Analysis of New Media Usage and the Challenges of Public Sector in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

The public sector in Nigeria has had an uneven adoption of new media, even with the increasing demand of digital communication and interaction among the citizens. Recent reports indicate that over 70% of Nigerians actively use social media platforms, yet less than 40% of public sector effectively utilise digital platforms for public communication and service updates. In many cases, the traditional communication channels used by many agencies do not allow them to effectively interact with citizens in a timely manner when announcing the policy, managing emergencies, and updating them on changes in services. These obstacles demonstrate the necessity to investigate the role of new media application in the Public sector and the challenges that influence its implementation. The target population of the study was the civil servants working in the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, the Federal Ministry of Health and the Federal Ministry of Education. The study adopted a quantitative method with an explanatory research design. The population consisted of 1,720 civil servants across the three ministries in Southwest Nigeria, from which 314 respondents were selected using stratified random sampling. The data were gathered through the use of structured questionnaire and processed through the use of descriptive statistics and charts. The results showed that the new media usage enhanced dissemination of information to the people, citizen participation, and openness in the administration.  Nevertheless, other challenges that the study discovered included inadequate digital skills of communication officers, poor technology infrastructure, and poor policies of managing official social-media platforms.  It was revealed that the Ministries that had organised digital-communication policies experienced approximately 42% greater participation of the people and faster dissemination of information compared to those that did not have any policies. It was concluded that effective application of new media is necessary to enhance transparency, responsiveness, and citizen trust in the public sector in Nigeria.  The research recommended the creation of formal policies of digital-communication, ongoing training of the public officers in the new-media and investment in the digital-communication infrastructure among the ministries.