- Title
- Conversations, turn-taking, and dialogue: an analysis of the political deliberations of Zimbabwean citizens on the @263Chat Twitter handle
- Creator
- Ncube, Meli Mthabisi
- ThesisAdvisor
- Malila, Vanessa
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MA
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/4510
- Identifier
- vital:20684
- Description
- The micro-blogging site Twitter, and the social networking site Facebook, are playing a key role in facilitating active political expression in the form of demonstrations against high rates of unemployment, poverty, rampant government repression and corruption. Twitter use in Zimbabwe is very vibrant and it even has its own name, ‘Zwitter.’ Zimbabwe has a closed legacy news media which are highly restricted, and most of the major news outlets are controlled by the state. Another limiting factor to any meaningful practice of deliberative democracy through the media and town hall debates is the intolerance of the ruling party ZANU-PF in dealing with dissenting voices. Thus in Zimbabwean politics, it can be argued that the internet has liberated political debates that have been suppressed and digital media is central to political and social deliberation. This study examines whether there are conversations, turn-taking, and dialogues-all features of deliberations- on the @263Chat Twitter platform which is used as a case study. Qualitative content analysis and interviewing were used to collect the data. The preliminary results of the research show that citizen-led engagements, which are facilitated by @263Chat, have brought to the fore the covert potential of social media platforms to drive political participation and deliberation.
- Format
- 104 leaves, pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Faculty of Humanities, Journalism and Media Studies
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Ncube, Meli Mthabisi
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