Le vent de démocratisation qui a soufflé en Afrique en 1990 a entraîné une ouverture démocratique au Congo-Brazzaville. L’une de ses conséquences fut la relative liberté retrouvée dans le monde de la presse qui connut alors une explosion des titres. Ce fut une période de grande effervescence politique caractérisée par : la conférence nationale souveraine (1990-1991), la période de transition (1991-1992) suivie de la période post-conférence (1992-1997). Cette grande effervescence politique qui a caractérisé cette période (1990-1997), souvent qualifiée de deuxième expérience démocratique après celle que le Congo a connue entre 1957 et 1963, avait entraîné à son tour un grand activisme médiatique dans la presse écrite congolaise. Les différents journaux existants ou qui ont vu le jour à la faveur de l’ouverture démocratique, ont accompagné cette période en submergeant le public congolais d’articles plus ou moins partisans sur l’information politique. Cependant, selon les observateurs de cette presse, La semaine Africaine, objet de notre étude, est le seul journal à s’être comporté de manière non partisane. La thèse que nous soutenons consiste à dire que La Semaine Africaine a affiché un comportement non partisan dans le traitement des informations politiques. En d’autres termes il s’agit de montrer à travers les approches quantitatives et qualitatives, le comportement non partisan dont elle a fait montre dans le traitement des informations politiques au Congo entre 1990 et 1997. / The wind of democratisation which blew in Africa in 1990 involved a democratic opening in Congo-Brazzaville. One of its consequences was the relative freedom found in the world of the press which knew an explosion of the titles then. It was one period of great political effervescence characterized by: the sovereign national conference (1990-1991), the period of transition (1991-1992) followed by the period post-conference (1992-1997). This great political effervescence which characterized this period (1990-1997), often qualified of second democratic experiment after that Congo knew between 1957 and 1963, had involved in its turn a great media activism in the Congolese written press. The various existing newspapers or which came out owing to the democratic opening, accompanied this period by submerging the Congolese public by articles more or less in favour on political information. However, according to the observers of this press, the African week, object of our study, is the only newspaper to be itself comprised in manner not well-wisher. The thesis that we support consists in saying that the African Week displayed a behavior nonin favour in the political data processing. In other words it is a question of showing through the quantitative and qualitative approaches, the behavior nonin favour of which it made watch in the political data processing in Congo between 1990 and 1997.

This thesis examines how routine social media use shapes political participation in Britain. Since the turn of the century, many commentators have argued that political activism has been compromised by “slacktivism,” a pejorative term that refers to supposedly inauthentic, low-threshold forms of political engagement online, such as signing an e-petition or “liking” a Facebook page. In contrast, this thesis establishes a new theoretical approach—the continuum of participation model—which illuminates what happens before political action occurs. This is explored in three interrelated contexts, using three different research methods: an ethnography of the political movement, 38 Degrees; an analysis of a corpus of individually-completed self-reflective media engagement diaries; and a series of laboratory experiments that were designed to replicate environments in which slacktivism is said to occur. I argue that Facebook and Twitter create new opportunities for cognitive engagement, discursive participation, and political mobilisation. 38 Degrees uses social media to support engagement repertoires that blend online and offline tactics. This organisational management of digital micro-activism provides participatory shortcuts, enabling large numbers of grassroots members to shape campaign strategy. But, in contrast to both advocates and critics of online participation, I find no evidence of a widespread, one-size-fits-all, self-expressive logic. Instead, I argue that we ought to think in terms of a typology of citizen roles in social media environments. Civic instigators and contributors engage in digital micro-activism by way of refining their political identity. Listeners use social media to consume political information but refrain from public forms of expression and instead take to private spaces for political discussion. When listeners do act it is not effortless, but carefully considered. Experiments show that these roles derive from pre-established personal preferences, rather than the stylistic presentation of information or visible indicators of the popularity of an information source. Overall, this study argues that slacktivism is inadequate and flawed as means of capturing the essence of contemporary political action. Social networking sites offer an important space for democratic engagement in the milieu of everyday life.

Within the framework of Critical Discourse Studies, this thesis looks at how Hazara peoples’ online activism during the Afghanistan 2009 and 2014 Presidential Elections contributed to promoting civil society and democratic values in Post-2001Afghanistan. The data corpus for this research is a selection of twelve published articles from the four most popular Hazara activists’ affiliated websites: The Republic of Silence, Hazara People International Network, Kabul Press and Hazara Net. Hazara writers applied a critical, but divisive and ethnocentric language to construct a political discourse during the Afghan national elections and polarized Afghan ethnic groups and differentiated between people and politicians. Despite the divisive and polarized discourse strategies in their texts, Hazara writers opened a fresh space for ethnic conversation in the Afghan online public sphere during the elections and enriched Afghan mainstream media discourse. The data corpus unveiled political activism based on historical consciousness, collective adaptability to social changes, and a continuous interest in education and civic activism as main Hazara online themes in post-2001 Afghanistan. These Hazara texts promote one role in particular for Hazaras, and that is to protest yesterday’s oppressive history, correct today's political structures and transform tomorrow's political culture in Afghanistan, so that all activists share something more than race, blood and ethnicity.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Nigerian post-independence history (1960 to the present date) is steeped in socio-political upheavals. The majority of the citizens are frustrated with the injustice, inequality and fraudulent politics that pervade the country. The central argument of this thesis is that these conditions are critiqued through the photographic practices produced on Facebook. Through the circulation of photographs and the conversations around them on the social media platform, Nigerians demand social change. The sociality that underpins the visuality of social networking is explained by Ariella Azoulay's notion of "civil discourse," which theoretically organises the thrust of this thesis. The formulation suggests that the photograph is an outcome of the interaction among many individuals. It is a site of exchange, a process which I have argued to be reinforced by digital and internet technology. For five years, I have followed the visual social production on Facebook in the context of virtual participant observation, downloading photographs and the comments that go with them. A number of the photographs and the accompanying comments are analysed with semiotic tools to understand the key concerns of Nigerians. To explain how the agitation is presented, and the efforts invested in the production, I have reflected on the related questions of technological mediations and appropriations. A network of digital infrastructure conditions the creation and editing of the photographs and their dissemination and meaning-making processes on Facebook. Again, the Nigerian example demonstrates how state failure fuels activism, insurgency and counter-insurgency, all of which are actuated by digital photographic production. In this situation, the photographic image is burdened with the task to produce violence and to counter it. What ultimately emerges are complex relations among people, photography and technology. I conclude that the virtual movement presents possibilities for socio-political transformation in Nigeria. From the perspective of photography, this thesis contributes to the debates in social media activism and how it is shaping politics in Africa. It demonstrates the possibility of reading the tensions in an African postcolony through the connected digital, visual and social practices of the ordinary people. We are prompted to acknowledge the influence of digital infrastructure in the political use of the image.

The study aims to answer the question of whether fashion can communicate meaning, by addressing how creators on Instagram challenge dominant gender norms through fashion, with a focus on the activist movement of #DeGenderFashion. The research questions will be answered using fashion theory and gender theory as guiding points, with literature on social media activism, representations of gender, and cultural studies giving further insight into the dynamics of the movement. Data has been collected from the hashtag #DeGenderFashion, created by social media personality Alok Vaid-Menon in 2019, using the algorithmic function of Instagram to provide the most relevant posts for analysis. After applying a set of criteria to limit the data to create a coherent data set, a visual analysis with an interpretive paradigm and inductive approach was applied. One of the main findings is the influence of patriarchal systems on gender expression, with the movement being led by male and non-binary individuals. However, feminine and androgynous styles are most common, highlighting how non-female individuals strive to adopt feminine fashion into their wardrobes, and breaking the patriarchal stigma surrounding feminine styles. The results of the study further imply that gender specificity in object design is an outdated concept, with the styles featured in the data sample oftentimes combining elements from across the gender spectrum with each other, creating a new fluid visual identity. The study implies that gender specificity in fashion is an artificial concept, urging the fashion industry to become more inclusive by catering to a wider range of bodies.

No description available.

With modern communication technology advancements, activist expression has become more common on social media platforms. Especially susceptible to these expressions is the millennial generation, whose lives are greatly permeated by media technology. This thesis aims to explore in what ways the social media platform Facebook inuences millennials’ motivation to engage in substantial prosocial behaviours that are intended to benet other people or society as a whole. Through mixed-method research design, participants’ attitudes towards Facebook as a platform for activism and its inuence on prosocial motivational aspects, was explored. Results indicated that previous habits of supportive engagement and the cost of the supportive action inuenced how the likeliness and motivation to engage in substantial supportive actions was aected by Facebook interaction. More precisely, higher levels of previous engagement, as well as engagement in costly, prosocial actions contributed to an increased motivation to engage further in such actions. Furthermore, social and contemporary aspects showed to play a large part for participants’ motivation to engage in costly and substantial prosocial actions.‌ / I samband med dagens kommunikationsteknologiska framsteg har aktivistiska uttryck blivit allt vanligare på plattformar för sociala medier. Särskilt mottagliga för sådana uttryck är millenniegenerationen, från engelskans ’milliennials’, vars liv till stor del genomsyras av medieteknik. Denna studie har för avsikt att utforska hur den sociala plattformen Facebook påverkar motivationen för individer tillhörande millenniegenerationen att engagera sig i konkreta prosociala beteenden som har som syfte att gynna andra människor eller samhället som helhet. Genom kombinerade kvalitativa och kvantitativa forskningsmetoder utforskades deltagarnas attityder gentemot Facebook som en plattform för aktivism, och dess inverkan på prosocialt motiverande aspekter. Resultaten visade att tidigare vana av engagemang samt kostnaden av den välgörande handlingen påverkades av Facebook-interaktion. Närmare bestämt, högre nivåer av tidigare engagemang samt engagemang i kostsamma, prosocial handlingar bidrog till en ökad motivation till fortsatt engagemang i sådana handlingar. Vidare påvisades sociala och samtida aspekter spela en viktig roll för deltagarnas motiatt engagera sig i kostsamma och konkreta prosociala handlingar.

Millennials are the world's digital natives and its largest generation. A general perception of this generation is that they lack engagement in social-political issues. This study explores how Millennials are engaging in social media activism and whether online activism is driving offline activism behaviors. A quantitative survey of 306 participants was conducted to learn more about the gratifications Millennials obtain through social media and whether associations exist between their online and offline activism behaviors. The results showed that Millennials engage in online activism behaviors to a greater extent than offline activism behaviors. Millennials primarily gratify intrinsic needs for interaction and belonging by engaging in social media activism behaviors. So-called “slacktivism” behaviors were most common among Millennials engaging in online activism. Similarly, online activism behaviors that require greater investment from Millennials were a good predictor of activism behaviors that occur offline. Results also demonstrate that, at an individual identification level, Millennials self-perceptions as activists predicted engagement in both online and offline activism.

This qualitative research aims to understand better how the multi-dimensional autonomy facilitated by social media activism influenced the dynamics of the Arab Spring, with a particular focus on the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Based on semi-structured interviews with earlier Egyptian activists, social media significantly provided individuals with platforms to express their opinions more freely, engage in dialogue, and foster a sense of solidarity and empowerment, which enhanced their feeling of autonomy. Moreover, social media provided safe spaces and fostered a sense of unity and collective strength among activists. On the other side, activists faced challenges related to misinformation and censorship, which has affected interviewees’ individual autonomy negatively. This research also highlights the concept of liberty as non-domination and the need for individuals to be free from arbitrary control or interference by others, allowing them to act autonomously. Based on the interviews, the activists faced various forms of domination and control, such as government surveillance and harassment, which limited the extent to which social media could provide a platform for liberty as non-domination. However, the activists demonstrated resilience and adaptability in these challenges.

No description available.