All 7 entries tagged Nigeria, Digital Public Sphere blog

May 30, 2013

Ex Vice President on Twitter

The former vice president of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has become very active on the social network, Twitter. Here is a reaction to his use of the platform, from another Nigerian user:

Whoever handles @atiku 's social media knows their ish.. :)
— Iyinoluwa Aboyeji (@iaboyeji) May 30, 2013

Abubakar took to the platform yesterdaty to tell a Nigerian story. Here are the tweets as curated by Akin Akintayo on Storify. He told the story of military and democratic rule in Nigeria. What I found interesting about his use of social media is that he seems to be engaging with other tweeti-zens (citizens on Twitter). See below:

“@xeenarh: Atiku Abubakar is witty. His handle @atiku is kinda fun sha” Thank you, Azeenarh. I look forward to many conversations
— Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) May 27, 2013

“@amasonic: @borie_nla seems to be him @atiku” I'm still learning the 140 way, but it's me indeed
— Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) May 27, 2013

@afrovii Thank you. I will remember that. I started tweeting myself only recently. Still learning.
— Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) May 29, 2013

Tomi Oladepo : 30 May 2013 07:43 | Tags: Nigeria Twitter | Comments (0) | Close comments | Report a problem

May 20, 2013

Nigerian Newspapers on Twitter

I am in the middle of seeking respondents for my research; like Alice in Wonderland, it's led me into the territory of checking out Nigerian newspaper houses and their Twitter follower counts.

Vaguely, I am assuming this is indicative of popularity, at least online (you never know what their sales figures are).

In addition, I am looking at Follow 2 Followercount . To me, this is telling on the willingness/priority of that newspaper house to engage with the online audiences (another index would be Twitter mentions& responses to followers). A prime example is BBC Africa's twitter account. As at this date, May 20th, 2013, it is @ 1, 984 (follows) to 194, 698 followers. BBC Africa also has a BBC Africa Have Your Sayaccount, that is more generous with following, and is even more active in interacting with listeners, at 6, 0238 to 34, 908.

My research is on new digital media and democratic culture in Nigeria, a sphere where journalism plays a huge role - in informing the public, publishing public opinion, providing rich analysis of public issues etc.! I am curious as to how they use this online space. I will start by scratching the surface of what I see, their Twitter Accounts.

Let's get on with filling the table below - the list is in no particular order, and note that this is the count as at today, May 20, 2013:

Newspaper	Twitter Following	Twitter Followers
Vanguard	79	204, 850
The Guardian	7	79, 986
ThisDay Live	1	77, 513
Punch	2, 548	176, 055
The Sun	60	324, 597
Nigerian Tribune	31	9, 698
The Nation	569	42, 131
Leadership	140	41, 978
Compass	56	520
Daily Trust	19	67, 803
Daly Independent	17	682
Daily Times(0 Tweets)	84	100

For more information on Nigerian Newspapers on the Internet, visit this page.

Do you have a favourite Nigerian newspaper? Why?

P.S. If there is any newspaper organisation missing (especially in the national category) please drop a comment also.

Media Junkie

Tomi Oladepo : 20 May 2013 16:24 | Tags: Newmedia Nigeria | Comments (0) | Close comments | Report a problem

April 18, 2013

Nigeria Bans "Oil" Documentary; Alternative?

The Committee for Protecting Journalists (CPJ), an international organisation committed to protecting the freedom of journalists worldwide, recently condemnedthe decision made by the Nigerian Government to ban the airing and distribution of a 30-minute documentary film on Nigeria's oil wealth, corruption and the state's management of funds. The documentary is titled, Fuelling Poverty. It was directed by award-winning Ishaya Bako (see interview with him on Diary of a Media Junkie).

According to CPJ, the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB), an agency run by the federal government, described the film as

highly provocative and likely to incite or encourage public disorder and undermine national security

This ban implies that no Nigerian cinemas or TV station is permitted to air the film. However, the responses from Twitter (see below) aptly answer my question (in the title) as to what the alternative is:

that's why the producer can release in on YouTube if the govt vex make dem ban goggle so what?

Let's see them 'ban' the internet, youtube, etc, then i'll know they're serious

Democracy thrives among an informed populace. The public sphere, the gathering together of people to discuss issues that concern them in order to arrive at a rational conclusion, is made vibrant where there is sufficient (accurate) information upon which agendas can be formed. If any aspect of Bako's documentary had been untrue, that is, slanderous in anyway, he may have been held liable - but this is not the case.

However, the DIGITAL public sphere, where people form discussions on online forums, blogs etc. has somewhat sidestepped the challenge banning the documentary would have posed to Nigeria's democracy. An 'uninformed' citizenry is a problem for any democracy. Hence, since it is not banned on YouTube (the alternative medium), people may still have access to this information, and form discussions around it. The online sphere generates enough buzz to get the conversation going, but the digital divide is still a huge issue.

I am simply using this to illustrate how digital media is revitalising the public sphere - this is a part of my research on Nigeria's democratic culture and what roles new media technologies affords citizens and public officials play, to foster democracy in the country.

Note: "Fuelling Poverty"currently has over 40,000 views on YouTube.

What do you think of the Federal Government's claim that the documentary is Provocative, likely to Incite, and UNDERMINE national security? Please share your comments.

Tomi Oladepo : 18 Apr 2013 11:12 | Tags: Newmedia Nigeria | Comments (0) | Close comments | Report a problem

December 07, 2012

The Citizen asked the Governor…

This post is inspired by a quick exchange I witnessed on Twitter on December 7, 2012, between a Nigerian citizen and a Northern state governor in Nigeria, Governor Aliyu Wamakko.

To me, it is a very potent illustration of what I would like to describe as the democratic digital public sphere.

The prelude to this exchange is this:

On October 23rd, 2012, news organisations in Nigeria carried reports that the Sokoto State governor Wamakko, allegedly flogged a PHCN manager for failure to supply power to his community. Some of the news organisations include, PM News, Osun Defender, Nigerian Tribune to mention a few.

The Nigerian blogosphere, citizen media were not to be left out of the sensation. Forums like the Nigerian Village Square, Linda Ikeji's blog, NairaLand, made this a topic of discussion. Members of Nigeria's digital sphere discussed the issue inside-out online (see comments section of hyperlinks).

Nigerian blogosphere is not a new development, it is indeed a growing community. However, what's new is the gradual openness of public officials to relate with citizens online. Public policy is not quite certain how handle itself in the digital sphere.

America has been more adventurous about this idea.

President Obama to hold Twitter town hall this afternoon.
— Anthony De Rosa (@AntDeRosa) December 3, 2012

The following points struck me about the exchange between Alkay and Wamakko:

Digital (new) media was being used to bridge the gap between the government and the governed
In old media, Alkay would have needed to call in to a radio or TV program where Wamakko was being interviewed to pose this question (what are the chances of that?)
Alkay may have needed to write an open-letter to the governor, or letter to the editor in a newspaper to get this question off his chest (too much trouble for such a simple question don't you think?)
What was democratic about Alkay's tweet and Wamakko's response? Everything.
Asking such a question required someone who was an informed member of the citizenry, who was conscious of his status as a citizen and most importantly, was willing to take action.

As Douglas Kellner puts it, after old media have failed in their democratic functions of informing the populace, asking the right questions with the right analysis and generating genuine public opinion for the state to act on, "new media technologies such as the Internet are...serving as a new basis for participatory democratic communication politics."

It is not my concern here whether Governor Wamakko is speaking the truth or otherwise. When Nigeria's digital public sphere develops to the point where public officials are willing to engage with citizens directly online in order to access public opinion, the fledgling democracy would mark a milestone on the way to recovery.

I am aware that there are many questions heralding that position. For instance, how many Nigerians are online, how public (of general interest) would the opinion generated be...?

These and more questions I ask myself as I go on this research journey.

Tomi Oladepo : 07 Dec 2012 18:54 | Tags: Democracy Nigeria Publicsphere | Comments (0) | Close comments | Report a problem

November 28, 2012

Tribalism & Nigeria's Democracy

I recently read a Viewpoint by Professor Calestous Juma (International Development, Harvard) on the BBC website, How Tribalism Stunts African Democracy. In this article, he was very clear about the infamous role of tribal sentiments in Africa's stunted socio-political progress, and how its influence in Africa politics is somewhat underestimated whilst we beam our spotlight on theelection process.

As a quick recap, my research is on building democratic culture through an effective (digital) public sphere, and a few questions are currently guiding my study. They are:

What is the new digital public sphere?
In what ways has digital media facilitated democracy?
What new culture, social and political changes have been affected by this digital public sphere?
What existing societal forces are disadvantageous to its development?
What strategies can be found to to be instrumental in developing a fully effective public sphere?

(More on my academia.edu profile)

I have highlighted the question that best addresses the issue of tribalism.

Nigeria is the focus of my study. Since the Professor illustrated his points with mainly Kenya and Somalia, I thought I'll do a blog post on how tribalism is also a big issue in Nigeria's democracy.

I have not begun to tackle this question in detail (i'm still on the first two questions), however, I feel it is necessary for me to touch upon it albeit briefly here. Let me call this post a mini-preptowards the real deal. I have no doubt that in the course of research, I will find other social forces that are detrimental to the creation of the digital public sphere. Hypothetically, tribalism may be on the list of findings. As a researcher, I am often self-reminded not to go into the field with ready-made assumptions.

Moving on, I have a few texts that aptly capture how tribalism began to rear its head in Nigeria's social-sphere, especially in Journalism; not being nipped in the bud, it gradually sipped into party-politics and found a clear pathway to strongly impact on the country's democracy. If not so, in late 2000s, we wouldn't still be talking about the concept of zoning the presidency in Nigeria.

Where did this start?

Once upon a time, Nigeria and the people within it had a common enemy, colonialism. The race was on to get colonialists off the land and secure political independence. Unlike others, it was a bloodless war fought on the pages of newspapers.

The first newspaper in the country was founded in Abeokuta (a thriving centre of missionary activity) by Rev. Henry Townsend. It was called Iwe Iroyin fun Awon Ara Egba ati Yoruba (the newspaper for the people of Egba and Yoruba).

Albeit that this newspaper was primarily a religious pamphlet, carrying news on missionary activity, it also published content on local politics. Fred Omu (1978) says Iwe Iroyin must have had a robust editorial policy because it was reprimanded by the British Colonial Office, for "aggravating problems of foreign policy".

The birth of a radical press emerged in the 1880s, the kind of press that had no affiliation to the church. These were newspapers by educated Africans, returnees. By 1937 there were no less than 51 newspapers in existence (Olatunji Dare, 2000:12). Here are a few names of the pioneers: Richard Beale Blaize (Lagos Times), Benjamin Blackall (The Observer), Owen Emerick Macaulay (The Eagle and Lagos Critic), John Payne Jackson (Lagos Weekly Record)...

Herbert Macaulay, regarded as the Father of Nationalism took over Nigeria's first daily in 1927, Lagos Daily News and transformed it into 'a ferocious anti-government news paper and a political springboard, and the organ of his political party, the Nigerian National Democratic Party" (Dare, 2000:14-5).

In 1937, Nnamdi Azikwe also joined the league of journalists when he set up West African Pilot, and proceeded to establish Nigeria's first newspaper chain. Azikwe's newspaper chain even 'secured a foothold in Northern Nigeria,' with the publication Daily Comet.

It was about fighting the idea of colonialism, hence tribal differences were kept aside.

In the North, the first newspaper was the Hausa language, Gaskiya Tafi Kwabo, established in 1939 by the colonial authorities.

In 1949, Obafemi Awolowo also set up the Nigerian Tribune to serve as a vehicle for his political party, the Action Group.

As Dare (2000) puts it, a distinct feature of the press in Nigeria before independence was that it was almost entirely owned and controlled by individuals or political parties.

This was the foundation of journalism in Nigeria. Given the significant role journalism plays in the democracy of any society, it's quite evident the road Nigeria's was headed.

I can't put the description of events that occurred after Nigeria's independence any better than Dare (2000 citing Omu (1978):

With the attainment of political independence in 1960, the cleavages that had been subsumed by the nationalist struggle came into bold relief. Britain, the "common enemy", had departed. The regions, the ethnic groups and the political parties around which they were organised, turned inwards on themselves. So intense was the rivalry and the bitterness among the contending political groups that editors and staffers working on newspapers of different political persuasions, were hardly on speaking terms...

In summary, the Nigerian press was already divided along party lines (pre-independence), and the parties were equally divided along ethnic lines. Hence, tribalism became enshrined in Nigeria's democracy even before practice or perhaps I should say attempted practice.

Professor Calestous suggests that concerted effort to build modern political parties founded on development ideas and not tribal bonds is needed to counter this cankerworm of tribalism. Also, that building clear party platforms requires effective intellectual input, usually provided through think-tanks and other research institutions.

Ironically, the intellectuals-of-old in Nigeria were the players in the history I have attempted to narrate in brief. One would have thought they would know better than to than to allow tribal differences fester in politics - there has been no end to it since then. However, there can be an end to it.

How do you suppose tribalism can be eradicated from Nigeria's democracy? What steps would you take?

Your suggestions are welcome. Please comment.

Tomi Oladepo : 28 Nov 2012 08:37 | Tags: Democracy Nigeria | Comments (1) | Close comments | Report a problem

September 29, 2012

Nigerian Twitter

Journal Article: Mapping the Twitterverse in the Developing World: An Analysis of Social Media Use in Nigeria (2012)

Authors: Clayton Fink, Jonathan Kopecky, Nathan Bos, and Max Thomas

Social media research is increasingly becoming popular in developing societies due to the influence it wields in the socio-economic and political sphere as tools for information sharing (in election campaigns for instance), public discussions (among citizens), social movement(s) organisation among other uses.

These authors therefore attempted to explain some of the methodological issues researchers may encounter when analysing social media and its users. Nigeria and Twitter were the cases in focus. Fink et al (2012) explored possible techniques that could be used in determining the demographic characteristics of Twitter users, especially ethnicity and location.

In analysing social media in Nigeria, they provided the geographic distribution of Twitter users, the contribution of mobile phone users to 'Nigerian Twitter' and an estimate of the ethnicity of these users. The significance of their research bears upon the fact that social media users are not representative of the entire populace. In fact, social media is often considered elitist in terms of access and uses. Thus, it is important to have an understanding of who is represented online (and who is neglected).

Findings:

In summary, their findings indicate that in Nigerian-Twitter use, of the three major ethnic groups (Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa), one is under-represented - the Hausas who live in the Northern part of Nigeria. It is however important to note that there are estimated to be over 250 languages and ethnic groups in Nigeria.

According to the authors, Hausas 'have strikingly different views than other Nigerians (for instance Hausas tend to be proponents of the traditional Islamic law, Sharia).' This translates to the fact that when analysing Twitter content, researchers need to be aware that we might be under-representing certain views.

Fink et al (2012) also found that mobile devices made a significant contribution to Twitter usage in the Nigeria. This finding has been buttressed in many articles, news reports and features - CNN(7 ways mobile phone has changed Africa), TNW (Nigerian activist use mobile technology to prevent electoral fraud), World Future Review[PDF] (Africa's mobile phone revolution), among others.

In determining the ethnicity of Nigerian Twitter users, the authors worked with the assumption that a person's name is an indicator of ethnicity, thus employed machine learning (Support Vector Machines) in classifying user names as belonging to one of the three ethnicities. They created a fourth category, "other", comprising names from other Latin-script-based languages.

Conclusion

Fink et al (2012) conclude that social media is indeed a potential source for social and cultural data in studying developing societies. They however stress the importance of recognising whether the views on social media are of the educated elite or mainstream populace. This paper made an effort to address the issue through attempting to characterise online population.

MY RESEARCH

My thesis is on developing a culture of democracy through an effective digital public sphere (in Nigeria). Previous posts on this blog have introduced my research to some extent , but I am yet to do a full post on just the public sphere (coming soon).

The relevance of Fink's study to my research is that Twitter (among other social network sites) is one of those platforms where citizens do come together online to interact and deliberate; whether they do so on issues of common concern or public good (as is Habermas's criteria) is open to debate. However, Fink et al (2012) have suggested a possible methodological technique(s) I could pursue in the future.

They have also provided me with interesting primary data on Nigeria's ethnic representation online. This is significant because democracy is particular about (seemingly) equal representation of voices. In fact, the Internet is perceived to be the enabler of a plurality of voices - where this is lacking, one might begin to appreciate the limitation of the Internet as a democratisation tool.

Please share your thoughts on this post in the comment box below and also kindly suggest similar literature you have come across on Nigeria or any other country's Twittersphere.

Tomi Oladepo : 29 Sep 2012 12:27 | Tags: Nigeria Socialmedia Twitter | Comments (2) | Close comments | Report a problem

July 27, 2012

Social Media "worries" Nigerian Government

Writing about web page http://dailyindependentnig.com/2012/07/mark-worries-over-social-media-applauds-nigerian-press/

This is a news story published in a Nigerian daily newspaper online, Daily Independent, on July 27th, 2012

Excerpts from the report go:

Senate President David Mark on Thursday called for measures to check the negative tendencies of the social media to respect national security and values and encourage patriotism, just as he saluted the courage, doggedness and steadfastness of the Nigerian media.

“The emergence of social media like Facebook, twitter, blackberry messenger, YouTube, etc, have changed the face of media practice by making information sharing easier, faster and quicker.

“But, this is not without its demerits. Social media has become a threat to the ethics of media practice and good governance because of its accessibility and absolute freedom”, he said.

On his own, the Abia State governor, Thedore Orji, urged journalists to encourage Nigerian leaders by writing something good about them.
He advised them not to base their stories on internet information, which cannot be verified, but on the facts on ground available to them.

Social media is known to be used by citizens to articulate their views about governments - some have led to nationwide and transnational protests. The power of voices on these platforms has been so significant that governments have long abandoned attempts to ignore opinions expressed by the people. NYC Mayor Bloomberg says, "social media have made democratic polities more accessible to direct interventions by the populace. Social media are as close as it is possible to get to vox populi, the holy grail of democracy."

In strong or ideal democracies, people's voices should not be a threat, yet what authorities can't control threatens them.

This just reinforces Papacharissi's (2010:11) point on democracy. She says,

Democracy is often treated as a static concept that we either practice effectively, live up to honourably, or are unable to attain. Democracy, however, is imaginary. It is an abstraction. It is based on an ideal , subject to many interpretations, which then influence how the abstraction is practiced by nation-centric political systems.

Papacharissi's argument, simply put, is that democracy is an evolving and fluid term.Nations define its tenets as they deem fit to their respective socio-cultural frame. Therefore once we accept that, the nation-centric definition of what democracy is for Nigeria becomes more obvious when we attempt to thematise it from what is unsaid in Mark's articulation of social media and governance in Nigeria.

On what grounds according to this report does the Nigerian Senate President consider social media a "threat" to governance in Nigeria:

Social media (users) do not respect national security
Social media (users) do not respect national values
Use of social media does not encourage patriotism

Are these reasons sufficient to curb the freedom of expression?

The accessibilty and absolute freedom of expression are his main concerns.

Given the fact that only about twenty-three million Nigerians out of a population of approx one hundred and forty million people have access to the Internet, how access has become a concern is worth investigating. Could it be that the few talking are really making the government squirm? What would be the case if more people get talking (access is increased)?

This simply demonstrates the power of reasoning and deliberation among citizens, where criticism of the government often occurs (public sphere). An effective (liberal) public sphere chcecks the government and pushes it to stay accountable to the people through the medium of talk.

As I am a researcher just asking questions at the moment, I have a few more:

Is access that is already limited to Nigerians, going to be further limited? How would that work?
Is freedom of expression (online) going to be curtailed? and how? what about Nigerians in diaspora?

In some countries, people get jailed for tweets and numerous bloggers have been arrested - in both developed and developing democracies)

This articulation of the Nigerian senate president's take on social media and national governance is of significant interest to me because my thesis is on how a culture of democracy may be developed in Nigeria (developing nations), through an effective digital public sphere.

Papacharissi, Zizi. (2010) A Private Sphere - Democracy in a Digital Age. Cambridge: Polity Press

Tomi Oladepo : 27 Jul 2012 10:08 | Tags: Governance Nigeria Socialmedia | Comments (1) | Close comments | Report a problem

All 7 entries tagged Nigeria