Influencers create and facilitate dissemination of information in a network and can shape the attitudes and beliefs of members of a social network. Identifying the influencers and their relations, as well as the sentiment of tweets being disseminated in the network on some selected keywords can help curtail fake news creation and dissemination in the network. This study uses a sequential mixed-methods design with a quantitative method followed by qualitative methods. The quantitative data were collected using Mozdeh big data analysis software. Mozdeh software was used to collect tweets through Twitter’s Streaming application programming interface to build a corpus of tweets, collected from 1 January 2016 to 30 June 2021. The study found two major actors/influencers involved in the creation and dissemination of fake news on the tweeter social network studied. The study further found overall Av. Pos. − Av. Neg. was −0.9935. Data collected were on some specific trending keywords on a particular region in Nigeria. Identifying and monitoring the tweets of influencers in a network can aid in debunking fake news immediately after dissemination and discourage the use of offensive words in tweets. The results revealed major influencers responsible for creating and disseminating fake news on some trending issues in Nigeria.

Online video streaming is a learning technology used in today’s world and reliant on the availability of bandwidth. This research study sought to understand the perceptions of network gatekeepers about bandwidth and online video streams in Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria. To achieve this, the interpretive paradigm and the Network Gatekeeping Theory were used as the theoretical framework and also a case study approach was employed to investigate the phenomenon. The study used a purposive sampling technique and a semi-structured interview to seek out opinions from the respondents who were the network gatekeepers within the university. A thematic analytical approach was done with the use of NVivo software, which yielded one hundred and seven codes, ten sub-categories and four major categories. The findings from the study indicated that: (1) perceptions of network managers were one sided; (2) no acceptable user policy was on ground and available bandwidth was limited; and (3) limitation of bandwidth, hindered user access to online video and mechanisms for gatekeeping had a role to play in the overall access to online video.

Text and memes are increasingly populated and used to spread information on social media like twitter. Sometimes these memes can have different meanings or connotations. This study was aimed at highlighting how such information in the form of memes or text are diffused on social media platforms, with Twitter the selected platform. The study adopted an explanatory sequential mixed method design which allows for in-depth analysis of quantitative results from the corpus of tweets. The findings indicate a growing use of a new terminology ―vawulence‖ over the period of eight months observed showing adoption and acceptance of the new variation for the word violence. The study also found that digital aggression (cyberbullying) has become more notable and on the rise particularly with the use of text and memes showing veiled and, in some instances, outright attempts at cyberbullying with new terminologies still arising (in the form of ‗wotowoto‘ and ‗collect‘ which mean a form of physical assault).