Social Media and Elections in Africa, Volume 1

Theoretical Perspectives and Election Campaigns

Martin N. Ndlela, Winston Mano, Martin N. Ndlela, Winston Mano

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783030305529
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030305536
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Social Sciences

This book brings together fresh evidence and new theoretical frameworks in a unique analysis of the increasing role of social media in political campaigns and electoral processes across Africa. Supported by contemporary and historical cases studies, it engages with the main drives behind the various appropriations of social media for election campaigns, organization, and voter mobilization. Contributors in this volume delve into changing and complex aspects of social media, offering an appraisal of theoretical perspectives and examining fascinating case studies which social media use is redefining elections across Africa. Contributions show that new media ecologies are resulting in new policy regimes, user behaviors, and communication models that have implications for electoral processes. The book also provides preliminary analysis of emerging forms of algorithm-driven campaigns, fake news, information distortions and other methods that undermine electoral democracy in Africa.

© The Author(s) 2020

M. N. Ndlela, W. Mano (eds.)Social Media and Elections in Africa, Volume 1https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30553-6_1

Begin Abstract

1. The Changing Face of Election Campaigning in Africa

Martin N. Ndlela¹ and Winston Mano²

(1)

Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Elverum, Norway

(2)

University of Westminster, Harrow Campus, London, UK

Martin N. Ndlela (Corresponding author)

Email: [email protected]

Winston Mano

Email: [email protected]

Keywords

Social mediaElectionsCampaigningPolitical communicationMedia ecology

End Abstract

Introduction

The interplay between media and politics is central to any understanding of political campaigning. Indeed, researchers argue that politics is communication and media are central to the mediation of politics. For many years, African politics suffered through a dearth of mass media, which often was government-controlled and had limited penetration beyond urban centres, the exception being the radio (considered the only true mass communication medium in Africa). For example, in the 1970s and ’80s, most media of any significance across the continent were government-owned, with few exceptions in countries like Nigeria, Kenya and apartheid South Africa, where private media were accommodated. The media liberalization boom of the late 1980s and early ’90s saw the appearance of independent media. Political communication was then dominated by one-to-many communications and augmented with oral forms of communication. Political campaigning in much of Africa was conducted through low-scale traditional structures, door-to-door canvasing, poster advertising, mass rallies, as well as a few news media outlets, with limited distribution beyond urban centres and limited access to those wishing to reach audiences. The bottlenecks induced through media monopolies, ownership structures and affordability dented much of the political campaign processes. The media ecology, dominated by state-owned media and broadcasting monopolies, advantaged incumbent political parties and disadvantaged opposition parties, who found themselves marginalized in the mainstream media. Literature on media and democracy often cited lack of media pluralism, diversity and media freedom as one of the impediments to the democratization process. This obviously had negative implications on the nature of political campaigns. Social media is rapidly changing the political communication landscape in Africa.

The New Communication Landscape

The rise in the use of smartphones and an increased adoption of mobile Internet in Africa are fundamentally altering the media ecology for election campaigns. Statistics show that the use of mobile phones and mobile Internet has increased considerably in the continent. It should, however, be noted that access to and use of technologies is not universal. National factors such as media regulation, social media policies, journalism cultures, political cultures, audiences and consumption patterns affect access to the new media. Has Africa joined the trend of modern, digitally enhanced political campaigns? To answer this question, one would have to examine the state of digitalization in general and the penetration of social media in the continent. What is happening in Africa with regard to digitalization? In their overview of the status quo, Schelenz and Schopp (2018) note that much has been done in various countries to advance digitalization with improved telecommunications, electricity provision, integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and major innovations in cloud computing, communication tools, electronic record systems and mobile banking. Tech hubs are emerging in countries like South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco. Internet penetration varies across the continent: Southern Africa (51%), Northern Africa (49%), Western Africa (39%), Eastern Africa (27%) and Middle Africa (12%).¹ Africa has seen a 20% year-on-year growth in the number of Internet users. However, some of the world’s lowest Internet penetration is in Africa: Eritrea (1%), Niger (4%), Burundi (6%), DRC (6%) and Chad (5%) (ibid.). While Internet penetration is still low, “the digital face of Africa is mobile”, with around 82% of the population in Africa having a mobile connection in 2018 (Majama, 2018). According to the Internet World Stats, there were just above 204 million Facebook subscribers in Africa as of December 2017,² with higher penetration in countries like Egypt, Angola, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa and Morocco and less penetration in countries like Togo, Swaziland, Malawi, Guinea-Bissau and Lesotho. Interestingly, statistics show some African countries like Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Morocco (2 hours 24 minutes) leading most Western European countries and USA in time spent on social media.³

As mobile telephones are becoming commonplace even in Africa’s poorest countries, the uptake of social media has become ubiquitous across the continent. De Bruijn, Nyamnjoh, and Brinkman (2009) refer to mobile phones as the new talking drums of everyday Africa. It is through the mobile telephone that Africa is witnessing rapid transition in social media use. Social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, blogs and many others, which did not exist some years ago, now form an integral part of today’s communication landscape in much of Africa. Social media represent an ever-growing number of digital communication spaces being harnessed for political campaign purposes.

Social media constitute what has been referred to as disruptive innovations, creating new communication models and transforming the ways political parties do business, consequently affecting how citizens interact with political messages. The advent of social media is disrupting well-established forms of elite control over communications that characterized the era of state-controlled broadcasting and news media, and creating new patterns of political communication, including political protests. The most notable example of the use of social media for political protests is the Arab Spring in the early 2010s, a series of anti-government protests across North Africa and Middle East, where social media was used to organize demonstrations (for and against governments), disseminate information and engage the international community. In the youth-led protests in Sudan (2019), various hashtags were used during the protests, which culminated in the toppling of long-serving president Omar al-Bashir. Social media was used to mobilize and disseminate information to the outside world. The role of social media became prominent in the protests against the Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika (2019) and in the post-election clashes in Zimbabwe in August 2018. Social media was used in the dissemination of pictures (including fake ones) documenting the shootings of civilians by the military in both Zimbabwe and Sudanese cases. In the past, these tragic events would have gone unnoticed.

The increasing role of social media in political protests has heightened fears over its potent powers and hence attempts to diminish its powers, by either deliberately slowing it down or even shutting it down completely. Shutting down social media is also driven by the general desire to curtail freedom of expression and the spread of negative information. The fear of social media has seen a number of governments shutting down or blocking access to it during elections and other periods of political upheaval. Chad has blocked social media platforms several times for periods up to a year, in spite of the low penetration of the Internet in the country, at just above 5%. In 2016, social media was blocked in connection with the contested re-election of President Idriss Déby, and in 2018, it was also shut down following protests over constitutional changes. In Gabon, social media was shut down following violence during the 2016 presidential election. The Gambian government also shut down the Internet on the eve of the 2016 elections. In 2017, Cameroon shut down the Internet in English-speaking regions due to political unrest in the areas. Other countries that have blocked social media before or during elections include Uganda, Burundi, Mali, Congo and Ethiopia.

Consider also how on 1 December 2016, Gambians went to the polls using social media as “the most critical resource” in bringing to an end the 22 years of President Jammeh’s dictatorship, ironically after he had vowed to want to rule for a billion years! The Point reports that “after closing the environment of freedom of expression by suppressing free speech and muzzling the mainstream media in the country, social media became the uncontrollable weapon in the hands of the masses”. Gambians abroad and those within the country collaborated to c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. The Changing Face of Election Campaigning in Africa
• 2. Social Media Algorithms, Bots and Elections in Africa
• 3. Directions of Political Communication in Africa: Methodology for the Search of an African Model and Epistemology
• 4. Alternative Responses to Presidential Tweets on Elections in Africa: A New Counter Power?
• 5. Tweeting the July 2018 Elections in Zimbabwe
• 6. Social Media and Participation in Ghana’s 2016 Elections
• 7. Social Media Use in the 2018 Presidential Election in Cameroon
• 8. Hybrid Media System and the July 2018 Elections in “Post-Mugabe” Zimbabwe
• 9. Social Media and Elections: A Case of Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini
• 10. Social Media and Elections in Uganda: The Case of Bobi Wine and the Arua Primary Elections
• 11. Intra-Party Election Campaigns in Ghana: An Analysis of Facebook Use
• Back Matter