Users’ Perception of Crisis Portrayals on Social Media: A Study of Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria

Abstract

Social media are steadily becoming the dominant means of keeping in touch with one another and veritable channels of public communication of this epoch. Violent crisis like the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria is one of the global phenomena which elicit concern from every rational person.  This paper examined the users’ perception of crisis portrayals on social media using the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria as an example. Survey research design was applied with 300 respondents as the sample; multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the samples and questionnaire was the instrument of data collection. The study found that users perceive the portrayals of the crisis on social media as excess and over-blown, especially on Facebook by mostly users between 15 and 35 years old. Based on the findings, the paper mainly recommends more social media education and barring of youngsters of certain age from the use of Facebook in Nigeria.

Keywords: Users, Perception, Crisis, Portrayal, Social Media, Book Haram,