THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A STUDY OF THE ENDSARS MOVEMENT OF 2020 IN AWKA URBAN
Keywords:
Social media, social movements, protest, EndSARS, youths, police brutalityAbstract
The study examined the effects of social media on social movements, focusing on the EndSARS movement in Awka urban. The motivation for the study was the widespread youth protests during that period and the role social media played in spreading and sustaining the movement. The study adopted a mixed-method research design, utilizing questionnaires and in-depth interviews. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 204 respondents. Data were analyzed using percentages and frequency tables, while the chi-square (χ²) statistical test was used to test the hypotheses. The findings revealed that the factors that led to the EndSARS movement included police brutality (52.6%), human rights violations (16.3%), police extortion (12.8%), youth unemployment (10.7%), and bad governance (7.7%). The study also found that social media facilitated the success of the movement by creating massive awareness about police brutality (35.2%), providing youths with the opportunity to freely express themselves (18.4%), providing a platform for cash donations that sustained the movement (14.3%), giving a voice to the voiceless (14.3%), and through the influence of Twitter (10.7%). Finally, the study recommended that social media influencers should be sincere with their followers, participants in social movements should avoid spreading fake news, the government should stop crackdowns on activists and provide security for protesters, and the police should stop harassing youths on the streets.