Online Communities in Northern Nigeria: Modes and Purposes of Participation in Northern Hibiscus Blog

Abstract

The growing followership of some blogs in the Northern Nigeria blogosphere has evolved into online communities, providing platforms for like-minded individuals to interact via the internet. However, some of these blogs are now the subjects of public debates on their participants and practices. Employing survey and in depth interview, from January to June, 2024, this study investigated the participatory patterns and purposes of participation in the Northern Nigerian Blogosphere, using followers of Northern Hibiscus blog as the population of the study. Anchored on the Social media engagement and Uses and gratification theories, the study used purposive sampling to collect data from 400 active members of the community through a self-administered questionnaire via Google form for the survey while five (5) active members frequently found in the community’s comment section constituted the sample for the in-depth interview. Results showed that the majority of the members participate in the community through the liking of posts and the majority of the members are mostly interested in Counselling (Mallama, hide my I.D) content. The results further showed that members participate in the community to learn, and feel a sense of belonging and for personal interests such as self-development and self-actualization. This study concludes that members of the community approve of the content of the blog and participate in the community for different benefits. This study recommends that the moderators of the community should create a way for members to report