Social Media and Elections in Africa, Volume 1

Social Media and Elections in Africa, Volume 1
Author: Martin N. Ndlela
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2020-01-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030305538

This book brings together fresh evidence and new theoretical frameworks in a unique analysis of the increasing role of social media in political campaigns and electoral processes across Africa. Supported by contemporary and historical cases studies, it engages with the main drives behind the various appropriations of social media for election campaigns, organization, and voter mobilization. Contributors in this volume delve into changing and complex aspects of social media, offering an appraisal of theoretical perspectives and examining fascinating case studies which social media use is redefining elections across Africa. Contributions show that new media ecologies are resulting in new policy regimes, user behaviors, and communication models that have implications for electoral processes. The book also provides preliminary analysis of emerging forms of algorithm-driven campaigns, fake news, information distortions and other methods that undermine electoral democracy in Africa.

Media Role in African Changing Electoral Process

Media Role in African Changing Electoral Process
Author: Cosmas Uchenna Nwokeafor
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2013-12-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0761862552

Media Role in African Changing Electoral Process analyzes the effect of mass media on African elections. Featuring contributions by leading African scholars and professionals, this book covers a wide array of social science disciplines, political discourses, and political communication issues. In addition, the book is an essential reference guide for mass media scholars, political scientists, consultants, professionals, and diplomats interested in the media’s role in the electoral process.

Social Media and Elections in Africa, Volume 2

Social Media and Elections in Africa, Volume 2
Author: Martin N. Ndlela
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2020-02-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030326829

This book, the second of two volumes, explores the challenges and opportunities presented by the increased presence of social media within African politics. Electoral processes in Africa have assumed new dimensions due to the influence of social media. As social media permeates different aspects of elections, it is ostensibly creating new challenges and opportunities. Most evident are the challenges of hate speech, misogyny and incivility. This book considers the impact of digital media before, during, and after elections, as well as authorities' attempts to legislate and regulate the internet in response. Contributions to this volume analyse social media posts, transgressive images, newspaper articles, and include case studies of Algeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Uganda. This results in the delivery of an original depiction of the use of social media in a variety of African contexts. This book will appeal to academics and students of media and communication studies, political studies, journalism, sociology, and African studies.

Social Media and Politics in Africa

Social Media and Politics in Africa
Author: Maggie Dwyer
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2019-07-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 178699500X

The smartphone and social media have transformed Africa, allowing people across the continent to share ideas, organise, and participate in politics like never before. While both activists and governments alike have turned to social media as a new form of political mobilization, some African states have increasingly sought to clamp down on the technology, introducing restrictive laws or shutting down networks altogether. Drawing on over a dozen new empirical case studies – from Kenya to Somalia, South Africa to Tanzania – this collection explores how rapidly growing social media use is reshaping political engagement in Africa. But while social media has often been hailed as a liberating tool, the book demonstrates how it has often served to reinforce existing power dynamics, rather than challenge them. Featuring experts from a range of disciplines from across the continent, this collection is the first comprehensive overview of social media and politics in Africa. By examining the historical, political, and social context in which these media platforms are used, the book reveals the profound effects of cyber-activism, cyber-crime, state policing and surveillance on political participation.

Retooling Politics

Retooling Politics
Author: Andreas Jungherr
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2020-06-11
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1108419402

Provides academics, journalists, and general readers with bird's-eye view of data-driven practices and their impact in politics and media.

The State of Peacebuilding in Africa

The State of Peacebuilding in Africa
Author: Terence McNamee
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2020-11-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030466361

This open access book on the state of peacebuilding in Africa brings together the work of distinguished scholars, practitioners, and decision makers to reflect on key experiences and lessons learned in peacebuilding in Africa over the past half century. The core themes addressed by the contributors include conflict prevention, mediation, and management; post-conflict reconstruction, justice and Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration; the role of women, religion, humanitarianism, grassroots organizations, and early warning systems; and the impact of global, regional, and continental bodies. The book's thematic chapters are complemented by six country/region case studies: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan/South Sudan, Mozambique and the Sahel/Mali. Each chapter concludes with a set of key lessons learned that could be used to inform the building of a more sustainable peace in Africa. The State of Peacebuilding in Africa was born out of the activities of the Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding (SVNP), a Carnegie-funded, continent-wide network of African organizations that works with the Wilson Center to bring African knowledge and perspectives to U.S., African, and international policy on peacebuilding in Africa. The research for this book was made possible by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.

How to Rig an Election

How to Rig an Election
Author: Nic Cheeseman
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2024-07-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0300280831

An engrossing analysis of the pseudo-democratic methods employed by despots around the world to retain control Contrary to what is commonly believed, authoritarian leaders who agree to hold elections are generally able to remain in power longer than autocrats who refuse to allow the populace to vote. In this engaging and provocative book, Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas expose the limitations of national elections as a means of promoting democratization, and reveal the six essential strategies that dictators use to undermine the electoral process in order to guarantee victory for themselves. Based on their firsthand experiences as election watchers and their hundreds of interviews with presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, election officials, and conspirators, Cheeseman and Klaas document instances of election rigging from Argentina to Zimbabwe, including notable examples from Brazil, India, Nigeria, Russia, and the United States—touching on the 2016 election. This eye-opening study offers a sobering overview of corrupted professional politics, while providing fertile intellectual ground for the development of new solutions for protecting democracy from authoritarian subversion.

Peace Journalism

Peace Journalism
Author: Jake Lynch
Publisher: Hawthorn Press
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2014-02-13
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1907359478

Peace Journalism explains how most coverage of conflict unwittingly fuels further violence, and proposes workable options to give peace a chance.

Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics

Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics
Author: Nanjala Nyabola
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2018-11-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 178699433X

From the upheavals of recent national elections to the success of the #MyDressMyChoice feminist movement, digital platforms have already had a dramatic impact on political life in Kenya – one of the most electronically advanced countries in Africa. While the impact of the Digital Age on Western politics has been extensively debated, there is still little appreciation of how it has been felt in developing countries such as Kenya, where Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and other online platforms are increasingly a part of everyday life. Written by a respected Kenyan activist and researcher at the forefront of political online struggles, this book presents a unique contribution to the debate on digital democracy. For traditionally marginalised groups, particularly women and people with disabilities, digital spaces have allowed Kenyans to build new communities which transcend old ethnic and gender divisions. But the picture is far from wholly positive. Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics explores the drastic efforts being made by elites to contain online activism, as well as how 'fake news', a failed digital vote-counting system and the incumbent president's recruitment of Cambridge Analytica contributed to tensions around the 2017 elections. Reframing digital democracy from the African perspective, Nyabola's ground-breaking work opens up new ways of understanding our current global online era.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) Integration to Educational Curricula

Information Communication Technology (ICT) Integration to Educational Curricula
Author: Cosmas Uchenna Nwokeafor
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2015-02-24
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0761865373

Information Communication Technology (ICT) Integration to Educational Curricula serves as a standard textbook in graduate and senior level undergraduate classes in colleges and universities to contribute to the existing mass communication and ICT literature. The textbook offers a multi-discipline perspective to students of mass communication and information technology and avails them an opportunity to have a valid research tool with great details to pursue their research and class assignments. It provides an essential platform for appropriate literature in mass communication, political communication, and ICT details with relevance to its integration in Africa educational curricula. The book can also serve as a supplemental text for courses in mass media effects, politics, and political communications. It includes contributions by scholars and professionals of African extraction with varied research interests on diverse issues relevant to ICT and its significant impact to curricula development and application to Africa as the new African educational system. The chapters cover a wide array of mass communication, diffusion of innovation, and ICT issues of diverse importance that will guide students, government agencies, and professionals in following the imminent and evolving changes resulting from the integration of technology to educational curricula.