Journalism and Social Media in Africa

Through innovative research studies and expert commentaries, this book documents the fast evolving invention of the relationship between the millions of social media and mobile phone users around Africa and traditional purveyors of news. Whilst social media demonstrates an unprecedented ability for the politically engaged to both bypass and influence traditional information flows, it also faces unique circumstances through much of Africa. Signs of social change brought by mobile technology are evident around the continent, raising questions about the nature of information exchange and citizenship. Working from a wide variety of perspectives and methodologies, the contributors to this collection address key questions emerging from rapid communication change in Africa. This book reveals how new, participatory, interactive communications technologies are enabling new tellings of Africa's stories. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies.

Chris Paterson is a senior lecturer and leader of the MA in International Communication at the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds, UK. He has published extensively on news agencies, international journalism and communication in Africa.

1. Introduction: Journalism and social media in the African context Chris Paterson Research Reports 2. Challenging hegemonic media practices: Of 'alternative' media and Nigeria's democracy Motilola Olufenwa Akinfemisoye 3. Poke me, I'm a journalist: The impact of Facebook and Twitter on newsroom routines and cultures at two South African weeklies Marenet Jordaan 4. The Nairobi Hub: Emerging patterns of how foreign correspondents frame citizen journalists and social media Paulo Nuno Vicente 5. Media representations of technology in Egypt's 2011 pro-democracy protests Melissa Loudon and B. Theo Mazumdar 6. A forgotten tweet: Somalia and social media Skye Cooley and Amy Jones 7. A complicated but symbiotic affair: The relationship between mainstream media and social media in the coverage of social protests in southern Africa Admire Mare Case studies from Southern Africa 8. Introduction to the section Chris Paterson 9. Social media and journalism: The case of Swaziland Richard Charles Rooney 10. Participatory journalism in Mozambique Chris Paterson and Simone Doctors 11. Social media and the politics of ethnicity in Zimbabwe Shepherd Mpofu Comment 12 'It's struck a chord we have never managed to strike': Frames, perspectives and remediation strategies in the international news coverage of Kony2012 Toussaint Nothias