{"401561":{"#nid":"401561","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Social Media Helps Curb Nigerian Election Deathtoll","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENunn School professor \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty\/bio\/best\u0022\u003EMichael L. Best\u003C\/a\u003E was cited in an article on PCWorld discussing the effect social media has had on limiting violence surrounding the recent Nigerian presidential and parliamentary elections, which were the most peaceful in Nigeria since the nation embraced democracy in 1999.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI do believe that the capacity for social media to connect and inform helped Nigeria conduct a free and fair election and helped to keep violence to a minimum,\u201d said Michael Best via email. \u0022Of course, these technologies are not silver bullets nor do they always contribute to positive elements within a democracy. But during the recent Nigerian elections, our experience monitoring social media over our media aggregation platform, named \u2018Aggie,\u2019 demonstrated the power of these technologies can be used for good.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlong with Thomas Smyth from Sassafras Tech Collective, a worker-owned tech co-op in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Best published a qualitative dual case study, \u201cTweet to Trust: Social Media and Elections in West Africa,\u201d about social media use during the general elections in Nigeria and Liberia in 2011.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to remarking on media\u0027s effect during Nigerian elections, Best noted that the use of social media and technology such as electronic voting systems should not be considered a panacea.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cElectronic voting systems can be beneficial if correctly designed and deployed but too often they are actually detrimental due to lack of smart engineering and weak deployments,\u201d Best said. \u201cAcross many parts of the United States, for instance, badly designed e-voting machines have actually\u0026nbsp;reduced\u0026nbsp;the transparency and accountability of that nation\u2019s elections.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2916832\/social-media-helps-curb-nigerian-election-deathtoll-paving-future-path.html\u0022\u003EContinue to full article...\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EDr. Michael L. Best is an associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, where he directs the Technologies and International Development Lab. He is also a faculty associate of the Berkman Center for Internet \u0026amp; Society at Harvard University and co-founder and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the widely read journal, Information Technologies and International Development.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27889","created_gmt":"2015-05-04 12:14:25","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 02:27:29","author":"Beth Godfrey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"college student of the year","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2916832\/social-media-helps-curb-nigerian-election-deathtoll-paving-future-path.html","dateline":{"date":"2015-04-30T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-04-30T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"401551":{"id":"401551","type":"image","title":"Michael Best","body":null,"created":"1449252000","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:00:00","changed":"1475895122","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:02","alt":"Michael Best","file":{"fid":"76030","name":"michael-best_0_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/michael-best_0_0_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/michael-best_0_0_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":17617,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/michael-best_0_0_0.jpg?itok=DN_94vQ3"}}},"media_ids":["401551"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1285","name":"Sam Nunn School of International Affairs"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2421","name":"nigeria"},{"id":"10536","name":"Nunn School"},{"id":"125361","name":"PCWorld"},{"id":"104081","name":"press"},{"id":"167543","name":"social media"},{"id":"623","name":"Technology"},{"id":"1814","name":"violence"},{"id":"3717","name":"voting"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}