The Nation Newspaper

Tag: social

  • Role of social media in war against insurgency

    The social media plays a pivotal role in the reportage of counterterrorism activities around the world. But this is not to say that the onus of nipping insurgency in the bud solely rests on its shoulders. Nigerian terrorist group, Boko-haram has gained increased media attention over the past few years. However, the efforts of our military troops in the north-east has been commendable and worthy of praise. The relationship between terrorism and social media has long been noted.

    Terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabab, ISIS, and more recently, Boko-haram, depend on the open media systems of democratic countries and the internet to further their propagandist goals and messages. In order to garner publicity for their cause, terrorist organisations resort to acts of violence and aggression that deliberately target innocent citizens and upload these nefarious acts on social media. This method has proven to be quite effective in gathering attention, due to the convenience, affordability and broad reach of social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. While the social media may not support the goals of terrorist organisations, it is their duty to report current issues and events as they break. In the fiercely competitive internet environment, when a terrorist attack occurs, social media outlets scramble to break the story. In so doing, they knowingly or unknowingly help to further the agenda of these groups. This clearly illustrates that terrorism thrives on the oxygen of publicity, and the free media in open societies are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation by ruthless terrorist groups.

    In the same vein, social media has been a remarkably successful means of publicising the fight against these insurgents by the brave men and women of the Nigerian military. As a result of its unique and ubiquitous nature, the social media has in more ways than one, helped to create a positive awareness via hashtags, retweets, viral anti-insurgency campaign videos and online press releases from notable military authorities, especially in the North-east. However, it can do more. Internet users look to social media outlets to provide news especially on terrorism and counterterrorism. If they believe the former is a threat to their safety, they will want to be informed of the threats against them. The social media must fulfil the desires of its consumers by portraying terrorism as a threat and a menace to our society. These platforms understand that the stories they report have astounding effects on the political, sociological, and psychological perspectives on our society. Hence, they must gear up and help to sensitise and sanitise the mindset of its users, helping to discourage the recruitment of unsuspecting citizens, and also aiding the general public by providing intelligence to security agencies. This means that they must be ready to work hand-in-glove with the latter, and must possess basic skills for writing for the new media. The social media blogger or reporter must be patriotic and must be adept in security intelligence reporting. They must also Understand basic security terminologies, be socially literate, possess the ability to effectively communicate with the public without unnecessarily heating up the polity with “half-truths”, and avoid news commercialisation by any means possible.

    In dealing with extremism, we need answers that go beyond a military answer. We need answers that go beyond force. Considering the role social media plays in our daily lives, it is arguably a massive tool in the ideological campaign of most terrorist groups, and if we as a nation are to gain the confidence of the entire citizenry, it is a weapon we must harness as well.

     

    • Oluwatosin, 400-Level Mass Comm., JABU

     

  • Edo lawmaker to companies: adopt Corporate Social Responsibilities

    The lawmaker representing Ikpoba-Okha/Egor Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon Ehiozuwa Agbonnayima, has urged multinational companies operating in his constituency to do more for their host communities.

    Ehiozuwa spoke after he visited Ward Nine, Ologbo community in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government, to see the abandoned health care facilities built by an oil firm, Pan Ocean.

    Ehiozuwa was peeved to learn that the health centre was built and inaugurated in October, 2014 but has since remained under lock and key.

    The lawmaker had earlier visited the oil firm and Guinness Nigeria Plc to urge them to be alive to their Corporate Social Responsibilities when he was told about the now abandoned health centre.

    At the health centre, some community members said they requested for the health centre at Imasabor quarters of Ologbo as the Itsekiri and Idologbo quarters already has an health centre each.

    They however said one doctor is available in one of the health centre.

    The abandoned health centre, according to the community members, is equipped  with modern medical facilities with a stand-by generator and a borehole.

    A large part of the centre has been overtaken by weeds.

    Mr. Actor Osakpolor, who spoke on behalf of the community, said the health centre was closed because no medical personnel was available.

    According to him,  “It was built and commissioned years back. There are some equipment there but some professionals said the equipment are not complete. We don’t have doctors and nurses on ground.

    “We have two other health centres but there is only one doctor in one of them while at the other one, there are only nurses.  We have not been using it because there are no doctors. Pan Ocean has more than 20 oil wells in this community.”

    Eziozuwa promised to visit the Edo State Government to ascertain why the health centre was not put to use said he would encourage investors to invest in his constituency so that the people could be employed.

    His words, “It is not to discourage those already here. I went there to tell them about things to be done and to know how many people that they have employed, especially as it concerns their CSR.”

    “Some of the equipment at the health centre are not in other big hospitals. It was well furnished and now it is laying down fallow. If Pan Ocean could build a health care centre and the people are now being denied it means they have done enough but I want them to do more.”

    “What is important is for me to visit the State Goevrnor to know what happened and what are the problems, why there are no doctor and nurses. Grass have taken over the beautiful healthcare centre.”

    Speaking on his visit to Guiness, Hon Ehiozuwa said he discovered that the firm was serious in carrying the community along.

    “I challenged them on Western Boys football field. Guinness has a football team that make use of the field for training. They have not anything to improve on the field. I told them I want to see improvement in the school that is just opposite them.”

    “They showed me schools that they have renovated and a road they constructed. I appealed to them to build the bridge across the river to link Upper Sakponba. They have agreed with me to partner on the bridge but it would be done stage by stage. Other companies should do something, we have a lot of churches and mosques. They should do something in their immediate society.”

     

  • Youths must engage social media wisely’

    Youths must engage social media wisely’

    Ebenezer Wikina, 22, is famous for his activities on the social media. A student of the Institute of Journalism in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, Ebenezer is also an online volunteer for the United Nations. This gave him the opportunity to represent Nigeria at the recently-held World Economic Forum (WEF) regional conference in South Africa. He shares his inspiration with CALEB ADEBAYO (Law, Obafemi Awolowo University).

    You seem to have a passion for journalism. How did you come about it?

    When I was 10 years old, I watched the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) news each time I visited my paternal grandmother. She never missed the NTA Network News, and she always made me watch. My childhood memories were filled with names like, Fatima Abass Hassan, Eugenia Abu and Cyril Stobber. My dad would also keep old books and magazines for me to read. These stoked my passion for writing and journalism.

    How did you come about your blogs – Write Paragraphs and The Stroll – for which you are now famous?

    Mary Ajayi and I started Write Paragraphs blog, because we wanted to give voice to the youth. Since, I had interest in the United Nations (UN) activities, I registered with the UN online volunteering service. We created Write Paragraphs to share our thoughts on global issues. But, it grew to what it is today. The Stroll is a column on the blog, where we interview people and share their stories and ideas to inspire youths across the world. I always conduct the interview on social media and I have published over 90 interviews of high-profile people, including Mr Ahmad Alhendawi, the UN youth envoy; UN Under Secretary General Gyan Acharya; Prof Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director, United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA); Richard Wurman, founder of Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED), and Nathaniel Bassey, a gospel artiste, to mention a few.

     

    Why did you volunteer for the UN programme?

    I always believed I can contribute my quota to world peace and progress; so, when I heard of the UN volunteering programme, it was an opportunity for me. I like volunteering for anything that will benefit my peers.

    What inspired the TED event?

    I learnt about TED in 2008 when my mum bought a Java phone for me, which gave me access to the Internet. In 2013, I applied for a license to host TED event in Port Harcourt, but I was told Donald Okudu had already got the license for it. I located the team and volunteered to work with them. After Port Harcourt event, I sought Donald’s approval to replicate the event in Ile-Ife. It turned out to be the only TED event in West Africa in 2014.

    You represented Nigeria at a recent World Economic Forum (WEF) regional conference in South Africa. What lessons did you draw from the event?

    I was one of the 80 youths drawn from Africa to represent our respective countries. I was not the only representative from Nigeria. There were youths from Lagos, Abuja, Calabar and Kano. In the course of the event, I became a member of Global Shapers, a group of youths of ages between 20 and 30 years, which was founded by Prof Klaus Schwab. I wish our government officials were at the meeting, because of the relevance of the theme. How can we re-shape Nigeria’s future? Would the nation still be the giants of Africa in the next 15 years? How does the nation provide jobs for the school leavers? These were the questions discussed during the event.

    How do you manage school work and your activities?

    I have a to-do list. Sometimes, my activities get so many and I won’t be able to sit for a second. I still believe this is a training stage; I am getting better at multi-tasking now.

    Who are your mentors?

    My mum and dad are my mentors. Then, I see Reverend T.O. Adeleke, my spiritual father, as a good role model. The spiritual part of a man is what determines his happiness. So, I always approach the clergy for advice.

    Where do you see yourself in five years?

    I don’t know. I may be at the United Nations headquarters holding a key leadership position. I am not good at prediction. But, I believe I would have been through with school and hope to further my studies in Columbia University School of Journalism.

    What is your advice for young people?

    As young people, we have great energy but some of us lack direction. We must find our direction and passion. Also, we must engage social media positively, because it is a wonderful platform to learn, network and project our ideas.

  • Social influence of angel investors  

    You do not get the opportunity to meet angels every day. If you meet an angel, and she is ready to invest in your dream, to save you stress of sourcing fund, count your lucky stars. Angel investors are still at the nascent in Nigeria.

    However, in Europe, angel investment is well established and the practice has taken roots. Venture capitalists lurk around; angels are invisible, until recently.

    For instance, a start-up in Nigeria, now one of the leading card companies, came to market on the magic carpet of angel seed. Angel seed have sustained its position long before the big money venture capitalists dived-in. Angel seed is like the moist and sunshine a nursery plant required to keep alive before the raining season.

    Angels were useful to this particular company at its nascent

    While the venture capitalists (such as Microsoft, Facebook, Apple etc, which have bought some thriving companies and take them to the next level) are useful, I equally acknowledge the place of the angel investors in the value chain. Without the angels to incubate the startups, the tier one venture capitalists would have nothing to gain. They would have nothing to build upon.

    Dotun Sulaiman, Tomi Davies and Collins Onuegbu, all members of Lagos Angel Network (LAN), are the new face of angel investment in Nigeria. As Onuegbu told me, venture capitalists only go to where the “money can be made”.

    Angels build dreams. Venture capitalists reap the harvest. LAN will be at the next Demo Africa in Lagos to help startups realise their dreams at the event.

    One other aspect of angels is that they provide financial backing for startups in exchange for equity. The capital angles offer can be a one-time injection of seed money or ongoing support to carry the startup through difficult times. If you have a dream and you need an angle for support, attend Demo Africa 2015. If you need funding, one of these angels can introduce you to a colleague or friend. The connections can prove useful.

    Besides, at Demo Africa, angels would offer startups contacts of strategic partners, advice and counsel, credibility by being associated with the investor, potential customers, employees, lawyers, banks and accountants. Startups would get contact of investment bankers and knowledge of the marketplace from the angels.

    Angels, who are mostly affluent individuals, play an important role in launching the future major companies of the world. Research has shown that every major technology company started with the help of angels.

    This means that majority of local companies such as Systemspecs, PFS, Arit of Africa, Upperlink and MTN have all benefitted from angels’ touch. Likewise, the foreign giants such as like Twitter, Square and Alibaba.com have drank water with disposable cups of the angels before drinking with gold goblets.

    However, startups have gained sincere handholding from angels at past Demo Africa. This tradition continues at the next edition. For startups and their dreams, it is not about the money. It is not about the equity.

    It is about the mentoring, which would prepare them for the next big leap. That is the social influence of angels. After all, you do not see an angel every day.

  • BHM launches social and digital marketing agency

    BHM has launched a new company called ID Africa.

    The new agency, headquarted in Lagos, is a social and digital marketing agency, according to founder Ayeni Adekunle.

    BHM is a major advocate of social PR – a practice that prioritises the use of C2C conversations in driving advocacy and telling brand stories. The agency is a digital PR leader in Nigeria, in an industry that’s just slowly waking up to the opportunities technology and trends provide.

    ID Africa is a creative, social and digital marketing agency specialising in the customisation of brand communication to specific target markets, and the use of stories and conversations to engage audiences.

    The company is part of the BHM Group, which is home to Nigerian Entertainment Today and BlackHouse Media.

    Last year, BHM introduced Nigeria’s first mobile application in the media and PR industry, and, according to data from its digital department, the company recorded over one billion (1bn) social impressions from different campaigns during the year.

    Ayeni said: “Brands should not only tell their stories, they must have a passionate community of consumers who are believers and evangelists, happy to share their experience and convert even the worst skeptic. The combination of great social technology and cool content are the sine qua non to achieving this.”

    ID Africa aims to fill the gap left by digital marketing firms across Africa who currently offers only the most generic of marketing and digital ad services. This it hopes to achieve by leveraging on the often-overlooked Internet business community in Nigeria reported to be growing by up to 50 per cent yearly.

  • Cause marketing: Taking social issues a notch higher

    Cause marketing: Taking social issues a notch higher

    ‘Hope Rising’, a cause marketing by FirstBank Nigeria Plc, aimed at helping people living with Down Sydrome, has ended. More firms are embracing the initiative to give back to society, reports ADEDEJI ADEMIGBUJI.

    Cause marketing is becoming a trend among top brands to help address some social problems. It is an initiative under which corporate brands spend part of their marketing budget on a campaign with a theme of social relevance. The aim is to raise awareness about social issues.

    It is often deployed by the fast- moving consumer goods sector but banks are now also embracing it to build their goodwill. “Unlike corporate giving or philanthropy that involves a specific donation that is tax deductible, cause marketing is a marketing effort that sustains relationship that is not necessarily based on a donation. It’s an investment on social causes in the market where you operate and enjoy great marketing deals. It is becoming a fad among private companies in Nigeria,” says Boye Omotoye, a brand communication/Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expert.

    Last year, FirstBank kicked off a cause marketing campaign tagged Hope Rising. Its Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Folake Alli-Mumuney, explained why the bank invested on this  campaign. She said it was created to sensitise the public on the plight of people living with with Down Syndrome and engender positive social transformation.

    Though it is relatively new in Nigeria, it has enjoyed acceptability globally for four decades. The first known case of cause marketing in the United States was in March 1974 when Carr & Associates International, a United States (US)-based tax and financial consulting firm, was formed by John T. Carr to “give back” to society by engaging in charitable causes and businesses to support each other.

    The organisation was promoted by Carr; it focused on enlisting businesses to give back referral fees on what they should have spent on marketing; and direct those funds toward the charitable cause of the buyer.

    FirstBank kicked off its Hope Rising campaign on radio with 13 episodes. The programme, which took off on September 2, last year, aired on Rhythm 93.7 Lagos on Tuesdays ( 9 – 9.15am) with repeat broadcast on Fridays (9- 9.15am). It ended in November.

    According to Alli-Mumuney, it was designed to give hope and add value to its diverse stakeholders. She said the campaign highlights the challenges of Down Syndrome and explores efforts at combating the disorder, through advocacy and public enlightenment.

    She explained that the disease was selected by the bank, based on its enduring deal with the Down Syndrome Foundation, which began in 2009.

    She said the Foundation was established in 2001 to champion the cause of people living with the disorder but have not been able to  tackle the misconceptions associated with it, due to its little knowledge by the public.

    Some of the objectives of the campaign, Alli-Mumuney explained, include engaging stakeholders, such as the government in promoting awareness, advocacy and education on the Down Syndrome disorder, developing and nurturing a culture that promotes the employment of preventive measures, as well as the importance of treating the down syndrome.

    For instance, all the episodes educate the listeners on the disorder through the various characters used in the drama series.Greg and Maryam, the major characters in the first episode of the series, typify the average couple through which most of the information about the disorder is disseminated. Through the couple, the listener is informed that contrary to the notion about down syndrome being a disease, it is actually a genetic condition that causes delays in the way the child develops both mentally and physically.

    With an attempt to demystify the disorder, the radio campaign explores education as one of the pivot on which Hope Rising delivered the campaign message to enhance impact. “Hope Rising educates on the disorder and called them to action on the need to go for regular checkups to ascertain the health status of the unborn child on time,” she said.

    Also, GTBank has been investing in campaigns to educate people on autism – a neural development disorder that impairs social interaction and leads to repetitive behaviours. Autism, like other challenges, arises from insufficient development of a child’s physical, emotional or intellectual capacity.

    GTBank, however, launched a yearly Autism Support Initiative tagged GTBank Orange Ribbon,  aimed at creating awareness for this condition using various foundations who have expertise in autism to drive the campaign.

    The recent interest in cause-related marketing may have stemmed from American Express, which coined the phrase in 1983. Following various pilot schemes in 1981, American Express developed a campaign, which donated funds to some non-profit organisations as part of the San Francisco Arts Festival.

    Essentially, every time someone used an American Express Card in the area, a two cent donation was triggered and each time new members applied for a card, a larger contribution was made. The marketing goals that American Express had for this programme were exceeded. Card use was reported as having increased significantly and relationships between American Express and their merchants also improved as a result of the promotion.

    Citing an IEG, Inc. study, $1.11 billion was spent in 2005, an estimated $1.34 billion in 2006, $1.44 billion in 2007 and $1.52 billion in 2008 and $1.57 billion in 2009 as total marketing budget for cause marketing across the globe.

    Experts believe that this is so because “cause-related marketing is a useful marketing tool that business and non-profit organisations are increasingly leveraging.”

    Also, according to the Cone Millennial Cause Study in 2006, 89 percent of people (between ages 13 and 25) would switch from one brand to another brand of a comparable product (and price) if the latter brand was associated with “good cause”.

    The same study also indicated that a significant percentage surveyed would prefer to work for a company that was considered socially responsible.

  • Social media boosting online retail marketing

    Social media boosting online retail marketing

    Social media has become a veritable platform for firms to showcase their goods and services. It has also become channel for consumers to make informed choices in their relationships with market, reports TONIA ‘DIYAN

    In this modern age of information communications technology (ICT), business is supposed to be transacted at the speed of lightning. The information revolution is being accentuated by the social media. Curiously, everybody particularly in the retail industry has caught the bug from shoppers, manufactures, corporate bodies, entrepreneurs, name it.

    Today, retailers are becoming more aware of what is called the “social mobile consumers,” or in other words, the increasing number of people spending time on their smartphones browsing social media, helping an array of consumers from grocery to clothing to electronics – reach products on their devices.

    A keen examination of the trend in marketing initiatives will easily reveal that social media is developing as an important avenue for companies to build products and services. The rise of social media rests on three fundamental human values which are: the self-expression it engenders through product education, its ability to share information with friends and the attention it generates through the spoken word. More importantly, social media enables companies connect with customers in a way never possible.

    The impact social media has on brand is huge and Ebay’s estimates that in the next two years, the value of social media for retail will be more than double £1.5billion to reach around £3.3billion.

    Social media, in the last one decade has evolved into one of Nigeria’s strongest platforms through which infopreneurs showcase products and services and provide an avenue for consumers to make choices.

    Instant messaging platforms such as yahoo messenger and many others are gradually being replaced by social media platforms such as Palmchat, and the likes that are more engaging, more customer friendly, more beneficial to the users, more personal and definitely more interesting. Palmchat owned by Afmobil Group has since recognised the endless possibilities of the social media in terms of its sphere of influence among others.

    The current reach of Palmchat across the country is estimated to be an average of five million users in Nigeria alone and over 39 million users worldwide.

    With over 80,000 new users signing up daily from different mobile devices, Palmchat is fast becoming the choice social mobile platform for users around the world.

    Speaking with The Nation Shopping on the potentials of the app for startup retail businesses, Blessing Joe, who has responsibility for the company’s Brand Management said there is immense potential for retail businesses with Palmchat, particularly for startup businesses.

    Joe said: “As a startup, the social media is a veritable tool for networking generally, especially with little or no cost.

    ”You can stay really social on Palmchat even with as little as 30MB data using the Palmchat voice messaging function. Just hold down the ‘Voice’ button, record your message following the prompt and send your voice recording to your friend or group of friends using the broadcast function.

    “You can also share your cool pictures, music and recordings with your friends, getting in touch with them in private messaging. Yep, clever incentives are good motivators and in this age of social media frenzy; with loads of social platforms literally sprouting out from nowhere, cool incentives play a key role in building that reason-why-I-love-this-platform kind of loyalty.

    ”Palmchat is an amazing innovative mobile social app that is compactable with all mobile operating system and downloadable from all mobile app stores:  Java, Windows store, Apple store, Google play, Blackberry world-among others. It has interactive and fun features: Shake-Shake and Look around with other functional capabilities like the file share, instant messaging and voice recording.

    “Palmchat is a unique instant messenger which is targeted at the Nigerian youths to bring everything they need to their doorsteps, at their convenience. With its unique interface, trendy and hilarious smileys and emoticons, engaging chatrooms, Palmchat is indeed the “happening instant messaging,” she said.

    “One of the most exciting and unique things about Palmchat is the “shake shake” feature. Now all you have to do to find friends around is shake your phone to select who thrills your fancy and get chatting. You might just strike a business deal or find a business proposal for your startup as an entrepreneur.”

    She further said the company has a working partnership and brand affiliation with Tecno Nigeria and Tecno International, which enables perfect user interface for potential customers with smart phones.

    “With its wide reach, startups are assured of improved social networking at a pocket-friendly cost unlike other product offerings out there,” she said.

    Joe who said her company has been giving incentives to drive traffic towards the brand, said: “This time, Palmchat is offering a car. It works like a referral thing; after downloading Palmchat, the applicant is expected to visit the palmchat.hotreferralinc.com site and register with his/her unique Palmchat I.D. After which a referral link to invite friends to download Palmchat will be obtained, and with this link unique to a person’s ID alone, such person will earn reward points for every person referred. And even earn extra points, maybe even double points if it’s a girl referred. The person with the highest points at the end date automatically wins the car!”

    Palmchat as a social networking app is also a matchmaker of some sorts with happy-ever-after stories being told by users who met online using the Look-Around feature to connect with one another on their first date. As a business networking apps, it connects people with common business interests who along the line, benefit from each other in diverse ways.

    According to experts, a unique feature of Palmchat is the look-around feature that gives the users the power to avoid all the queer chatties and connect with that special one just over their shoulders. “Citing the story of Mrs. BimpeAjayi, a Human Resource Manager with a multinational company in Lagos, who met her hubby, Frederick on Palmchat, Joe recalled the couple’s love story thus: “It was a very pleasant night; the first night of our honeymoon. Frederick is such a loveable person; he always has something amusing to say, quite an accommodating gentle man and slow to anger. Some people find it hard to believe me when I tell them that I met this amazing man on Palmchat.”

    “I didn’t just bump into him on Palmchat-no. I wanted him, I dreamt of that special one but I just didn’t know how, where and when I will meet him until a friend introduced me to Palmchat,” Joe recounted the lovey-dovey tale of the Ajayis.

    Mr. Mounir Boukali, who manages a team of public relations specialists, managers and several high level agencies who handle TRANSSION Holdings’ brands, believes that social apps such as Palmchats have limitless possibilities when it comes to user-engagements.

    He said:  ”Now you wish social platforms don’t consume your data all-too-quickly.  You are probably not on Palmchat-yep, you’re not a Palmchatter. On the Palmchat platform you will chat more for less…I mean 30MB data on your mobile device is just good enough.

    “Nigerian ladies can join the world of hi-tech beauties on Palmchat; check out whose story is the most inspiring and whose selfie is making the buzz as Nigeria’s premiere beauty contest gets social as well as join the growing community of Palmchatters; sign up on Nigeria’s most trending mobile social platform with over 30000 daily sign ups. Be a Palmchatter.”

    Rating Palmchat high, experts have said thousands of visitors to the Palmchat site engage in lively discussions on their daily experience with products and businesses. For retailers, this Platform serves as a means of reaching out to consumers.

    Mrs. Folashade Randle of The Home Store in Surulere, Lagos said Palmchat provides consumers with access to content to be able to choose from. From Romance to business, from shopping to discount offers and the list goes on.

    Mrs. Randle said Palmchat makes consumer awareness easier and helps with decisions consumers make on a daily basis concerning products and their personal lives.

    She said: “Communication is key and Palmchat helps bridge the gap between the two opposite sex and between products and consumers.”

    Richard Ugoahor, a follower of the Palmchat page, had this to say about the platform: He said: “I have tasted all the apps on Palmchat. The experiences are incomparable with others in the same category.”

  • The beauty of social media

    This should be about my third article on social media in the last six weeks. No doubt, the social media – and the Internet – have radically altered the way we do things. In the past, I’ve written and drawn attention to some vices that the phenomenon has thrown up which, unfortunately, has led to crimes such as murder and numerous cases of fraud. Whenever I sit with our students, one of my main concerns has always been what they do with social media platforms and how it impacts their education and lifestyles.

    I had an opportunity to engage some of them last week and our discussion deviated from the usual into Nigeria’s certification of being Ebola free by the World Health Organization (WHO). One of them rightly pointed out that social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook played a prominent role in creating the awareness that led to the containment of the dreaded disease that kills more than 70 per cent of its victims. Most Nigerians – this columnist inclusive – were worried that the disease might assume epidemic proportion because of the “Nigerian way” of handling things.

    Because of the clinical way it was handled, the students were convinced that all is not lost with the country as they believe they may still have a stake in the future. But one of them argued that curtailing Ebola was successful because “it has to do with death.” This drew a thunderous laughter from all. The lesson for me, however, is that Nigerians can do almost anything if they put their mind to it and have the right set of people handling issues. I ask myself, would we have had this level of success if a politician or non-professional were handling the Health ministry? That’s food for thought.

    I was glad a few days after our discussion when the Minister of Communications Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson corroborated our views by stating that the use of a combination of an Android app, Facebook and Twitter were instrumental in Nigeria’s fight to contain Ebola. The minister said this while delivering a policy statement during the International Telecommunications Union 2014 Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan, Republic of Korea.

    She revealed that the phone app helped in reducing reporting times of infections by 75 per cent. She said that test results were scanned to tablets and uploaded to emergency databases and field teams got text message alerts on their phones informing them of the results. Johnson reiterated that the combination of the Internet and mobile cellular phones had opened up tremendous opportunities for countries like Nigeria.

    According to her, a number of factors drive the sharp increase in mobile use, “particularly, the additional ways in which mobile phones are being used in Nigeria. Beyond conducting voice conversations, mobile phones are often the preferred channel for receiving data and for conducting transactions in Nigeria, therefore making phones an indispensable tool used as cameras, wallets, shops, music players, movie screens, and information or service centres of Nigerians.”

    At the last Ngozi Agbo memorial lecture held in the University of Lagos, the online editor of this newspaper, Mr. Lekan Otufodurin took out time to educate the students on how social media has impacted positively on almost all endeavours of life. Using Journalism as plank, he took them down memory lane on how reporters in the past send in their stories.

    Since there are few typewriters in the newsroom then, a reporter will write his stories on sheets of paper and pass it on to a typesetter to type. After that, the stories would be proof read and returned back to the typesetter for adjustments. When this is done, it is then taken to the editor who further edits the report and the process continues until the final copy is approved. For those of us in the writing business, when we look back we thank the innovators of the computer and the internet because they’ve made life so easy. Today a reporter can file his stories from anywhere in the world at the click of a button!

    As the positive change continues, no one should be in doubt that the mobile Internet revolution spreading across the globe has come to stay. The challenge would be to create a viable environment for the proliferation of lower-priced devices, increased investment in network infrastructure, and increase availability of spectrum for mobile broadband in the knowledge that these will further drive growth in the Information and Communication Technology sector.

    The revolution has indeed impacted positively on the education sector as there are loads of academic resource materials online and one can now earn a credible degree online as well. To further add to its credibility, there are now software’s that guide against plagiarism so that researchers can be original and innovative in their research. Many Nigerians are now exploring this online option of improving on their education, business and jobs.

    In just over a decade, we have seen mobile subscription increase from 87 million active SIM cards to over 131 million and mobile Internet subscription stood at 67 million as of June 2014 according to the National Communications Commission (NCC). This means that close to half of the country’s population are hooked to the internet either through their phones or tablets.

    Beyond just using phones and accessing data, the sector has been impacting positively on the economy. Mrs. Johnson pointed out in the address I mentioned earlier that: “The ICT sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product is growing and was about 10.44 per cent in 2013. The sector also indirectly affects GDP through its influence on other key sectors. For example, in the 2013, ICTs were responsible for 12 per cent of the value added by the finance and insurance sector to GDP. In terms of social growth, ICTs are helping government to meet health objectives, and are amplifying benefits in the education and agriculture sectors.”

    Talking about agriculture, I was made to also understand that farmers are now contacted on phone by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development whenever new suppliers of fertilizer arrives through an initiative introduced by the minister Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Known as the Electronic Wallet System which allows smallholder farmers to receive electronic vouchers for subsidized seeds and fertilizers directly on their mobile phones and enable them to pay for farm inputs from private sector agricultural input dealers.

    The system – I was also made to understand – has reached over 6 million farmers and enhanced food security for 30 million persons in rural farm households. Women farmers, previously marginalized under the old fertilizer distribution system, now have better yielding fields with subsidized farm inputs received on their mobile phones.

    With the success of the electronic wallet system, Nigeria has become the first country in Africa to reach farmers with subsidized farm inputs through their mobile phones. The impact is already being noticed beyond Nigeria with several African countries, Brazil, India and China now expressing interest in adopting it.

    There may still be some who have fears that technology – and by inference – social media may be going “too far” by replacing it with teachers. To answer that, let me take a portion of Bill Gates book “The Road Ahead.”

    Gates wrote: “Some fear that technology will dehumanize formal education. But anyone who has seen kids working together around a computer, the way my friends and I did in 1968, or watched exchanges between students in classrooms separated by oceans, know that technology can humanize the educational environment.”

    No doubt, the information superhighway has given us access to seemingly unlimited information, anytime and anyplace. I often encourage our students – both on and off these pages – to make best use of the information at their disposal. Previous generations never had this opportunity. But the sad part for me in all this is that people are reading less in an era of unsurpassed information generation.

  • The social media again

    I arrived almost two hours early for a public lecture at the University of Lagos two weeks ago and decided to use the extra time to visit my former lecturers. I was walking briskly to the Faculty of Arts complex when an elderly lady standing beside a young lady politely beckoned on me to come. After exchanging pleasantries I asked why she wanted my attention.

    “Take a good look at this young lady and tell me what you see,” she said. Confused, I looked at the lady, who is probably between 18 and 19 years old and couldn’t immediately picture anything since I was seeing both of them for the very first time. When she saw my befuddled look she said: “Just look at what she wore, I know her parents and I know she can never dress like this at home. I have been talking to her for a while and she did not see anything wrong in dressing so provocatively. This is why I wanted you to be a witness that I voiced out my concerns.”

    Not knowing what else to add, I appealed to the young lady to listen to the counsel of the elderly lady. One thing I deduced before leaving was the young lady’s disposition, she wasn’t rude or defensive. She said what she wore was what “my mentors wear on social media and I don’t see anything wrong with it.” Beyond this brief encounter, the social media may be controlling our lives more than we think.

    The social media, a platform for social interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks has radically altered the way we live and interact. Anchored on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content, it is considered revolutionary. Like everything about life, it has both positives and negatives. This is where the issues lie because most people do not know how to draw the line.

    On my way from work recently, I stopped at a provision store to pick up some items. As I walked out of the store something caught my attention, I saw a young man of about 22 watching raw pornography on his mobile phone. What however got me worried was a young boy of about 9 years watching with him, I stopped in my track and felt I have a duty to perform here, I told the child to walk away while I sat down with the young man to see why he would be so unconcerned showing such lewd stuff to a child.

    It turned out that he’s an undergraduate of one of the universities in Lagos. He said he only watches it when he is “bored” and “it does not affect my being in any way.” Probing further, I asked “what about the child?” “Well, I did not invite him to watch” was his lame answer. The positive side is that when we met weeks later he proudly told me he does not watch “such stuff anymore because they are not good for my spiritual life.”

    Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace allow us to find and connect with just about anyone, from a coworker to a long lost neighbour. Browsing these sites can make you feel connected to a larger community, but such easy, casual connection in an electronic environment can also have its downside. They can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through them. By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections may weaken.

    Some of us may have heard about cyber-bullying. Kids especially are vulnerable to the practice of cyber-bullying in which the perpetrators, anonymously or even posing as people their victims trust, terrorise individuals in front of their peers. Though not yet popular in Nigeria, the devastation of these online attacks can leave deep mental scars on kids as some have even been driven to suicide.

    The veil of anonymity afforded online can bring out dark impulses that might otherwise be suppressed in real life. In the west – where we copy nearly everything – cyber-bullying has spread widely among youth, with 42% of American youths reporting that they have been victims, according to a recent CBS News report.

    While many businesses use social networking sites to find and communicate with clients and customers, the sites can also prove a great distraction to employees who may show more interest in what their friends are posting than in their work tasks. Wired.com posted two studies which demonstrated damage to productivity caused by social networking: Nucleus Research reported that Facebook shaves 1.5% off office productivity while Morse claimed that British companies lost 2.2 billion a year to the social phenomenon. It is based on this that new technology products have become available that allows social networks to be blocked, but their effectiveness is not total.

    It is now obvious now that most social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. Because intimate details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to bypass the filters they might normally employ when talking about their private lives. What’s more, the things they post remain available indefinitely.

    While at one moment a photo of friends doing “funny stuffs” at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in the context of an employer doing a background check. While most sites allow their users to control who sees the things they’ve posted, such limitations are often forgotten, can be difficult to control or don’t work as well as advertised just like the nude iCloud pictures of some celebrities that were released to the public after their accounts were hacked.

    While on the surface it appears social networking brings people together across the Internet, in a larger sense it may create social isolation. As people spend increasing amounts of time on social networks, they experience less face-to-face interaction.

    Scientists have evaluated social isolation in many studies, and have determined that it can lead to a host of mental, psychological, emotional and physical problems including depression, anxiety and many others. In fact, a University of Illinois, Chicago School of Medicine animal study showed social isolation impaired brain hormones, which is the likely reason socially isolated people experience tremendous levels of stress, aggression, anxiety and other mental issues.

    While the above studies show actual correlations between social networking and negative consequences, others argue that many other negative consequences may exist that have not yet been studied.

    What about it encouraging poor grammar, usage and spellings? Most youths these days find it difficult to write five straight sentences without abbreviation. Beyond that, it also allows the spread of misinformation that may be perceived as fact even in light of evidence to the contrary thereby creating a culture in which a single mistake, such as a careless picture or poorly thought-out comment, can cause irreparable harm to an individual’s reputation.

    Even though no disease or disorder has yet been linked to social networking addiction, still a number of behaviours associated with excessive use of social media have lately become the subject of much discussion and research. A social networking addict could be considered as someone who uses social media excessively to a point where it interferes with other daily activities.

    A research team headed by Wilhelm Hoffmann of Chicago University in 2012 concluded that twitter is harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol. The team used Blackberry’s to gauge the willpower of 205 people aged between 18 and 85. The results showed that with each day the ‘self-control’ dropped lower and lower and concluded that between social media, cigarettes and alcohol, the ‘self-control-failure’ rate was highest with social media. Other researchers have also linked anxiety, sleep deprivation, depression and some psychological disorders to people who spend too much time online.

  • Stopping social media abuse

    The phenomenal growth in digital technology and the rise of social media platforms, over the past few years, have revolutionised the way in which people communicate and share information. The emergence of new communication technology has impacted on the society positively and negatively. These technologies have affected the socio-cultural, political and economic structures of our contemporary society.

    Advancement in technology has eased and expanded the frontiers of information reception and dissemination among people. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT), particularly the internet, have impacted greatly on the society, increasing access to information and creating fresh challenges for the society.

    Social media are seen generally to include all the online creations – social networks, search engines, affiliate programmes, forums, blogs and message boards that can be used by the general public for interactions across distance, to mention a few. They are powerful communication tools that have significant impacts on organisational, professional and individual reputations.

    Also, social media includes a variety of web-based tools and services that are designed to promote community development through collaboration and information sharing. These tools provide opportunities for individual expressions, as well as interactions with other users. These technologies have brought together many diverse communities and societies around the world. In fact, the world is fast becoming a “global village” as a result of the new information and communication technology. Today, we are living in a very fast developing and globalising world.

    No doubt, scientific innovations and advancement in technology have eased communication processes. It has also made tasks less tedious in many professions like business, banking, entertainment, and so on.  Technology has transformed our lives in many positive ways. But the negative impacts of these innovations in our social and educational pursuits overweigh its positives. This is in line with the fact that there is hardly anything invented by man, no matter its level of perfection that is without some flaws.

    As a matter of fact, education is a very essential aspect of our lives. Education to a society is more important than anything. Advancement in technology has eased the processes of academic research. Findings also reveal that, today, students show very much interest in using social networks, which in turn affects education severely. As noted earlier, the negatives of social media on students and education, in general, supersedes the positives.

    The social media has grabbed the attention of students and diverted them toward non-educational, unethical and inappropriate actions, such as examination malpractices. It has made students so lazy that they hardly resort to extensive study before sitting for any examination. Instead of studying very hard to write and pass examinations, students now cultivate the habit of cheating through browsing on their mobile phones while in examination halls. Reading culture among students is on the verge of extinction.

    Concentration in the classroom during lecture periods is gradually becoming a thing of the past among students. While classes are being held, some students resort to chatting on social networks. This unwholesome practice has created one problem or the other in students’ educational pursuits and performances. That informs why communication skills have declined among students.

    The emergence of ICT has eased the processes of research thereby providing unlimited access to information on virtually all spheres of human endeavours. Looking at the quantity of information available on the internet, one can agree with the fact that most of the information accessed on social media is not accurate and factual. This is because anybody who has access to the internet can write and share information of all sorts, regardless of their quality.

    It is, therefore, in tune to state that the dependence of students on social media for the sourcing of materials for academic research has degraded the value of most academic works undertaken by students. Today, students are fond of plagiarism. They regard creativity as a waste of efforts.

    There are possible ways out of these challenges. Stakeholders in the education sector should encourage creativity among students. Creativity should be made competitive among students through scholarship and other educational grants to those who are creative, as this will motivate and boost the performances of others to be creative.

    The provision of standard research and practical facilities in schools can also help the situation. Where students lack adequate research facilities like books and other relevant and referencing materials in libraries, they tend to resort to the easy “copy and paste” method from the social media. Today, you will find out that students write and present final year project works without being able to defend what they claim to have written.

    Moreover, there should also be regulation in the education sector with regards to the use of social networks among students. Although, this task can be very tedious to achieve, but the provision of regulatory frameworks in this regard will reduce the challenges posed by social media on students’ performances. There should be strict rules prohibiting students’ use of mobile phones in classrooms.

     

    Ahmad, 300-Level Mass Comm., NSUK