Influence of Social Media on the Rising Menace of Jungle Justice in Aba, Abia State
Abstract
The phenomenal frequency of mob attacks on suspects of varying offenses in Nigeria has ceased to be merely a local concern among justice dispensation stakeholders and within Nigerian communities. Social media is evolving as an instrumental trigger of “jungle justice” and has consequently situated mob justice as a global issue that requires critical academic attention. The essence of this research is to expound on the evolving journalistic functions of social media as projectors of actions and reactions of the mob and extra-judicial activities. The paper examines the social news channel, the nature of the news agents, the contents (mob attacks) and the effects of these contents on the users. (Social) Media Effect theory is employed to establish that there is a relationship between media and mob justice. This relationship is...
