Social media and the #Occupy Nigeria Protests: Igniting or damping a Harmattan storm?

This study compared social media (new media) and newspapers’ framing of the January 2012 #Occupy Nigeria Protest. Authors employed content analysis to investigate similarities and differences in the frames adopted by social media (Facebook page, blogs, conversations in Nairaland and Twitter) and three national newspapers (the Nigerian Tribune, The Guardian and The Punch) during the protest. Findings show that the old media fared better than the social media in their framing of the motivation, diagnosis and prognosis of the protest. This study established that representatives of the old media were better contributors to the prosecution and/or discourse of the Occupy Nigeria Protests than the social media.