The adoption of new media technologies is rapidly becoming a trend in educational environment. Given the growing popularity of social media, it has become pertinent to understand and adopt social media networks in developing future educational blue prints. This study investigates the extent to which WhatsApp platform could engender collaborative learning among undergraduate students in the University of Abuja, Gwagwalada, Nigeria. To achieve this aim, a dual research methodology was employed to drive the study. Both survey and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) were employed respectively. Surveying 400 undergraduates, data from the survey were analysed using Simple Percentage Table (SPT) and Microsoft Office tools, while data that emanated from the focus group were analysed thematically. The study incorporated ‘Technology Acceptance Model’ (TAM) to direct and guide it. Discoveries from the study found that “perceived usefulness” and “perceived ease of use” engender the use of WhatsApp among students. Also, it was discovered that students incorporated and domesticated class WhatsApp group for various purposes, particularly for learning. Overall, the study found that class WhatsApp group engenders collaborative learning to a large extent. However, it was discovered that the major challenge in class WhatsApp groups is the posting of irrelevant contents on the platforms. The study concluded that it is paramount to fully harness the potentials of WhatsApp in order to enhance learning in higher institutions.

This study explores how four Nigerian newspapers framed President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration and its human rights campaign. Using newspaper editorials published in The Punch, The Nation, Daily Trust, and Vanguard newspapers of December 2019 as the object of analysis, the paper draws on the methodological context of such framing to investigate how the selected newspapers framed the human rights situation in Nigeria. This study asserts that those newspapers’ editorials used varieties of framing methods, namely: “unrepentant dictator frame”, “resistance frame”, “indifference frame”, “warning frame”, and “sympathetic” frame to portray the government’s disposition to human rights issues. Furthermore, the paper reveals that the Nigerian media is partisan when it comes to the struggle against human rights while their positions on national issues like the fight against human rights abuse are subject to ethnic and political influences, as evident in the Daily Trust editorial. The study also revealed that editorials can be used as essential tools to curtail the excess of government, precisely, to fight against the abuse of human rights. Finally, the paper recommends that newspaper publishers should limit their editorial influences in day-to-day administration of news outlet to engender objectivity, news balance and accuracy in order not to exacerbate the socio-political situation in a multi-ethnic society such as Nigeria.

Abstract