"With contributions from scholars across the continent, Digital Citizenship in Africa illustrates how citizens have been using VPNs, encryption, and privacy-protecting browsers to resist limits on their rights to privacy and political speech. This book dramatically expands our understanding of the v
...
ast and growing arsenal of tech tools, tactics, and techniques now being deployed by repressive governments to limit the ability of citizens to safely and openly express opposition to government and corporate actions. AI-enabled surveillance, covertly deployed disinformation, and internet shutdowns are documented in ten countries, concluding with recommendations on how to curb government and corporate power, and how to re-invigorate digital citizenship across Africa." (Publisher description)
more
"Public protests, including women-led struggles, are increasingly gaining a foothold in many parts of the world in response to multiple crises and growing exclusion, in a context of fragility. In the global South, most public protests involve temporary, informal coalitions where people come together
...
and participate in a one-off event. The fluid nature of political space makes sustaining protests elusive because of protest fatigue. Yet, the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG), a women-led movement, headed a long-term protest that focused on the rights of the girl child to education – a direct response to Boko Haram’s gendered terror tactics, in which girls were abducted, forced t o abandon school, and get married. This article examines when and how movements crystallise into long-term programmes of action in fragile and conflict-affected societies where state–society relations are weak and government is considered to be unresponsive. We use the case of the #BBOG movement, one of Nigeria’s intense social media-driven and womenled action, to examine the mix of pressures it faced, its characteristics, and strategies in situations of fragility, conflict, and closed political spaces. We identify four key strategies that the #BBOG has deployed to keep members coming, garner international support and sympathy, keep pressure on the elite in a safe manner for the movement members, and ensure an independent funding regime for durability and impact. This article finds that #BBOG was able to navigate fragility and the closing civic space in Nigeria by challenging the failure of government to address insecurity in the country, transcending societal barriers including gender, religion, and political class, transnationalising their movement, self-funding, and using social media strategically." (Abstract)
more
"This handbook attempts to fill the gap in empirical scholarship of media and communication research in Africa, from an Africanist perspective. The collection draws on expert knowledge of key media and communication scholars in Africa and the diaspora, offering a counter-narrative to existing Wester
...
n and Eurocentric discourses of knowledge-production. As the decolonial turn takes centre stage across Africa, this collection further rethinks media and communication research in a post-colonial setting and provides empirical evidence as to why some of the methods conceptualised in Europe will not work in Africa. The result is a thorough appraisal of the current threats, challenges and opportunities facing the discipline on the continent." (Publisher description)
more
"A collection of debate and report articles on community media and community communication, this book presents experiences, thoughts and forethoughts from Cyprus, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia and Nigeria. In the first section of the book are found studies of the practice and impact of community media, esp
...
ecially community radio, in Ghanaian and Kenyan communities. The second section presents thoughts on how community media might better serve communities, democracy and development. The third section of the book, that is the forethoughts, focuses on the foreseen or preferred structure, role, funding and management of community radio in Nigeria – a country that is yet to have community radio. In that rather oracular section, contributors look into the future quite counterfactually, imagining and painting the envisioned character of community radio when the Nigerian government finally permits its establishment. The studies and discussions in this book potentially advance the conversations on the role of community media in promoting democracy and development as they affirm, modify or confute some of the known assumptions on the subject." (https://imesoimeso.org)
more
"Focusing on politician-businessperson-owned (PBO) newspapers, the study examined how loyalty to the owners’ multiple interests has reduced the professional elbowroom of the Nigerian journalist. Through in-depth interviews and textual analysis, the study found that journalists in PBO newspapers ar
...
e extremely constrained on the kind of stories they write and how. Caught in the conflict between professionalism and pandering to the owners’ layers of political and economic interests, many journalists submit, while some rebel. The narrowed elbowroom is a reason for many of the ethical violations among Nigerian journalists." (Abstract)
more
"This toolkit illustrates what it takes to set up and manage a community radio station in Nigeria. It discusses what community radio is and how it can contribute to the individual (provide relaxation, information, entertainment, promote self-expression and creativity) or to the community as a whole
...
(raising awareness of the resources a community has for solving its problems, stimulating discussions, bringing government's attention to the community). It explains the application process, the seven steps towards setting up a community radio station, the necessary capacity building with the staff members, as well as technical matters, programme formats and types of funding. Another chapter highlights the opportunities for partnerships and participation of the community which can be established with the different stakeholders. Interesting about this publication is its easy-to-understand language and its consideration of the Nigerian sociocultural context: all given examples are derived from local environments and prove an awareness of the multi-ethnic and multi-religious communities of Nigeria." (commbox)
more
"Given the prevailing environment, radio cannot better engage development, and this is in spite of the qualities of radio that endear it to development agencies and governments elsewhere. As Ojebode (forthcoming b) suggests, for radio to realise it
...
s potentials as a development medium in Nigeria, some far-reaching and major restructuring need to be effected, and the current media landscape must be altered.
First, and the one that requires the strongest political will, is that government should take its hands off radio. A truly public service system should be put in place [...]
The second suggestion towards making radio engage development more fruitfully is that government should stop vacillating over the establishment of community radio. Our study shows that radio stations are alienated from the community and from listeners [...]
Third, development planning and practice in Nigeria should be integrated. In Nigeria, different government and development agencies work independently and often at cross purposes [...]
The fourth suggestion, which is related to the third, is the need to ensure that the tasks radio encourages people to perform in its jingles and programmes are feasibly supported by existing infrastructure [...]
The fifth step we must take is that government must support private stations in order for them to more fruitfully participate in development communication. Our study shows that these stations devote more time to development issues than do government stations [...]
Finally, we suggest that Nigerian communication schools and colleges review their curricula to include topics on public journalism. Also known as civic or citizen journalism, public journalism seeks to put the citizens at the centre of news and reports." (Recommendations, page 58-59)
more