Using Comedy skits on Social Media to Address Social Norms Around Corruption

Summary:

The Nigerian society is characterized by features that are associated with corruption like poor social, political, and economic development, inefficient democratic processes and lack of economic growth. Several studies have mentioned the impact of the media in the fight against corruption by creating awareness on critical issues in the society, which generates public interests and builds social support for development. This abstract describes the use of social commentary comedian to address social norms promoting corruption in Nigeria. The Strengthening Citizen's Resistance Against Prevalence of Corruption (SCRAP-C) which aims to influence social norms and attitudes that help corruption thrive in Nigeria engaged a popular social commentary comedian to produce comedy skits to address issues on corruption on social media platforms. Three comedy skits addressing issues around graft for employment, indiscipline around waste disposal, and electricity theft at household level were produced. The skits were posted on Instagram, Facebook and twitter. The use of the social commentary comedy skits on social media increased the awareness of the project campaign among Nigerians, reaching over a million people and generating thousands of engagements across three social media platforms in two months (April-May 2019). The social media engagement easily provided opportunity for reaching young people. While most of the comments on the skits focused on humor, other comments addressed the importance of fighting against corruption. Programs can use the vehicle of comedy and social media to reach many people with messages aimed at changing social norms and impacting behavior.

Background/Objectives:

Nigeria is regarded as one of the most corrupt country in the world. Based on the corruption perception index by Transparency International, Nigeria ranked 27 out of 100 in 2018 . Corruption is an inappropriate behavior or conduct that violates laid down rules and procedures. Nigeria is characterized by features that are associated with corruption like poor social, political, and economic development, inefficient democratic processes and lack of economic growth. This paper describes the use of social commentary comedian to address social norms promoting corruption in Nigeria.

Description of Intervention and/or Methods/Design:

The impact of the media in the fight against corruption by creating awareness on critical issues in the society can't be overemphasized . Extending the frontier of media usage to fight corruption to the new media might seem far off but as communication and mobile telephoning technology evolves to a greater proportion of Nigerians, it becomes a veritable tool to reach out to young population. The SCRAP-C is a project designed to influence social norms and attitudes that drives corruption in Nigeria. The project designed a campaign branded Upright4Nigeria; to promote and address social norms, a popular social commentary comedian was engaged to produce comedy skits to address issues on corruption across social media platforms. Three skits addressing issues around corruption were posted on Instagram, Facebook and twitter with overwhelming reception.

Results/Lessons Learned:

The use of the social commentary comedy skits reached 1,462,494 people across social media platforms in two months (2019). On Instagram, skit one addressing bribery for employment had 20,600 likes, 581 comments, shared 1,100 times and seen 300,383 times, skit two addresses indiscriminate refuse-disposal had 21,300 likes, 825 comments, shared 1,000 times, seen 267,963; and skit three addressing electricity theft had 12,400 likes, 454 comments, shared 495 times, seen 176,981. On Facebook, skit one reached 23,799 people, shared 54 times, generated 31 comments, 250 reactions; skit two reached 347,032 people, shared 265 times, generated 61 comments, 1,039 reactions; skit 3 reached 192,629 people, shared 112 times, generated 27 comments, 687 reactions. On Twitter, skit one reached 67,392 people, retweeted 734 times, 101 replies, 1,356 likes; skit two reached 50,535 people, retweeted 579 times, 65 replies, 922 likes; skit 3 reached 35,780 people, retweeted 361 times, 49 replies, 738 likes.

Discussion/Implications for the Field:

The strategy utilized a unique approach of engaging a social commentary comedian to attract the attention of the audience, especially young people. This helped to ensure that the target audience were exposed to the campaign thus increasing the chances that they would be motivated by the message to change their perception of corruption. While most of the comments on the skits focused on humour, other comments addressed the importance of the fight against corruption. Programs can use comedy and social media to reach many people with messages aimed at influencing social norms and impacting behavior.

Abstract submitted by: 

Oluyemi Abodunrin

Oluseyi Akintola

Oluwatofunmi Laleye

Olagoke Macaulay

Adolor Aisiri

Babafunke Fagbemi