Speaking Up and Talking Back?

The book questions whether and how young citizens in Africa engage with media and communications technologies and platforms in a desire to be included in the change processes of their societies. The theme echoes some of the claims made by disenchanted and frustrated youth and other citizens in the streets of North Africa’s cities in 2011 and 2012. They were severely critical of the governance structures in their countries, mass social mobilizations took place, governments fell and, in the aftermath, the slow process of transition continued, now with one tyrant less but still with uncertain outcomes and huge challenges for the social and economic development of these countries.

Youth in particular engaged massively, visibly, loudly and dramatically around demands to be involved and included in their countries’ development processes. This yearbook taps into the less visible and dramatic, but nevertheless highly dynamic and influential, process of media development and the enlargement of youth-driven, deliberative spaces which sub-Saharan Africa is currently experiencing.

Content

Foreword

Part I. Introduction and Conceptual Framing

African Youth, Media and Civic Engagement
Thomas Tufte, Norbert Wildermuth

Towards a Renaissance in Communication for Social Change: Redefining the Discipline and Practice in the Post ‘Arab Spring’ Era
Thomas Tufte

Communication for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: From Orientalism to NGOification
Linje Manyozo

Part 2. ICT, Empowerment and Policies

Information and Communication Technology-facilitated E-citizenship, E-democracy and Digital Empowerment in Kenya: The Opportunities and Constraints of Community-based Initiatives
Norbert Wildermuth

Institutional Context of ICT and Women’s Participation in Kenya
Winnie V. Mitullah

Social Media and Digital Democracy: An Exploration of Online Forums for Civic Engagement and the Involvement of Kenyan Youth in Participatory Development
Wanjiru Mbure

Prospects for Civil Society Empowerment through the Use of the New Media
Karen Kisakeni Sørensen, Viktorija Petuchaite

Young Women and ICT: A Need to Devise New Strategies?
Grace Githaiga

Part 3. Health and Social Change

Conflicting Paradigms. Challenges to HIV and AIDS Communication: A South African Perspective
Eliza Govender

Involving Youth in Peer Educators: Message Deliverers or Agents of Change?
Line Friberg Nielsen, Mille Schütten

HIV/AIDS Campaigns as Signifying Processes: Group Dynamics, Meaning-formation and Sexual Practice
Abraham Kiprop Mulwo, Keyan Tomaselli

Examining Civil Society Approaches to Adolescent Sexual Empowerment in Tanzania
Datius K. Rweyemamu

Moving Sexual Minority Health Rights Forward in Uganda: A Study of Opportunities and Challenges Using Domestic Media
Cecilia Strand

Part 4. Culture and Social Change

Makamba Culture Cubs: Towards Communication for Reconciliation
Nikita Junagade

Communicating Crime Prevention: Participation and Building Trust in Kibera
Ricky Storm Braskov

Community Radio as Promoters of Youth Culture
Jessica Gustafsson

Film for Social Change: A Study of the Zanzibar International Film Festival’s Initiatives for Bringing about Social Change for the Local Youth
Anne Sofie Hansen-Skovmoes, Line Røijen

Hidden Voices on Air: Empowering Tanzanian Youth through Participatory Radio
Rosalind Yarde

The Authors