THE IMPACT OF THE MEDIA ON THE #ENDSARS PROTESTS IN NIGERIA
THE IMPACT OF THE MEDIA ON THE #ENDSARS PROTESTS IN NIGERIA

Summary/Abstract: In October 2020, Nigeria experienced a nationwide protest tagged: #EndSARS. These protest weretargeted at the Federal Government of Nigeria to enforce the end of police brutality, undue harassmentand extortion meted against the masses, especially on the Nigerian youths. The protestswere carried out in some parts of the country, especially the major cities and abroad. Many scholarsand commentators believe that these protests were facilitated by the social media. The studyhowever, was an attempt to critically examine the impacts of social media on the protest. To dothis, the study relied mainly on secondary sources, such as journal articles, newspapers, news magazinesand commentaries. Owing to the nature of the development, it was appropriate to deploy theanalytic method of historical reconstruction. The study discovered that while social media cannotbe dismissed to have been utilized at some point in mobilizing the protesters and creating internationalawareness as to the state of the nation, the (social media platforms) created more panic inthe society and tended to be more divisive and destructive due to fake, unverified and amateurpresentation of information and over exaggeration of situations. The study therefore concludes thatNigerian youths could have been sponsored by ambitious politicians and that is why the Nigeriangovernment needs to address the issues of concern, it also behooves on it to enforce strictly, theextant rules and regulations guiding what goes into the air. This is because Nigeria cannot belocked out of the age of digital technology in the 21st century.

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