INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE MASS MOBILIZATION OF PEOPLE IN THE 2013 UNIVERSITY ASUU STRIKE ACTION IN NIG

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction to the Study

1.1 Background to the Study

The origin of communication has been traced to the ancient Homosapiens i.e. (Neanderthal man) and it has remained ubiquitous activity which enables us to relate with others anywhere. For instance, numerous studies have confirmed that an individual, in his entire life spends 75 percent of each day communicating. One of such studies cited by Berlo (1960) says “each of us spends 10 or 11hours a day, everyday performing verbal communication behaviour. According to Ugboajah (1985), in his book communication: An Overview. To be is to communicate, without communication, man is not dierent from lower animals, our ability to carry symbols around with us, to interpret them and relate them around makes us distinct (from the lower animals) without communication, man will cease to exist as a social creature because communication is a social affair.

1.1.1 Era of Social Media in Human Communication

The advancement in technology in this era has improved and enhanced effective communication in our society today especially among the students. 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, because citizens are now part of information gathering and information dissemination. 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.

1.1.2 History of social media

Before the recent relevant of social media, this means of communication has suffered years of neglect. The social network was conceptualized has just a medium of interaction and virtual home to transfer or extend relationships. In 1978, Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, computer hobbyists, invented the bulletin board system (BBS). It was invented to inform friends and relatives about coming events and share information. This invention marked the beginning of revolution that change the social and global perspective of reality and virtual reality. In 1993, The university of Illinois students developed the mosaic, which was said to gave birth to the world wide web (WWW).these were the inventions that started the acceleration of social network .Beverly Hills internet launched GeoCities around this time also. It was a service that allowed for individuals to create their website. In 1994, the internet got the name information Superhigh way; signified the advent arrival of internet and a threat for the traditional media. Blogging also became popular. Within the anal of 1998, GeoCities became public. It marked the very first social network. It was created by Great Britain to locate past friends in school. However, Yahoo `bought GeoCities ($3.57 million). In same the steam, google, and AOL started operation. At the turn of millennium, about 70 million computers were connected to the world. 2003 marked a revolution with the creation of facebook and the increasing rate of using other social network; AOL hit 34million users, friend reunited hits 15million. 2006, a lot of social network companies line up to buy Facebook, Viacom and yahoo were in the lead but the deal fall through. Between the span of 2007 to 2011, a lot of social networks were established: twitter, bing, buzz, youtube and so on. About 600million people worldwide now have a home in the virtual reality

1.2 Statement of Problem

Nigeria, as a nation, has not been shielded in this global phenomenon. In the weeks past, the nation was in the waters of dissatisfaction as a result of the deregulation of the downward sector of the petroleum industries. For the very first time in a long while, Nigerians were politically awakened and there was an unprecedented grievance hitting the cloud of Nigeria terrain. The sudden awaken of Nigerians was partly to the already poverty searing situation and the ‘cyber revolution’ in Nigeria. The increase in the use of social media in Nigeria has affected positively the level of information dissemination, and bridge the gap of lacuna filtered news. As it has become a common phenomenon with the rest of the world, the government of Nigeria seems to be in quandary about what to do with this cyber revolution. Apart from this, with a country that just granted freedom of information, it would be logically sarcastic to restrict the use of social media. thus, this research tends to look at the way and manner citizens, or ‘netizens’, of Nigeria’s territory were mobilized for the protest against the deregulation of the downstream sector of petroleum starting from January 1st 2012. Hence, the research looks into the influence of social media in the mass mobilization of people for the just concluded “Association of Sta Union of Union” (ASUU) strike: a study of the students of Osun State Polytechnic, Iree.