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ABSTRACT
The open leeway of information dissemination through the use of various platforms especially via the internet has aided media pluralism from which the User Generated Content (UGC) has formed its root and has given individuals a voice in creating their own ideologies and opinions. The study thus set out to determine this user generated content and its credibility in the Nigerian media space during the #ENDSARS protest which shook the fabric of the country in the October 2020. The study was anchored on the principles of Media-morphosis and Diffusion of innovation theory which explain and estimate the changes in the digital world and its culture and also how individuals adopt new ideologies in a digital sphere. Mixed method design involving discourse analysis (DA) and survey method was adopted for the study and samples were drawn from Twitter feeds of the #ENDSARS protest and from the population of students of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Elizade University and Achievers University, Owo. Findings revealed that a large percentage of respondents (83%) are exposed to User Generated Content and as such the use of this platform helped to set the tone for the national response to the problem of police brutality. A large number (49.7%) posits that UGC presented facts which made them accept its content credibility during the #Endsars protest. The study recommended that media organizations should begin to utilize contents from UGCs as a tool of interactivity with the public and also engage with UGC content and the issues that may have escaped editorial coverage. It also recommended the need for the public to be educated on the ways to crosscheck facts in UGCs in order to mitigate the increase in fake news on the platform.
