NJOMACS

This study applies agenda-setting theory to social media by investigating digital natives’ perception and social media posts on #EndSARS protests. A cross-sectional design was used for content analysis and survey data gathering. As a result, 1285 X tweets and Facebook posts were content analysed to ascertain the social media agenda for the #EndSARS protests; and an online survey of 373 youths was done to generate their perception on the #EndSARS protests. The study reveals the dominants agenda in the social media posts on #EndSARS protests are: police brutality, bad governance, injustice, and police reform (rs =.745, N=6, p= .021). These also resonated with the digital natives who attached importance to #EndSARS agenda and provoke nationwide response. These findings further substantiated the assumptions of agenda setting that media agenda could influence public consensus on issues and event, which in this case, is the #EndSARS. The study was able to test agenda setting by establishing a correspondence between social media posts and digital natives’ perception of #EndSARS protests. The study found the significance of social media agenda in fostering policy change in democracy. The #EndSARS protests on social media has led to government engaging in policy reforms to address social injustice, police harassment, extrajudicial activities of security agencies and taking measures to reduce bad governance.