Tuesday, 20th March 2012

Encouraging Political Participation in Africa: The Potential of Social Media Platforms

Source: Institute for Security Studies

From the report:

The 'Arab Spring' developments have led to debate as to whether an 'African Spring' facilitated through the use of social-media-based tools is possible. This report argues that social media have the potential to facilitate the active citizen political engagement required to bring about political change in Africa. If events in Tunisia and Egypt are anything to go by, it is reasonable to be cautiously optimistic about the potential of social media to encourage political participation and active citizenship.

Any discussion of this potential, however, should also engage with the context-specific challenges it faces.

+ Link to full report (PDF; 227 KB)

Category:

• Africa (DocuTicker)
• Government and politics (DocuTicker)
• International (DocuTicker)
• Internet (DocuTicker)
• Political process (DocuTicker)
• Technology (DocuTicker)

Source:

• Institute for Security Studies

Views: 1024

By Peggy Garvin

Peggy Garvin, of Garvin Information Consulting, is the author of United States Government Internet Directory (Bernan Press) and Real World Research Skills, 2009 (TheCapitol.Net). In her 20 years in the information business, Peggy has managed electronic information products and services in a variety of environments, including commercial publishing, e-commerce, law firms, and the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. Peggy's work has been recognized with the 2011 SLA Dow Jones Leadership Award. She has a Masters of Library Science degree from Syracuse University School of Information Studies.

More articles by Peggy Garvin »

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