public lives of society‘s most influential figures including politicians have

been made public online This is because in today‘s world, once a politician declares

for a post, his entire life including his educational background, his family, his job and

any past mistakes or excesses are made public on social media platforms for people to

comment, discuss and publicly judge Many politicians have been found in

compromising positions with their words or phrase taken out of context and magnified

to huge proportions by opposition parties in order to discredit them Many a times,

people go to the extent of recording private conversations or actions of these candidates and make the recorded audio or video public on various social media

platforms such as Facebook and Twitter quickly, with a view to elicit response and

vicious backlash from voters and other online users The belief is that it will go a long

way in influencing voter‘s behavior and turning such voter against the candidate since

the voter can now judgmentally make decisions about the candidate based on what he

said, did or other information about him or her Even though, such information are

refuted sometimes by the concerned party or individual, it remains valid in the minds

of many voters who may have made up their mind already or simply are not aware of

the true situation

13 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study will help beam the searchlight on the impact of social media on creating

awareness to voters during elections as a whole based on the information available by

Facebook and Twitter It will also enlighten relevant stakeholders such as political

parties, candidates, and even the civil society on how social media can bring about

awareness and campaign opportunities if properly utilized

This research study will help stakeholders understand that maintaining a good and

healthy profile online with a cordial relationship between the party and voters can

positively influence voter‘s behavior Lastly, this research work will add to the body

of knowledge on the already existing scholarly materials on the impact of social

media in creating awareness to the society

14 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This study will examine the role of social media in creating awareness with special

reference to the actual effect of Facebook and Twitter on voter‘s and the factors determining the behavior and attitudes that an ordinary voter adopts based on

available information gotten on the social media

15 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of the study is to find out the role played by social media in the 2015 general

election awareness creation Facebook and Twitter Hence the specific objectives are

as fallow:

1 To find out the role played by social media in creating awareness in 2015

general election

2 To determine the level of influence social media has on the success of 2015

general election

3 To find out factors that influence/drive awareness creation of the social media

during 2015 general election

4 To identify the lesson from the role social media play in 2015 general election

16 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1 What are the roles played by social media in creating awareness in the 2015

general election?

2 To what extend did the social media contribute to the success of the present

administration in the 2015 general elections?

3 To what extend did politicians employ the social networking sites of Facebook

and Tweeter in campaign for the 2015 general elections?

4 In what ways do social media need improvement to play major roles in

elections in Nigeria?

17 BRIEF METHODOLOGY

The study used survey research design Surveys allow for the study of people‘s

opinion on a given issue of public interest According to Onwukwe (2011), â€•survey

research is concerned with the collection of data for the purpose of describing and

interpreting a certain condition, practice, beliefs, attitudes, etcâ€– The purpose is

usually to describe systematically the facts, qualities or characteristics of a given

population, events, or areas of interest concerning the problem under investigation

18 LITERATURE REVIEW

The use of social media in politics has continued to grow in recent times Since

Barack Obama broke the world record in the history of social media use for political

purpose during the 2008 US presidential elections, many nations and politicians

across the globe have continued to embrace the platform to mobilize their citizens and

candidates towards active participation in the political process (Okoro and Kenneth,

2013)

Nigeria had the first real test of social media use for political participation during the

2011general elections The 2011 general elections offer a unique context and

opportunity to examine the use of social media in elections, especially the usefulness

and applicability of social media in the electoral environment Although it seems

obvious that social media contributed in no small measure to the success of the 2011

elections, but there are lot of misusage and problems that arise from the social

networking community It is pertinent to understand specifically how particular

stakeholders in the 2011 elections, like INEC, politicians/political parties, the

electorate, and SOs, used the social media during the elections, including INEC,

politicians/political parties, the electorate, and CSOs

19 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Awareness: Is the ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects,

thoughts, emotions, or sensory patterns

Election: The formal process of selecting a person for public office or of accepting or

rejecting a political proposition by voting

Facebook: Is an online social networking service that enables users to chart share and

send pictures, and other multimedia items

General Election: Is an election in which all or most members of a given political

body are chosen (Wikipedia 2015)

Internet: An interconnected group of computer networks allowing for

electronic communication

Social Media: Are computer mediated tools that allow people to create, share

or exchange information, ideas and pictures/videos in virtual communities and online

networks

Social Network: Is structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or

organizations) and a set of the dyadic ties between these actors

Twitter: Is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read

short 140-character messages called "tweets"

Case study: Yin (2003) defines a case study as an empirical inquiry that uses multiple

sources of evidence to investigate a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life

context, in which the boundaries between the phenomenon

CSO: Civil Organization and Society

INEC: Independent National Electoral Commission NGO: Non-Governmental Organization

110 CONCLUSION

The chapter were able to bring out the whole concept of what the study is all about

and the main focus that the study is tend to focus and what is intended to learn from

the basic of the study including of important terms and terminology needed for the

propose of study

49 Pages 7,147 Words 1,504 Views Microsoft Word Format No. of Chapters: 1 to 5 Chapters

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