Abstract
Mobile communication is increasingly playing a leading role in the mobilization of social and political protests around the world. There seem to be no known geographical boundaries for the digital revolution which the world is currently witnessing. From Chad to Chile, Mali to Myanmar, a new breed of digitally-based social initiatives have been gathering momentum for years, undoubtedly reinventing social activism as activists and ordinary people alike, eager to empower themselves politically and socially, embrace computers, mobile phones, and other web-based devices and technologies. With activists, mobile monitors, citizen journalists and digital story-tellers based in sub-Saharan Africa joining the fray, astutely bypassing hegemonic mass media gatekeepers by navigating through the online sphere to inspire collective political and social involvement across the continent, this highly contested discipline of research has attracted more attention than ever before. In spite of this attention, regionally in sub-Saharan Africa, there has been a shocking lack of empirical accounts detailing who is doing what, why, where, when and with what impact. It is this gap that this book hopes to fill.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Digital Activism in the Social Media Era |
| Subtitle of host publication | Critical Reflections on Emerging Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Pages | 3-23 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9783319409498 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9783319409481 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2016 |