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activists and some politicians, have attempted to end the mass killings. Southern Kaduna groups have explored avenues such as digital media to challenge what they perceive as premeditated attempts to decimate them. But also, the 2011 elections generally saw a nation-wide social media explosion that changed people’s participation in the electoral processes as well as the conflicts that ensued. This constitutes another major historical moment for interreligious relations in which the significance of digital media is heightened. This is further discussed in the next section.
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addition, they denied deviant groups access and gave such groups and their causes negative press. The authors further note that while the private media helped the situation to an extent, they were also influenced by the specific interests of the organizations it collaborated with (Akashoro, Okidu and Ajaga, 2013).
In his study of media coverage of minorities in Nigeria, Ayobami Ojebode (2007) argues that the there is a persistent and gross lack of attention to minorities. This both reflects and causes horizontal inequalities in the country. Drawing on previous studies, Ojebode (2007) shows that in most cases not everyone is seen by the media in pluralistic societies as the media often focuses on the influential and dominant groups and give smaller groups only negative attention. As a result, the cultural symbols and events surrounding the lives of dominant individuals and groups are privileged and elevated above others. Ojebode (2007) shows that the three ”mega” ethnic groups in Nigeria (Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo) have enjoyed such privileges and elevation to the detriment of minorities. For decades, for instance, all major news on national television included salutations in the languages of these three ethnic groups. In addition, the national radio station’s identification jingle was a blend of sounds from cultural musical instruments of the three mega ethnic groups (Ojebode, 2007). Ojebode (2007) further illustrates the low cultural status of minorities and their issues in Nigerian media, showing that 77% of coverage in print media was of the three major ethnic groups, with 23% for minorities. With broadcast media, news coverage of the activities of minorities was 6.3% and 69% of this low coverage represented minorities as violent and greedy. Ojebode (2007) also highlights that minorities believe that their cultural experiences and struggles in the Nigerian space were not known by the government as well as outsiders because of the lack of attention they receive. For them, such inattention is also a reflection of their economic and political subordination (Ojebode, 2007). Ojebode’s findings were also confirmed by media personnel who attempted to exonerate themselves using the lack of tools and funding, poor and unpaid salaries, and market potential, as reasons for their lack of attention to ethnic minorities (Ojebode, 2007).
Akpan, Erin and Olofu-Aeoye (2013) and Auwal (2015) agree with some of Ojebode’s findings.
They argue that media outputs, goals and methods are largely shaped by the environment in which they operate, and very often work to reinforce dominant narratives and ideologies in the environment – which in turn influences governance quality and peace. Akpan, Erin and Olofu-
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Aeoye (2013) and Auwal (2015) suggest that to develop a better understanding of the role the media plays in interreligious conflicts in Nigeria, the Nigerian environment needs to be understood. Akpan, Erin and Olofu-Aeoye (2013) note that government-owned media in Nigeria hardly gives the expected publicity of the people’s grievances no matter how genuine they may be, as they have to conform to the wishes of their owners and deal with other factors such as corruption, poor remunerations of personnel and the dangers journalists encounter in their work.
While private and social media has reduced these problems, and changed the one-directional nature of media communication in the country, they are not entirely free of the same problems.
Thus, the authors conclude that, like religion, the media is susceptible to manipulation and has been used to misrepresent and aggravate conflicts in Nigeria with biased news coverage and reporting Auwal (2015).
These authors suggest that media has played a major role in aggravating the tension that exist between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, a fact that Nigerians are increasingly aware of and that has created a mistrust of mainstream media by Nigerians who have felt ignored and misrepresented by it. A study by the BBC Media Action (2014) shows that while Nigerians expressed appreciation of the media for timely updates and information on the developments of conflicts in the country, they also believe that the media was, to a large extent, responsible for the escalation of conflicts due to inaccuracies in reporting. The study also found that Nigerian citizens engaged freely in conversations about conflicts publicly and in private, as well as on digital/social media platforms (BBC, 2014). However, these platforms, particularly Facebook, twitter and 2go, very rapidly circulated rumours and inciting information about conflicts.
This is further elaborated in a report of the Media Tracking Center in Nigeria, by Judith B. Asuni and Jacqueline Farris (2011). The Media Tracking Center ran a project that explored how social media platforms operated during Nigeria’s 2011 elections by tracking social media activities and collating information from Facebook, twitter, SMS and photos shared online. The report shows that there was a sudden internet and telephone explosion with activities both from individuals and traditional media during this period (Asuni and Farris, 2011). This resulted from huge anticipation among citizens following a renewed confidence in the Nigerian Electoral Commission because of the appointment of a respected academic and activist, Professor Attahiru Jega to head the commission. This also changed the nature of consumption and dissemination of
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information in Nigeria as many citizens could share their thoughts and observations on the election, ensuing conflicts and other surrounding issues irrespective of their location, status, age, political orientation, religion or ethnicity. In the post-election mayhem, social media helped save many lives as conflict management personnel utilized information shared by Nigerians.
However, it also incited and escalated violence. The study gave examples of messages that spread among Christians and Muslims to worsen the violence especially in Kaduna where it was most intense (Asuni and Farris, 2011).
The study shows that because of the role of social media during the 2011 election period, many Nigerians, for the first time, felt that their voices would be heard (Asuni and Farris, 2011). It opened up the wider Nigeria for many citizens as, for instance, people accessed online copies of newspapers and electronic media that they would normally not access or interact with – both from other parts of Nigeria and globally. This upsurge of social media activities in the Nigerian environment was as a result of its affordability, accessibility, the anonymity it granted in some cases, and the way it allowed Nigerians to cross group-boundaries to encounter and interact with other individuals and groups of different locations, orientation, education, beliefs and more (Asuni and Farris, 2011).