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Digital Activism in the Social Media Era -- Foreword -- References -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Part I Political Engagements in Mediated Online Communities -- 1 Dovetailing Desires for Democracy with New ICTs' Potentiality as Platform for Activism -- Introduction -- Activism in Africa: Towards an African Spring? -- Rethinking Activism -- Digital Engagements: Lessons Learnt -- Chapter Summaries -- References -- 2 Engaging in Polarized Society: Social Media and Political Discourse in Ethiopia -- Zone 9 Bloggers-Seeking a Shrinking Middle Ground -- Methodology -- Campaigning Locally and Globally -- Discussion -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 3 Baba Jukwa and the Digital Repertoires of Connective Action in a 'Competitive Authoritarian Regime': The Case of Zimbabwe -- Introduction and Background of the Study -- SMs and the Internet -- An Overview of Social Movements in Zimbabwe -- Civic Vacuum and the Emergence of Baba Jukwa -- Conceptual Framework -- Methodology -- Discussion and Analysis of Findings -- How was the Facebook Page Deployed by Baba Jukwa to Advocate for Political Change in Zimbabwe? -- BJ Facebook Page and Collective Action Frames in Zimbabwe -- Baba Jukwa and Digital Repertoires of Connective Action -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 4 Digital Activism in Uganda -- Introduction -- Activism and Digital Activism -- Prospects for Digital Activism in Uganda -- Mixed Messages on Freedom of Expression, Access to Information and the Right to Privacy -- Circumscribing Activism -- Doing Digital Activism in Uganda -- The Save Mabira Campaign 2007/2011 -- The Campaign in the Media -- New Media -- The March -- Achievement of the Save Mabira Campaign -- Challenges of the Mabira Campaign -- The Walk-To-Work Protests of 2011 and the 2016 Elections -- The Campaign in the Media (2016) -- The 2016 Elections

Elections and the Media in Post-Conflict Africa: Votes and Voices for Peace, Marie-Soleil Frere, 1st Edition (2011) London: Zed Books, 352 pp.,ISBN: 9781780320182, £21.99 | $39.95

"Communications are changing rapidly around the world, but particularly in Africa, where citizens are embracing digital technologies not only to improve interpersonal communication but also the state of their financial well-being. This book investigates these transformations in Nigeria's booming communication industry. The book traces communications in Nigeria back to pre-colonial indigenous communications, through the development of telecommunications, broadcasting networks, the press, the Nigerian film industry ('Nollywood'), and on to the digital era. At a time when Western voices still dominate the academic literature on communication in Africa, this book is noteworthy in drawing almost exclusively on the expertise of Nigerian-based authors, critique the discipline from their own lens, and providing an important contribution to the decolonization of communication studies. The authors provide a holistic analysis of the sector, encompassing print journalism, broadcast journalism, public relations, advertising, film, development communication, organizational communication, and strategic communications. Analysis of the role of digital technologies is woven throughout the book, concluding with a final section theorising the future of communication studies in Nigeria in the light of the digital media revolution. Robust in its theoretical and methodological underpinnings, this book will be an important reference for researchers of Media and Communication Studies, and those working on Africa specifically"--

This book uses decolonisation as a lens to interrogate political communication styles, performance, and practice in Africa and the diaspora. The book interrogates the theory and practice of political communication, using decolonial research methods to begin a process of self-reflexivity and the creation of a new approach to knowledge production about African political communication. In doing so, it explores political communication approaches that might until recently have been considered subversive or dissident: forms of political communication that served to challenge imposed western norms and to empower African citizens and their histories. Centring African scholarship, the book draws on case studies from across the continent, including Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, media and communication in Africa.

Despite issues associated with the digital divide, mobile telephony is growing on the continent and the rise of smartphones has given citizens easy access to social networking sites. But the digital divide, which mostly reflects on one's race, gender, socioeconomic status or geographical location, stands in the way of digital progress. What opportunities are available to tame digital disparities? How are different societies in Africa handling digital problems? What innovative methods are being used to provide citizens with access to critical information that can help improve their lives? Experiences from various locations in several sub-Saharan African countries have been carefully selected in this collection with the aim of providing an updated account on the digital divide and its impact in Africa

In this chapter, we reframe African ontologies as a form of "problematising" the sub-field of political communication, and as a form of "consciousness raising", about the need to decolonise its inter-disciplinary theory-praxis. We begin the process of dialogue and self-reflexivity by interrogating the theory-practice of political communication, thereby creating new knowledge production about political communication in Africa. This "decolonisation" of political communication and the resultant knowledge creation need to consider the epistemic insights of authors from Africa, in the field of political communication. In other words, African authors and scholars thinking with, and from, 'subalternalized racial/ethnic/sexual spaces and bodies'. Or, put another way, it should be an example of what Archie Mafeje has called "endogeneity" – that is, African representation/scholarship that affirms African socio-economic context, positionalities, experience/s, African subjectivities and insights, and knowledge from Africa; and, in doing so, centres Africa, removing it from the margins. This chapter focuses on how to create knowledge production, which is also what Grosfoguel refers to as "epistemic disobedience". As such, instead of supporting the current status quo in political communication, it serves to challenge, disrupt, destabilise, and interrogate this status quo, which, without doubt, is racialised, hierarchical, classist, capitalist, heteropatriarchal, gentrified, imperialist, and westernised.

This book uses decolonisation as a lens to interrogate political communication styles, performance, and practice in Africa and the diaspora. The book interrogates the theory and practice of political communication, using decolonial research methods to begin a process of self-reflexivity and the creation of a new approach to knowledge production about African political communication. In doing so, it explores political communication approaches that might until recently have been considered subversive or dissident: forms of political communication that served to challenge imposed western norms and to empower African citizens and their histories. Centring African scholarship, the book draws on case studies from across the continent, including Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, media and communication in Africa. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003111962, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book uses decolonisation as a lens to interrogate political communication styles, performance, and practice in Africa and the diaspora. The book interrogates the theory and practice of political communication, using decolonial research methods to begin a process of self-reflexivity and the creation of a new approach to knowledge production about African political communication. In doing so, it explores political communication approaches that might until recently have been considered subversive or dissident: forms of political communication that served to challenge imposed western norms and to empower African citizens and their histories. Centring African scholarship, the book draws on case studies from across the continent, including Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, media and communication in Africa. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003111962, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

The purpose of this issue of Media Culture and Society is to discuss the possible role of social media in the struggle for democracy, against authoritarianism, and over hidden power structures. The articles included in this volume are meant to offer empirical interventions to beliefs, some of them unproven, on whether the emergence of new media technologies has driven Africa towards democratic change. Papers in this Special Issue cover a wide variety of African countries delving deep into comparative studies of participatory citizens' media on the continent. This introduction is an attempt to offer an explanation on African democratisation and authoritarianism before conceptualising the role of social media in political processes with the backing of current case study dispatches in Africa, demonstrating the dilemmas of digital disparities in promoting or denting democratisation in Africa.

The reliance on untrained reporters with limited or no understanding of journalistic standards has become increasingly widespread particularly in less democratic environments and these practices have impacted news gathering and reporting. There however has been some debate about the conceivability, capacity, reliability and acceptability of citizen journalists due to the lack of the professional standards associated with the profession. Even so, diverse forms of citizen journalism continue to emerge and develop in several countries in the Global South, such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique, examined in-depth in our study of the current frameworks, trends, practices and principles of citizen journalism in Africa. Buoyed by what appears like a slump in global citizen journalism research, we identify specific cases to rethink the concept, seeking to theoretically contribute to new directions on the phenomenon's role in African societies. Our analysis suggests that a reconceptualization of citizen journalism is imperative thanks to several factors, including improved access to the Internet and changing attitudes toward political dissent and participation, citizen journalism in Africa is taking new directions. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

AbstractClaims have been made that the advent of social media and its assumed ability to fuel social strife and organize anti-government protests has empowered people around the world to successfully challenge repressive authorities. However, in an era in which several issues ranging from digital colonialism to digital exclusion among other challenges, have become so dominant, it is our role as researchers to question some of these claims especially when they seem unsubstantiated. Sharing or finding solidarity is something that can be done on social media platforms but nothing is as critical as being part of the digital community. In that regard, questions surrounding digital exclusion are critical especially when discussing the extent to which social media influences democracy, questions that several scholars from every corner of the world are currently seized with. In this article, we not only identify social media's potential but we also probe problems associated with beliefs that digital networks have the capacity to support democratization. Contemporary societies should be asking what the real gains of the fall of the Berlin Wall are in the work of these fundamental digital shifts, which have left both negative and positive outcomes on all countries including established Western democracies.

The efficacy of digital media on politics, and society at large, has long been a subject of intense scholarly debate. This paper examines the democratisation potential of social media within Zimbabwe's historically repressive political environment. Since the early 2000s, technological determinists in Zimbabwe saw citizen journalism and social media as a 'game-changer' in propping up a democratic project against the ruling regime. Two decades later, and as the country grapples with governance challenges, the prospects for meaningful political participation enabled by social media have remained elusive. The current study uses a contextual analytic lens informed by critical political economy of media and broader media effects theoretical concepts to probe the political impact of social media activism. Social media are technological tools whose role in society is contingent on human agency. While Zimbabwe has had significant protests employing social and digital media, their political impact, this paper argues, should not be overstated. Deterministic views have tended to create solutionist approaches to social media, undermining a nuanced understanding of their transformative potential.