Media and Human Rights
MOLLY PENNINGTON REBECCA MURRAY TOMAS BEAVAN
On Monday 14 April 2014 , 276 girls were kidnapped from Chibok , Borno State , by the Nigerian terrorist organisation Boko Haram . Militants raided their school in the middle of the night , dragging them from their dormitories and forcing them onto the back of lorries at gunpoint . Over the next few hours , 57 of the girls managed to jump off and escape . The other 219 did not . The kidnapping was motivated partly by Boko Haram ’ s belief that Western Education degrades Muslim values ( BBC , 2017 ). Initially , the kidnapping garnered little international coverage ( Carter Olson , 2016 , p . 772 ). It was not until the hashtag # BringBackOurGirls , initially used by Nigerian activists and then taken up by Western celebrities , exploded on social media that the world finally began to pay attention ( Parkinson and Hinshaw , 2021 , p . 16 ). It fuelled a human rights campaign online and on the ground , with activists pushing for the girls to be released ( Maxfield , 2016 , p . 888 ). This paper will evaluate the campaign . It will argue that social media was not an appropriate medium to achieve its aims and propose an alternative strategy that may have produced more meaningful results . It will conclude that the campaign was ineffective and had limited and catastrophic long-term impacts .
RELEVANCE : # BringBackOurGirls ’ main aim was to force the Nigeran government to challenge Boko Haram ’ s terrorism and return the kidnapped girls to their families . As the hashtag became more international , the campaign turned from just this major objective to wider human rights campaigning for female children to receive formal schooling ( Chiluwa and Ifukor , 2015 , p . 267 ). This was due to Boko Haram ' s continuous infringement upon this right for Nigeria ’ s children by forcing schools to shut ( Amnesty International , 2021 ). To combat these violations and to increase international coverage , the campaign targeted specific audience demographics ( Carter Olson , 2016 , p . 772 ). # BringBackOurGirls adopted four significant master frames to appeal to each different group ’ s particular interests and cultures . These were : motherist framing , human rights framing , female right to education framing and state failure framing . For example , the motherist framing was utilised to attract patriarchal countries ’ citizens , as they were more likely to respond to female victim-based framing . This allowed the campaign to increase its supporters , but each frame highlighted varying human rights issues and solutions ( Oriola , 2021 , pp . 645-650 ). Consequently , this split supporters of the campaign into distinct groups that were tackling different objectives . The campaign ’ s relevance would have increased if there was one consistent frame applied . Despite bringing global attention to the issue , the campaign did not have a clear active or offline participation element . It led to arguments of ‘ slacktivism ’, which suggests that online campaigning is an easy and low effort form of activism that disguises itself as doing more than raising awareness ( Chiluwa and Ifukor , 2015 , p . 270 ). Ultimately , # BringBackOurGirls ’ lack of an active participation and the many framing techniques
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