Invisibility 2.0? Young people's political participation and South African social mediaMarion Walton @marionwaltonUniversity of Cape Town

Voice and Visibility

Pavement radio

One person one tweet?

Rich get richer?

SA’s ‘massive rebellion of the poor’?

S ‘Dissatisfied’2.9 unrest incidents/daySA police crowd control data on ‘service delivery’ protests in SA

S ‘Who is telling these stories?

Who speaks?Who gets heard?These are very

different questions.

print media broadcast media citizen media online-only news0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

51%

27%

11% 11%

Type of publisherTweets with links to images (N=45)

Print media journalists generated the defining images – protesters/mayhem vs police/order

Who speaks?

Who’s not on Twitter?

Mxit Facebook Twitter0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

29

22

6

Platform by population %

World Wide Worx, 2011

Poorest pay most

• This is the biggest question about social media

Who gets heard?

Hardly anyone!

<2 retweets or mentions

Hardly anyone gets heard

Power law of online participation

Reading m-novel

Participation in tutoring

Ensuring grassroots participation• Can a network like DOT help to equalise

participation?• Huge potential to extend and amplify

‘pavement radio’• Extremely limited grassroots use of

social media, esp Twitter• Even when people do have access, their

contribution tends to disappear• Bridge the gaps between cheap

messaging and mainstream media

Thank you!@marionwalton