{"id":839167,"date":"2022-04-25T19:10:29","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T02:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-research-item&#038;p=839167"},"modified":"2024-04-03T10:32:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T17:32:48","slug":"social-media-and-elections-in-africa-a-blessing-or-a-curse","status":"publish","type":"msr-video","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/video\/social-media-and-elections-in-africa-a-blessing-or-a-curse\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media and Elections in Africa: A blessing or a curse?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How are social media and digital technology shaping elections? This question is more important than ever, as an increasing number of countries \u2013 from Brazil to India to Nigeria &#8211; are said to have their &#8220;first WhatsApp&#8221; election. Yet relatively few studies have actually looked in-depth at the impact of social media and WhatsApp on the political landscape\u2014even in Africa, where it is the dominant messaging platform. In this talk Professor Cheeseman will combine a case study of Nigeria\u2019s 2019 elections with surveys and analysis from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, and Sierra Leone to show how social media are used by parties, candidates and voters. He will argue that WhatsApp is a disruptive technology that challenges existing hierarchies in ways that are simultaneously emancipatory and destructive, strengthening and undermining democratic consolidation at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button is-style-fill-download\"><a data-bi-type=\"button\" class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/uploads\/prod\/2022\/04\/Social-Media-and-Elections-in-Africa-A-curse-or-a-blessing.pdf\">Presentation slides<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How are social media and digital technology shaping elections? This question is more important than ever, as an increasing number of countries \u2013 from Brazil to India to Nigeria &#8211; are said to have their &#8220;first WhatsApp&#8221; election. Yet relatively few studies have actually looked in-depth at the impact of social media and WhatsApp on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":839170,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"research-area":[13556,13559],"msr-video-type":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-839167","msr-video","type-msr-video","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-research-area-artificial-intelligence","msr-research-area-social-sciences","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_download_urls":"","msr_external_url":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/f6TLTIE8n60","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_video_file":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-video\/839167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-video"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-video"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-video\/839167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1021956,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-video\/839167\/revisions\/1021956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=839167"},{"taxonomy":"msr-video-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-video-type?post=839167"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=839167"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=839167"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=839167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}