Social Media, Advertising Messages and the Youth: Any Influence?

Social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, twitter, and many others are popular  internet sites where people especially youth interact freely, sharing and discussing information about each other and their lives, products or services, using multimedia mix of personal words, pictures, videos and audio. Advertisers have always been fascinated by media and the youth because of their primacy to business. Social media are the latest platform that advertisers are spending huge part of their advertising budget on, yet there is little or no research on the influence these media have on the youth. The population of study is students of university of Lagos and Caleb University. The survey design was adopted with the use of questionnaire as data collection instrument. A sample of 300 respondents was randomly selected and test instrument administered on them. The findings showed that 93.5% of the respondents said they were exposed to advertisements on social media. 47% said social media advertisements had positive influence on them, 45.2% said they ignore advertisements on social media, while only 20% purchase products advertised on social media. The researchers concluded that social media may contribute to brand awareness, create interest in the prospect and may in conjunctions with other factors move prospect to take desired decision. However, social media should not be seen as the ultimate media to reach the elusive youth market. Keywords: Social media, Advertising Messages, Youth, Influenc

New Realism, Social Criticism and Prostitution Motif in Shadreck Chikoti’s Free Africa Flee!

The post-Banda Malawian poetry, like its precursor, has largely been marked by commitment to social and political issues. In taking on these subjects, the poets in Malawi tend to adopt critical stance reminiscent of the role of the traditional bard, who excoriates social misconducts and political malfeasances on the part of the common people and the elite. A contemporary Malawian poet, Shadreck Chikoti’s debut collection, Free Africa Flee!, falls in this category. Despite its topicality and other strengths, the collection has suffered critical neglect. Against this backdrop, this article closely examines selected poems in the collection, and argues that Chikoti makes social criticism out of his poetry, using a singular motif across dissimilar issues, a feature   that is quite unusual in a debut collection. The poet’s criticism is located in the context of new realism, a writing convention which privileges ‘hyperextreme sincerity’ and pluralism in its representation of realities. The article concludes that the poet’s thematic renderings preserve a strong link with Abiola Irele’s notion of new realism in the post-independence sub-Saharan African novel

From subversive othering to Utopian imagining: gendered vision and revision in Vincent Egbuson’s Womandela

The article examined the representation of the African woman in a twenty-first century Nigerian novel, Vincent Egbuson’s Womandela. Critical attention is shifted from the popular feminist reading of African literature which privileges areas of immediate discomfort for the African woman, that is, domestic/marital, cultural and economic issues. My critical lens focused on the issue of political empowerement of the African woman. The article acknowledged the fact that African women in pre-colonial era enjoyed great political power in varying degrees in different communities, it then proceeded to analyse how Egbuson subverts the contemporary political emasculation of the African woman by drawing on the legend of the late South African President, Nelson Mandela to produce an African female political amazon. The analysis revealed the use of Othering, syntactic deconstruction of some nominals and pronominals, myth reversal and onomastic neologism as strategies of relocating African women from the margin to the centre, specifically to the political centre.Keywords: Other, Othering, the African woman, Vincent Egbuson, Womandela, Subversio

The Youth, Reality TV Show Sponsorship and Brand Patronage: Any Nexus?

With increasing apathy to advertising by audience, especially the youth, and the need for orgnisations to look for way of positioning their products and services to attract new and retain old customers, organisations are turning to reality TV shows sponsorship. Reality TV shows have become one of the most popular shows on television this days. Reality TV programmes is define as programme that film real people as they live out events in their lives, contrived or otherwise, as they occur. With students of Redeemer’s university as its study population, the study adopts survey design, using questionnaire as data collection instrument. A sample of 240 respondents was randomly selected from the population and test instrument administered on them, only 235 pieces of questionnaire were returned and analysed, putting the response rate at 97.9%. The findings showed that brand sponsorship of reality shows does not have any influence on brand patronage. 56.5% of respondents indicated that the effect of brand sponsorship of reality shows on their patronage of the product is neither positive nor negative; rather, it is neutral or inconsequential. This finding showed that the sponsorship of reality TV shows is not solely responsible for the increased patronage of the sponsored brand. However, brand sponsorship of reality TV programmes contributes positively to image of the brand, which might ultimately lead to increase patronage. The researcher concludes that sponsorship of reality shows by major brands and organizations might influence people’s perception of the brand positively, but does not necessarily make them patronize the brand. In view of the research findings, it was recommended that organizations should not use sponsorship of reality shows as a strategy for  the purpose of increasing patronage, but use it if their aim is to boost their  brand image image. Key words: Reality TV, Sponsorship, Patronage, Brand, Positionin

Confronting Resistance: Addressing Issues of Race and Class During Community-Based Research

Community partnerships have the potential to empower and arm students with the tools to positively engage with all members of society. In this study, the author explores how race and class shaped students’ experiences with community-based research. Participants included 44 social science majors enrolled in an undergraduate research methods course. Students partnered with two community non-profits that served socioeconomically and ethnically distinct communities. Findings suggest that although students expressed varying levels of early resistance toward each partnership, they gained a raised awareness of their feelings toward and their unconscious reactions to race and class and began to work through initial resistance

Electrical Conductivity of CUXS Thin Film Deposited by Chemical Bath Deposition (CBD) Technique

Thin films of CuxS have successfully been deposited on glass substrates using the Chemical Bath Deposition (CBD) technique. The films were then investigated for their electrical properties. The results showed that the electrical conductivities of the CuxS films with different molarities (n) of thiourea (Tu), determined using the two-point probe technique, decreased with increase in the molarities of Thiourea . Thus, the conductivity ranged from 1.23 x 10-7 – 1.3 x 10-1 S/cm. KEYWORDS: CBD; Electical conductivity; Molarity; Two-point probe; Thioure

Cost-Benefit of E-Learning under ODL of Developing Economies

Does it cost less to apply e-learning in open and distance learning (ODL) of developing economies? This paper assessed the cost-benefit of e-learning compared to different approaches to ODL. Cost-benefit analysis is a formal way of adding up the advantages and disadvantages of doing one thing as opposed to doing something else. A range of factors affects the cost-benefit of particular distance learning programme. This includes the number of students enrolled, the size of the curriculum, the number of years over which courses are offered without change, technology apply, the level of student support, working practice, and so on. Cost of essential e-learning equipments such as laptops, Internet modem, and mobile phones are analyzed side by side with the cost of residing in the institutes’ environment, photocopy of materials and the opportunity cost of time during working period for the student. While cost- benefit of correspondence are analyzed side by side with the cost-benefit of providing ICT centers. It is observed that e-learning application on ODL of less developed economies is cost effective in the long run when a sizeable number of students per programme are achieved. However, economic constraints on both the students and the ODL institutions require partial application in the short run. More so, it takes time to adapt students to scarce technology that is not affordable to them. The ODL institutes also require time and resources to up-date e-learning to international standard. Nevertheless, full application of e-learning in developing economies is feasible in the long run with more benefits than cost. In this world of scarce economic resources, e-leaning application in developing economies is inevitable

A Survey of IP Address for Next Generation Internet Services

This paper surveys the problem of the astronomical growing demand of Internet Systems participating in the public network which has led to the depletion of allocated Internet Protocol version 4.0 (IPV4) addresses. Already, four out of the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) namely: ARNIC, RIPE, LACNIC and ARPIN have exhausted their allocated IPV4 addresses while the fifth AFRICNIC (Africa’s RIR) is reportedly depleted. We also examine the limitations of IPV4, the features of IPV6 and different modes of operating IPV6 standard. Findings shows that the current population of the world is over 6billion people with a projection of 9billion people by the year 2050 and IPV6 can conveniently accommodate 2128 devices. This paper also proposes the migration from the present Internet Protocol version 4.0(IPV4) to a new Internet Protocol version 6.0(IPV6) addresses. This research work has shown that deploying the IPV6 could only be the possible solution to sustaining Internet Services globally. Keywords: Internet Systems, Internet Protocol Address, IP address depletion, Migration

Exploring innovative resource allocation and service delivery performance in developing countries

New governance paradigm in managing public resources needs to be given significant review while looking at alternatives in improving public service delivery.It implies that theories and practices of public administration, new public management, public value management or good governance need to be redesigned to embrace the public sector, private sector and the community.The relationship between resource allocation and service delivery performance is best viewed from view-lens of innovative governance. Innovative governance must be seen from the view point of integrating the public sector, market and community to deliver systematic public goods and services.This paper examines the relationship between innovative resource allocation and service delivery performance in developing countries.This paper uncovers various new models of allocative resource innovation taken from case studies reported in ten years of World Bank reports.The cases suggested that many countries are introducing several transformational programs, adopting open search strategies, and embarking on economic transformational agenda, which involve the use of a wide range of public private partnership strategy, private finance initiatives, performance-based management and other actors/sources to achieve the governmental programs.However, the impact of innovative governance on resource allocation and service delivery performance is often felt in developed countries, but the reverse is the case in the developing countries