The Blogger is a doctoral candidate at Fort Hare. Her research interests include New Media/Social Media, Kenya Politics, African politics, Conflicts and Peace, and Communication.
As meaningful access to digital technologies rapidly increases in Africa, a growing amount of evidence suggests that new media, through its means of communication and access to, information, is having a significant impact on its politics hence changing the dynamics of socio-political engagement and holding much promise for the advancement of democratic culture in African societies.
These new media platforms are adding communication pathways and facilitating the dissemination of information, hence promoting, participation and democracy virtual. The mobile phones, Internet and other ICT tools are creating a variety of public spaces for political discussion and opinion making.
Building from this premise, the underlying issue of concern to this blog is to investigate and describe how the overall character of Africa’s politics is actually being conducted and reconfigured through the appropriation of the new media technologies; And as these digital technologies access the public sphere and penetrates the political communications arena, how are they granting Africans some power to get involved in political debates and discussion.
Also, as the blog seeks to comprehend the role and nature of citizen-produced information, news, and discussion within the political and media landscape, and as it explores the impacts and interactions between new media and traditional mainstream media, it hopes to reveal the shifting locus of agency for managing and regulating communication in and to the public spaces.
