The Impact Of Social Media On National Security: Nigeria’s Perspective

The Impact Of Social Media On National Security: Nigeria’s Perspective

Chapter One

Preface

Background Of The Study

public security borders on prevalence that endangers mortal actuality or weal( Ali, 2013). Nigeria’s public security means the protection of the lives, rights, quality and property of its citizens( Ibagere, 2010). It’s also the protection of its coffers, artistic integrity, home, sovereignty and legal institutions of the country( Wali, 2012). public security encompasses freedom from peril or pitfalls to a nation’s stability to cover itself, promote its cherished values and licit interest, and enhance the well- being of its people( Nwanegbo and Odigbo, 2013). The end of public security is to secure the just and indifferent living conditions for all the citizens of the country and of peace for mortal life.

serve to say, communication is central to mortal life as it sustains and maintains mortal relationship and social commerce. It’s the transfer of information from one person, environment or group to another( Giddens etal., 2005). According to Robins( 2005), communication is a definite process involving the source or sender encoding of cues or prompts, communication or purpose through a channel or medium of transmission to the decoder or the receiver so as to give a feedback. In substance, agents frequently consider which applicable channel( s) or medium to use in order to reach a given target followership and one of similar channels is the internet( Ebner etal., 2010).

Social media, as a means of communication are computer- intermediated tools that allow people to produce, partake or change information, ideas, and filmland vids in virtual communities and networks( Adedeji, 2011). It’s the collections of internet websites, services and practices that support collaboration, community structure, participation, and sharing( Ndaku, 2013). Social media can also be defined as a group of Internet- grounded operations that make on the ideological and technological foundations of Web2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of stoner- generated content. Social media thus depend on mobile and web- grounded technologies to produce largely interactive platforms through which individualities and communities partake,co-create, bandy, and modify stoner- generated content( Bello, 2012).

A major order of the social media exertion is social networking. In the recent times, there has been adding integration of social media networking tools similar as blogs, microblogs, and videotape- sharing spots into the society( Robbins, 2005). Social networking spots have also enhanced the functioning of the aged media of communication( Cranston and Davies, 2009). Social networking websites, similar as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, have generally come an integral part of the society( Cotton, 2008). Ndaku( 2013), posits that social networking which include blogs( political Blog), networks( Facebook, Twitter,etc.), videotape sharing( YouTube), audio sharing( Podcast), mobile spots( 2goetc.), image or picture sharing( flicker),etc. have the capacity of boosting participation of the general public into the nation’s good because of their open, conversational nature, connectedness and textual and audio-visual characteristic prayers.

In Nigeria, there has been a current rate of instability and this is made egregious by the intimidating trend ofanti-social acts current in the nation( Wali, 2012). Acts of terrorism by the Boko Haram Islamic side, incidents of hijacking in the southeast and South- South corridor of the country, including agitations by zealots in the Niger Delta have come “ brands ” of crime that have given a negative identity to Nigeria( Ali, 2013). This is in addition to other conventional crimes similar as theft, wildfire, violent ethno-religious conflicts to mention but many, which the law enforcement agents battle daily( Ofuafor, 2008). These acts particularly those that involve trouble to life have contributed in creating an intimidating state of instability in some corridor of the country.

The social media is a top player in the arena of public security( Nwanegbo and Odigbo, 2013). The social media by their nature have the capabilities of educating, informing, amusing and inflaming the followership( Adedeji, 2011). Above all, they retain a contagious and overstepping influence which the conventional media warrant and this eventuality is most probably what Osahenye( 2012) refers to as impregnable power of the social media. Social media is a twice edged brand in that it can be used either in a salutary or mischievous ways. It’s on this thrust that this study was carried out to examine the impact of social media on public security from the viewpoint of Nigeria perspective.

Statement Of The Problem

Ndaku( 2013) rightfully posited that social media function as a watchdog able of blowing the whoosh to call attention to serious public issues. This implies a clear recognition of the fact that the media plays an important part on issues of public security. The involvement of agreements and gratefulness is generally the center for media publishers to neglect information perceptivity and pursue financial satisfaction. This problem can be cited as Profit Maximization Vs information protection.

The purposeful publishing of information on social media platform without the concurrence of security agencies is a major problem that endangers the public security of Nigeria, Hence arises the question, Do they lias with security agencies before publishing?

The growing challenge of security in Nigeria is of concern to all. Every trouble must be employed to combat this challenge. The issue of public security is a abecedarian issue in public and transnational relations. It’s in adherence to this fact that media publication outfits are experts at intelligence gathering processes. Brings the question, How could they publish without security enterprises when they deliberately warrant the intelligence conditions?

The power of the media to decide what the people should read, see or hear has noway been in mistrustfulness. What has been in the center of contestation is the capacity of those in whose hands live similar enormous powers to using how do they process information before publication?

likewise, Ali( 2013) observed that the topmost challenge to the social media in Nigeria moment is how to make itself applicable to the Nigerian society particularly where republic is on trial, and public institutions are taking shape. In this light, this study will proffer ways of perfecting social media for effective operation of public security in Nigeria. Relating to the Nigerian perspective of how the operations of the social media affect public security has been on the increase whereby the information sensitive to public protection is let loose, blamed or black- posted before proper dispersion.

Exploration Objects

The end of this study is to examine the impact of social media on public security from the viewpoint of Nigeria. Specifically, the objects of this study are

1. To identify the colorful types of social media that Nigerians are exposed to.

2. To examine the positive impacts of social media on public security.

3. To examine how social media has impacted on public security negatively

4. To proffer ways of perfecting social media for effective operation of public security in Nigeria.

Exploration Questions

This study will answer the following exploration questions

1. What are the colorful types of social media that Nigerians are exposed to?

2. What are the positive impacts of social media on public security?

3. To what extent has social media impacted on public media negatively?

4. What are the ways of perfecting social media for effective operation of public security in Nigeria?

Significance Of The Study

The social media is a top player in the arena of public security; hence, this study shall give a abstract frame that will address the places of social media on public security from the viewpoint of Nigeria. This exploration will thus enlighten the Government of Nigeria and other concerned stakeholders on how social media can affect public security, therefore furnishing ways of managing the rising precariousness in Nigeria. This exploration will serve as a useful companion to policy makers on how stylish to attack security challenges in Nigeria. More so, this study will also serve as a good source of information by Nigerian policy makers, scholars of security studies, public administration and sociology as it would also identify how influence of social media on public security. This study will also serve as a starting point for farther exploration by other scholars who might be interested in this area of study. In addition to that, this study will also add to the body of being literatures on the impact of social media on public security. It’ll enable us to study the negative impact of media publication which is been affected by profit maximization.

Compass Of The Study

The study will be centered on the impact of social media in public security from the perspective of Nigeria. The choice of social media is because of the adding trend of its operation in the diurnal conditioning of Nigerians. As a matter of fact, this study will only consider social media similar as Blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Podcast, 2go, flicker, Instagram etc and won’t look at the impact of other mass media on public security. likewise, public security is a veritably sensitive issue and as similar, opinions to be generated in this study will cover particular views and comprehensions of individualities on the impact of social media in public security. So, the data generated during the course of this exploration work will be limited on the impact of social media in public security from Nigerian perspective.

Limitation Of The Study

An important limitation to the study was finance and limited time frame. The lack of pivotal data or the presence of falsified data by government agencies and numerous publications were major limitations.

still, in malignancy of all these Limitations sweats were made to insure the quality of this exploration in the use of sources similar as Academic Journals, journals, Blogs, Bills and other accoutrements .1.8 description of Terms

The following are crucial terms used in the exploration work

National Security National security according to Macmillan Dictionary( 2010) is the protection or the safety of a country’s secrets and its citizens. public security is a prerequisite for progress and orderliness in any society and this is because the protection of lives and property is consummate in the life of man. numerous effects are bedded in public security and it includes profitable security, energy security, environmental security and so forth. still, for the purpose of this paper, public security means the protection of a nation’s citizens to insure political, profitable, and social order so as to enable the nation- state prosper along with other nations in order to attain public pride and fulfillment among the harmony of nations.

Communication Communication is the act of conducting of information by speaking, writing or using some other medium. It’s a means of transferring or entering information similar as telephone lines or computers. For this study, communication can be defined the way of transferring information either through spoken or verbal( face- to- face, telephone, radio or other media) and written communication( letters,e-mails, books, magazine, internets)

Media They technologies that are intended to reach a large followership by mass communication.

Social Media They’re forms of electronic communication which grease interactive base on certain interests. Social media include web and mobile technology. Social Media can also be defined as a group of internet grounded operation that allows the creation and exchange of stoner generated content.

Social Networking The use of internet to make information about yourself available to other people especially people you partake an interest with to shoot dispatches to them.

Social Networking spots A website where people put information about them and can shoot to others similar as Blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Podcast, 2go, flicker.

Association Of The Study

The study is organized into five( 5) chapters

Chapter one is the preface of the study and comprises of with background of the study, statement of the problem, exploration objects, exploration questions, significance of the study, compass and limitations of the study, description of terms and association of the study.

The chapter two is the literature review and theoretical frame with special focus on the conception of communication, conception of mass media, conception of social media, conception of public security, overview of the security challenges in Nigeria, places of mass media in public development, relationship between media and public security and theoretical frame

Chapter three discusses the exploration methodology which includes exploration design, population of the study, sample size, slice fashion, system of data collection and system of data analysis.

Chapter four dwells on data donation, analysis and interpretation, followed by testing of thesis and discussion of findings.

Chapter five is principally on the summary of the study, conclusions and recommendations.