Suchergebnisse

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

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.

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.

Introduction: Rethinking Communication Studies in Nigeria: A Methodological and Theoretical Critique / Bruce Mutsvairo and Nnamdi T. Ekeanyanwu -- The Nigerian Media of Communication: History and Fundamental Issues / Nnsikan Senam -- Historical and Contemporary Exploration of the Nigerian Media Landscape: Conventional to Cyberspace Critiques / Godwin Ehiarekhian Oboh -- Appraising the Development of the Nigerian Press: A Historical Analysis of Socio-Political, Economic and Cultural Factors / Aniefiok J Udoudo -- Development and Transformation of the Nigerian Indigenous Communication Media / Barigbon Gbara Nsereka and Belema Papamie -- History and Evolution of National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) / Angela Nkiru Nwammuo and Gloria Nneka Ono -- Nollywood and History of Film-Making in Nigeria: Closing the Gaps in the Narratives / Henry Chibueze Ogaraku -- Probing the Integration of Health Communication in Disciplinary Programs of Nigerian Universities / Chika Euphemia Asogwa and Stephen Afam Kenechukwu -- Evolution of Organizational Communication in Nigeria: From Interpersonal to Digital Communication / Nsikak Solomon Idiong and Iniobong Courage Nda -- The Impact of Digital Technologies in Nigerian Journalism / Ladi S. Adamu -- The Impact of Internet on Content and Journalistic Practices Within Traditional Newspapers in Northern Nigeria / Umar Suleiman Jahun -- Digital Media and the Transformation of Traditional Medical Communication in Nigeria / Abdullahi Saleh Bashir and Herbert E. Batta -- Technologies, Media and the Transmutation of Public Relations and Advertising in Nigerian Societies / Presly Ruke Obukoadata, Ngozi Uduma and Macauley Aniefiok -- The Impact of Digital Technologies on Advertising Practice in Nigeria / Jude M.C. Agbo -- Evolution of Digital Media: Citizen Journalism, Ethics and Self-Censorship in the Nigerian Media Industry / Aniefiok J. Udoudo and Doris A. Nwosu -- Technological Determinism and the Evolution of Nollywood / Ikechukwu Obiaya -- Digitization and the Future of Communication Policy in Nigeria / Sola Adeyanju -- Technological Innovations and the Future of Communication Research and Theories in Nigeria / Pius Owoicho Ogwuche -- The Evolution and Context of Communication Studies in Nigeria / Chuks Odiegwu-Enwerem and Uche Chuks-Enwerem -- Digital Media Revolution and Information Overload in the Nigerian Cyberspace: The Challenges and Prospects / Christopher Ifeakachukwu Ochonogor -- Digital Media and the Future of Development Communication in Nigeria / Josephat I. Okoye.

Foreword: Political Communication for Upending Colonialism and its Legacies / Colin Chasi -- Reframing African Ontologies in the era of Decolonisation / Beschara Karam and Bruce Mutsvairo -- Decolonising Conflict Reporting: Media and Election Violence in Zimbabwe / Tendai Chari -- Conspicuous and Performative Blackness as Decolonial Political Branding Against the Myth of the Post-Colonial Society: A Case of the EFF / Rofhiwa Felicia Mukhudwana -- Zanele Muholi's Work as Political Communication and Decolonisation / Beschara Karam -- Documentary Film as Political Communication in Post-Apartheid South Africa / Pier-Paolo Frassinelli -- Remembering and Memorising: The Efficacy of Photography in Political Communication in Postcolonial Africa / George Nyabuga -- "Killing with Kindness": Political Icons, Socio-Cultural Victims: Visual Coloniality of the Siddis of Karnataka, India / Sayan Dey -- On the Question of Decolonisation, Gender and Political Communication / Sally Osei-Appiah -- Freedom in the Jazz Imaginary: Twentieth Century Aesthetic Revolt / Salim Washington -- Empowering Communities through Liberalisation of Airwaves in Ghana / Africanus L. Diedong -- In the Realm of Uncertainty: Kenya's Ghetto Radio as Politicised Space / Wilson Ugangu -- Social Media as a Sphere of Political Disruption in Zimbabwe's Cyber Sphere: Reexamining #Thisflag Digital Campaign / Trust Matsilele and Bruce Mutsvairo -- Transformation, Fragmentation and Decolonisation: The Contested Role of the Media in Postcolonial South Africa / Ylva Rodny-Gumede -- The Voice of the Voiceless? Decoloniality and Online Radical Discourses in South Africa / Lorenzo Dalvit.