AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE AND DEVELOPMENTAL OUTCOMES BY GOVERNMENT AND EMERGING POLITICAL LEADERS –THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE. BY Abubakar Musa Shinkafi Salford Business School Centre for Digital Business College of Business & Law Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. April 2016 DEDICATION This thesis is proudly dedicated to my uncle late BABA MARAFA who through Allah’s mercy finances my education from Nursery school to PhD. Wish him Allah’s rahama now and always. 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Praise is to Allah for giving me strength in completing this thesis, as it has been a monumental journey in my life, which started as an idea and led to a four-year-long study process. Special thanks to my supervisor Dr David Kreps, and Co-supervisor Dr Gordon Fletcher. Worth mentioning are my parents, Hajiya Fatima and Alhaji Musa Usman, I thank you so much for your fervent prayers. To rest of my siblings and friends I will forever be grateful for you motivational support. Ali Abbas is worthy of mention 2 Table of contents Contents DEDICATION .............................................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................ iii Table of contents...................................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables .............................................................................................................................................. x List of Figure ............................................................................................................................................. xi Glossary of terms and abbreviations ..................................................................................................... xiii Definitions of terms................................................................................................................................. xv Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. xvii CHAPTER ONE ............................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Background of the study ............................................................................................................. 2 1.1.1 ICT and Social Media in Nigeria ............................................................................................... 4 1.3 Research problem ....................................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Nature of inquiry ......................................................................................................................... 8 1.5 Research question ....................................................................................................................... 9 1.6 Research aim ............................................................................................................................... 9 1.7 Research objectives ................................................................................................................... 10 1.8 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 10 1.9 Limitation .................................................................................................................................. 10 1.10 Justification ............................................................................................................................... 11 1.11 Contribution to knowledge ....................................................................................................... 11 1.12 Structure of the thesis ............................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER TWO ......................................................................................................................................... 14 Technological determinism, social construction of technology and their relevance to the ongoing discussion on ICT and development: A theoretical review ..................................................................................... 14 3 2.1 Media, Technologies and the Democratisation of Political Communications: Africa in perspective. 14 2.2 Toward the Development and Democratic-Participant Theories of Media .............................. 20 2.3 Technological Determinism ....................................................................................................... 25 2.4 Social Constructionism and the Social Construction of Technology ......................................... 29 2.5 Understanding Media as a form of Technological Determinism ............................................... 33 2.6 Conceptual Frameworks on ICT for Development .................................................................... 33 2.7 ICT for Development: An Overview of Extant Frameworks ...................................................... 36 2.8 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 43 2.9 Section Two: Current debates about social media and their reconceptualization in IS literature 44 2.10 Current debates in IS literature regarding Social Media applications ....................................... 44 2.11 Concept of Power, forms and principles ................................................................................... 48 2.11.1 Spatial notion of power ..................................................................................................... 49 2.11.2 Relation notion of power .................................................................................................. 50 2.11.3 Relational notion of power regarding social abilities and social strategies ...................... 50 2.11.4 Dispositional form of power .............................................................................................. 51 2.11.5 Other sources of power ..................................................................................................... 51 2.12 Dispositional notion of power: Marx, Gramsci and Foucault theories of power as means of domination and potential resistance in relation to ICT media in Nigerian context .............................. 52 2.12.2 Potential power resistance of the media ........................................................................... 56 2.13 Democracy: Concept and challenges in regards to ICTs and Social Media ............................... 58 2.13.1 Definition and challenges of democracy ........................................................................... 59 2.14 Fortunati’s call for social shaping of Social Media: Reconceptualising ICTs within the context capability approach to address democratic and power challenges in the Nigerian context ................ 62 2.15 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 70 CHAPTER THREE ...................................................................................................................................... 71 3.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................... 71 3.2 Section one: Background history of Nigeria .............................................................................. 72 3.3 Nigeria’s current state of news mass media ............................................................................. 76 4 3.2.1 Mass Media Hegemony in Nigerian context ...................................................................... 79 3.4 ICT and Community radio prospect in Nigeria .......................................................................... 80 3.4. Community Media policy in Nigerian context ........................................................................... 82 3.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 83 Section Two: Relevance of ICTs and Social Media in strengthening and developing free democratic society ................................................................................................................................................................ 84 3.6 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 84 3.7 Web 2.0, Social Media and Social Network Sites (SNS) ............................................................. 85 3.7.1 Defining social Network sites and presenting practical examples .................................... 87 3.7.1.1 Facebook ...................................................................................................................... 90 3.7.1.2 Twitter .........................................................................................................................