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Assessing the Perception of Online Media Users on the Debate of the Recent Violence in Ethiopia (2015-2018); the Case of Facebook and Its Relation with Violence

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Assessing the Perception of Online Media Users on the Debate of the Recent Violence in Ethiopia (2015-2018); the Case of Facebook and Its Relation with Violence ASSESSING THE PERCEPTION OF ONLINE MEDIA USERS ON THE DEBATE OF THE RECENT VIOLENCE IN ETHIOPIA (2015-2018); THE CASE OF FACEBOOK AND ITS RELATION WITH VIOLENCE Henok Tesfaye A Thesis Presented to the School of Journalism And Communication in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Journalism and Communication. June, 2018 Addis Ababa 1 Addis Ababa University School of Graduate Studies This is to certify that the thesis prepared by Henok Tesfaye, entitled “Assessing the perception of online media users on the debates of the recent violence in Ethiopia (2015-2018); the case of Facebook and its relation with violence” and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Journalism and Communication complies with the regulations of the University and notes the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the Examining Committee: Examiner________________________________ Signature_____________ Date____________ Examiner________________________________ Signature_____________ Date____________ Advisor__________________________________ Signature_____________ Date____________ ________________________________________________________________ Chair of the Department or Graduate Coordinator 1 Abstract Currently billions of people are sharing different contents on online media. As Facebook is one of the dominant social media tools throughout the world, millions of Ethiopians are also using it for various reasons including political issues. The objective of this research is to assess the perception of Facebook users on violence occurred in Ethiopia from 2015-2018. The violence here is to refer the nationwide riots that occurred in Ethiopia and that seems to last in May 2018. Triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methods has been employed in this research. The qualitative data were collected from a Focused Group Discussion with seven prominent Facebook activists and some violence related Facebook posts by “Ethiopians”. 166 people have participated through questionnaires for quantitative data and survey responses were analyzed using frequency distribution and percentage analysis. Coding and analyzing of these data were carried out using SPSS version20 software. The result obtained from both FGD and questionnaire substantially shows Facebook has been at the center of the violence by creating a platform to exchange information related to violence. According to the Facebook users, the information was basically instructional and guiding messages on how to protest in an organized manner. Peoples on the research have witnessed that there is strong relation between what has been posted on Facebook and the type of violence on the ground (59.1%). Furthermore, the research shows there is strong level of consensus among online users that the role of Facebook for the consequent Political Change is immense by impacting the pace and space of the violence (65%). The study also indicated that Facebook can’t be considered as the cause of the violence, rather it was the main tool for the intensification of the violence using as a catalyst for the riot. ii Acknowledgement First and foremost, I am grateful to the God, for his unconditional love revealed in whole of my life. I would also like to forward my sincere thanks to my advisor, Teshager Siferaw (PhD), for his constructive comments and suggestions through the making of this research. My gratitude to my wife, Kidist Solomon, is unique. Her encouragement has always been instrumental for my success, and she has always been source of inspiration. Similarly, I would like to thank all the respondents who filled the questionnaires, and all my friends who helped me in coding process especially my classmate Yared and Abel. iii Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgement.................................................................................................................................. iii Lists of Acronyms .................................................................................................................................. vi Chapter One ............................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Statement of the Problem .............................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Significance of the Study ................................................................................................................ 7 1.4 General objective ........................................................................................................................... 9 1.5 Specific objective ........................................................................................................................... 9 1.6 Research Questions ....................................................................................................................... 9 1.7 Scope of the Research .................................................................................................................... 9 1.8 Organization of the Paper ............................................................................................................ 10 Chapter Two .......................................................................................................................................... 11 Review of Literature .............................................................................................................................. 11 2.1 Concept of Social Media............................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Social Media within the World of Politics ..................................................................................... 13 2.3. Media with respect to Mass Demonstration ................................................................................ 15 2.4 Social Media as practiced by countries ......................................................................................... 18 2.5 Facebook Generation ................................................................................................................. 20 2.6 Internet and Social Media in Ethiopia ........................................................................................... 20 2.7 Social Media theory ..................................................................................................................... 23 2.7.1 Social Media/Facebook and Agenda Setting Theory .............................................................. 23 2.7.2 Use and Gratification theory in Social Media ......................................................................... 26 2.7.3 Theory of the Network Society ............................................................................................. 27 2.7.4 Technological Determinism Theory ....................................................................................... 29 2.8 Over View of the Recent (2015-2018) Violence in Ethiopia ........................................................... 31 2.9 Group of people attached to the violence .................................................................................... 34 2.10 The Present Situation ................................................................................................................. 35 Chapter Three ....................................................................................................................................... 37 Methodology ......................................................................................................................................... 37 iv 3.1 Research Method......................................................................................................................... 37 3.2 Research Design........................................................................................................................... 37 3.3 Quantitative Research.................................................................................................................. 39 3.4 Qualitative Research .................................................................................................................... 39 3.5 Population and Sampling ............................................................................................................. 40 3.6 Data Gathering Tool ..................................................................................................................... 43 3.6.1 The Questionnaire................................................................................................................. 43 3.6.2 Focused Group Discussion with Facebook activists ................................................................ 45 3.6.3 Textual Data .......................................................................................................................... 46 3.7 Validity ........................................................................................................................................ 48 3.8 Methods of Data Presentation and Analysis ................................................................................
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