Journalism and Social Media in Africa: Studies in Innovation and Transformation [Hardcover]

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 Africas stories.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies.

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 rlã&