Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Africa could lead the way in precision medicine
  • Wall-to-Wall Creation
  • Covid grant should be increased to at least R413, say civil society groups
  • National shutdown goes off peacefully in Makhanda
  • A bond forged by mentoring
  • Ibe yimpumelelo itumente yolutsha eQhorha
  • A good financial planner is indispensable
  • Exciting encounters in LFA Premier League weekend games
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»Uncategorized»Facebook thrives where newspapers don’t
Uncategorized

Facebook thrives where newspapers don’t

Grocott's MailBy Grocott's MailSeptember 3, 2009No Comments3 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

"Kiss before you open" were the words sometimes found on letters written 10 years ago in Zimbabwe, says Admire Mare, who is working on a thesis entitled "Facebooking, Reclaiming or Reinventing the Public Sphere: The case of Zimbabweans living in the Diaspora."

"Kiss before you open" were the words sometimes found on letters written 10 years ago in Zimbabwe, says Admire Mare, who is working on a thesis entitled "Facebooking, Reclaiming or Reinventing the Public Sphere: The case of Zimbabweans living in the Diaspora."

Recent technological advances have meant that snail mail is quickly giving way to faster ways of communication such as email, Facebook, Twitter and the like, and this fact forms the basis of Mare’s thesis, which he presented at Randall House on Wednesday evening at the first of a series of seminars organised by students at the Faculty of Humanities.

Mare’s thesis focuses on Zimbabwean people that live outside of their country but are still able to engage in political debates relating to their country with other Zimbabweans, despite their location, through the use of Facebook. Mare says that Facebook plays a very important role in allowing the people of Zimbabwe to engage in information exchange and comment on the political situation without fear of intimidation.This is important for the political situation in the country because as Mare notes, "News is like fish, it goes bad quickly." But in a crisis situation such as in Zimbabwe, alternative media can be used to "resist state propaganda churned out through the mainstream media".

Mare says that Facebook allows Zimbabwean people to become ‘citizen journalists’. One respondent to his research said: "Facebook is a one stop-shop for my favourite newspapers”. Mare adds that Facebook is especially popular for exactly this because it is a "deprofessionalised, decapitalised and deinstitutionalised" environment for newsgathering and dissemination. He notes that unlike traditional journalism in Zimbabwe at the moment, citizen journalism on Facebook "thrives on gossip, critical social commentary and mockery of those in authority".

Facebook seems to provide the kind of news that the Zimbabwean people in Mare’s research seem to trust more than the news produced in mainstream, propaganda-ridden Zimbabwean media. Prof Chris de Wet from Rhodes’ Department of Anthropology asked Mare during the feedback session whether the fact that Facebook is so many things detracts from it’s potential to stimulate political activism. Mare acknowledged that although Zimbabwean people such as the ones that feature in his research are able to comment on policy, this has not led to any policy changes as yet.

Previous ArticleFire scare at Carlton Centre
Next Article Rhodes dominate NMMU archery champs
Grocott's Mail

Comments are closed.

Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Humans of Makhanda

Humans of Makhanda

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2023 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.