Journal of African Media Studies - Volume 9, Issue 2, 2017

Taking as point of departure three recently conducted empirical studies, the aim of this article is to theoretically and empirically discuss methodological challenges studying the interrelations between media and social reality and to critically reflect on the methodologies used in the studies. By deconstructing the studies, the article draws attention to the fact that different methods are able to grasp different elements of social reality. Moreover, by analysing the power relations at play, the article demonstrated that the interplay between interviewer and interviewee, and how both parties fit into present power structures, greatly influence the narratives that are co-produced during interviews. The article thus concludes that in order to fully understand complex phenomena it is not just enough to use a mixture of methods, the makeup of the research team is also imperative, as a diverse team are better equipped to gather a diversity of stories.

This article explores the livelihoods and media uses of young men in rural, urban and peri-urban Kenya, enquiring into how these young men use digital technologies, mobile phones in particular, in the context of constantly and quite rapidly changing livelihoods. It is a media ethnographic case study offering a gendered perspective upon the lives of male youth in Kenya. Kenya is a country branded as being digitally innovative, disruptive, entrepreneurial and developing new opportunities for Kenyan economic development and for the citizens of Kenya (ICT Authority 2014). By unpacking the socio-economic organization of everyday life and the quotidian use of mobile phones amongst mainly low-income young men in Uasin Gishu County in Rift Valley, this study enquires into the strategies applied by these young men in pursuing their aspirations for a better life. How do they navigate in the context of a rapidly and profoundly changing society informed by policies and discourses of digital innovation? It is a context where mobile phones by government are considered spearheads of digital innovation, disruption and entrepreneurship, but where the everyday usage reveals deeper complexities and contradictions. From reviewing the experiences of 36 young men I have identified work-oriented profiles of three young men. Their profiles, albeit unique, resonate with many of the persistent features of all 36, in how they negotiate work opportunities and media uses in their aspirations for a good life. The three profiles I have identified are (1) the digital entrepreneur; (2) the urban casual worker; and (3) the university student and opinion leader.

With an increasing accessibility of smartphones and mobile Internet, social media are becoming an integral part of everyday life for young people in Kenya. The use of new social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp is quickly changing in the country. Previous research on new media, however, indicates socio-demographic differences in the access, appropriation and use of new technologies. This article aims at advancing our understanding of how young people in developing countries are appropriating and using new social media platforms. It examines the multiple ways in which young people in Kenya use social media platforms and how they use these new spaces to connect, interact, communicate and engage on different issues. The article argues that the new social media configurations are invariably making possible access to alternative spaces, relatively ‘free’ from mainstream communication platforms. These changes have implications on different aspects of social change processes such as sociocultural and socio-economic changes in the Kenya.

This article aims to discuss changing media ecologies in rural, peri-urban and urban Kenya. The article is based on a comprehensive baseline survey of 799 individuals carried out in October 2014 in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The survey recorded media access and media use in relation to demographic data. The findings suggest that media ecologies in rural, peri-urban as well as urban Kenya have undergone dramatic changes. The much hyped and unprecedented spread of mobile telephony has taken place simultaneously with the introduction of or increased access to radio and television, including satellite television. Different emerging communication ecologies can be identified, often with radio providing a solid foundation and combining in different ways with television and mobile phones. Even though mobile ownership, for example, has increased in all segments and areas, gender inequalities are reproduced in relation to mobile phone access especially in the rural areas, while in urban areas the inequalities are less significant. This pattern is also visible in connection with television and social media use, thereby highlighting the fact that the urban–rural and gender divides often intersect.

In the heyday years of modernization, a number of media policy papers were produced in new African states. Media were assessed as central for national development. Now, we are globally experiencing a New Wave of communication fever. New technology is claimed to strengthen democracy more than conventional media. It is possible to give ‘voice to the voiceless’ and increase direct democracy, but the digital divide is not easily overcome. Again, a New Wave of policy planning has emerged both nationally and internationally. This article elaborates on the policy discussions in Kenya, the acknowledged Information and Communication Technology (ICT) hub of Africa. The media history has been unpredictable and contradictory in Kenya. Thus, the expectations for changes caused by ICT are interesting; the buzzword has sold well. The major policy documents are analysed, and on their basis, expert interviews have been carried out. The goals for ICT promotion are changing in Kenya. In the beginning, ICT was assessed as a technological challenge. Today, its service side has been emphasized and connections with conventional media are carefully sought, but encouragement for citizen activism is still lacking.

This article outlines the development of mobile telephony in the nascent Republic of South Sudan (ROSS). We focus specifically on Juba, during turbulent times from the end of the second Sudanese Civil War in 2005 to just after independence in 2011. We highlight the complicated political relations behind the establishment of mobile networks and the main functions and importance of the mobile phone throughout this period. Despite major technical obstacles, reconnecting with (war-) dispersed relatives, providing security in the post-CPA period marked by high insecurity and symbolizing hope and access to markets were important features of mobile phone use in Juba. Mobile phones were also essential to the rapid development of migrant dominated trade and business. Through this case-study we aim to shed light on the way in which (new) communication technologies become entangled with mobility, politics and entrepreneurship in a (post)war setting characterized by a displacement economy.

Research on the interactive relationship between youth and mobile phones has demonstrated that mobile devices have become indispensable in many aspects of youth lifestyles. Despite this, there is currently very limited research on mobile phone cultures in Sub-Saharan Africa. This article considers two very distinct gendered identities resulting from mobile phone consumption among students in Botswana: one involving adolescent females using colourful mobile phones and brightly coloured casings for their handsets as symbols of fashion and modernity, and the other relating to their male counterparts mostly preferring to own smartphones that are costly as these handsets gratify their sense of having a contemporary personal status. I then go on to demonstrate that although the findings from this study are analogous to those from similar studies worldwide, to a large extent, the gendered identities exhibited among youth in Botswana contexts are predicated on conventional practices entrenched in the traditional Tswana lifestyle.

In 1994 South Africa became a miracle in the world of postcolonies as a newly independent ‘rainbow’ nation state. Apartheid was replaced by an informal but still identical system which I refer to as apartheid. Good governance, democracy, peace, civility and quiet are framed by the media and regarded by investors and political elite among others to be the preferred set-up of things. Using the rage in the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall student protests as data, I argue that disrupting the world as we know it in order to address the poor’s grievances is part and parcel of strategic and effective communication especially for the marginalized poor majority black people whose dreams remain deferred. This argument will be framed by questions around the current burdens of apartheid, the achievements of disruptive protests and the meaning, roles and behaviours of officialdom towards members and ideologies of Fallist movements.

This article draws attention to the current sensational modernist conceptualization of news as conflict and prominence to argue that news among the poor be understood as activities happening in a village. Findings obtained through observation at two Community Audio Towers (CATs), plus ten key informant interviews with Uganda’s CAT stakeholders at community and national levels, suggest that the global media logic, supported by massive media structures that dictate what news is, finds no relevance in critical local news methodologies. Using the Critical theory, this article concludes that the counter-ideological events redefine the concept of news from conflict and prominence obtained through professional newsmaking cultures to whatever information the village members take to the towers.

Networked Publics and Digital Contention: The Politics of Everyday Life in Tunisia, Mohamed Zayani (2015) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 304 pp., ISBN 9780190239770, p/bk, £18.99