scholarly journals Images as Afro-positivist narratives and counter hegemonic strategy: A study of #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (16) ◽  
pp. 601-628
Author(s):  
Floribert Patrick C. Endong
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
African Soil ◽  
Digital Cultures

To arrest the negative stereotypes of Africa in and outside the African continent, a number of civil society organizations and activists have launched various social media-assisted initiatives aimed at showcasing the positive facets of African cultures as well as the beautiful touristic attractions existing on the continent. One of such initiatives is the #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou movement launched in 2015 to combat the negative and colonial stereotypes of Africa through the sharing of beautiful images and videos of Africa on Twitter. The movement encouraged Africans of all horizons to share attractive images of Africa, particularly the ones that are rarely or never shown on mainstream media. Six years after the project was launched, it is high time to evaluate its strength and know some of its merits and implications. In line with this aphorism, this paper uses secondary sources and a qualitative analysis of images and videos shared on Twitter to examine the contribution of the #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou movement to the imperative of challenging colonial representations of Africa. It specifically discusses the genesis, trans-nationalization and promises of the project; and assesses the movement in the light of two philosophico-cultural currents/theories namely Afro-positivism and counter hegemony. The paper argues that the #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou movement put to question the popular but problematic belief that Africa is all about negativisms. It started a visual-assisted conversation not only about the wonders found on African soil but also about some of the cultures which non-Africans have often viewed as problematic or controversial. Such a conversation is a proof that Afro-optimism is still much alive on the continent and that; Africans are conscious that the fight against colonial stereotypes is a perpetual battle which must be fought even with the help of new digital cultures such as digitalized image-based activism.

Pushing Back, Through Media and Civil Society

Hate Spin ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cherian George
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
Social Media Platforms

How a society responds to hate spin depends on not only its laws, but also its social norms—in particular, whether people consider bigotry to be socially acceptable or something to fight against, how comfortable they are with ideas and beliefs that are different, and whether their sense of national belonging is based on inclusive democratic values or an exclusive cultural identity. This chapter examines the role of non-state actors in shaping societies’ responses to hate spin. These players—secular and religious civil society groups, news organizations, and social media platforms, for example—are essential parts of any effort to build democracies that are respectful of religious differences. But, like state policy, media and civil society organizations are also often part of the problem, facilitating, encouraging, or even generating hate spin.

Body Abjectification as a Tool to Represent Poverty in Black Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-86
Author(s):  
Floribert Patrick C. Endong
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Age Stereotypes ◽  
African People ◽  
Black Africa

Many human rights activists and West-based INGOs have entrenched the questionable culture of using pathetic and socially pornographic images to boost their advertising, mobilization and fundraising campaigns aimed at tackling social problems in Africa. The images deployed by these advocacy entities most often function as double edged swords: they do not only capture the wisdom and rhetoric marketed by the campaign organizers but sometimes subtly act as negative symbols or metaphors of the African continent. Many of these visuals as used in posters and ad copies subliminally abjectify Africans, thereby reinforcing the myriad of decades-old myths and stereotypes of the continent and its people – notably abject poverty, famine, illiteracy, and backwardness, among others. This chapter illustrates the above-mentioned thesis through a semiotic analysis of posters and image-based ads recently deployed by some West-based civil society organizations during the Nigeria-born #BringBackOurGirl movement. The chapter specifically illustrates how the visuals and anchorages used in the #BringBackOurGirl posters hyperbolically abjectify and denigrate African people, associating them with old-age stereotypes.

scholarly journals Meta-Cognition of Efficacy and Social Media Usage among Japanese Civil Society Organizations

Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Tomoya Sagara ◽  
Muneo Kaigo ◽  
Yutaka Tsujinaka
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Flow Of Information

This paper examines how social media are affecting Japanese civil society organizations, in relation to efficacy and political participation. Using data from the 2017 Japan Interest Group Study survey, we analyzed how the flow of information leads to the political participation of civil society organizations. The total number of respondents (organizations) were 1285 (942 organizations in Tokyo and 343 from Ibaraki). In the analysis of our survey we focused on the data portion related to information behavior and efficacy and investigated the meta-cognition of efficacy in lobbying among civil society organizations in Tokyo and Ibaraki. We found that organizations that use social media were relatively few. However, among the few organizations that use social media, we found that these organizations have a much higher meta-cognition of political efficacy in comparison to those that do not use social media. For instance, social media usage had a higher tendency of having cognition of being able to exert influence upon others. We also found that organizations that interact with citizens have a higher tendency to use social media. The correspondence analysis results point towards a hypothesis of how efficacy and participation are mutually higher among the organizations that use social media in Japan.

scholarly journals Social Media for Enhancing Civil Society and Disaster Relief: Usage by Local Municipalities in Japan

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Muneo Kaigo ◽  
Leslie Tkach-Kawasaki
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Social Networking Services ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
Local Municipalities ◽  
Local Municipality

This main focus of this article is a case study that analyzes social media usage by a local municipality in Japan, and on the possibilities and problems of complementary communication channels such as social networking services for promoting civil society activities and linking civil society organizations. We examine how in the past, Japanese municipalities have been using social media and social networking services for enhancing civil society and how social networking services are a potential tool that can provide vital information and connect citizens, municipal governments and civil society. This article focuses on the first phase of the Tsukuba Civic Activities Cyber-Square [Tsukuba Shimin Katsudō no Hiroba] on Facebook Experiment in 2012 and how it functioned during and after the May 6, 2012 Tsukuba city tornado disaster for the subsequent relief and support activities during May 2012.

scholarly journals The Gambia: Citizenship and Civic Consciousness

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. p96
Author(s):  
Fatou Janneh
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
National Development ◽  
Visionary Leadership ◽  
The Gambia ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Civic Consciousness ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Informed Citizenry ◽  
Media Reports

Citizens are an important component of national development enterprise. This is because citizenship is crucial to the promotion of nationhood. But being a citizen alone means very little if it does not come with certain responsibilities and civic consciousness. Through the historical lens of The Gambia, this paper argues, an understanding of citizenship and civic consciousness is necessary for sustained national development. It draws an interrelation among these concepts. Therefore, supports for responsible citizenship through education and emphasizes education’s role in attaining national development. Also, refers to primary and secondary sources. It uses oral interviews, content analysis of government publications, academic journals, books, and media reports to provide context to the paper. The article suggests some viable strategies for sustainable national development in The Gambia such as free and fair election, informed citizenry, visionary leadership and vibrant civil society organizations.

Social Media and Civil Society Organizations (CSOS)

2015 ◽  
pp. 237-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kari Steen-Johnsen ◽  
Bernard Enjolras
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Amnesty International ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Lateral Communication ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Social Media Strategy

This qualitative case study describes and analyzes the use of social media by Amnesty International Norway (AIN), a medium-sized human rights organization. Specifically, the case looks at how and to what extent AIN fulfilled its aims of enhancing information, public debate, and mobilization for campaigns through the use of Facebook and the organization's own website blog. While AIN saw great potentials in using social media, a core question was whether opening up for more lateral communication would lead to a loss of trustworthiness and organizational identity. Although AIN experienced an initial lack of success in using social media to generate response and mobilization in 2011, it was able to develop a powerful social media strategy resulting in high degrees of activity and exchange in 2014. Findings indicated that this change seemed to rely both on the ability of AIN to reflect upon its own governance structures and on the organization's ability to learn from experience.

scholarly journals The Landscape of Civil Society Organizations in the Economy of Kosovo

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 334-343
Author(s):  
Kushtrim Vllasaj
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Using Data ◽  
In The Beginning

Civil society organizations (CSOs) in the scientific literature have been studied broadly from various aspects such as cultural, political, social and economic. But as far as the last one is concerned, there is still a research gap because there is a lack of study about their contribution to economies under development, such as Kosovo, and which must be filled because of its importance. This paper tends to analyze the present situation of CSOs in Kosovo and their potential contribution to economic activity. Highlighting the activities, the structure and the place of these organizations in the economy will be the approach, in the beginning, to pave the way for further study of specific areas related to them. The methodology established contains analyses of secondary sources that are done by using data from the Ministry of Public Administration of Kosovo, Kosovar Index of Civil Society which is a regular report of the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (KCSF), and other supplementary data. However, this will proceed after the scientific conceptual issues of CSOs and their place within the economy. Finally, the results show that civil society in Kosovo is very diverse with organizations in different sectors, and the economic activity sector consists of mostly agricultural NGOs.   In transition countries, CSOs are seen as an alternative that improves a particular sector. Thus far, there are over 10,000 organizations established in Kosovo, but relative studies suggest only 1000 to be active. Furthermore, their activity and contribution to economic development is little known so far, while the main problem of the economy remains unemployment.

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