Crystallization Effect of Television Broadcasts on Nigerian Voters During a Presidential Election

Television is popularly used to offer information to viewers during elections. There will always be citizens who register to participate in an election and then refuse to take further steps, like casting their votes. This study sought to find out if television broadcasts made citizens like these experience the crystallization effect. This effect causes uninterested citizens to make crystal clear choices on particular contestants. This study sought to find out about the crystallization effect on voters in Ado Odo/Ota communities in Ogun State of Nigeria during the 2007 Nigerian presidential election. The survey method was used to get required data from 782 respondents who were not members of any political party, had no candidate preference, and were yet to decide on who to vote for in this election. It seems plain from this study that television broadcasts sharpened these citizens' decisions to make specific choices. These undecided, indifferent, or neutral voters had their ideas crystallized or decisively formed to vote for specific candidates after exposure to television broadcasts.

Social Media and Electoral Processes

Existing research documents extensively explain the reasons for social media use during electoral campaigns. However, there is insufficient evidence showing that social media are indeed being used to complement traditional ways of communication. This chapter uses the diffusion of innovations theory to explain the adoption and non-adoption of Facebook (FB) by Romanian political parties during the 2019 European election campaign. The chapter addresses two research questions: the differences between Facebook adopters and non-adopters during this campaign in Romania and how this adoption or non-adoption impacted the overall election results. 885 Facebook posts were content analysed. This chapter evidences that adopting Facebook to engage the posts does not always result in improved electoral outcomes.

Social Media and Fake News Impact on Social Movements

Social media has become the favored digital communication channel and offers many advantages, such as spreading information faster than conventional media. However, social media's disadvantages have been the increase in fake news driven mainly by the growing digitalization of information and the increase of deepfakes. Nowadays, fake news has a new scope beyond traditional, cold war-style disinformation because of its unprecedented capacity to mobilize an assortment of news and media simultaneously. The impact of social media and fake news so dramatically impacted social movements in both Tunisia and Egypt that it is often characterized as the first social media-influenced social movement. These movements became known as the Arab Spring, which was mainly in response to oppressive regimes and low standard of living. This chapter focuses on the lead-up and impact of social media, and online-activists that influenced the Arab Spring. The authors use a narrative and exploratory research approach to conceptually understand digital communication's role and impact throughout the Arab Spring.

Social Media and Nigeria's Politics

The robust contributions of social media to Nigeria's politics cannot be underestimated. The increase in the informal flow of information on social media has reduced the existing gap between leaders and the electorate. This chapter analyzes the effect of social media in a democratic society like Nigeria. It explains the importance of social media in politics and the inherent issues in its adoption in the Nigeria experience. Existing research on social media and politics tend to focus on finding out how social media has marred Nigeria's politics. However, there is little evidence of scholars' presenting robust findings of the impact of social media on presenting a robust framework landscape. Consequently, the chapter provides insights on how social media has impacted Nigeria's politics. Furthermore, it critically analyzes and dissects the synergy between social media and politics, democracy, political mobilization, political education, and political advertising.

Social Media, Citizens' Participation in Elections, and the Proverbial Dividends of Democracy in Nigeria's Fourth Republic

The objectives of this chapter are to examine social media and citizens' participation in elections in Nigeria's Fourth Republic; appraise social media and delivery of democratic dividends in Nigeria's Fourth Republic; and identify the relationship among social media, citizen participation in elections, and delivery of democratic dividends in Nigeria's Fourth Republic. The study was hinged on the social capital and democratic participant media theories and a review of relevant academic literature. The study finds that while social media facilitated citizen participation during elections in Nigeria's Fourth Republic, actual voter turnout was low. Also, the study shows that in spite of social media use by Nigerian citizens, democracy dividends are yet to be delivered to Nigerian citizens. And lastly, findings reveal that there appears to be a weak relationship between social media and citizens' participation in elections in Nigeria and that social media use by Nigerians has not delivered the dividends of democracy to the people.

Political Cartoons in a Model African State

Cartoonists' stock-in-trade has been to lampoon the excesses and moral foibles of political power holders. Cartoonists have been most unkind to misrule, abuse of power, and authoritarianism. The overarching aim of this study was to find out if cartoonists would be gentle and kind to Botswana political figures seeing that they preside over a state which had been held up as beacon of hope and a model of good governance. Cartoonists employed Eko's transilience to animalize African leaders for satirical purposes deterritorialization to remove them from familiar territories for ethical criticisms. This chapter examines the themes and direction of the cartoons, the study's findings indicate that Botswana newspaper cartoonists largely engage in deterritorialization more than transilience. However, the global trend of irreverence and negative portrayal of politicians persists.

Narrative Analysis of the Coverage of the 2015 and 2019 Presidential Elections in Selected Nigerian Newspapers

The media is important for the sustenance of democracy. While several studies have examined the role played by the Nigerian media during elections, none has examined issues discussed by the media during elections, in particular the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections. Therefore, the study undertook, through narrative research design, the coverage of the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections in Vanguard Nigeria and Daily Trust newspapers. Findings from the study reveal that Nigerian newspapers preached national unity, warned of economic depression and the need to diversify the economy, questioned the preparedness of the electoral commission to conduct elections, questioned the ability of the presidential aspirants to eradicate corruption, spoke out against pre-election violence and vote-buying, and spoke against the use of divisive rhetoric by politicians. The study recommends that media owners and professionals themselves should safeguard the profession from being a tool in the hands of divisive politicians.

Newspaper Coverage of the Boko Haram Terror Campaign in Nigeria

Terrorism is one of the leading security challenges in Nigeria. Since 2009, the terrorist group, Boko Haram, is the major group fueling this problem by carrying out terror attacks mostly in the northeastern part of the country. The period between 2014 and 2015 marked the peak of terrorist attacks by the group. This period coincided with the general elections, which saw a transition from one civilian regime to another. Boko Haram menace was one of the pressing issues that voters wanted to be resolved. How did the media frame this problem? A content analysis of three national daily newspapers was conducted to see the newspapers' pattern of Boko Haram coverage shortly before and after the 2015 general elections. The study found a slight difference in Boko Haram's reporting before the elections and after. While most of the frames used in newspapers remained unchanged, the frames reflecting hopelessness began to feature more.