2020/04/01 by Bruce Mutsvairo, Helge Rønning
Social Sciences · #Digital Games and Media #Media Studies and Communication #Social Media and Politics
paper · doi:10.1177/0163443719899615
openalex publication_date 2020/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The purpose of this issue of Media Culture and Society is to discuss the possible role of social media in the struggle for democracy, against authoritarianism, and over hidden power structures. The articles included in this volume are meant to offer empirical interventions to beliefs, some of them unproven, on whether the emergence of new media technologies has driven Africa towards democratic change. Papers in this Special Issue cover a wide variety of African countries delving deep into comparative studies of participatory citizens’ media on the continent. This introduction is an attempt to offer an explanation on African democratisation and authoritarianism before conceptualising the role of social media in political processes with the backing of current case study dispatches in Africa, demonstrating the dilemmas of digital disparities in promoting or denting democratisation in Africa.