Social media within the contexts of public sphere and civic engagement: the case of ‘My Oga at the Top'

ABSTRACT

YouTube readers’ comments have evolved into the public sphere, allowing readers to participate in the public sphere and civic engagement. This case study explores public reactions generated from a YouTube video, ‘My Oga at the Top’, which became viral as a result of the inability of Mr. Obafaiye Shem to name the website of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). He claimed the information about the website can only come from his top boss ‘my oga at the top’. Using Habermas’s public sphere as a framework and qualitative critical analysis as a method, the YouTube comments were analysed and five major themes emerged: (a) humour; (b) embarrassment and disgrace; (c) illiteracy and poor grammar; (d) empathy; and (e) incompetence and corruption. The findings indicate that commenters used social media to partake in civic engagement and public discourse as they vented their feelings toward the Nigerian government’s shortcomings.

KEYWORDS:

• Public sphere
• civic engagement
• ‘My oga at the top’
• Nigeria
• #EndSARS

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Uchenna Onuzulike

Uchenna Onuzulike (PhD, Howard University) is an assistant professor for the Organizational Communications graduate program in the Department of Communications at Bowie State University. His research foci lie in (critical) intercultural communication, ethnic and transnational identities, communication theories, organizational communication, transnational media and globalization; interrelationships of religion, culture, folk belief, and language; the second-generation Igbo; and Nollywood/film analysis and criticism.