A5031368531- ICT in Developing Communities
- Social Media and Politics
- ICT Impact and Policies
- Gender, Feminism, and Media
- Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
- Cultural Industries and Urban Development
- Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development
- Music History and Culture
- Digital Games and Media
- Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Media Studies and Communication
- Children's Rights and Participation
- Online Learning and Analytics
- Digital Economy and Work Transformation
- Migration, Identity, and Health
- Cinema and Media Studies
- Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
- Migration and Exile Studies
- Digital Storytelling and Education
- Migration, Racism, and Human Rights
- Radio, Podcasts, and Digital Media
- Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection
- Child Development and Digital Technology
- Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies
- Literacy, Media, and Education
Rhodes University
2013-2025
This introductory essay argues for a decolonial approach that privileges qualitative methods in ways position African digital experiences as "epistemic sites" of knowledge production their own right media scholarship. In proffering this argument, we challenge and confront elements the global system, which are driven by an implicit "civilising mission" intellectual approaches drawn from West seen sacrosanct, while concepts emerging Global South deemed to have lower ontological density...
South Africans enjoy increasing access to digital connectivity. But little is known about the roles that mobile phones play in everyday lives of young who live marginalized spaces. Responding this gap literature, we conducted research with a naturally occurring group sixteen adults, between ages 18 and 34, living an under-resourced Eastern Cape township. Using diary method, asked these people how they use their mobiles as part sociality support well-being. The article (1) reflects on...
This article examines how hip hop heads in marginalized, Black, low-income neighbourhoods a town South Africa make use of ‘grey’ pirate internet infrastructure from the Global to create distribution platforms for their music. In this ethnographic study, Makhanda, who cannot afford bandwidth graphic-intensive sites such as ReverbNation or SoundCloud, come up with innovative ways hack and extend limitations own low-bandwidth infrastructure. To do so they not only move media offline onto...
The 2023 release of ChatGPT (GPT4) has resulted in many conversations and moral panics about the use Artificial Intelligence-powered tools teaching learning. Some scholars argue that rather than banning like ChatGPT, we must think its potential to revolutionize education by serving as a powerful classroom aid, media literacy, generating personalised lesson plans, saving teachers time, students how them responsibly. However, there is growing concern academics educators will need change...
Abstract Hip hop artists are early adopters of digital media in the township areas Grahamstown. This article describes emergence particular ecologies that depend on a do-it-yourself ethic where young people always ‘hustling’ to get hold data bundles, software and computer parts, assembling them novel ways. mobile-first generation increasingly adopting desktop laptop computers supplement their production, could provide insights into evolution low-income practices transition from mobile-only...
This article introduces our mobile diary method, a qualitative method for the study of phone practices. Adapted from methods psychology and media studies audience research, it is designed to foreground tacit mundane data about everyday The interview reconstructs details social practices life that make up each participant's "yesterday" situates within this account. To illustrate we provide examples study, Izolo, spanned three distinct South African neighbourhoods in different parts country...
Abstract This qualitative study uses the domestication model to describe how a geographically based gossip mobile website, Outoilet (old toilet), helped shape meanings of everyday life for young adults in Hooggenoeg, poor black low-income urban settlement Grahamstown, South Africa. All residents here know one another and there is very little privacy, phone, during period this research, reinforced lack privacy through gossip. Such promoted an inward-looking collective sociability. As article...
This paper describes digital distribution strategies of hip-hop artists from the black townships in a town South Africa. It relates examples author's documentary film, Digital Hip-Hop Headz, to scholarly discourse. Hip-hop create MP3 recordings using secondhand computers and basic microphones. They distribute these through various offline online platforms. Due constraints mobile data costs, they avoid mainstream web 2.0 Instead, their media files on marginal 'grey' platforms such as...
This article explores TikTok users' responses to a racist incident at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. We analyse the content strategies of TikToks that received most engagement as well timeline how framing event shifted over time. consider space for youth reflect on everyday politics in highly personalized ways and develop their voice visibility through particular strategies. firstly argue African frame local political acts within global frameworks link own realities algorithmically...
This qualitative study examines the role of mobile phone in negotiating day-to-dayexperience social immobility for young users a low-income area small town SouthAfrica. What does become when one is not part globalised elite,but poor, unemployed and living on margins society global south? While researchon phones developed countries suggest these devices facilitate creation asociety free from confines local geography community, where user can craft anindividualised networked sociability, this...