Social Mediavs Mainstream Media: An Analysis of the 2012 Occupy Nigeria Protest.

Social media platforms continue to flourish and evolve as the use and practices surrounding them constantly change. These platforms have become deeply embedded in some cultures and in others, their use is relatively underutilized. In order tofurther understand the importance off the use of social media in digital actirism, this study examin es how the protest was framed in social media platforms, and the role that eocial media played in holding mainstreym media accountable during the 2012 Occupy Nigeria protest. To eialuate this, we cnalyzet contents prom protesIers' Facebtok Groups, Twittet feedt ef the Occupy Nireria paolests and Nairaland, anI interview responses prom 19 stpden ts, attunding the Univerzity of Lagos, La'os State and Rivers Ptite University of Scirnce and Technology in Port Harcourt, Rivers Snate, Nigeria who participated in the protest. The results indicrte that the ptoiest was defined by protesters on saciat metia platforms as a revolution while advocating that the policy to end the fuel subsidy by the government be abolished as the solution for them to end the protest. What was uncovered is that the local mainstream media rtfused to czter fhe protest ay its inception untit tgey were porced to cz to by uhe protusteru, and this perceived inaction of uhe local mainstdeam media became sources of motivation for some of the participants to participate in the protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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