The development of social media was brought by Information and Communication Technology leading to gradual disappearance of boundaries and turning the entire world into connected communities in what is usually described as ‘global village’. As global communities get more connected, there are benefits and drawbacks. One of such drawbacks is that fraudsters and scammers who utilize the global connectedness to deceive innocent online users through all sorts of cyber-crime activities. This unhealthy activity has attracted global concerns and opinions. This paper examined opinion of students of Kaduna State University, Nigeria, on Facebook and Email Frauds. Survey method was used to investigate the subject matter. Using purposive sampling technique, a total of two hundred (200) respondents were drawn from the undergraduate of the University. Findings revealed that, frauds on social media take place by sending scam messages via email accounts or posting messages tagging the victims requesting for their Bank Verification Number (BVN) so as verify bank account of the unsuspecting use and sometimes hacking of Facebook or email accounts and then sending threatening messages containing false information subjecting the account users being duped. The study further found that these frauds are attributed to lack of employment, poverty and laziness among youths. The study recommends that the public especially online users should constantly be sensitized on cyber frauds to avoid being scammed.

This paper is an assessment of the Nigerian Press coverage of Maternal Health issues as the fifth goal of the Millennium Development of Goals (MDGs). It examined and analysed 282 editions of The Guardian, New Nigerian, ThisDay, and Daily Trust newspapers from 2001-2007 to measure their contributions in terms of coverage towards the achievement of the MGDs. The findings revealed that the selected newspapers reported issues of Maternal Health. However, the coverage was significantly low with 206 reports recorded by the 4 selected publications over a period of 7 years. In addition, prominence was not given to the coverage of Maternal Health issues and most reports carried were negative stories which may explain why the Maternal Health goal was not achieved in 2015 as planned. The MDGs final report (2015) identified gabs in the achievement of the MDGs in general and the Maternal Health goal in particular and has forged to include it in a bold vision of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. This study therefore recommends that the press should partner with national development goals and give consistent coverage of Maternal Health issues in order to facilitate its achievement. Prominence should also be given to its coverage; and the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) as a professional body should re-orient and charge its members on the importance of development news reporting and reporting the Maternal Health in order to contribute in curbing the menace of maternal mortality and morbidity in Nigeria.

This study analyzed how online news media covered 2015 presidential election in Nigeria. The aim is to establish the level of attention different parties received, portrayal of parties and direction of reports. Three online media (Sahara Reporters, Scannews and Premium Times) were purposively selected. The period of the study was 1st January to 27st March 2015. A total of hundred and twenty-three (323) items (news and feature articles) that touched on 2015 presidential election were generated through Google search and websites of the three media. One hundred and sixty nine (169) items were randomly selected as the sample size. Data were analyzed using frequencies and simple percentages. Findings revealed that PDP and APC received most attention from the media with PDP having the highest number of reports. Aside the two parties, all the remaining parties were mostly invincible in the reports published by the media during the period studied. It was also discovered that the media were more interested in conflict related matters than issues like voter’s education. Among other recommendations made, the researcher called on government communication regulatory bodies to organized special workshop for online journalists on issues of ethics and responsible practice while legal and technological strategies need to be design to curtail excesses of online journalists.

This paper appraises the role of ICTs as a tool for participatory democracy in Nigeria with particular reference to 2011 and 2015 elections. Qualitative literature reviewing method was adopted and two media theories- Diffusion of innovation and Technological Acceptance Model (TAM) were used as theoretical foundation. The study showed that all the five key stakeholders identified in this study except one (the security agencies) made unprecedented use of ICTs in the Nigerian electoral process during 2011 and 2015. Notwithstanding, the acquisition and applications of ICTs in Nigeria are not without challenges especially that of low level telephone penetration and uneven access. Hence, many localities are still not covered by telecommunication network in Nigeria leading to the marginalisation of crucial number of electorates. All the same, ICTs played a huge role in the success of both elections. Remarkable is the fact that all electoral stakeholders, most especially electorates, were hugely involved. This was unlike previous elections in Nigeria. Drawing from the foregoing, the study recommended that the utility of ICTs platforms to democratic governance and precisely to the electoral process should be further leveraged upon by stakeholders, as the electoral process stands to gain more if ICTs platforms are effectively and appropriately used. Also, there is need to ensure that the issues and challenges which confronted the use of the ICTs before, during and after the elections do not reoccur in future elections, most especially in the use of card readers.

This paper examines the role of traditional festivals as agents of social mobilization with a focus on Egungun and Oro traditional festivals in South West Nigeria. The paper adopts Social Mobilization theory as theoretical framework to illustrate the importance of value change, which can lead to the development of the community. The paper identified the challenges facing traditional festivals in realizing its roles of social mobilization. Egungun festival in South West Nigeria is prone to hijack by the political elites who use them to cause havoc in the society. Some masquerades have turned themselves into political thugs carrying dangerous weapons to victimize members of the society. The paper concludes that, traditional festival if properly harnessed would remain an important agent of social mobilization. In spite of the challenges, the Egungun festival and Oro traditional festivals are important social mobilization platforms in South West Nigeria. The study therefore recommends total overhauling of the festivals to meet the desired goal it intends to achieve where miscreants and hoodlums will not play prominent roles during the festival. Involvement of corporate organizations in financing traditional festivals could bring some sanity and attraction into it, thereby turning it into cultural and tourist attraction.

A good information management system in all sectors is required for overall prosperity of a nation. Security being a key component of national stability and development requires nothing less than a formidable information management base, especially considering the complexities associated with contemporary security issues. The current global security scenario and the influence of information on the security sector has made the information administration indispensable. The advances in Information and communication technologies and the chaotic nature of the information super highway have ushered in compelling changes on information administration globally. Since the public sphere is now an all comers affair, as a result of the emergence of new media technologies and the enormous influence on information resources, managing information becomes imperative for security stakeholders. This chapter examines new media and information management in contemporary security challenges in Nigeria.

This study textualized some political campaign advertisements for the 2015 presidential elections in Nigeria with a view to unearthing the development issues raised, religious and personal attacks inherent in the published advertisements. Data for the study comprised 8 purposively selected adverts published in two Nigerian newspapers from January to March 2015, which was the peak period of electioneering campaigns for the 2015 presidential elections in Nigeria. The advertisements generally focused on the two leading parties in the country (People’s Democratic Party and All Progressives Congress). The data obtained were analysed using the Textual analysis research design. The analysis shows that the political adverts producers employed creatively constructed verbal and visual strategies to project political aspirants for acceptance by the Nigerian electorates. The appeal to history for the education of the electorate about the previous deeds of certain political contestants, making the campaigns evidence-based, the foregrounding of credibility matters and the emphasis on change serve as useful rhetorical appeals in the discourse upon which the analysis were anchored and which allows for their effective interpretation. The study further reveals that other noticeable discursive themes in the discourse are attacks and counter attacks, hate and brand association. It recommends amongst others that APCON should be legally empowered to penalise both the advertisers and the media firms that fail to comply with legislation on political advertising and that electoral agencies should apply punitive sanctions on political advertisers who disobey the laws on political advertising.

This paper seeks to provide further understanding of issues surrounding university students’ cognitive belief about the effort an individual would expend when using information and communication technology (ICT) to perform a given task related to academic learning. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) perspective was adopted to determine the strength of effort expectancy (the belief that ICT is easy to use and effort-free) and the moderating influence of experience on ICT use in academic context. A pre-tested questionnaire was administered to 400 respondents that were selected using purposive sampling from students at University of Maiduguri and University of Ibadan in Nigeria. This study aims to achieve three objectives: to determine the respondents’ level of ICT use; to determine the effect of effort expectancy on ICT use; and to assess the moderating influence of prior ICT use experience on the relationship path between effort expectancy and ICT use. The Cronbach alpha of the measurement scale was (a = .85) very good. The results indicate that effort expectancy significantly predict ICT use and that low experience significantly moderates the relationship path between effort expectancy and ICT use, which led this paper to conclude that most Nigerian university students possess basic (rudimentary, or low) ICT use skills; and the majority of them believe that an individual student would need to expend lot of effort when using ICT to accomplish a given academic task. Hence, this paper recommends that practical e-learning courses should be included in public universities’ academic curriculums.

Education is one of the most troubled sectors in Nigeria. There are series of industrial actions in the sector to draw government’s attention to a range of problems that has continued to hinder meaningful progress in the sector. One of such industrial actions was the six months nationwide strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) between July and December 2013, that disrupted the University academic calendar. This industrial action was widely reported in local and international media, with spectacular public debates across the country that seemed to draw mostly upon media reports on the crisis. Given the centrality of media coverage to public understanding of the crisis, we considered it significant to examine how some of Nigeria’s leading newspapers – Daily trust, Vanguard, The Nation and The Guardian reported the crisis within the categories of the demands made by ASUU. The specific objectives of this study were to determine the areas of salient emphasis and directions of coverage in the selected newspapers. An aggregate of 736 units of analysis (articles) were coded from Lexis-Nexis database and hard copies of the newspapers. Findings show that the newspapers paid little attention to the background and in-depth analyses of the crisis, thereby narrowing public understanding to straight news, which dominated the coverage genre. Specific issues in the contending FG-ASUU 2009 agreement were largely avoided in the coverage by way of casual citations, while Earned Academic Allowances and revitalization funds were presented with salient emphasis. The study concluded that the newspapers have failed to provide the adequate information required to educate and aid public understanding on the FG-ASUU educational crisis and the general problem in the higher education sector.

The mass media in Nigeria have played critical roles in the evolution of the country from colonial, military as well as civilian governance .The presence, absence or type of presence that the media have in social upheavals such as conflict influence the outcome of such events. Hence the notion that we live in a media controlled world and our perception of conflict, wars, economic policies are influenced by the media. A major technique that the media use in the portrayal of events is framing, which centres on the choice of words, phrases, literal techniques as well as the influence of placement on audience perception .This study looked at the framing techniques, news formats used, sources of frames as well as influence of ownership on the selected Nigerian Newspapers in the coverage of the Niger Delta, a conflict that is at the very centre of Nigeria’s economy. Findings revealed that the selected newspapers used more of thematic frames than episodic frames, while they also preferred news formats to other editorial formats. In addition the newspapers depended mainly on their government and correspondents for frames used in the coverage of the Niger Delta conflict.

This paper examined audience perception of portrayal of women in magazine advertisements, with a focus on Maiduguri residence. The study sought to find out audience perception on how women are depicted in magazine advertisement and whether audience perception on the portrayal of women in magazine advertisement is viewed as positive or negative. A survey was conducted to gather and generate data for the study. It used purposive sampling to select 100 respondent individuals relevant to the study. The study found that the respondent perceive that women are depicted predominantly as subjects for sexual appeal in magazine advertisement and women are perceive as being portrayed negatively in magazine advertisement. The study concludes that respondent’s perception of women’s portrayal in magazine advertisement is tilted towards the negative perspective and their depiction is predominantly as object for sexual appeal.

Power sector in Nigeria has been one of the challenging sectors for Nigerian development. It has faced challenges ranging from corruption, lack of infrastructure, insufficient power generation, inadequate supply of electricity to consumers, inflexible tariff system, to non-payment of large bill arrears by the power consumers. Despite all these, Nigerians have increasingly demanded for electricity in the country. This study examined newspaper coverage of tariff increase in the power sector to know how the issue was deemed important. The study used agenda-setting theory to buttress and explain the work while content analysis was the research design used to content analyse The Punch and The Nation newspapers for the period of six (6) months. The universe of the study was 366 out of which 192 was the sample size while coding sheet and coding guide were the instruments of data collection. Findings revealed that the selected newspapers did fairly well in their coverage on tariff increase in the power sector. Both newspapers gave prominence and high frequency to the stories reported. The study recommended that since so many people rely on media messages there is need for the print media to be more proactive on the interpretative function of the mass media and that media professionals should not rely solely on media briefings, conferences and press releases from electricity power brokers; they should equally get the opinions of the common man on the street and know what the masses are saying on any issue of importance.

This study investigates Nigerian newspapers framing of President Mohammadu Buhari medical leave to United Kingdom, with specific emphasis on genre of the story, prominence, pattern of framing, dominant frame and frequency of the reports. Three newspapers; The Guardian, Vanguard and Daily Trust were selected for the study which covers a period of 8 months. Content analysis was adopted for the study. Results showed, among others, the newspapers did not give background information on President Muhamadu Buhari’s medical leave. The newspapers used the straight news format most in the reportage of the issue. Findings further showed that the newspapers gave minimal prominence to the coverage. The result also showed that the newspapers used varieties of frames in the coverage such as: political frame, respond frame, human interest frame and death-rumour frame. The dominant frame was political frame which accounted for 27 percent. It recommended that Nigeria newspapers and journalists should refrain from brief report of issues, especially a matter of national concern and adopt an in-depth investigation and reportage. Further studies are also recommended to include audience perception of the coverage by the media.

This study examined African Diaspora students’ behaviour towards their social media profile images in relation to self-presentation and impression management at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus. The study sought to find out why African students in diaspora manage their social media profile images and how they present themselves and manage impression through online social media platforms. In-depth interview was used to collect data on the subject investigated. The researchers used available and convenient sampling technique to select seven individual African students at the University to enable the researchers obtain extensive data. Findings from the study indicated various factors that prompt and motivate African students to manage their social media profile images. These factors include maintaining social ties with friends, relatives and associates at home in Africa, as well as sharing moments, aesthetic environment and nature with them. The study concluded that African students in the University of Nicosia managed their social media profile images in order to share their experiences with their relatives and friends. This assisted them to manage their self-images. Hence, the study recommends further research on a large scale that will explore specific African Diasporas ’personality traits and gender differences in relation to managing social media profile images.

Adherence to treatment is a vital aspect of medical care as it determines the success or otherwise of any medical encounter. Studies have shown that the doctor-patient style of interaction encourages or discourages adherence. This study, therefore, investigated the style(s) of doctor-patient communication (paternalism, mutuality, consumerism and default) used at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan as it bothers on patients’ adherence to treatment. The study adopted the doctor-patient relationship framework anchored on paternalistic, informative, interpretive and deliberative models. Accidental sampling technique was used to select 420 patients. The respondents were sampled across three out-patient departments (surgical, medical, and obstetrics and gynecology). Three doctors who are heads of departments and three patients from the three outpatient clinics for in-depth interviews. The instruments used were communication styles and patients’ adherence to treatment (CSPATQ, r = 0. 77) questionnaire and in-depth interview guide. Data were subjected to frequency and percentage distributions, Pearson product moment correlation and multiple linear regression analyses at 0.05 level of significance. Qualitative data were analysed thematically. A positive correlation was established between mutuality and patients’ adherence to treatment (r = 0.24). The following variables have relative effects on patients’ adherence to treatment Paternalism (ß = 0.06), mutuality (ß = 0.10) and default (ß = 0.33) had relative effects on patients’ adherence to treatment. This was supported by the in-depth interviews with the heads of departments and patients from the out-patient clinics. Mutuality as a communication style is perceived to enhance patients’ adherence to treatment and should be encouraged.