EVALUATION OF THE EFFECT OF TWITTER BAN ON INFORMATION DISSEMINATION IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 INTRODUCTION
Our focus in this chapter is to critically examine relevant literature 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.
2.2 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media are computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networksUsers typically access social media services via web-based technologies on desktop computers, and laptops, or download services that offer social media functionality to their mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablet computers). When engaging with these services, users can create highly interactive platforms through which individuals, communities and organizations can share, concrete, discuss, and modify user-generated content or pre-made content posted online. They introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between businesses, organizations, communities and individuals. Social media changes the way individuals and large organizations communicate. These changes are the focus of the emerging field of technoself studies. Social media differ from paper-based media (e.g., magazines and newspapers) or traditional electronic media such as TV broadcasting in many ways, including quality, reach, frequency, interactivity, usability, immediacy, and permanence. Social media operate in a dialogic transmission system (many sources to many receivers). This is in contrast to traditional media which operates under a monologic transmission model (one source to many receivers), such as a paper newspaper which is delivered to many subscribers or a radio station which broadcasts the same programs to an entire city. Some of the most popular social media websites are Baidu Tieba, Facebook (and its associated Facebook Messenger), Gab, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, Tumblr, Twitter, Viber, VK, WeChat, Weibo, What sApp, Wikia, and YouTube.
EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media have evolved through Web 2.0, a term coined to describe a new wave of Internet innovation that enables users to publish and exchange content online Kaplan and Haenlein (cited in Eun 2011:6). Social media encompass a wide range of electronic forums, including blogs, microblogs (e.g., Twitter), social networking sites (e.g., Facebook), creative work-sharing sites (e.g., YouTube), business networking sites (e.g., LinkedIn), collaborative websites (e.g., Wikipedia), and virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life). Among these social media, social networks and microblogs are the most popular, accounting for 22.7% of all time spent online in the United States ACNielsen (cited in Eun 2011: 6). According to Dominick (2009:283) Web 2.0 is the idea of a second generation Internet that is highly participatory, allowing users to improve it as they use it. Social media contents are primarily written and published by their users and not owners or employees of the site. For instance, most adverts, videos and pictures on Facebook and Twitter are uploaded by visitors of the sites.
Jenkins et. al (cited in Stagno: 2) observe that Web 2.0 has been growing tremendously as it facilitates the production and dissemination of information, allows for the involvements in participatory culture to share individual expressions or creations and bring people with similar interests and goals to connect with each other on blogs, social networking sites and others. Few years ago, websites were quite static and passive. There was no much interaction going on as they were mostly corporate websites. The only way an individual could participate online was to send an email or form to the owners or web master of the website and hope that they would get back to him. This type of arrangement was called Web 1.0, referred to as “first generation Web where users generally consumed content. The audience went to web pages and looked at content provided by the website owner” Dominick (2009:283). But today, users have become producers which mean that they simultaneously consume and produce information (Bruns, cited in Stagno 2010:1). Igbinidu (2011:26) explains that the first exploitation of the potential of the social media especially to spread a candidates message, gain support and get the public engaged was through the 2008 presidential campaign by the then Senator Barack Obama who eventually became American president. The Obama campaign reached five million people on 15 different social media platforms. As at November 2008, Obama had approximately 2.3 million Facebook supporters; 115,000 Twitter followers and 50 million viewers of his YouTube videos. Facebook is a social network for connecting people with those around them,friends, family, coworkers, or simply others with similar interests. Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 alongside his roommates and fellow computer science classmates Eduardo Saverin, Austin Maskovitz and Chris Hughes at Harvard University in the U.S (Locke cited in Nnaane 2011:15). Initially, Facebook membership was restricted to Harvard students but later extended to other colleges in Boston and Stanford University all in the U.S. “Since 2006, Facebook has expanded beyond Harvard to other 24 schools, corporations, businesses and any user across the world” (Dunay & Krueger 2010:27). Zuckerberg, cited in (Nweze, 2009) explains that advertising on Facebook is an opportunity for companies to reach their exact audience and connect real customers to their business. Facebook allow users to connect and share information in a variety of ways. Facebook allow users to post photos, videos and customize their profile content. Facebook has added a number of features over the past few years, including instant messaging/chat and apps (and their developer platform).Users communicate with one another through different methods, for instance, private messaging as well as writing on another user’s wall. Wall posts are visible to that user’s friends, but usually not to the general public. Users can also change their privacy settings to allow different users to see different parts of their profile, based on any existing relationships (the basic privacy settings are “only friends”, “friends of friends”, and “everyone”). Users can post notes that are visible to all of their friends. Users can also comment on or, more recently, “like” the posts of their friends, and conversations often occur within the comment sections among multiple people (Dunay & Krueger2010:27). Facebook pages are online location for businesses, organisations, public figures, entertainers, professionals of all types and individuals with the intention of marketing themselves to the Facebook community. Facebook Pages provide a powerful set of online tools for engaging with customers (or, as they are called in Facebook, fans). Every day, 3.5 million people become fans of a Facebook Page. According to eMetric’s February 2009 Facebook Usage Metrics Worldwide Study, although popular consumer brands enjoy large installed fan bases, smaller brands, business-to-business (B2B) companies, consultants, and personalities can also build a loyal following by using Facebook Page (Dunay & Krueger2010:27). He notes further that if Facebook were a country, it would be the sixth most populated nation in the world. This is because the site has grown to be perhaps the most popular all over the world with a user base of over 660 million (Amaefule 2011:20). The number of users continues to grow steadily. 25 Tyler (2010: para 3) explains that there are currently 1.7 billion Internet users worldwide, almost 57% of them have joined a social network, 66% of all Internet users visit social networks, Facebook is used more than 80 million hours daily and that close to 15million photos, wall posts, links, news, notes etc. are shared on Facebook every day. According to Idaresit (cited in Ofose, 2010) about 39.6 percent of all Internet traffic from Africa is from Nigeria and 29.8 percent of the population access the Internet. As at 2009, there were 30 million Nigerians on Facebook. Of this figure, 67% were males while 33% were females. These figures have changed since then. Lagos alone now has about two million subscribers to Facebook (Ogunbayo, 2011: 44). Supporting the above, Solaja and Odiaka (2010:32) state that “such a large population naturally offers a good basis for the adoption of the platforms for marketing purposes”. Facebook offers targeted communication initiative to select customers groups for product development as well as service enhancement and also be able to engage their customers and non-customers on platforms they are comfortable with while recovery real-time feedback on what they have to say about their brand, products and services (Wmworia (2010, February 11). In Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan boasts of the highest fan base with 97,000 Nigerian Facebook users. Both local and international brands would consider placing an ad on the presidents Facebook fan page as traffic to the site is unbelievably high Adebija (cited in Ofose 2010:4). Twitter was launched in 2006 and founded by Dorsey Jack, Biz Stone and Evan Williams as a free micro blogging social network that enables users to post short messages known as tweets that could be viewed by other subscribers, more commonly referred to as followers. Tweets of not more than 140 characters can be sent from and received by almost any kind of electronic equipment, including desktop computers, laptops, Black Berrys, iphones, and other mobile devices (Farhi 2009). According to D’Monte (cited in Nnaane 2011) Twitter has gained popularity worldwide and is estimated to have 200 million users, generating 65 million tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries a day. Message brevity, in contrast with lengthy e-mail marketing messages, has been hailed as an asset of microblogs; which 26 enables consumers to browse a large amount of updates efficiently (Zhao and Rosson, 2009). Aided by increases in smart phone sales and the continued rollout of Internet and mobile network infrastructure, Twitter is poised for even more growth (Wauters, 2010). Users broadcast messages to the masses, without visiting a particular person's profile to do so. By following other users, people automatically receive messages on their own Twitter home pages tweeted by those whom they are following. Even though some Twitter accounts are kept private, and some users require that they offer approval to people who wish to follow them, messages exchanged on this microblog are public by default, thus everyone can read and comment on a Twitter message (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Chiang (2011) explains that visitors increased by 1,382, to 7 million in February 2009, up from 475,000 in February 2008, “making it the fastest growing social media site for that month” (McGiboney, 2009)
Twitter is an American microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through its website interface or its mobile-device application software ("app"), though the service could also be accessed via SMS before April 2020.The service is provided by Twitter, Inc., a corporation based in San Francisco, California, and has more than 25 offices around the world. Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but the limit was doubled to 280 for non-CJK languages in November 2017.Audio and video tweets remain limited to 140 seconds for most accounts (D'Monte, Leslie 2009).
Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 and launched in July of that year. By 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day,and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per day.In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet". As of Q1 2019, Twitter had more than 330 million monthly active users.Twitter is a some-to-many microblogging service, given that the vast majority of tweets are written by a small minority of users( twitter search team 2011).
In April 2014, Twitter underwent a redesign that made the site resemble Facebook somewhat. On June 4, 2014, Twitter announced that it would acquire Namo Media, a technology firm specializing in "native advertising" for mobile devices. On June 19, 2014, Twitter announced that it had reached an undisclosed deal to buy SnappyTV, a service that helps edit and share video from television broadcasts.The company was helping broadcasters and rights holders to share video content both organically across social and via Twitter's Amplify program.In July 2014, Twitter announced that it intended to buy a young company called CardSpring for an undisclosed sum. CardSpring enabled retailers to offer online shoppers coupons that they could automatically sync to their credit cards in order to receive discounts when they shopped in physical stores. On July 31, 2014, Twitter announced that it had acquired a small password-security startup called Mitro. On October 29, 2014, Twitter announced a new partnership with IBM. The partnership was intended to help businesses use Twitter data to understand their customers, businesses and other trends.
On February 11, 2015, Twitter announced that it had acquired Niche, an advertising network for social media stars, founded by Rob Fishman and Darren Lachtman. The acquisition price was reportedly $50 million. On March 13, 2015, Twitter announced its acquisition of Periscope, an app that allows live streaming of video. In April 2015, the Twitter.com desktop homepage changed.
SOCIAL MEDIA (TWITTER) FOR INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
Social media is a very broad term that includes a wide variety of media vehicles. It is the “how” of how we socialize on the new Web 2.0. It is the vehicle we use to share information with oursocial network, and it includes all social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. These are among the most popular social media sites. Facebook (as of August 2011) has reached 750 million members and comes in as the number one social networking site. There are many other social media sites and they use a wide variety of formats. For example, Blogger and WordPress are two of the most popular general blogging sites. The possibilities are endless depending on the information being exchanged and the intended audience. Social media covers all the tools we use for social networking.
The increasing popularity of social media platforms has created new digital social networks in which individuals can interact and share information, news, and opinions with unprecedented speed and ease. Consequently, the use of such technologies appears to have the capacity to transform current social configurations and relations (with the public and civic spheres inclusive). Within the social sciences, much emphasis has been placed on conceptualizing social media’s role in modern society (Mossberger, Tolbert, & McNeal, 2008; Trottier, 2012) and the interrelationships between online and offline actors, institutions, events, and political and social change (Edwards, Housley, Williams, Sloan, Williams, 2013). Thus, according to Edwards et al. (2013), networked digital technologies are transforming mass public communications in various ways, facilitating not only new forms of antagonism and social fragmentation, but also deliberation, debate, civil participation and other forms of social interaction (of which Twitter is a typical example).
Social mediasites are profile-basedwebsites that allowusers to maintainsocial relationships by viewing, visiting and sharing their lists ofsocial connections with other members.They are onlinediscussion forum, chatrooms; community basedpersonal websites and othersocial space accessibleto users forexchange of personalcontact, communication.Examples are Facebook,Orkut, Twitter, LinkedIn,YouTube and My space.
Social media sitesprovide a widevariety of resourcesand services suchas messaging, chatting, blogging, uploading and sharing videos and photos etc. Social mediasites not onlyfunction in effectivecommunication but alsoin the development ofcollaboration and networkingof the users. Through such sites, undergraduates makenew friends orextend their personalbase by connectingand interacting with friends of friends and so forth. These connections canhelp one with a variety of things such as: finding romance, seeking a new job, locating assistance, getting and giving product and service referrals, receiving support from like-minded individuals, making or receiving advice on career or personal issues. Entertainment (music and videos) is another benefit for using social media and Facebook has some recent attraction such as game applications that have appeared over the last couple of years. Real-time information sharing isalso one of the benefits ofsocial media use. Many social media sitesincorporate an instantmessaging feature, whichmeans users can exchange information in real-time via a chat. Social media have been found very useful in exchanging or disseminating information such as breaking news, research findings, latest trend globally on different issues, disaster outbreak, etc.
Twitter is a free social networking microblogging service that allows registered members to broadcast short posts called tweets. Twitter members can broadcast tweets and follow other users' tweets by using multiple platforms and devices, thereby facilitating the swift dissemination of information. Tweets and replies to tweets can be sent by cell phone text messages, a desktop client or by posting on the Twitter website (Gerbaudo, P. 2012). In other words, Twitter promotes social interaction and public participation in various issues of human concern. As a result, the unrestricted interactive nature of Twitter has provided numerous opportunities for the public to interact with various issues in their society.
EFFECT OF TWITTER BAN ON INFORMATION DISSEMINATION IN NIGERIA
More than 39 million Nigerians use twitter as a political platform to stay informed and updated and to voice their opinions including government discontent. On June 4, the Nigerian government announced that it had suspended Twitter’s operations in the country. The announcement came two days after the social media company removed a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari, in which Buhari issued a thinly veiled threat against secessionist groups in the southeast “to treat them in the language they understand.” Since announcing the ban, the government has issued directives to federal prosecutors to arrest anyone still using Twitter and ordered Internet providers to block access to the platform. After some initial confusion as to whether Twitter remained accessible, it appears as of mid-June that most Nigerians can no longer access the platform. The Nigerian government claimed that the deletion of the President's tweets factored into their decision but it was ultimately based on "a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences".
Most media channels and station uses twitter to bring information closer to the people in a busy world where their audience have little time to sit in front of television and radio but relies on the internet. Twitter, which has the ability to report a story live, regardless of when the newscast is. A reporter can live-Tweet a story as it is happening, giving news consumers instant access to information without having to wait for the nightly news.With the ban on twitter in Nigeria, this quick access to information dispensed by electronic media via twitter platform will affect citizens’ access to those information but also has a negative effect on those media channels; reducing the traffic drawn to their website and also limit their ability to publish instant news on twitter. Twitter has also become the foremost social media resource centre where disease control agencies of different countries, including Nigeria, share local and international updates with their citizens.
During the #EndSARS protests against police brutality in October 2020 when peaceful protesters were detained by state forces, the Nigerian youth, through Twitter, created hotlines affected persons could reach in order to secure their release or that of their colleagues (premium times 2021).The bird application also drew the attention of the international communities through prompt information to the plight of young Nigerians who had suffered at the hands of law enforcement.
A lawyer and human rights crusader, Inibehe Effiong (premium times 2021), describes Twitter social media platforms as “veritable tools for civic engagement” through enlightening the public on the recent stories and happening event. “It gives the ordinary people a voice to air their grievances and bring to public attention, crisis and injustice that has been done to them and seek both institutional and public support,” the activist says, noting that so many citizens have got redress for injustice done to them “on account of the polarization of such cases on Twitter.” Mr Effiong, who has sued the federal government over the ban, says the ban on micro-blogging site limits “access to (justice)” and in a way, “shrinks the civic space.” “People can no longer organize effectively as they are supposed to,” he said(premium times 2021).
The Executive Director TechHer Nigeria, Chioma Agwuegbo, says Twitter has been instrumental in helping to serve justice to survivors of domestic crisis, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). “Twitter was instrumental in sensitizing the public on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) issues, calling the civic societies, NGOs, government and relevant stakeholders to action, seeking justice and social support for survivors, and holding perpetrators accountable.“Indeed, it was a powerful tool for online activism and advocacy for issues of sexual and gender-based violence,” she says (premium times 2021).
In the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown, governors of Nigeria’s 36 states unanimously declared a state of emergency on SGBV after a series of violence perpetrated against women sparked nationwide protests by activists online and at rallies. Reports of rape, abuse, and killing of women and girls flooded the social media space. Notable among the cases were the rape and murder of Vera Uwa Omozuwa and Barakat Bello and the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Jigawa State. These public outcries using hashtags such as #JusticeForUwa, and #JusticeForBarakat helped to sustain the call for justice which led to the declaration of the state of emergency. Several other female survivors of SGBV were encouraged and told their own stories. Ms Agwuegbo said with the ban on Twitter in Nigeria, the progress achieved in using the Twitter platform to get social support and justice may suffer a setback (premium times 2021).
2.2 THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
The study is espoused on Agenda Setting Theory
Agenda Setting Theory
The theory as proposed by Maxwell McCombs and Donald L. Shaw in 1972/1973 says that the media (especially the news media) are not always successful in telling us what to think, but are quite successful at telling us what to think about (Asemah, 2011 ). Izuogu (2009) cited in Aliyu A. et’al (2021) noted that “agenda-setting theory refers to the media’s capacity to cause an issue to be elevated to importance in the minds of the public through repeated focus or coverage”.
This statement was supported by Anyadike (2009) cited in Aliyu A. et’al (2021), who opined that “the basic principle in the agenda-setting theory is the ability of the mass media to restructure the audience thinking and perception of events”. Izuogu (2009) observed that; “Considerable evidence have accumulated that editors and broadcasters play an important role in shaping our reality as they go about their day-to-day task of choosing and displaying news…In short, the mass media may not be successful in telling us what to think but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about’. From a close consideration of the above statement, it is apparent that the media through its news selection establish not only issues of public importance, but also determine how much importance to attach to a given issue. The media do this through the reports they present for public consumption. Walter Lippman, an American columnist for the New York Times and a strong supporter of Harold Lasswell, writing about agenda-setting function in his famous article Public Opinion(1922) argued that the people do not deal directly with their environment as well as they respond to ‘pictures’ in their heads. Lippman (1922) as cited in Baran and Davis (2006) notes that: For the real environment is altogether too big, too complex, and too fleeting for direct acquaintance. We are not equipped to deal with so much subtlety, so much variety, so many permutations and combinations. Although we have to act in that environment, we have to reconstruct it on a simpler model before we can manage with it. But average people just can’t e trusted to make important political decisions based on these simplified pictures. Average people have to be protected, and the important decisions have to be made by technocrats who use better models to guide their actions. The concept of agenda-setting was further reinforced by Lang and Lang (1996) with the notion that the mass media pay attention to certain issues, they are constantly presenting objects, suggesting what individuals should think and have feeling about.
Folarin (2002) notes that the agenda-setting theory implies that the mass media predetermine what issues are regarded as important at any given time in a given society. The agenda-setting theory does not ascribe to the media the power to determine what we actually think, but does ascribe to them the power to determine what we are thinking about. The elements involved in agenda-setting according to Folarin (1998) include: The quantity or frequency of reporting; Prominence given to the reports through headline displays, pictures and layout in newspapers, magazines, films, graphics or timing on radio and television; The degree of conflicts generated in the reports; and Cumulative media specific effects over time.
The relevance of this theory to the study, social media aids in information dissemination via publishing stories and events to the audience. Serving as a social network quick access to information about crisis,politics,product advert,world highlights, and entertainment storiespoll the strongest of the public audience including government of nation states and civic societies,
2.3 EMPIRICAL STUDIES
In a study by Usman (2015) , Social Media was highlighted as having both power and challenge. Major contribution on the information dissemination was given emphasis based on its accessibility and diversified format. Creation, sharing, and exhanges of ideas and information are provided by this new media, hence, users become interactive and are given equal participation.
The study also acknowledged the role of social media in civic engagement and political mobilization. As people are given their freedom to access information and express their opinions and concerns, they become an active part of society in dealing with public affairs, which was perceived to be limited in traditional forms of media. Decentralization of information is vital in order to boost democratic participation and societal development. Bitner (as cited by Usman, 2015) further affirmed the pervasive power of media in general, since audience have trust and confidence in it.
The shift in the communication lanscape also paved way to challenges on privacy and credibility of information . The study regarded this new platforms brought by communication technologies as more complex and participatory, hence, authenticity of content is a major concern. Implications on the diversity of people’s opinions are then considered inevitable.
Convincingly, Usman (2015) raised accessibility to internet in remote areas as a concern to significantly regard social media as a tool in disseminating information. Moreover, reorientation on the usage of the medium as well as efficient regulation on the content are deemed crucial in order to effectively utilize social media and maximize its provisions.
The assumptions drawn from the study of Usman (2015) are congruent with the study conducted by Baruah (2012) through which the effectiveness of social media as a communication tool was given focus. Online sharing of knowledge and information is one of the most considered advantages brought by this communication platform. The venue provides opportunity for everyone to participate in the process of gathering and generating content. Results of the study show that social media is generally preferred by respondents and perceived it as an effective tool in communication. Majority of the respondents also confirmed usage of it for educational purposes. In terms of its usefulness, availability of information and sharing of ideas were noted alongside with other advantages such as interactivity, bridging of communication gaps and as a tool in customer and marketing as well as in crisis communication.
The study further implies the potential of social media in igniting collective action knowing the fact that this domain allows collaboration through simple ways of organizing members, gauging opinions as well as spreading information among users.
In another study conducted by Bakshy, Rosenn, Marlow & Adamic (2012), social networks rationalized as interpersonal ties and its correlation with diffusion of information specifically in Facebook was thoroughly examined. The exploration of this relationship centred on the importance of social ties in the information spread, despite considering the wide array of data available online.
Access to diverse information was argued to be positively associated with users having weak ties considering fewer mutual contacts. Individuals who are not strongly influenced by peers are also regarded as key players in facilitating the flow of information as they are not bounded by commonality in terms of exposure to information. On the other hand, strong ties or interpersonal connections depict singularity in terms of accessed and shared information. In the context of information diffusion, strongly tied individuals tend to disseminate similar information, as they are exposed to similar sources.
Furthermore, the study emphasized the role of interpersonal influence on the usage of the medium and information dissemination. It implies that sources accessed by individuals with weaker social networks are more influential since it is new and ‘fresh’, compared to the commonly seen feeds by strongly attached users. Diversity of information are then perceived to be very essential among Facebook users, in like manner that peer-mediation is highlighted to be a determining factor in the exposure and diffusion of such information online.