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Nigeria: This Day Blast Sparks Social Media War |
| Source: |
Daily Trust |
| Source Date: |
Thursday, April 26, 2012 |
| Focus: |
ICT for MDGs
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| Country: |
Nigeria |
| Created: |
Apr 27, 2012 |
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Attacks on national media houses in Nigeria on Thursday overshadowed dialogue about the country's democratic progress.
The attacks came as the country's information ministry engaged Nigerians in public debate for the first time in massive deployment of social media, alongside traditional live television broadcast.
In the run-up to the ministerial platform, which marks President Goodluck Jonathan's first full year in office, the ministry had urged journalists to focus on development, with information minister lamenting that the media was preoccupied with reporting spate of violence in the country to the detriment of other positive accounts.
The minister, who sat out the entire event at National Press Center on Thursday, later reiterated his plea to journalists after tweets about the bomb blasts began coming in.
"Take a leave from Boko Haram, Let's report development for God's sake," he urged journalists at the National Press Center.
The information ministry deployed what officials called "expertise and equipment" to engage thousands of Nigerians on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.
The ministry's press officer Joseph Mutah said it went "full blast on social media...to increase the mileage of the coverage."
"When you consider the large following on the social media, particularly the youths, it is an avenue to give them opportunity to participate in this national conversation," he told Daily Trust.
"I believe those following those on social media had opportunity to hear firsthand what the government is doing in those key sectors that the ministers appeared today."
As three ministers--of agriculture, water resources and environment--mounted the podium to give account of the past one year in office, snippets of their speech were posted on Facebook, and tweeted on Twitter, drawing comments from hundreds of followers at a time.
The entire ministerial platform was also streaming on Youtube when the first explosion came.
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