1.1 Introduction
According to Wikipedia (2021), the current Nigerian government has long held concerns over the use of Twitter in the country. The ongoing local End SARS protest began on Twitter and got amplified in 2020 when it had 48 million tweets in ten days. The current government has floated the idea of social media regulation on different occasions prior to banning Twitter. Attempts to pass an anti-social media bill in the past have failed majorly due to massive outcry on Twitter. Days before the ban, the country's minister of information called Twitter's activities in Nigeria suspicious, citing its influence on the End SARS protests (Wikipedia, 2021).
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Twitter is a free social networking micro blogging 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. However, the Federal Government has banned the use of Twitter.
The Internet has offered both opportunities and difficulties to the newspaper industry. The internet has brought exciting new developments to news creation and distribution, but it also poses a threat to the conventional printed newspaper. Print newspapers had been established for more than 100 years when, in the 1930s, they experienced their heyday as the most widely read news medium in the United States (Douglas, 1999). The Internet, on the other hand, needed less than 15 years to claim that title when the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism discovered that, for the first time, more people obtained their news from the Internet than from newspapers at the end of 2010 (Rosenstiel & Mitchell, 2011). This momentous shift in the news media environment raises fresh concerns regarding the impact of the Internet on newsreaders, particularly their engagement with the news. Some have accused online newspapers for being merely material shoveled from their print counterparts, presented traditionally, without leveraging much of the Internet’s potential as newspapers migrate from traditional printed pages to the world of pixels and bytes (Gubman & Greer, 1997.) The Pew Center for Civic Journalism’s Jan Schaffer (2001) proposed that this be done with a “far more interactive toolset” since news online gives the chance to build a completely new method to deliver journalism. One of the characteristics that distinguish the Internet as a media is its interactivity. Newspapers can provide in-depth reporting, while television can provide images and sound. When these features are offered online, consumers are frequently confronted with technological restrictions. Although these technical challenges may be addressed in a few years, Web journalism should still be able to provide something extra, something distinctive, now. In today’s climate, media organizations are attempting to establish whether online news is complimentary or competitive to their operations (Dutta-Bergman, 2004), while journalists are learning how to operate across different platforms (Huang, Davison, Shreve, Davis, Bettendorf & Nair, 2003).
Newspapers have a long history of seeking, gathering, analyzing, and creating news in a one-way daily delivery format, but the Internet may help users make the reporting process more transparent by allowing site visitors to see, hear, or read the sources that reporters used (Hlongoane, n.d.). Lowrey (1999, in Hlongoane, n.d.) stated that both journalists and consumers must create new methods for digesting news online rather of perceiving it as a modified form of print journalism in order to get to a position where sites make full advantage of the online features that make the Web distinctive. The internet enables for user participation. This is a benefit of using online publications. It provides publishers with the potential to generate additional revenue streams based on their main offering, data collecting and analysis, due to its low barrier to entry. The medium’s interaction has piqued the interest of many, pulling viewers away from television and back to a mostly text-based medium. Newspapers may be found on the internet in a variety of formats, including online newspapers (newspaper websites), e-papers, and even mobile applications (sometimes known as “apps”). While e-paper offers us the sensation of holding a real newspaper issue in our hands, with all of the layout and style, online paper and news mobile applications provide more opportunities for interaction. Newspapers have undergone a transformation in terms of both content and appearance. Interactivity has been improved through the use of color, graphics, blurbs, colorful headlines, attractive visual make-up, layout, and other patterns of display of written words. We are no more a “passive” consumer of “foreign” and “standardized news value-based” material; instead, we read about our own daily concerns, problems, events, and circumstances that we encounter in our daily lives. The new format has increased the reader’s engagement. Not just the media, but also the consumers’ priorities, lifestyles, needs, and tastes have shifted in recent years, forcing the media to adapt. We are approaching a new era of involvement, in which the lines between consumer and producer are blurring more and more. This is particularly obvious in the media sphere, as newspapers are striving to create a more active engagement with their readers than in the past.
Twitter is a social platform that provides users to follow one other and send messages that are limited to 140 characters. Relationships on Twitter may be entirely one-sided, unlike on other social networking platforms. For example, one user may follow another without the later being obligated to follow the first. Twitter burst onto the scene in March 2006, owing to its simple user interface, which stood in sharp contrast to its rivals, who were allowing users complete customization of their personal pages at the time, resulting in a crowded, gaudy appearance (Experian, 2009).
Twitter has always welcomed third-party developers, providing a flexible application programming interface (API) and enjoying unparalleled celebrity appeal (Twitter Counter, 2010). However, despite its widespread popularity and extensive mainstream media attention, Twitter’s growth has lagged behind that of Google and Facebook after their respective first three years. Google has 18 million users, Facebook has 27 million, and Twitter has 8 million (Battelle, 2009). As Twitter approaches its fifteenth year of operation, it can no longer be considered a new kid on the block, but many people are still unsure of its purpose or if it has any value for them. It’s “for finding and sharing what’s going on in your life right now,” according to Twitter. While this is accurate, and regrettably, by its very nature, most of the material posted is ‘pointless chatter,’ it fails to see Twitter’s economic potential (Java et al., 2007).
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Social Media and the Challenge of Freedom of Expression.
1.3 Statement of Problems
The Nigeria Federal Government suspended the operations of the micro blogging and social networking service Twitter in Nigeria. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday, 5 June 2021, citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence (Aljezeera.com).
The influence of social media in today’s world of communication, especially journalism cannot be over-looked. Since its arrival social media have certainly changed the way journalists work, how stories are developed and disseminated. Social media have had positive influences, without doubt, but there are also concerns about their influence on productivity and the disruption it could have on journalists working patterns.
While journalists are growing more sophisticated in their use of social media, and are for instance, using a great variety of tools to source for news, some journalists are less positive about some of the ways social media affect their journalistic activities, their engagement with their audience, their productivity and the quality of their work.
It is therefore, against this backdrop, that this study seeks to investigate the perception of newspaper readers on the Federal Governments ban on Twitter.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to examine the Social Media and the Challenge of Freedom of Expression using Twitter ban in Nigeria as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To determine the effects of Twitter ban on the residents of Ado-Ekiti.
- To investigate the perception of people on the Twitter ban.
- To determine the extent to which this has affected the residents of Ado-Ekiti.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What are the effects of Twitter ban on the residents of Ado-Ekiti?
- What perceptions do people have on the Twitter ban?
- To what extent has this Twitter ban affected the social life of residents of Ado-Ekiti?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There is no significant social media Challenge of Freedom of Expression of residents of Ado-Ekiti
- H1: There is a significant social media Challenge of Freedom of Expression of residents of Ado-Ekiti
Hypothesis Two
- H0: There are no significant difference between journalists in Nigeria who uses twitter social media networking tools and those who do not.
- H1: There are significant difference between journalists in Nigeria who uses twitter social media networking tools and those who do not.
1.7 Significance of Study
This research will delve into the unanticipated consequences of Nigeria’s erratic decision to ban the usage of Twitter. In light of this, the study will also educate/apprise the Nigerian government on the hazards that the country’s indefinite suspension of Twitter may cause, as well as enlighten them on the significance of listening to their citizens’ opinions. More so, for all residents of Nigeria, this study will proffer relevant recommendations that will aid and strengthen online social interaction so as to always be enlightened about the happenings in society. Lastly, this study will serve as a source of relevant information for students, researchers, other academics, and the general public.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.8 Scope of Study
This study is delimited to the effects of the Twitter ban on the residents of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State. It will also cover the social media and the challenge of freedom of expression using Twitter Ban in Nigeria as a case study and the extent to which this Twitter ban affects them. The respondents of this study will be obtained from Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definitions of Terms
Social media: the term social media refers to the internet-based social networking website developed to specifically help people share their views and stay in touch with their friend, relatives and well wishers.
Journalism: this is the practice of writing, editing and disseminating of information to the public.
Modern Journalism: it is a term used to describe the new era in journalism where internet and computers are use in almost every journalistic activity.
Media: media in this study is Twitter social media networking tools which journalists use to disseminate information to a large heterogeneous audience.
Twitter: Twitter is an American micro blogging and social networking website on which users post and interact with messages known as “tweets”.
BAN: A ban is an official or informal prohibition of something. Bans are created for the restriction of activities within a specific political region.
Newspaper: A printed publication (usually issued daily or weekly) consisting of folded unstapled sheets and containing news, articles, advertisements, and correspondence.
