Top

Published in:

2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

5. Young People, Social Media, and Political Participation. The Limits of Discursive (In)Civility in the Kenyan Context

Author : Martin N. Ndlela

Published in: Social Media and Elections in Africa, Volume 2

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

The growing availability of low-cost smartphone devices and the affordable rates of data connectivity mean that more and more young people in Africa have access to mobile telephones. With these visible changes, there is an optimistic view that social media will play a central role in addressing a range of social issues by liberating, empowering, and enabling participation and engagement in political issues. However, the influence of social media on political engagement is determined by the discursive opportunity structures afforded by the context. This chapter examines the young people’s participation in the political digital public sphere in the Kenyan context. It argues that the political and cultural opportunity structures in Kenya create their own set of unequal participatory mechanisms that perpetuate a digital divide.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

previous chapter Discrimination Against Female Politicians on Social Media: An Analysis of Tweets in the Run-Up to the July 2018 Harmonised Elections in Zimbabwe

next chapter Youth, Elections and Social Media: Understanding the Critical (Di)Stance Between Young People and Political Party Messaging

The first set of interviews in Eldoret area were conducted by Catherine Kamua and Doreen Chumba, both students at Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya. The second set of interviews in the Nakuru area were conducted by Doreen Chumba.

https://medium.com/@DataSciencing/the-demographics-of-the-kenyan-voter-cba038cbbb02 and https://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/02/africa/kenya-election-youth-vote/index.html.

https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2017/kenya.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30658461 (accessed 07.12.18).

http://www.monitor.co.ke/2015/01/22/university-student-allan-wadi-gets-2-years-jail-term-for-hate-speech-on-facebook/ (accessed 07.12.18).

Albrecht, S. (2006). Whose voice is heard in online deliberation?: A study of participation and representation in political debates on the internet. Information, Communication & Society, 9(1), 62–82. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180500519548CrossRef

Amichai-Hamburger, Y., Gazit, T., Bar-Ilan, J., Perez, O., Aharony, N., Bronstein, J., et al. (2016). Psychological factors behind the lack of participation in online discussions. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 268–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.09.009CrossRef

Benesch, S. (2014). Countering dangerous speech to prevent mass violence during Kenya’s 2013 elections. Retrieved from https://ihub.co.ke/ihubresearch/jb_BeneschCFPReportPeacebuildingInKenyapdf2014-3-25-07-08-41.pdf

Benson, T. (2011). The rhetoric of civility: Power, authenticity, and democracy. Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, 1(1), 22–30.

Brady, H. E. (1997). Political participation. In R. B. Rubin, P. Palmgreen, & H. E. Sypher (Eds.), Communication research measures. London: Guilford Press.

Brokensha, S. I., & Conradie, M. S. (2017). (In)civility and online deliberation: readers’ reactions to race-related news stories. Safundi. The Journal of South African and American Studies, 18(4), 327–348.

Carpentier, N. (2011). Media and Participation. A site of ideological-democratic struggle. Bristol: Intellect.CrossRef

Castells, M. (1996). The Rise of the Network Society. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Chambers, S. (2003). Deliberative democratic theory. Annual Review of Political Science, 6(1), 307–326.CrossRef

Coe, K., Kenski, K., & Rains, S. A. (2014). Online and uncivil? Patterns and determinants of incivility in newspaper website comments. Journal of Communication, 64, 658–679.CrossRef

van Deursen, A., & van Dijk, J. (2010). Internet skills and the digital divide. New Media & Society, 13(6), 893–911.CrossRef

van Dijk, J. (2006). Digital divide research, achievements and shortcomings. Poetics, 34(4-5), 221–235.CrossRef

Dumova, T. (2009). Handbook of research on social interaction technologies and collaboration software: Concepts and trends. Information Science Reference.

Ferree, M., Gamson, W., Gerhards, J., & Rucht, D. (2002). Four models of the public sphere in modern democracies. Theory and Society, 31(3), 289–324.CrossRef

Habermas, J. (1989a). The theory of communicative action (Vol. 2). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Habermas, J. (1989b). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Hampton, K. N., Shin, I., & Lu, W. (2017). Social media and political discussion: When online presence silences offline conversation. Information, Communication & Society, 20(7), 1090–1107. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1218526CrossRef

Hoffmann, C. P., Aeschlimann, L., & Lutz, C. (2014). A digital divide in political participation: Exploring antecedents and effects of online political participation. Paper presented at the 64th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, Seattle. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261470278_A_Digital_Divide_in_Political_Participation_Exploring_Antecedents_and_Effects_of_Online_Political_Participation

Jenkins, H., Purushotma, K., Clinton, M., Weigel, M., & Robinson, A. J. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Chicago: Mac-Arthur Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF

Jones, Q., Ravid, G., & Rafaeli, S. (2004). Information overload and the message dynamics of online interaction spaces: A theoretical model and empirical exploration. Information Systems Research, 15(2), 194–210.CrossRef

Kelshaw, T., & Lemesianou, C. A. (2010). Emerging online democracy: The dynamics of formal and digitally mediated social structures. In T. Dumova & R. Fiordo (Eds.), Handbook of research on social interaction technologies and collaboration software: Concepts and trends (pp. 404–416). Hershey, PA: IGI-Global.CrossRef

Kelty, C., Panofsky, A., Currie, M., Crooks, R., Erickson, S., Garcia, P., et al. (2015). Seven dimensions of contemporary participation disentangled. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(3), 474–488. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23202CrossRef

Kenski, K., Jamieson, K. H., Jamieson, K. H., Volinsky, A., Weitz, I., & Kenski, K. (2018). The political uses and abuses of civility and incivility. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mäkinen, M., & Wangu Kuira, M. (2008). Social media and postelection crisis in Kenya. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 13(3), 328–335. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161208319409CrossRef

Motion, J., Heath, R. L., & Leitch, S. (2015). Social media and public relations. Fake friends and powerful publics. London: Routledge.CrossRef

Nielsen, R. K., & Schrøder, K. C. (2014). The relative importance of social media for accessing, finding, and engaging with news. Digital Journalism, 2(4), 472–489. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2013.872420CrossRef

Ogola, G. (2015). Social media as a heteroglossic discursive space and Kenya’s emergent alternative/citizen experiment. African Journalism Studies, 36(4), 66–81.CrossRef

Papacharissi, Z. (2004). Democracy online: civility, politeness, and the democratic potential of online political discussion groups. New Media & Society, 6(2), 259–283.CrossRef

Perez, O. (2013). Open government, technological innovation, and the politics of democratic disillusionment: (E-) democracy from Socrates to Obama. Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, 9(1), 63–137.

Smith, G., Sturgies, P., & Nomura, H. (2009). Deliberation and Internet engagement: Initial findings from a randomised controlled trial evaluating the impact of facilitated internet forums. Paper presented at the European Consortium of Political Research General Conference, Potsdam.

Sobieraj, S., & Berry, J. (2011). From incivility to outrage: Political discourse in blogs, talk radio, and cable news. Political Communication, 28(1), 19–41.CrossRef

Somerville, K. (2011). Violence, hate speech and inflammatory broadcasting in Kenya: The problems of definition and identification. Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, 32(1), 82–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560054.2011.545568CrossRef

Swart, J., Peters, C., & Broersma, M. (2018). Sharing and discussing news in private social media groups. Digital Journalism, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2018.1465351

Verba, S., & Nie, N. H. (1987). Participation in America. Political democracy and social equality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Vrooman, S. (2002). The art of invective performing identity in cyberspace. New Media & Society, 4(1), 51–70.CrossRef

Wellman, B., Quan-Haase, A., Witte, J., & Hampton, K. (2001). Does the internet increase, decrease or supplement social capital? Social networks, participation, and community commitment. American Behavioral Scientist, 45(3), 436–455.CrossRef

Title: Young People, Social Media, and Political Participation. The Limits of Discursive (In)Civility in the Kenyan Context
Author: Martin N. Ndlela
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Social Media and Elections in Africa, Volume 2
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-32681-4

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-32682-1

Copyright Year: 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32682-1_5