In a Democratized Media Context What a Hoax Can Do, a Misinformation Can Do Even Worse: Influences of Fake News on Democratic Processes in Nigeria

With the rapid advancements in technology and the democratization of media topology in Nigeria, many people are increasingly gaining access to the media and becoming empowered to actively participate in public debate about issues affecting them in addition to having a great deal of online social interactions. However, people’s access to and interactions with technology and other media have given rise to a host of malicious effects – propagation of doubtful and fabricated content. This has been shown to have the potential to adversely influence people’s lives and sense of judgment, especially regarding democratic processes such as political campaigns during which many malicious fabricated contents are disseminated. In recent history, from 2016, election campaigns in various countries across the world have highlighted how fake news can be targeted at specific people or individuals to influence and misguide them, and even influence polls results. Ever since, issues surrounding fake news and its impacts on democratic and social settings have been gaining pervasive research attention. Hence, the urge to explore the concepts of misinformation and democracy from a Nigerian context through a review of extant literature. In conclusion, several propositions were made, and a conceptual framework was designed for future research to explore the concept and empirically proffer solutions to the growing menace. Keywords: Fake news and misinformation, Media and politics, Media democratization, Nigerian democratic processes, Political campaign, Social media DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/79-02 Publication date: April 30th 201

Police-Public Media Relations: Issues and Challenges

Police-Public relations is the subject of Police-Media Relations. The Police and the media are two institutions that are aimed at ensuring that the society lives well based on lawful and orderly conduct in the interest of justice, fairness and development of the society. The two institutions require information from the public to perform their duties prudently and diligently. However,  they differ in orientation, operational techniques, platforms and public perception. A typical scenario for instance, if there is an uprising, attack, disaster or any such unfortunate occurence, members of the public will be running to safer areas.  It is common see the Police and the media are pushing their way forward into that ‘danger zone’ to perform their individual responsibilities. Both the Police and the media depend on sources for information to facilitate their work, though they differ significantly in approaching the subject matter; thus the Police interrogate to get information, the journalist on the otherhand, interviews to secure information. It is undeniable fact that, the two institutions require each other in the performance of their responsibilities and therefore need to develop a harmonious and cordial relations. One fact is that the Police have bags of information that the media require, likewise, the Police require the visibility and bridge that the media provide to link them with the society in a positive manner in order to have a goodwill from the public. Daily, the media reports on issues partaining crime or about the Police, the crime news and other sensational events excite the public and it enables them to appreciate the effort of the government or that of the Police on crime prevention and control. These inevitably indicates that the media and the police must work together. However, over the years there exists a mixed relation between them, this paper identifies those challenges affecting the duo relations and recommends ways to overcome those challenges. Keywords: Police;  Media and public relations challenges

Religious Diversity and National Integration in Nigeria

Nigeria is a diverse country with about 150 Million people; it is multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious; hugely pluralistic and clearly heterogeneous. In fact, the beauty and strength of its existence as a nation lie in the variety and unity of its set up. Imagine the complexities and divergences that exist in the stretch from Port Harcourt to Sokoto; from Lagos to Maiduguri, or from Enugu to Yola.  The geographical landscape of the country varies, stretching from the Sahel Savannah in the far North to the rain forest down South, just like the people who are also remarkably unique in their individual outlooks and orientations, but united in their humanity. These diversities are evidently manifested in the citizens’ cultural and religious practices. For instance, there are more than 400 documented ethnic groups across the land comprising of millions of people who are adherents of the two major religions of Islam and Christianity and, to a lesser extent, the traditional religion (Albert, 2002). The citizens are religious in profession and even the Constitution is religious, as it begins with the words “UNDER GOD”, though the Nation has not adopted any religion as a State Religion. God is centrally considered in the affairs of the people

The Impact of Fake News and the Emerging Post-Truth Political Era on Nigerian Polity: A Review of Literature

Since the rising to notoriety of the present ‘genre’ of malicious content peddled as ‘fake news’ (mostly over social media) in 2016 during the United States’ presidential election, barely three years until Nigeria’s 2019 general elections, fake news has made dangerously damaging impacts on the Nigerian society socially, politically and economically. Notably, the escalating herder-farmer communal clashes in the northern parts of the country, ethno-religious crises in Taraba, Plateau and Benue states and the furiously burning fire of the thug-of-war between the ruling party (All Progressives Congress, APC) and the opposition, particularly the main opposition party (People’s Democratic Party, PDP) have all been attributed to fake news, untruth and political propaganda. This paper aims to provide further understanding about the evolving issues regarding fake news and its demonic impact on the Nigerian polity. To make that contribution toward building the literature, extant literature and verifiable online news content on fake news and its attributes were critically reviewed. This paper concludes that fake news and its associated notion of post-truth may continue to pose threat to the Nigerian polity unless strong measures are taken. For the effects of fake news and post-truth phenomena to be suppressed substantially, a tripartite participation involving these key stakeholders – the government, legislators and the public should be modelled and implemented to the letter

Determining ICT Use Level from Use Pattern: ICT Use Level of Malaysian Agribusinesses

The research was financed by Universiti Putra Malaysia (Putra Grant) No. GP-IPS/2014/9433928 (Sponsoring information) Abstract There has been a continuous commitment of policymakers in Malaysia to support information and communication technology (ICT) adoption in small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs). For these novel and innovative policy initiatives to be successful, an understanding of the SMEs’ ICT use pattern and use behaviour is required. In this study, the focus is upon the pattern of the use of ICT in agribusiness enterprises and the use level, which could explain the role that ICTs play in the performance (processing and production) of agro-based products by Malaysian agro-SMEs and give insight into the factors that influence their ICT use. The study adopted the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and focused on model’s independent variable, i.e., ICT use. Using data obtained from randomly sampled 400 workers (both managers and employees) of 43 agribusiness enterprises that were also randomly selected, the study ran factor and descriptive analyses to determine the most important items in the questionnaire that determine the ICT use level in the scale. The findings have shown that the prevalent patterns of ICT use among the agro-SMEs are in entrepreneurial (organisational) business communication and product processing and production line, though the use of ICT in the latter purview was rather still low. Some recommendations for policy-makers and a suggestion for future research were provided. Keywords: Agribusiness Enterprises, ICT use behaviour, ICT use level, ICT use pattern, SME

Media and socio economic development in Northern Nigeria

This article discusses the crucial role of the mass media, peculiarly TV and radio, in reversing the burgeoning socioeconomic challenges of Northern Nigeria. It argues that mainstreaming global development initiatives and integrating the specific regional, state and national goals and policies in line with needs and expectations of the people can guarantee their freedom of opportunities and prosperity. It proposes: true democracy, good governance, accountability and transparency, human rights, increased political will and support for community radio for community needs, among othersas key enabling environment. It adds that media organizations and professionals need to resist political pressures and interferences to reflect the true feelings and needs of the people; institutionalize investigative/advocacy journalism to expose corruption and mismanagement of public resources by monitoring, criticizing, analyzing and interpreting public budget, expenditure, policy and implementation of global, national and local development initiatives instead of the norm of being appendages of governments. The article suggests further that the media in Northern Nigeria can strengthen their internal competence and ethical capacity for professionalism and adopt peace journalism in coverage of diversity and conflict, in their programming to illuminatethe cherished values of the people and to guide and direct social conduct and behaviour for sustainable development