The thesis analyzes the political involvement of notable Nigerian Pentecostal Pastors during the 2015 Nigerian elections by focusing on the output of their social media pages. It highlights how...Show moreThe thesis analyzes the political involvement of notable Nigerian Pentecostal Pastors during the 2015 Nigerian elections by focusing on the output of their social media pages. It highlights how pastors appeared hesitant to make political statements online, despite their significant involvement in-person. This was likely related to the risk of a viral backlash to any political posts online.Show less
Social media platforms have become critical components of rebel groups’ communication channels. While discussions on rebels’ social media presence usually centre around issues of violence and...Show moreSocial media platforms have become critical components of rebel groups’ communication channels. While discussions on rebels’ social media presence usually centre around issues of violence and disruption, mounting evidence exists pinpointing the non-violent tactics rebel actors employ online. Interested in how social media use contributes to the ability of established rebel groups to project, cultivate, and negotiate favourable online personas internationally, this research project offers an exploratory case study analysis of the 5-day long #AskHamas Twitter campaign that Islamic resistance movement for Palestinian liberation Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah - commonly known as Hamas, conducted in March 2015. A mixed method approach combining social network analysis and empathic close-text reading was employed to reconstruct the international reception of the online event. Framing the Twitter campaign conceptually as an instance of public relations (PR) management, findings substantiate that the #AskHamas Twitter event allowed Hamas to establishing direct, and relevant relations with its targeted Western audience. At the same time, evidence pinpoints the ultimate dependency of online campaigns on the willingness of targeted audience to engage seriously. In case of #AskHamas, meaningful exchange with Hamas was obstructed by deliberate trolling, mocking and ridiculing on parts of participating. Evidence collected in this study implicates the urgency to overcome violence-fixation in Western understandings of rebel actors, and the necessity to contextualise identified rebel online communication practices to their socially mediated context of creation and dissemination.Show less
The success of the Russian anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny in bringing to light the corruption of high-level government officials has reinvigorated the debate about the effectiveness of...Show moreThe success of the Russian anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny in bringing to light the corruption of high-level government officials has reinvigorated the debate about the effectiveness of social media, and in particular blogging, to stimulate socio-political activism. This thesis looks beyond Russia’s most famous blogger to see who else is using the capabilities of (video)blogging to highlight and support the fight against corruption in the country. In particular, it analyzes blogposts by Ilya Varlamov and Erik Davidych and measures their direct effects in terms of the fight against corruption. By doing so, this research contributes to the debate of the usefulness of social media in the stimulation of socio-political activism, and reveals the possible short-term effects that blogging can have as a tool to battle corruption. The thesis concludes that despite media repression and the large scale of corruption in Russia, the short-term effects of anti-corruption blogging can be positive, while the long-term consequences are unclear.Show less
In the context of the upcoming elections in Kenya in August 2017, debates on Twitter have highlighted the gap between the political elite’s electoral agenda and the population’s daily struggles of...Show moreIn the context of the upcoming elections in Kenya in August 2017, debates on Twitter have highlighted the gap between the political elite’s electoral agenda and the population’s daily struggles of surviving and coping with harsh realities. Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, recently launched an online campaign calling for voters registration – #UhuruDabChallenge – which was met with fierce protestations online, formalised under the #DabOfShame. This thesis will analyse the framing of this clash of priorities on Twitter by looking at the spread and use of one hashtag in particular – #DabOfShame – and one of the subtheme the #KOT community highlighted, that is the country’s hunger and drought crises. Indeed, analysing the #DabOfShame highlights the gap between the state discourse and the subsequent online responses, which has a huge impact on the way pertaining daily issues and their realities are depicted online. In particular, looking at Kenya’s most salient and recurrent difficulties – the hunger and drought crises – pinpoints how the users shed light on the problems, thus “framing” an opposition of concerns, and pushing the political elite to address them. Interestingly, the users and content analysis of this specific hashtag give insights into the political socialisation processes that Twitter enables and the platform it provides for the Kenyan connected generation to express its grievances in the everyday context. Eventually, this can inform discussions on the possibility of social media to influence the government’s agenda and produce a united common front in a context of political polarisation. This, however, also reveals concerning trends in the way Twitter is used by the political elite in Kenya, in particular by its president, which suggests that social media are possibly developing into new podiums on which political legitimacy is fought and gained.Show less
This thesis finds that the rise of cable television and the increase of social media usage need to be taken into account when understanding the increase of mass polarisation between 1992 and 2016...Show moreThis thesis finds that the rise of cable television and the increase of social media usage need to be taken into account when understanding the increase of mass polarisation between 1992 and 2016 in the United States. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter establishes that mass polarisation took place in the United States between 1992 and 2016. In the second chapter, attention is devoted to the rise of cable networks in the television landscape and its connection to the rise of mass polarisation. The third chapter focusses on the role of social media usage in the increase of mass polarisation in the United States between 1992 and 2016.Show less
This thesis finds that to a certain extent, social media news consumption has contributed to mass political polarisation in the United States between 2006 and 2016. The thesis is divided into four...Show moreThis thesis finds that to a certain extent, social media news consumption has contributed to mass political polarisation in the United States between 2006 and 2016. The thesis is divided into four chapters to come to this conclusion. In the first chapter, multiple forms of political polarisation are scrutinised by means of a model. Secondly, literature on the topic is put in relation and context with each other. In the third chapter, attention is devoted to polarising mechanisms of Facebook and Twitter. In the last chapter, other possible causes of mass polarisation in the United States are related to social media news consumption as a cause.Show less
After the Arab Spring, social media have been attributed great potential for democratization and enhanced political accountability, which has raised hopes for Africa’s stagnant democracies....Show moreAfter the Arab Spring, social media have been attributed great potential for democratization and enhanced political accountability, which has raised hopes for Africa’s stagnant democracies. Research is, however, inconclusive on whether this potential is seized and what this means in practice. Moreover, no research on political accountability in Africa has used social media as a primary source yet. Therefore I have studied the everyday Nigerian political accountability dynamics on social media as participant observer for 75 days. The observations exhibited four important shifts in accountability dynamics on social media away from traditional, offline accountability practices. First, social media has created an incessant and two-directional accountability cycle in which citizens find a unified voice through hashtags and the government replies to accountability demands instantly. Secondly, social media facilitate the traditionally much sought proximity between citizens and their leaders, as a channel for complaining, reassurance and interaction. Third, clientelist accountability dynamics have shifted from only demands for private and club goods, to mostly demands for collective and public goods, despite some deviations. Lastly, social media also allowed for slacktivism, but this did not inhibit the success of one online campaign. These shifts are significant, as they strengthen political accountability and thus democracy, even though the limits of the impact of online accountability and its meaning to the average Nigerian put the democratizing powers of social media in perspective. The observations nevertheless highlight the new opportunities and new dimensions to traditional accountability in Nigeria, and possibly Africa, enabled and channelled by social media.Show less
