"This book provides case studies on the strategies used by African governments in monitoring and controlling digital and social media, as well as the implications of such actions for claims about media freedom and freedom of expression. Further, the book examines the human rights challenges posed by
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state control and monitoring of digital and social media forms of communication. In the context of a digital surveillance state, it questions how digital and social media can possibly enhance the democratisation of both the communicative and political spaces. The book focuses on questions of censorship and control of digital and social media in ‘supposedly’ democratic societies. It discusses regulation and how governments have imposed their state power by ‘switching off’ the internet and blocking social media sites under the guise of national security and order maintenance." (Back cover)
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"This book explores how popular cultural artifacts, literary texts, commemorative practices and other forms of remembrances are used to convey, transmit and contest memories of mass atrocities in the Global South. Some of these historical atrocities took place during the Cold war. As such, this book
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unpacks the influence or role of the global powers in conflict in the Global South. Contributors are grappling with a number of issues such as the politics of memorialization, memory conflicts, exhumations, reburials, historical dialogue, peacebuilding and social healing, memory activism, visual representation, transgenerational transmission of memories, and identity politics." (Publisher description)
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"In March 2023, a Zimbabwean government official caused a storm after threatening journalists with arrests for reporting on an Al Jazeera documentary that exposed alleged money laundering, gold smuggling and other criminal activities in the country. Journalists and media groups interpreted these utt
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erances as a violation of free expression and veiled attacks on the media. This study uses this incident of a threat to silence and discipline newsmakers as an entry point to examine the state of the safety of journalists in the Zimbabwean context. It probes the nature and form of harassment and threats against journalists ahead of the country’s national elections in 2023. Journalists across the globe are increasingly faced with safety risks as they are vulnerable to harassment in both online and offline spaces. News reporters are at risk of being arrested, detained, tortured and killed whilst carrying out their journalistic mandate. This qualitative study draws upon insights from journalists across media houses in the country to make sense of the safety issues in the context of national elections that tend to be characterised by political instability and violence. Through in-depth interviews with journalists such as those who have been physically harassed for carrying out their work, this chapter develops an understanding of the nature, trends and patterns of the harassment during the election campaign season." (Abstract)
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"This book explores how unresolved questions of social justice shape the character of the political terrain and political actors, through the lens of social media. It treats communication as the medium through which social issues and processes are made visible. Given the rise and spread of populist
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politics, the views of ordinary people on social issues have never mattered more. One platform through which these voices can be studied extensively is social media. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter now X, YouTube, and Instagram, among others, afford ordinary citizens-often marginalized by traditional mainstream media-space to vent their opinions, engage in discussions of whatever topic, share information and ideas, and explore various kinds of information as well as data, links to which are often provided through various macro and micro discursive spaces therein. Arguably, therefore, social media have become a quintessential platform for studying contemporary sociality. Social media must be studied not just as a communication platform, but one through which the social world, social processes and social issues are made visible and, in some cases, enacted. With rich case studies from the Global South, and a particular focus on Africa, this collection does just that." (Publisher description)
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"Drawing from case studies from selected African countries, an international team of authors offer a broad insight into the state of harassment across the continent, while building new theoretical perspectives that are also context-specific. The chapters bring previous theories and research up to da
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te by addressing the continual change and development of new discourses, including the use of big data and artificial intelligence in harassing and intimidating journalists and mental health issues affecting journalists in their line of duty. More so, the authors argue that the state and form of harassment is not universal, as location and context are some of the key factors that influence the form and character of harassment." (Publisher description)
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"This article examines the constructions of Africa in COVID-19-related stories that were produced by African news media. Dominant scholarship indicates that western media generally reproduce and perpetuate harmful stereotypes on Africa. Given that there is scant literature on how African media cover
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s Africa, this article uses the COVID-19 pandemic as an entry point to explore the disease narratives on Africa. Drawing on Afrokology as decolonial perspective, this article examines the discourses and narratives on Africa that were produced by African news organizations. Data were drawn from ten news organizations from Ghana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Egypt. A quantitative corpus analysis and a qualitative critical discourse analysis were used to analyse the COVID-19- related stories. Findings demonstrate that harmful disease stereotypes about Africa as a place of danger, darkness, tragedy and human rights abuses were reproduced by the African media." (Abstract)
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"This chapter examines the safety risks faced by Zimbabwean journalists as they conduct their day-to-day professional work in online spaces. Given that journalists in Africa are increasingly utilising and adopting social media tools for news production and distribution, it is timely to examine the d
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rawbacks of using these digital technologies. The chapter contributes to the growing scholarship that unpacks how different social actors such as government officials and the public are using digital tools to silence and discipline journalists. It analyses the nature of online harassment and the coping strategies employed by journalists as they navigate the difficult terrain. This study uses the concepts of reciprocal journalism and audience engagement to demonstrate the experiences of Zimbabwean journalists with online harassment. Data is drawn from interviews with 18 participants that include 15 journalists and 3 digital security trainers. Findings demonstrate that online harassment is a huge problem in a politically polarised context such as Zimbabwe. This has undermined the efforts of journalists to engage with audiences in online spaces." (Abstract)
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"This book explores the convergence of urban radio with digital media technologies in Africa, focusing on how youth are riding on the rapid (though uneven) internet rollout on the continent to participate and drive the production and consumption of urban radio. With thirteen original chapters, the b
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ook sheds new light on the changing landscape of radio in a diverse set of African countries, illustrated with rich case studies from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Eswatini, Nigeria and Kenya. This book covers the following themes: youth agency and cultural power; civic engagement and political participation; youth, identity and belonging; youth cultural expressions as well as the impact of capitalist imperatives on commercial radio programing in Africa." (Publisher description)
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"This volume presents case studies of news media employing and integrating social media into their news production practices. It links social media use to journalistic practices and news production processes in the digital age of the Global South. Critically, the chapters look at seminal cases of st
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art-up news media whose content is informed by trends in social media, ethical considerations and participatory cultures spurred by the wide use of social media. There has been considerable research looking at the potential of new media technologies, traditional journalism and citizen reporting. The extent to which these new media technologies and 'citizen journalism' have morphed or reconfigured traditional journalism practice remains debatable. Currently, there are questions around the limits of social media in journalism practice as the ethical lines continue to become blurred. It is this conundrum of the role of social media in the reconfiguration of the media, news making, production and participatory cultures that requires more investigation. Social media has also turned the logic of the political economy of media production on its head as citizens can now produce, package and distribute news and information with shoestring budgets and in authoritarian regimes with no license of practice. This new political economy means the power that special interest groups used to enjoy is increasingly slipping from their hands as citizens take back the power to appropriate social media journalism to counter hegemonic narratives. Citizens can also perform journalistic roles of investigating and whistleblowing but with a lack off, or limited, regulation." (Publisher description)
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"This book explores the role and place of popular, traditional and digital media platforms in the mediatization, representation and performance of various conflicts and peacebuilding interventions in the African context. The role of the media in conflict is often depicted as either 'good' (as symbol
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ized by peace journalism) or 'bad' (as exemplified by war journalism), but this book moves beyond this binary to highlight the 'in-between' role that the media often plays in times of conflict. The volume does not only focus on the relationship between mass media, conflict and peacebuilding processes but it broadens its scope by critically analysing the dynamic and emergent roles of popular and digital media platforms in a continent where the semi-literate and oral communities still rely heavily on popular communication platforms to get news and information. Whilst social media platforms have been hailed for their assumed democratic and digital dividends, this book does not only focus on these positive aspects but also shines a light on dark forms of participation which are fuelling racial, gender, ethnic, political and religious conflicts in highly polarized and stratified societies." (Publisher description)
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