SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE ON THE MASS MOBILISATION OF NIGERIANS AGAINST STRIKE ACTION IN NIGERIA (EDUCATION PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
ABSTRACT
The insidious evolution of the internet into the socio cultural setting of any modern society has become something to look into. It is not however the first time scholars would take a microscopically scientific purview into the emerging phenomenon. Different scholars, theorists and researchers have dwelled into various issues appertaining to the new media. Apart from this, the act of mobilization has being a topical issue especially in the area political mobilization and synergy. Thus, it is suffice to look into how the social media can be used in the mass mobilization of people for political mobilization. This paper looks into the influence of social media on the for mass mobilization of people using the just concluded strike action in Nigeria as a case study
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The unprepared emergence of social media technology in the face of developing societies has herald change of status quo within the socio, political and economic ecological setting of any society. The advent of social networks is a cyber revolution that changed the course of time. According to Tom Glocer, CEO of Reuters, one of the world biggest International News agencies, He believes that the era when government of a nation would filter the news of what the people listen to, hear or read is about eroding.
Apart from the fact that social media has been able to break the barrier in news reportage; making people know the true nature of happenings around them, it is now being use as tool of political propaganda, sensitization, insurgence and a medium of dissent. The revolution of social media has created three basic things:
- It has aided in building a politically conscious civil society over the course of a number of years prior to the Revolution.
- It has lowered the threshold for engaging in political dissent by providing a relatively anonymous space for political debate in a country that outlaws gatherings of five or more people.
- It has allowed organizers to plan protests more easily and anonymously.
The recent events that happened in London; London riot, in Egypt and Tunisia; the Arab spring and Middle East; Lebanon and ongoing political restiveness in Syria, came as a resultant effect of the unrestricted flow of information via the social media. Professor Norman Vaughan of king Fahid university, Saudi Arabia, believes that social media is largely responsible for the political upheaval in the middle East and the Arab world, He said the government’s effort of controlling it is seemingly failing because the text messaging which is supported by cell towers still cannot be control. He further said that government used to kill revolution by controlling the flow of information, but now, is pretty near impossible as a result of rapid technological development of the Social media.
