The Role of Twitter as a Tool for Political Education a Study of the End SARs Protest
CHAPTER ONE
Objective of the study
The main objective of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of Twitter as a tool for political education in Nigeria with focus on #EndSars protest in Nigeria. Specifically, This research study seeks to achieve the following objectives:
- To establish whether Twitter have any impact on political education of the people in Lagos State.
- To find out the extent to which the use of Twitter has provided political education to the people in Lagos State.
- To identify the ways through which Twitter has provided political education to the people of Lagos State.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
In recent years, social media have considerably gained attention in communication science. A number of studies have investigated in particular the use of new media in election periods and various crises—from natural disasters to social and political crises—providing first indications of the use of Twitter during the presidential elections and the following crisis in Nigeria. However, in Western-oriented communication science, West Africa and particularly Nigeria have until now been highly neglected. Furthermore, there are hardly any studies on the potential of social media in times of war.
Content and Communication Patterns
The Internet brought up a number of new communication channels which have considerably changed the communication landscape. McCombs (2005) thus assumes that media users today build their individual virtual media agenda, resulting in a more and more differentiated public agenda (pp. 544-545). The Agenda-Setting Theory as defined by McCombs and Shaw (1972) argues that the mass media have little influence on the public’s attitudes, though they influence the importance the public attaches to specific themes (Schenk, 2007, p. 434). In the context of the Ivoirian crisis—with propaganda dominating the traditional media’s reporting—it can be assumed that Twitter played an important role for information diffusion and opinion-building, seeing the development of a “Twitter Agenda” that strongly differed from the media agenda. Two studies on elections in Germany showed that Twitter was mainly used to share political information and to discuss political opinions (Tumasjan, Sprenger, Sandner, & Welpe, 2010, pp. 181-184), indicated by a high number of links and retweets (Stieglitz & Dang-Xuan, 2012, pp. 3505-3507). Looking at the flooding in South East Queensland in 2011, Bruns, Burgess, Crawford, and Shaw (2012) found that Twitter was especially used to search and spread information, indicated by a high number of retweets and links (p. 7). During an earthquake in China in 2010, the microblogging system Sina-Weibo was used as a source of information about the current situation, to get emotional help, to express opinions, and to call for action (Qu, Huang, Zhang, & Zhang, 2011, p. 33). Shklovski, Palen, and Sutton (2008) found similar results for the wildfires in Southern California, indicating that Twitter was used as a source of information and exchange. They further assume that social media helped people at risk to better cope with the stressful situation thanks to the constant and relevant information given on Twitter, which traditional media was not able to supply in the same way (pp. 3-5).
Analyzing how technology served as a resource for resilience in times of war in Iran and Israel, Mark and Semaan (2008) found that technology was used to inform, to maintain relationships, to discuss opinions anonymously and openly, and to cope with the situation (pp. 143- 144). Furthermore, in the case of Iraq, the war considerably contributed to technology adoption (p. 139). Starbird and Palen (2010), who examined the retweet behavior on Twitter during two natural disasters in the United States in 2009, found that people living close to the events especially retweeted locally relevant information, while the wide public retweeted more general information (p. 9). Investigating information diffusion behaviors in the context of the 2012 Hurricane Sandy event, Kogan, Palen, and Anderson (2015) found similar retweet patterns. People close to the disaster retweeted more information during the event than before or after and favored locally created, locally useful and actionable information. They further developed denser networks of information propagation during the event than before or after (p. 991). In the context of political crisis, Bruns and Stieglitz (2012) found many comments and direct mentions, pointing to an active discussion and exchange of opinions (pp. 176-177).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this chapter, we would describe how the study was carried out.
Research design
The study employs quantitative descriptive research design to examine the role of twitter as a tool for political education a study of the ENDSARS protest.
Research settings
This study was carried out in Ikorodu, Lagos state. Ikorodu is a large city in Lagos State, Nigeria. It is located to the north-east of Lagos City, along the Lagos Lagoon and shares a boundary with Ogun State. At the 2006 census the population was 535,619. Situated approximately 36 km north of Lagos, Ikorodu is bounded to the south by the Lagos Lagoon, to the north by a boundary with Ogun State, and to the east by a boundary with Agbowa-Ikosi, a town in Epe Division of Lagos State. The town has grown significantly in the past 40 years and is divided into sixteen or seventeen “Ituns” or minor areas. The main industries in the town are trading, farming and manufacturing.
Nearby major towns include Imota, Isiu, Liadi, Egbin, Ijede, Igbogbo and Bayeku, all of which constitute their own Local Council Development Area with their own traditional rulers (Obas). Together these areas make up Ikorodu Division.
Ikorodu Division has a large industrial area containing several factories. The town of Ikorodu itself is home to branches of several established Nigerian banks.
Ikorodu is the fastest growing part-exurb of Lagos metropolis, owing in part to increasing influx of people from Ikorodu’s surrounding towns and villages attracted by the town’s proximity to Lagos.
In 2003, the existing Ikorodu LGAs was split for administrative purposes into Local Council Development Areas. These lower-tier administrative units now number 6: Imota, Igbogbo/Bayeku, Ijede, Ikorodu North, Ikorodu West, Ikorodu
Sources of Data
The data for this study were generated from two main sources; Primary sources and secondary sources. The primary sources include questionnaire, interviews and observation. The secondary sources include journals, bulletins, textbooks and the internet.
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). According to World Gazetter (2013), Ikorodu has a population of 535,619 as of the 2006 census. No recent study has been able to establish the current population.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS
Introduction
The researcher enrolled a total of 230 respondents were enrolled and the questionnaire was administered to them. A total of 220 copies of the questionnaire was retrieved and validated. The questions were analysed based on the total number of questionnaire received.
Table 2 gives a demographic description of respondents. A total of 165 male and 55 female participated in the study. The respondents were aged 30-40 years(80), 40-50(85), 50 and above (52). a total of 62.2% has a bachelor’s degree, 15% had either an Msc or an MBA, while 22.7% had acquired a Ph.D. The table further shows that 86.5% are single while 13.5 are married.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Summary
This study was carried out to examine the role of twitter as a tool for political education. This study was motivated by the EndSars protest that rocked the Nigeria environment in the month of October 2020. In chapter one, we described the research problem and the contemporary role twitter has come to play in the country in this recent times. In chapter two, literatures on twitter, its origin, uses and effects were discussed. A social network theory was adopted to better explain the study. In the third chapter, the methodology for the study was described. Lagos state was selected as a place of study and Ikorodu specifically was chosen. Respondents were drawn from Ikorodu and their opinions were sampled.
The findings from the study revealed that twitter application, a mini web forum has provided political education to residents of Lagos state and the Nigerian youths. Nigeria youths can organized meetings and protest online without an initial gathering in a physical spot. This is unusual as previous and traditional method of expressing grievances about government policies or acts of bad governance have never pulled so much weight as the EndSars protest.
Conclusion
The twitter application remain number one social media platform for high-level interaction. It brings both the high and not too high to a place of conversation. This is seen as high profile members of the society have twitter handles, either verified or not verified. The twitter space has proven to be a platform where politicians sign up and make know both personal and political goals concerning the people. The twitter application has a unique feature where one can easily respond to anybody’s tweet without any fear or ban. What makes the twitter very unique is the large personality that are signed up on the app including public institutions and even the private institutions. Twitter has provided direct virtual access to citizens to interact with political office holders and express their concerns regarding the actions of the politicians.
The business organizations are not left out of this feature, as many business organization leverage on the platform to inform their customers concerning upcoming products, events and surprises. It also allows customers and clients to directly interact with their brands and show loyalty or make complains. The twitter space has politically provided a platform for the cross-breed of ideas, knowledge and goals as politicians and the masses share common space.
However, the shared space between the politicians and the masses has not dramatically changed the evil practices of Nigeria leaders as many of them use the twitter platform to tell bold lies that deface their office and negates their intention to lead right. But conclusively, the twitter platform has provided a space for political education and this knowledge is only at the starter stage. Twitter holds the potential of educating more Nigerians that the school.
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