The Rise of Social Media in Africa

Computer science and engineering, 2013

Though the Internet has been around for quite a few decades, the continent of Africa had indisputably lagged behind the rest of the world rather abysmally in the past due to very poor infrastructural development. However, today the tottering continent of Africa is making a gradual climb onto the information superhighway which has reduced our world to a global village courtesy the World Wide Web (WWW). But the question arises as to how Africa can sustain and improve upon the current growth statistics so as to keep pace with the rest of the world where the nu mber of Internet users (netizens) keep rising at a far rapid pace with each passing day. The days are long gone when one had to always rely on snail mail, for instance, for purposes of communicat ing with friends and family both far and near since e-mail has now almost wholly taken over the duties of snail mail much as regular person to person communications are concerned. This paper talks about Internet statistics in Africa and proffers suggestions as to the remedial measures that need to be taken for imp rovement. It also talks about how the upsurge in mobile phone usage in Africa has brought the Internet to the doorsteps of the average African.

ECMS 25th Conference on Modelling and Simulation, 2011

2012

CIMA is pleased to release its latest report, Bigger Cities, Smaller Screens: Urbanization, Mobile Phones, and Digital Media Trends in Africa, by veteran journalism educator and media executive Adam Clayton Powell III. The convergence of African urbanization and technological change, including the rise of digital media, is driving major change on the continent. Perhaps most dramatic, cellphones and other mobile devices, already widespread, are becoming a nearly universal platform, not only for telephony but also for audio and video information and entertainment. This offers a fundamentally different “media” experience and has already led to an entirely new and largely unrecognized class of independent media–some newly created channels for international broadcasters–serving the African continent. This report traces the dramatic spread of mobile telephony in Africa and examines how this is affecting the news media landscape on the continent.

2009

Mobile phones have long surpassed traditional landlines as the most common voice communication technology – particularly due to the marked growth in new mobile phone users in most so-called developing countries (Feldmann, 2003). In South Africa, a country still trying to escape its legacy of dramatic racial inequalities, mobiles have enjoyed spectacular growth over the past decade, with more than 60% of all South Africans above the age of 16 already owning a phone themselves (Research ICT Africa [RIA], 2009; All Media and Product Survey [AMPS], 2008). This rapid growth – up from just 18% in 2000 (International Telecommunications Union [ITU], 2001) – is at least partly due to the immense popularity of prepaid subscriptions and low-cost phones (Hodge, 2005; Esselaar & Stork, 2005), which have made it possible even for many of the country’s youth (most of whom remain in stark poverty) to own or use a phone themselves. But this growth extended beyond the number of young people texting o...

2013

ABSTRACT Facebook use is pervasive in developed countries where computers, smartphones, high-bandwidth Internet, and electricity are ubiquitous. In this paper, we examine Facebook use in a country where social media participation is growing, but less developed technological infrastructures and uneven access to technology limit use. We conducted observations and 24 interviews at Internet caf��s in rural Kenya.

Emerald Group Publishing Limited - info, 2013

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse internet access and use trends in 11 African countries based on household and individual ICT survey data. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses nationally representative data for households and individuals in residential and semi-residential areas, as defined by national census sample frames for 11 African countries. Findings – While the 2007/2008 African ICT access and use survey demonstrated alarmingly little access to the internet on the continent, together with a large-scale absence of computers and smart phones, compounded by the high cost of connectivity, the mobile phone is now the key entry point for internet use. Internet access has increased significantly across all countries, as a result increasing internet penetration to 15.5 per cent across the 11 African countries surveyed by Research ICT Africa in 2011/2012. Mobile internet requires fewer ICT skills, less financial resources and does not rely on electricity at home, compared to computers or laptops. Other findings highlight the unevenness of internet take-up across and within countries. Thus, while the majority of the countries under investigation demonstrate increased mobile internet take-up, in Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, internet use remains negligible. In those countries where mobile internet is boosting connectivity, this is being driven by social networking applications. Practical implications – The policy implications of the shift in significant numbers from negligible internet access at public access points serviced primarily by fixed access lines to mobile internet access are significant. Just as traditional reform strategies of increasing competition in the market increased access to voice services more successfully than traditional universal service strategies, mobile again appears to be addressing the internet gap. Competition in mobile markets appears to address the efficiency gap in the market, resulting in an increase in the choice of services and a reduction in prices. Strategies that seek to aggregate users at public access points, funded by complex levies and subsidies again seem to have been overtaken by the increasing availability of mobile internet access, as feature phones and smart phone become more available to individual users. Social implications – Understanding prepaid mobile internet further provides a pro-poor dimension to public policies seeking to improve internet access, which historically has been available and affordable to the elite. The rest of the society had to rely on public access points, whether private internet cafés or schools and libraries. Originality/value – This paper uses primary data that allow a better understanding of internet access and use in Africa. It provides policymakers and regulators with the evidence required for an informed ICT policy and regulation.

Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 2007

This study identifies the significant factors affecting Internet growth levels at an early stage of growth in African nations. The average growth levels of Internet users for 1995 and 2003 are calculated and the associations between Internet growth level and several types of factors such as economic, educational, institutional, infrastructural, innovation-related, and environmental factors are examined. Human development, higher education, technology availability, and computer growth levels explain more than 84 percent of the variance in African Internet growth levels. When compared to non-African nations, Africa lacks the influence of institutional variables. Compared with a set of economically similar developing nations (based on similar GDP per capita and income inequality levels), Africa has different Internet growth levels, even though the number of Internet hosts per 1,000 and delays in starting Internet diffusion are similar. These differences are probably due to lack of education, human development, infrastructural and environmental variables.

The information superhighway pinnacled as the internet has significantly altered many aspects of life especially in the areas of banking, commerce, work and employment, transportation, entertainment, community life, family life, human relationships, education, freedom, democracy, and many more. The Internet Technologies provide communication tools and services, with distinct characteristics and communication capabilities that allow individuals and organizations to use them either independently or jointly, to achieve multiple communication goals. While the internet technology continues to develop as an important aspect of Ghanaian life, it becomes increasingly important to understand the behaviors of internet users in order to effectively market to its target audience. The objective of this study is to review the adoption and penetration of internet usage in Ghana and evaluate the current internet usage by various working folks in the country. The study shows that 45.6% use internet ...