CHAPTER ONE
1.0       INTRODUCTION
1.1        BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
National security borders on incidence that endangers human existence or welfare (Ali, 2013). Nigeria’s national security means the protection of the lives, rights, dignity and property of its citizens (Ibagere, 2010). It is also the protection of its resources, cultural integrity, territory, sovereignty and lawful institutions of the country (Wali, 2012). National security encompasses freedom from danger or threats to a nation’s stability to protect itself, promote its cherished values and legitimate interest, and enhance the well-being of its people (Nwanegbo and Odigbo, 2013). The aim of national security is to secure the just and equitable living conditions for all the citizens of the country and of peace for human life.
Suffice to say, communication is central to human life as it sustains and maintains human relationship and social interaction. It is the transfer of information from one person, context or group to another (Giddens et al., 2005). According to Robins (2005), communication is a definite process involving the source or sender encoding of cues or prompts, message or purpose through a channel or medium of transmission to the decoder or the receiver so as to provide a feedback. In essence, communicators often consider which appropriate channel (s) or medium to use in order to reach a given target audience and one of such channels is the internet (Ebner et al., 2010).  
Social media, as a means of communication are computer-mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks (Adedeji, 2011). It is the collections of internet websites, services and practices that support collaboration, community building, participation, and sharing (Ndaku, 2013).  Social media can also be defined as a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.  Social media therefore depend on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content (Bello, 2012).  
A major category of the social media activity is social networking. In the recent times, there has been increasing integration of social media networking tools such as blogs, microblogs, and video-sharing sites into the society (Robbins, 2005). Social networking sites have also enhanced the functioning of the older media of communication (Cranston and Davies, 2009). Social networking websites, such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, have generally become an integral part of the society (Cotton, 2008). Ndaku (2013), posits that social networking which include blogs (political Blog), networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), video sharing (YouTube), audio sharing (Podcast), mobile sites (2go etc.), image or picture sharing (flicker), etc. have the capacity of boosting participation of the general public into the nation’s wellbeing because of their open, conversational nature, connectedness and textual and audio-visual characteristic appeals.   
In Nigeria, there has been a prevalent rate of insecurity and this is made obvious by the alarming trend of anti-social acts prevalent in the nation (Wali, 2012). Acts of terrorism by the Boko Haram Islamic sect, incidents of kidnapping in the southeast and South-South parts of the country, including agitations by militants in the Niger Delta have become “brands” of crime that have given a negative identity to Nigeria (Ali, 2013). This is in addition to other conventional crimes such as theft, arson, violent ethno-religious conflicts to mention but few, which the law enforcement agents battle daily (Ofuafor, 2008). These acts particularly those that involve threat to life have contributed in creating an alarming state of insecurity in some parts of the country.
The social media is a principal player in the arena of national security (Nwanegbo and Odigbo, 2013). The social media by their nature have the capabilities of educating, informing, entertaining and inflaming the audience (Adedeji, 2011). Above all, they possess a contagious and outreaching influence which the conventional media lack and this potential is most likely what Osahenye (2012) refers to as unstoppable power of the social media. Social media is a double edged sword in that it can be used either in a beneficial or detrimental ways. It is on this thrust that this study was carried out to examine the impact of social media on national security from the standpoint of Nigeria perspective.
1.2       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Ndaku (2013) rightfully posited that social media function as a watchdog capable of blowing the whistle to call attention to serious national issues. This implies a clear recognition of the fact that the media plays an important role on issues of national security. The involvement of settlements and gratitude is usually the center for media publishers to neglect information sensitivity and pursue monetary satisfaction. This problem can be cited as Profit Maximization Vs information protection.