Publications

Election in Nigeria is often marred by electoral malpractices. This study assessed the changing narrative in theelection process in Nigeria owing to citizen journalism. Situated within the context of Democratic Participant MediaTheory, this paper maintains that citizen journalism has been used to mobilize electorate to participate in politicalactivities as well as monitor election proceedings in both developed and developing countries of Africa. Theemergence of social networking sites which is heralded by the advent of the internet is opening up the public sphereto a more transparent and participatory form of democracy. Several organizations are beginning to see the potentialsinherent in these communication devices in enhancing political participation, social mobilization and even civilprotest. Today, several Nigerians have email accounts, and huge numbers of people have signed up for socialnetworking sites and numerous audiences – driven online citizen journalism sites and discussion forums. As a result,dissemination of news is no longer an exclusive preserve of the conventional media of communication alone. Citizensare now actively involved in producing and generating media content in the country. In a nutshell, the introductionof new media technology into the political arena of Nigerian politics will greatly enhance credible electionsprogressively.