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This book explores how unresolved questions of social justice shape the character of the political terrain and political actors, through the lens of social media. It treats communication as the medium through which social issues and processes are made visible. Given the rise and spread of populist politics, the views of ordinary people on social issues have never mattered more. One platform through which these voices can be studied extensively is social media. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter now X, YouTube, and Instagram, among others, afford ordinary citizens-often marginalized by traditional mainstream media-space to vent their opinions, engage in discussions of whatever topic, share information and ideas, and explore various kinds of information as well as data, links to which are often provided through various macro and micro discursive spaces therein. Arguably, therefore, social media have become a quintessential platform for studying contemporary sociality. Social media mustbe studied not just as a communication platform, but one through which the social world, social processes and social issues are made visible and, in some cases, enacted. With rich case studies from the Global South, and a particular focus on Africa, this collection does just that.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Thinking Political Struggle through the Justice Framework.- 2. Memorial Museums in Guatemala: The Role of Social Media and Never Again.- 3. Digital Justice Activism of Asian Hate Discourses During the Pandemic.- 4. A Decolonial Reading of the Zimbabwean Lives Matter Movement.- 5. Role of Social Media in Constructing the Idea of 'Nationalism' and 'National Identity' in the 21st Century: Case Study of India. Ankita Kumari and Bhavana Kumari.- 6. A Discursive Struggle Triggered by the 'Arrival' of the 'Other: Insecurity of the Mainstream in the Ethiopian Digital Media Sphere.- 7. Calculated Retreats, Sell-Outs or Economic Pragmatism? Social Media and White Land Compensation Discourses in Zimbabwe.- 8. Not So 'Social': Facebook and Twitter as Hubs for Women's Voices against Femicide and Gender-Based Violence in South Africa and Nigeria.- 9. A Tripartite Study to Social Justice in Zimbabwe: A Case Study of Comics, Activists and Pastors on Social Media.- 10. Twitter Deliberations on Justice in the Aftermath of the Deaths of Perpetrators of Mass Atrocities in Zimbabwe.- 11. Theorizing Communicative Space o Social Media and Struggle for the Social Justice and Democratisation in a Globalised World.- 12. Thinking the Post-Colony Through the Justice Framework.
