Leveraging digital communication for anti-corruption

Abstract

This study aims to articulate how digital communication can be used as a strategy to achieve better ethical outcomes of education in Nigeria’s universities. This is because corrupt practices are beginning to surface. The study is anchored on Social Responsibility and Media Ethics theories of the Mass Media. Discussions that were conducted noticed corrupt practices in students’ admission procedures, nepotism, ethnicity, political interest and inducements. The study applied quantitative study approach and found out that digital communication were carried out through digital platforms of YouTube, video games, virtual reality and digital advertising, but they were not used by the anti-corruption units of the universities for anti-corruption messages. It was equally discovered that the different units and departments of the universities do not use their digital platforms to communicate ethical standards. The study concludes that the platforms can be used as strategies to digitally communicate ethical messages to the students. Recommendations made include: the platforms should be used to digitally communicate anti-corruption messages to the staff and students by the various anti-corruption units of the universities; communicators that use digital media, curriculum planners as well as policy makers in education should work together with the anti-corruption units of the universities in carrying out digital communication of anti-corruption messages in order to achieve better ethical education in the universities.