"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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"This open access book provides practical guidance for non-profits and community sector organisations about how to get started with data analytics projects using their own organisations' datasets and open public data. The book shares best practices on collaborative social data projects and methodolo
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gy. For researchers, the work offers a playbook for partnering with community organisations in data projects for public good and gives worked examples of projects of various sizes and complexity." (Publisher description)
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"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
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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)
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"Following the 2011 Arab Spring, autocrats have sought to limit citizens’ ability to publicize offline protests over social media. In this article, we explore how users adjust to these restrictions. To do so, we analyse 33 million tweets sent from Egypt during the “Day of Anger” protests in Se
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ptember 2020. We find evidence of online tactical evasion in a highly repressive context. Compared to neutral users, regime opponents are more likely to issue calls for offline protests using new or dedicated accounts that contain no personal information. Users are also more likely to delete tweets calling for mobilization ex-post in a bid to conceal their activism. We find weaker evidence suggesting that regime opponents try to evade laws targeting critical accounts with over 5000 followers. The findings illustrate how activists in autocracies use social media to mobilize street-level contention while attempting to mitigate the risk of state repression." (Abstract)
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"The impacts of media, mainly social media, have attracted greater scholarly attention. However, their effects on public policy development and the decision-making procedure of a government have not been examined so far. Thus, this study examines such effects in pre-Taliban Afghanistan before August
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2021. Theories of signal detection and agenda-setting are adopted. Five variables (problem identification, media attention, perceived change, social media intensity, and relevance of social media) were conceptualized and operationalized to understand and measure the impact. Two data sets, qualitative and quantitative, were chosen on the eve of a presidential election (September 2019). For the first data set, a 63-question questionnaire was developed and piloted, and a purposive sample was chosen (N = 385). The second set contains in-depth interviews with government employees and bloggers. Findings show that social media influences public policy formulation and decision-making procedures. The results further reveal that social media are an essential vehicle for governance, have the potential to provide a networked public sphere, and bridge the communication gap between government and the public in a fragile state like Afghanistan." (Abstract)
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"This case study shows that media development endeavors to foster constructive dialogue require concerted effort. They have to be in closely interwoven with local realities and needs — be it at the country, community or individual level. The example of interactive radio formats in Niger illustrate
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s that journalistic formats bringing together conflict-affected groups require thorough preparation, an understanding of the challenges posed by safety threats, trauma or gender inequality (and their intersections), and the ability to act upon these challenges sensitively and flexibly. Yet, these efforts are worthwhile, because they do make a difference: In our case study, people from various social groups perceived the value in making contact, engaging in exchange, being listened to, learning about each other’s concerns, developing common approaches to problem-solving and implementing them in their communities. In doing so, they enlarged the space for self-reliance in often tense and unpredictable situations, which seemingly continued even after the project as such (and our data collection) was completed. In Téra, for example, members of the “dialogue and concertation committee” founded a club that takes engages in IDP and refugee issues. Of course, there are many different ways to foster constructive dialogue. While this study focused on a single project with a specific design, its take-aways are able to inform dialogical media development projects more broadly — especially those strengthening media outlets in hostile environments and promoting the voices [of] marginalized groups." (Page 16)
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"An emerging activist tactic on visual-based social media such as Instagram, slideshow activism adapts the production and consumption of political information to the logic of the platform. In so doing, slideshow activism provides followers with an ideal subject position for civic engagement. By exam
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ining a popular slideshow activist Instagram account, we outline the features of this activist tactic and its mobilizing appeal. The qualitative content analysis of a sample of 50 posts reveals that slideshow activism addresses its followers as individuals who are actively staying wellinformed on the social justice dimension of a wide range of political issues and are constantly engaged in self-transformation in order to become better citizens. This ideal, we argue, entrenches social justice as a core political value for civic engagement, and recommends a mix of argumentation and personal transformation as the everyday means for individuals to bring about political change. We further explore the consequences of this subject position for citizen engagement with politics." (Abstract)
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"The advent of online technologies has been triggering a wave of empirical examinations of online political participation (OPP) over the past twenty years. It also stimulated scholarly debate on how to conceptualize political participation in a digital age. Scholars differ on whether to consider pas
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sive and expressive online behaviors part of or a mere precursor to political participation. This study argues that due to its rapid evolution as well as its dependence on platform affordances, quantitative empirical studies on OPP may be prone to deviations between established, much-cited definitions and measurements applied in the field. Based on a systematic literature review of 289 international peerreviewed survey-based and experimental studies, we analyze both definitions and measurements of OPP. We find a series of disconnections: Measures preponderantly address online activities, yet merely a small share of definitions focuses on the online sphere. While only few definitions account for passive activities (e.g., reading news about politics), many operationalizations include measures capturing such passive behaviors. Expressive activities are most popular in measures of OPP, but definitions rarely reflect this focus. Finally, while measures of OPP are prone to be platform-specific, definitions tend to neglect this characteristic. We conclude by reflecting the conceptual implications of common measurement practices for the study of OPP." (Abstract)
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"This empirical research investigates the uses of Twitter and longterm communication practices in the construction process of Occupy Gezi’s collective identity since the eruption of the Gezi protests until the constitutional referendum campaign in 2017. This article emphasises the latent phase of
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the movement, by combining Melucci’s processual and dynamic approach to collective identity with a practice-oriented ecological perspective to the media/movements studies. Based on in-depth interviews and the analysis of the common Twitter followings among the interviewees, this article provides empirical insights into the use of Twitter in the collective identity construction process through analysing its three main elements: (1) the identification of we and them, (2) development of informal networks and (3) expression and negotiation of collective identity. Extending the existing body of literature, which focus on instantaneous uses and shortterm instances, it complements the research on the nexus of collective identity and social media, by focusing on the daily practices, motivations and experiences of the activists on Twitter in interaction with evolving media ecology and other actors in its local context. This study indicates the uses of Twitter and new communicative practices in the latent phase for the continuity of Occupy Gezi, in which they maintained, promoted and negotiated collective identity. Thus, they could still keep and pass the movement’s repertoire, values, language and resistance culture to successors, even in the direct antagonistic confrontation of the authorities." (Abstract)
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"In 2022, the Rapid response Fund for the Protection of Digital Rights in Latin America (RRF) celebrated three years of work. Managed by Derechos Digitales, the RRF was conceived as a contextualized, agile, flexible and less bureaucratic response to the needs of organizations and activist working in
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Latin America when facing urgent situations that cannot be addressed by regular funding cycles. During these first three years, the Fund has supported more than 85 projects in 16 Latin American countries [...] The Rapid Response Fund supports organizations and activists that are doing work in their communities and facing emergency situations in which digital rights are violated. By providing micro-grants - with maximum ceilings of USD 8,000 - the Fund has been able to create relevant social impact, empowering voices and actions that are consistently ignored by public and private authorities." (pages 2-7)
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"As one of the mass media, the existence of radio in carrying out its role as a social institution to provide education for citizens, especially political education in a democratic country is an interesting topic. The purpose of this study is to analyze the way radio runs and controls political educ
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ation programs for citizens in public spheres and uncovers radio strategies to survive in the face of competition in the digital era. This study adopted descriptive qualitative methods and qualitative content analysis using radio interactive programs. The data were collected through interviews with the manager or directors of each radio. The subjects of this study were four radio stations in East Java, Indonesia. The results showed that radio carries out this role by organizing programs that involve participants. All radios have a mechanism for selecting participants, news and experts/informants. In carrying out its function as a social institution to provide education for citizens including political education, radio has made serious efforts by producing content that: 1) provides knowledge about local political dynamics; 2) criticizes public policies; and 3) activates citizen participation in public issues. Selectively choose the content of the program. Radio’s ability to survive was strongly supported by its ability to utilize of income opportunities and elegantly avoid economic and political pitfalls by empowering the role of the public sphere through massive involvement of external sources. Thus, the constructed opinion seems to be more of an extra media influence rather than an internal initiative of the radi o organization." (Abstract)
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"In Myanmar and Pakistan, anti-democratic forces including an alliance of military and right-wing political factions are dominating political affairs despite both countries’ constitutions defining democratic processes. Consequently, the authoritarian rule has been looming in these countries. The a
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bove forces have kept tight control over traditional media (television, print) by silencing the voices of common people using force and violence. However, social media has empowered pro-civilian rule activists to raise their voices and has helped to mobilise the public in favour of political change in their societies. How are these activists using social media to bring political change in Myanmar and Pakistan? This policy brief seeks answers to this question by examining the activism of political and civil society activists on social media in Myanmar and Pakistan. The brief explains the methods, strategies, and their impact on political and social space in Pakistani and Myanmar societie." (Summary)
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"This book offers a ten-year perspective on ongoing and evolving practices of digital activism across the Middle East and North Africa, drawing on interviews and ethnographic evidence collected between 2012 and 2022. It examines the shifting narrative around digital activism in the region, from the
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wake of the 2011 uprisings to the 2019 series of protests coined 'the second wave of the Arab Spring'. It considers how media activists navigate the transition from the emergent to the mainstream in a climate of contentious politics, following the civil mobilisations of the pro-revolutionary youths in Tunisia, Egypt, and Lebanon. It outlines the particularities of these three different political contexts and media environments, featuring case studies of the Tunisian blogosphere, online campaigning in the Egyptian elections and interviews with social media activists. In light of this empirical evidence, the book offers a critique of the increasing prevalence of a security perspective through which online activism has been viewed and its deleterious effect on digital political engagement in the region." (Publisher description)
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"The Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance explores the concepts, methodologies, and implications of collective intelligence for democratic governance, in the first comprehensive survey of this field. Illustrated by a collection of inspiring case studies and edit
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ed by three pioneers in collective intelligence, this handbook serves as a unique primer on the science of collective intelligence applied to public challenges and will inspire public actors, academics, students, and activists across the world to apply collective intelligence in policymaking and administration to explore its potential, both to foster policy innovations and reinvent democracy." (Publisher description)
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"This article analyses the role that Reality TV can play in the lives of young participants, when a programme is designed as a strategic intervention to achieve change. With roots in Communication for Development notions, this study brings together different theoretical fields to illustrate how medi
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a can be created with the intent of enhancing young people’s awareness of the important role they can play in society through targeted activities that occur during media production. The experience of the young contestants from The President TV show, broadcast in the Palestinian Territories in 2013 and 2015, is examined. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with some of the finalists of the show; information gathered has been analysed in the light of a framework that brings together media participation and civic engagement. Findings show how the format and structure of the programme has enhanced participants’ understanding of the social, political and economic spheres of a conflict-affected reality, contributing to their engagement with peace-oriented civic practices long after the end of the show." (Abstract)
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