RE-IMAGINING MUSIC PERFORMANCES IN WHATSAPP MEDIA: ONLINE ACTIVISM AND NEW ELECTIONEERING MOVEMENTS IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA, 2021-2022

Abstract

This study investigates the use of music performance in WhatsApp media and online activism of the newly emerging electioneering movements in southwestern Nigeria from 2021 to 2022. The socio-political adoption of online WhatsApp multimedia messages is directly linked with accessibility, ease of communication, sociability, and quick information sharing, however with little scholarship on the challenges of music performance in WhatsApp messaging in southwestern Nigeria. Therefore, the study adopted an ethnographic method that includes interviews, participant observation, online content, and musical analysis to explicate the problematic content of WhatsApp in southwestern Nigeria because music is critical to Whatsapp electioneering message. The theoretical frameworks are "domestication theory" and "uses and needs gratification theoryâ€. The study concludes that to correct WhatsApp’s problematic content, underlay music that propelled hatred should be re-directed and recomposed. The Federal, State, and Local governments should regulate and moderate WhatsApp content through policy formulations. The global media technologists in Nigeria (MTN, GLO, and AIRTEL) should develop a means to censor WhatsApp messages without infringing on the privacy of users.