Mapping the Digital Divide in Africa

Bruce Mutsvairo is a Professor of Journalism at Auburn University, AL, USA. He has authored or edited 8 scholarly books including in 2019 alone: Mutsvairo B, Bebawi S and Borges-Rey, E (2019). Data Journalism in the Global South (Eds). Prefaced by Oscar Westlund, Ester Appelgren and Carl-Gustav Linden. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-25177-2 Mutsvairo, B and Muneri C. (2019). Journalism, Democracy and Human Rights in Zimbabwe. Prefaced by Tawana Kupe. Lenham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4985-9976-4 Mutsvairo B and Ragnedda M. (2019). Mapping the Digital Divide in Africa: A Mediated Analysis. Eds. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 9789462986855. Massimo Ragnedda is Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Northumbria. Prior to joining the University of Northumbria, he worked at the University of Sassari from 2006 to 2012. During this time, he worked as a lecturer and supervisor of research, published widely and delivered presentations in several countries. He holds a PhD from the University of Sassari in Italy.

"For many years ‘the digital divide’ has been a catchphrase, often with little analytical content. This book provides studies of how the concept can be understood within an African context. The different contributions address problems related to digital opportunities as well as inhibitions to growth; thus, it has implications for how to comprehend technological, political, economic, social, and cultural development in a wider world. Of particular importance is that the book provides a theoretical understanding as well as an account of the impact of different technologies such as mobile phones." - Helge Rønning, Professor, Department of Media and Communications, University of Oslo, Norway "You need to take a different perspective of both the digital divide and Africa to understand the complexity of social and digital inequality in Africa. The digital divide is different in every part of the world. Reading this book you will grasp the complexity of the social, cultural and political affairs of Africa that are reinforcing the digital divide. Surprisingly, while mobile telephony is booming here, ICTs are in fact only reinforcing existing social inequality." - Jan A.G.M. van Dijk, Professor, Department of Communication, University of Twente, the Netherlands "This is a timely and much-needed collection that fills an important gap in the literature. It offers excellent conceptual tools and a selection of case studies that provide a useful map of the digital divide across the African continent and between Africa and the rest of the world. I especially appreciate the editors’ efforts to address African issues on their own terms and to problematize interpretive paradigms from the global north. It is a book that many will look forward to reading. I will recommend it to my students." - Pier Paolo Frassinelli, Professor, School of Communication, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

• List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Section I: Foundations and Theory 1. Comprehending the digital disparities in Africa - Bruce Mutsvairo & Massimo Ragnedda 2. Conceptualizing the digital divide - Massimo Ragnedda 3. From Global to Local, Metropolitan to the village. A Case for definitional and context-oriented approach to examining the 'digital divide' - Tenford Chitanana 4. Technology and the democratic space in Africa: A re-examination of the notion of 'digital divide' - Muhammed Musa Section II: Social Inclusion and Digital Exclusion 5. The partially digital: Internet and South African youth -Toks Oyedemi 6. Online football fandom as a microcosm of the digital participation divide in Zimbabwe - Lyton Ncube 7. The discourse of digital inclusion of women in Rwanda's media: A thematic analysis of Imvaho Nshya and The New Times newspapers - Margaret Jjuuko and Joseph Njuguna Section III Cultural, Social and Economic Paradigms 8. The digital divide and film - Beschara Karam 9. Digital divide or information divide: Interrogating Telecommunication Penetration measurements in communal African Societies - Chika Anyanwu 10. Exploring how mobile phones mediate bonding, bridging and linking social capital in a South African rural area - Lorenzo Dalvit and Mbalenhle Buthelezi 11. Bridging the Digital Gap in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Analysis of Illiteracy and Language Divide - Steven Sam 12. Kenya's 'mobile agriculture' discourse: unpacking notions of technology, modernisation and development - Sara Brouwer Index