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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The mass media have since emerged as the most common source of information about election campaigns in democracies and societies in transition around the world (Macnamara, 2008). In terms of the sheer volume of information available to citizens via the media on
issues – political parties and leaders; electioneering often represent a high point for political communications. The fact is, there is a great need for the people to be informed during elections and other exercises in the whole political processes leading up to the election
(Denver, 2007, p. 125). The electoral body in Nigeria-Independent National Electoral Commission, and political parties, as well as aspirants use various platforms to reach the widely dispersed electorate- for mobilization, political participation or registration, voting process, politicking, and to sensitize the people on the best conduct during the election exercise.
Communication is at the center of all political activities, and the new Internet technologies offer various platforms where information and other socio-political communication can be constructed and discussed. This has made the medium become a formidable one; the mobilizing structure of the social networks and all resources necessary for popular mobilization, which in this case is contained in social media as the fastest and cheapest way to mobilize (Stark 2010). Increasing use of the new media has extended interaction in time and space.
In Nigeria, though presently popular amongst the elite, the social media (and other social networks, SNS) are gaining currency in politics. Amongst the elite, the social media provide unhindered communication with Internet users anywhere, anytime almost simultaneously (Nwoye, & Okafor, 2014:36). Individual users of the social media steer the use of verbal and non-verbal communication and accessories to remove territorial boundaries in their interaction with others. Thus, the Internet has enhanced access which is both open and close.
The throng of population social media has attracted in these years, as well as its unrestrained ubiquity and multimedia capabilities have all contributed to the success of new media technology and its growing popularity in political communication. It is an undeniable reality that the emergence of the Internet and other social networking sites available to the people in this information age have revolutionized and redefined the entire mass communication process (Sunstein, 2001).
With social media recently evolving as a platform for social, informational, and political exchange, it has become an influential tool used to effectively target numerous sectors in our society. It comes as no surprise that politicians are using these channels to influence attitudes about themselves, set agenda, and even shape outcomes of campaigns (Gale, 2010). The recently evolved “micro-blogging” social media site, Twitter, is the ideal vehicle for this kind of self-promotion; thus, giving politicians the ability to inform mass number of people about their political activities almost instantaneously (Aharony, 2010).
Twitter’s short posts, called “tweets,” enable users to share updates with friends, colleagues, and in a politician’s case, potential voters, giving users the ability to influence, inform, and engage each other in topics across the board.
This implies that the use of social media for socio-political engineering has continued to grow. The technology is participatory, interactive and cost-effective making it a potent medium for communication in the twenty-first century (Okoro and Nwafor 2013:31). No doubt, they added that social media is ubiquitous. Their submission vividly captures the potency of the new media. In their words, Okoro and Nwafor opine that:
The new media is flexible, accessible and affordable. They promote
democratization of media, alter the meaning of geographic distance, and
allow for ease in the volume and speed of communication.
The potency of the social media is becoming even more pervading by the day with the mobile social media now in vogue. Given the abrupt rise in mobile computing, most popular social media platforms of the past years now hinge on the capabilities of smart phones and tablets (Digital trends, 2014). Further submissions by scholars that also corroborate the potency of the social media include works by Kaplan (2012); and Bastos (2014). Thus, the mobile social media have made communication and interaction possible everywhere, anywhere.
Internet penetration in Nigeria has increased dramatically in recent years. Current statistics place Nigeria ahead of other African nations in internet penetration and social media use. With an estimated population of 167 million and 56 million internet users as at December 2012, Nigeria is the biggest internet market in Africa. Of the 115 million mobile telephone subscribers in the country, 35 million use their handheld devices to access internet data services. (Business Day Research and Intelligence Unit 2013 report).
Significantly, the use of social media in election processes in Nigeria has gained a dramatic shift from its former usage before 2011 general elections because of their enormous potentials in pulling reasonable followership and relay information at the quickest speed ever recorded by any other media platform. Electoral success and results can now be predetermined through opinion polls and trends in cyber-space. This was evident in the way social media played a prominent role in Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections.
In the Ekiti State governorship election, accredited citizen observers, civil society situation room, APC, PDP and INEC situation rooms deployed observers to the field that relied mainly on SMS, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, BBM, Instagram, for incidents reports from the field. Three hours after voting commenced, observers and citizens started broadcasting election results announced in their respective voting centres using twitter,
Facebook, BBM, WhatsApp, and SMS. As elections results in respective voting centres went viral, on social media, political parties, citizens, both local and international observers were monitoring social media, tracking and analysing election results. (culled from http://www.theparadigmng.com).
As evident in the March 28, 2015 Presidential elections, political parties, including the two prominent parties took to social media platforms such as online networking sites, blogs, twitter, Facebook, mobile newspapers, news ads, etc. to campaign and mobilize not only youths but all class of internet users to vote for them (Okoro & Nwafor 2013; PLAC 2011). Adding to this, are variety of interesting news and drama online providing opportunity for users to read, respond, interact, argue and sort out issues online. Twitter,
Facebook, blogs, online newspapers etc. became platforms for people to air their thoughts on various candidates, and sway others towards their line of thinking with various debates, hashtags and online campaigns (Michael & Ajakaye; PLAC, 2011).
Nigerian democracy also saw the efficacy of social media in the 2015 general elections, especially in the areas of PVC collection, mass sensitization, party campaigns and even using the platform to advocate for peace during the elections. The preponderant use of the social media in the 2015 election clearly gained international reputation and soared
Nigeria’s political pedigree to renowned heights and to a high-point of reference in the world stage. Youth and other elite spread and disseminated political news and created awareness, led political discussion and online votes to determine the fate of politicians and aspirants (PLAC, 2011)
To this end, the use of social media in elections has become a key tool in the hands of electorates who want to exercise their constitutional powers in monitoring elections and preventing the alteration of results. Thus, social media makes it possible for mass participation, mass sensitization and mass-involvement in the political process, and therefore making it possible for citizens’ votes to count.
This study examines ways in which social media can be used to mobilize people in Nigeria to further promote free and fair elections, and to actualize the gains of democracy in Nigeria and in other elections to come.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Successive elections in Nigeria have been trailed by complaints of irregularities such as disenfranchisement of prospective voters, ballot boxes snatching and stuffing, intimidation of political opponents, as well as allegations of collusion between election officials and politicians to alter election results and subvert popular mandate (Ibrahim & Ibeanu, 2009,
p.6).
The flaws that characterized the conduct of the previous elections in Nigeria severely dented the integrity of the elections and triggered demands for freer, fairer, and more transparent elections. The traditional media which includes: TV, Radio and Print also have been accused of not living up to expectations in terms of making genuine information available to the electorate before, during, and even after elections. One of the reasons
adduced for this is that most of these traditional media are owned and controlled by the political elite in Nigeria, thus, the need for a shift to a more interactive and less stringently6 controlled media that allow for user-to-user generated contents, and thus eliminate ownership influence that has constituted the bane of the traditional media.
Today’s social media have made the world a true “global village”, with the quick transfer of information overriding the challenges of time and distance (Friedman, 2007).
Arguably, the social media have gradually become one of the important means of influencing the society and this influence is based exclusively on its social attributes of interaction and participation.
Given the enormous potentials of the social media, numerous studies have not been able to piece together the relevance of social media use in politics. However, available literatures have only offered loose circumstantial conclusions about the effectiveness of online mobilization of social media. Other studies on the other hand, find limited impact of obtaining campaign information online during elections and the effect of online mobilization
for political actions (Bimber, 2001; Constantin, 2014, p.24; Gil de Z., Puig-i-Abril, & Rojas.)
In view of the conflicting and contradictory findings as shown above, the
effectiveness or otherwise of the use of social media in politics remains largely undetermined.
This study seeks to fill this gap in literature. It aims to provide satisfying empirical evidence and offer literature backings on the effectiveness of social media as a tool for political mobilization.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
Specifically, the objectives of this research work are as follow:
1. To determine the level of political awareness created on the social media among
Nigerian electorates during the presidential election.
2. To find out which social media platform people mostly used during the the presidential election.
3. To determine the influence social media have on voter behaviour in Nigeria during the presidential election.
4. To determine the extent of the effectiveness of social media as tools of political mobilization in the presidential election.
5. To ascertain the challenges inherent in the use of social of social media for political mobilization in elections.
1.4 Research Questions
The following research questions have been raised:
1. What was the level of awareness created by the social media in the presidential election?
2. Which social media did people mostly use during the presidential election?
3. To what extent did the social media influence Nigerian electorate in the presidential election?
4. How effective was social media as tools of political mobilization in Nigeria during the election?
5. What were the challenges inherent in the use of social media for political mobilization during the election?
1.5 Significance of the Study
Even though other academic studies may have been carried out in this area, this work will fill some literature gaps and also serve as additional body of knowledge in mass communication field. This work will immensely benefit the following end users:
The society: the society is the primary beneficiary of democracy, thus this work will expose members of the society to different ways the social media can be utilized to improve Nigerian electoral processes.
Government: Government as the machinery of the state will derive benefits in so many ways to properly harness the social media to engender effective campaign communications and cut down cost of spending in disseminating electoral and political information. Policy makers will see the need to make favourable policies that will advance further use of social media in Nigerian elections.
Media industry: media professionals/ owners will learn various ways to tap into the new online revolution. This study will enable them see better ways the mass of Nigerian publics can be reached simultaneously in order to dissemination proper political communications to media consumers through the social media.
Academics: this study will be an additional body of knowledge in the field of mass communication. It will also provide researchers stimulus for further research efforts in this area.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The scope of this study is primarily focused at evaluating social media use as effective tool for political mobilization. This, therefore, means that the study is targeted at eligible literate voters who made use of social media in the presidential elections.
1.6 Definition of Terms
Social media
Social media are “new media” that speed up conversations in a more interactive way that makes communication more effective and worthwhile. It is an online media that takes communication beyond the limitation, of the traditional media (Ogbe, 2014). According to (Okoro and Nwafor 2013) the social media are interactive web-based platforms that offer citizens opportunity and place to connect, share opinions, experiences, views, contacts, knowledge, expertise, as well as other things like job and career tips. Chatora, A (2012) observes that it is the collaborative nature of these tools that makes them social (Cited in Okoro & Nwafor, 2013).
In contrast to traditional media that operates under a monologic transmission model (from one source to many receivers) – Wikipedia. Here are some notable social media platform: the ubiquitous Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace, You Tube, Instagram, Wikipedia, Google+ and a host of others. In Nigeria the social media that is common among the general public include Facebook and Twitter.
Mass Mobilization
Mass mobilization can also be referred to mean social mobilization or popular mobilization, which is the mobilization of civilian population as part of contentious politics.
Mass mobilization is often used by grass-root based social movements, including revolutionary movements, but can also become a tool of elites and state itself. The process
usually takes the form of a large public gathering such as mass meetings, marches, parades, processions and demonstrations.
In other words, social mobilization seeks to facilitate change through a range of players engaged in interrelated and complementary efforts. (Culled from Wikipedia.org) Election
Elections are can be assumed to be the crucial component of a democratic government or a political process. Going by this words, elections then can mean a tool for selecting representatives in modern democracy. According to how the word was rendered in Merriam Webster, “it a process of choosing someone for a public office by voting”.
Therefore, elections requires that people exercise their democratic rights through voting. Hence, there is a greater need for people’s choices to be influenced, as a well as for people to be mobilized for better chances to win an election.
Political Mobilization
Political mobilization refers to “the process by which candidates, parties, activists, and groups induce other people to participate” in politics “to win elections, to pass bills, to modify rulings, [and] to influence policies”. Political organizations may contact people and provide a specific “opportunity for political action”.
