Technology Integration And Transformation Of Elections In Africa

Technology Integration and Transformation of Elections in Africa serves as a standard textbook and a reference guide to students in both undergraduate and graduate programs in tertiary institutions where elaborate discourse on the impact of technology to political elections and advancements across the continental Africa have continued to gain weight. The rationale in publishing this textbook far more outweighs its timeliness but speaks highly of its significance because it deals with technology integration and transformation of elections in Africa, a region whose elections has been continuously marred by corruption and incessant fraudulent activities perpetrated by both the citizens, various political parties and the umpires whose responsibilities were to present a credible election. Elections in Africa draws international attention and the news is seldom good. For instance, the elections in Kenya, fueled violence that left 1,500 dead and 300,000 displaced, while elections in Zimbabwe suffered from massive fraud and brutal suppression. In Nigeria in 1999, and 2011, the result of the elections were in shambles and some of the parties that lost the election took to the street resulting in the death of significant percentage of innocent people.

This book looks at how digital technologies are revolutionizing electoral campaigns and democratization struggles in Africa. Digital technologies are giving voice and civic agency to a cross section of African voters, providing important spaces for political engagement and debate. Drawing on cases from Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe amongst others, this book traces the shifts and tensions in this changing electoral communications landscape. In doing so, the book explores themes such as hate speech and disinformation, decolonisation, surveillance, internet shutdowns, influencers, bots, algorithms, and election observation, and looks beyond Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and YouTube to the increasingly important role of visual platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Particularly highlighting the contribution of African scholars, this book is an important guide for researchers across the fields of African politics, media studies, and electoral studies, as well as to professionals and policymakers in political communication.

Media and Technology in Emerging African Democracies is a standard text that will give students an opportunity to familiarize themselves with some of the best literature in media technology impact in emerging African democracies with relevant concentration on information and communication technology (ICT). This textbook is a collection of essays that may be used as primary reading for courses on mass media technology, and information communication technology (ICT). It is also suitable as supplementary reading in media and politics, political science and courses that focus on political communication, and business communication. The book serves as a reference guide to mass media scholars, development communication experts, government leaders, and diplomats interested in media review, most importantly as it pertains to African democratic dispensations. The book includes contributions by scholars whose research interests in media and its relevant impact on African democratic system have stirred considerable academic discourse. The chapters span several social science disciplines, giving students, professionals, and government agencies an opportunity to see challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Elections have always been an integral part of post-independence African politics and have assumed utmost importance in the course of recent democratisation processes. However, comparative research on the political development in Africa lacks reliable electoral data. Elections in Africa fills this cap. The handbook is the only reliable source for African elections from independence to present.In the first volume of this series, Elections in Africa presents a country-by-country study of African nations that provides a comparative introduction on elections and electoral systems. Each country chapter examines the history of the institutional and electoral arrangements, the evolution of suffrage and current electoral provisions. Precise and exhaustive data on national elections and referendums are presented comparatively. The book provides a definitive and comprehensive set ofdata on elections and electoral systems in order to facilitate comparative research. Data is presented in a systematic manner allowing for both historical and cross-national comparisons.

This book brings together fresh evidence and new theoretical frameworks in a unique analysis of the increasing role of social media in political campaigns and electoral processes across Africa. Supported by contemporary and historical cases studies, it engages with the main drives behind the various appropriations of social media for election campaigns, organization, and voter mobilization. Contributors in this volume delve into changing and complex aspects of social media, offering an appraisal of theoretical perspectives and examining fascinating case studies which social media use is redefining elections across Africa. Contributions show that new media ecologies are resulting in new policy regimes, user behaviors, and communication models that have implications for electoral processes. The book also provides preliminary analysis of emerging forms of algorithm-driven campaigns, fake news, information distortions and other methods that undermine electoral democracy in Africa.

"This book explores issues at the intersection of communication and African electoral politics, taking Ghana's 2020 general election as a focus of investigation. This interdisciplinary volume redresses gaps in the literature by highlighting the relevance of language and communication to electoral politics in Sub-Saharan Africa in the period of a global pandemic. The collection accounts for local influences on election discourse and illustrates how the specific context within which such discourse is enacted informs the linguistic, multimodal and technological choices of sociopolitical actors. The non-Western perspective it adopts extends work on political communication in a context underexplored in the literature and contributes to ongoing critical conversations on the decolonial and postcolonial aspects of communication studies. Drawing on a variety of data, including political speeches, political cartoons, election campaigns and social media posts, the volume not only addresses the dearth of scholarly work on African political communication, but also demonstrates the complexity of such scholarship and its importance to a comprehensive understanding of contemporary research on language and politics. This book enriches academic and public discussions on the future of democracy across the globe from a linguistic or communication perspective, expands scholarly work on African rhetoric and underscores the importance of engaging with diverse knowledge systems, especially non-Western epistemologies."--

Revisiting the Study of Governance / Göran Hyden -- Democratisation in Africa : Achievements and Agenda / Mamoudou Gazibo -- The Expansion of Judicial Power in Africa and Democratic Consolidation : Opportunities, Challenges and Future Prospects / Charles M. Fombad -- Constitution-Making in Anglophone Africa : We the People? / Coel Kirkby and Christina Murray -- Measuring the Persuasive Effects of Electoral Campaigns in Africa / Jeffrey Conroy-Krutz -- Subnational Elections and Accountability : A Study of Political Decentralization and Democratic Governance / Rachel Beatty Riedl and J. Tyler Dickovick -- Slippery Citizenship : Nationalism, Democracy and the State in Africa / Jennifer Riggan -- Federal Developments and Accountable Government Structures in East Africa / Jan Amilcar Schmidt -- Hereditary Rule in Democratic Africa : Reconciling Citizens and Chiefs / Kate Baldwin -- Critical Reflections on Social Accountability and Local Government in Ghana / Cyril K. Daddieh -- "Emerging" Africa : Long-term Perspectives on Growth and Democracy / Antoinette Handley -- A Legal Framework for Combating Corruption : Case Study from Zambia / Muna Ndulo -- Two-and-a-Half Cheers for Democracy in Africa / Nicolas van de Walle.