The relentless political pressure the Ethiopian government put on Ethiopian journalists, political dissidents and opposition activists drove hundreds of them out of their country. However, after leaving their country, the journalists and the opposition activists remain engaged in the politics of their country of origin through the media outlets they establish in diaspora. Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT) and Oromia Media Network (OMN) are two media platforms that have emerged in the United States under such conditions. This dissertation chronicles the rise of ESAT and OMN and their far reaching political influence in Ethiopia. Using mixed method research, it provides their detailed profiles that range from their inception, to their impact on the Ethiopian public sphere and the Ethiopian government’s response to them, to their reporting of political events in Ethiopia. This research makes the case that ESAT and OMN, through the instrumentality of a transnational public sphere have altered the Ethiopian political dynamics during the last five years. Particularly, ESAT and OMN use Facebook and Twitter as a backbone to gather information and foster relationships with news sources inside Ethiopia; they also transmit uncensored information back to Ethiopia via satellite television. In response to their communication activities, the Ethiopian government seeks to undermine the links that ESAT and OMN have in the country by routinely blocking the internet, requesting Facebook and Twitter to take down their content and jamming their satellite transmissions. The Ethiopian government also responds to the reporting of ESAT and OMN by changing its policy positions on domestic political issues. This illustrates that Ethiopian political exiles remain key players of Ethiopian political dynamics in ways that thoroughly exemplify trans-local reciprocity. It also shows that ESAT and OMN might very well be a prototype of a diaspora community media that keeps grievances alive and magnifies ideological differences they brought with them to the United States. / 2021-01-11

The enhanced discursive opportunity structures that the Internet enables has inspired a momentous revolution in the Nigerian media landscape. This dissertation chronicles the emergence and flowering of the citizen and alternative online journalism of the Nigerian diasporic public sphere located primarily in the United States. Using case-study research, it profiles the major diasporan online citizen media outlets and highlights instances where these geographically distant citizen media sites shaped and influenced both the national politics and policies of the homeland and the media practices of the domestic media formation. The study makes the case that while it is customary in the scholarship on sovereignty, state-civil society relations, and diaspora studies to emphasize domination and one-dimensionality in cultural flows, the participation of members of the Nigerian digital diaspora in the politics and discourses of their homeland, from their exilic locations in the West through the instrumentality of online citizen media, illustrates that citizens, especially in the age of the Internet, are not mere powerless subjects and receivers of informational flows from the institutions of the state and corporate mass media but can be active consumers and producers of informational resources and even purveyors of political power in ways that amply exemplify trans-local reciprocality. It also argues that the Nigerian diaspora media might very well be a prototype of an evolving, Internet-enabled, trans-local, and mutual informational and cultural exchange between the educated deterritorialized ethnoscapes of peripheral nations whose exile in the West endues them with symbolic and cultural capital and the private institutions and governments of their homelands. The study recommends a comparative study of the online citizen journalism of Third World virtual diasporas in the West.

Global social injustice and inequalities remain deeply embedded in our globalized world, often explained as a consequence of the current economic structures and institutions. Therefore, there has been an increase in arenas that attracts mobilization of the global civil society to oppose the neoliberal economic globalization and combat social injustices and inequalities. The World Social Forum (WSF) is an example of an arena that emerged with these purposes. However, research shows that there are criticism regarding the character and function of the WSF. This literature study examines the reasons behind the criticism and compares them with the WSF’s charter of principles to see if the WSF is living up to its ideals. It also analyzes if the WSF’s principles are reflected in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. This is done through a content analysis and within the framework of social justice and transnational public sphere. The study concludes that the WSF does not live up to its ideals because of a lack in organizational structure, exclusive and elitist character, and also the inequalities and inequities that are reinforced within the WSF. Moreover, the study shows that the WSF’s principles can be found among the 17 SDGs in the 2030 Agenda which can indicate that the WSF has had an indirect role in influencing global development policies.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:14:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3981.pdf: 917673 bytes, checksum: 6892701cb2e547a3e34c094cc9d17456 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-04 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The advance of techonologies, especially the mass communication means, had approached not only the world economies, but also cultures and societies. The emergency of a called global society brings the coletivities together, and throws them into planetary orbit. It promotes a redefinition of the Nation-State and, consequently, a reflection of the traditional public sphere concept. Observing the new amplitude of communicational flows allows to observe the rising of civil society on international scenary. Its space for deliberation is related to comprehensions of international dinamic, as well to the human relations transcending national frontiers. National movements point out the recognizement of the transversality of human interests, marked by world public opinion tendencies, tied to the informational growth and the globalization process. This research intends to approach Jürgen Habermas public sphere traditional concept, revisited in a transnational dimension, once themes previously belonging to national agendas move to world agenda, establishing commom concerns, as environment and climate change. / Os avanços tecnológicos, principalmente dos meios de comunicação de massa, aproximaram não somente as economias, mas também culturas e sociedades. A emergência da chamada sociedade global aproxima as coletividades, lançando-as em órbita planetária. Promove-se, com isso, a redefinição do Estado-nação e, conseqüentemente, uma reflexão a respeito da esfera pública tomada em seu conceito tradicional. Observar a nova amplitude dos fluxos comunicacionais permite observar também a ascensão da sociedade civil no cenário internacional. Seu espaço para deliberação relaciona-se com as compreensões da dinâmica internacional, bem como com as relações humanas que transcendem as fronteiras nacionais. Os movimentos nacionais caracterizam o reconhecimento da transversalidade dos interesses humanos, marcados pelas correntes de opinião pública mundiais, atreladas à expansão informacional e ao processo globalizatório. A presente pesquisa pretende abordar o conceito tradicional de esfera pública de Jürgen Habermas, revisitado em uma dimensão transnacional, uma vez que temas antes pertencentes às agendas nacionais se movem para a agenda mundial, estabelecendo temas em comum, como o meio ambiente e a mudança climática.

[pt] Esta é uma pesquisa no campo da internet e política nos subcampos da esfera pública e do ativismo transnacional. O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar a constituição de públicos transnacionais, que se expressam por meio do ativismo, utilizando as mídias digitais. A partir de uma revisão de literatura, serão analisados dois casos emblemáticos do ativismo transnacional: os protestos coordenados de 15 fevereiro de 2003, realizados simultaneamente em diversos lugares do mundo contra a iminente Guerra do Iraque, e os protestos de 2011 no Egito até a renúncia do então presidente Hosni Mubarak, localizados no contexto da Primavera Árabe, que incluiu eventos parecidos em outros países da região e forte uso das mídias sociais. Serão trabalhadas as seguintes questões nos casos estudados: 1) quais as características desses públicos?; 2) de que forma as mídias sociais são utilizadas?; 3) o que torna esses movimentos transnacionais? Nossa tentativa é a de contribuir para as pesquisas sobre o ativismo - e sobre a esfera pública - transnacional, utilizando como fonte estudos já realizados na área. / [en] This is a research in the field of Internet and Politics in the subfield of the public sphere and transnational activism. The aim of this work is to identify the constitution of transnational publics, which are expressed through activism, using digital media. Based on a literature review, two emblematic cases of transnational activism will be analyzed: the coordinated protests of 15 February 2003, held simultaneously in many countries against the imminent Iraq War, and the 2011 protests in Egypt that took place until the resignation of the president Hosni Mubarak, and were located in the context of the Arab Spring, which included similar events in other Arab countries and strong use of social media. Both cases will be studied in light of the following questions: 1) which are the characteristics of these publics that may be formed around certain issues?; 2) how was social media used?; 3) what makes these publics transnational? By doing so, we hope to contribute to the research on transnational activism and public sphere.