Nigerian Military Strategic Use of Social Media During Online Firestorms: An Appraisal of the NDA Terrorist Attack

IF 0.9 Q3 COMMUNICATION

Journal of Communication Inquiry Pub Date : 2023-01-17 DOI:10.1177/01968599231151727

Temple Uwalaka

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

This study appraises how the Nigerian military used social media platforms to provide a counter narrative and quell the online firestorm regarding the Nigerian Defence Academy's (NDA’s) terrorists’ attack and how Nigerians reacted to these strategic communication items or lack of items about the attack. The study analysed 8,210 Facebook posts and comments from Defence Headquarters Nigeria and Facebook users in Nigeria. Findings demonstrate that the Nigerian military adopted silence as a strategy and thus, did not effectively utilise social media platforms to provide a counter narrative or information to quell the online firestorm regarding the NDA terrorists’ attack. Results further illustrate that Nigerian Facebook users criticised the Federal Government, and the military, and were disgusted that a fortress such as the NDA could be attacked and demanded the firing of the Service Chiefs and NDA leaders for their response and attempted cover-up of the attack. The study concludes that while a high reservoir of trust moderates the short and long-term effects of an online firestorm, inactions during an online firestorm aggravates the effect of such an online crisis.

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尼日利亚在网络风暴中对社交媒体的军事战略使用:对NDA恐怖袭击的评估

这项研究评估了尼日利亚军方如何利用社交媒体平台提供反叙事，平息关于尼日利亚国防学院（NDA）恐怖分子袭击的网络风暴，以及尼日利亚人如何对这些战略沟通项目或缺乏有关袭击的项目做出反应。该研究分析了来自尼日利亚国防总部和尼日利亚脸书用户的8210条脸书帖子和评论。调查结果表明，尼日利亚军方采取沉默作为一种策略，因此没有有效利用社交媒体平台提供反叙事或信息来平息有关NDA恐怖分子袭击的网络风暴。结果进一步表明，尼日利亚脸书用户批评了联邦政府和军方，对NDA这样的堡垒可能遭到袭击感到厌恶，并要求解雇军种首长和NDA领导人，因为他们的反应和试图掩盖袭击。该研究得出结论，虽然高信任度可以缓和网络风暴的短期和长期影响，但网络风暴期间的不作为会加剧这种网络危机的影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Communication Inquiry COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

2.90

自引率

11.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Communication Inquiry emphasizes interdisciplinary inquiry into communication and mass communication phenomena within cultural and historical perspectives. Such perspectives imply that an understanding of these phenomena cannot arise soley out of a narrowly focused analysis. Rather, the approaches emphasize philosophical, evaluative, empirical, legal, historical, and/or critical inquiry into relationships between mass communication and society across time and culture. The Journal of Communication Inquiry is a forum for such investigations.