Probing the Interplay of Facebook and Offline Communication for Political Mobilization in Ethiopia: Activism and Social Movement

Solomon, Tabor

dc.contributor.author	Solomon, Tabor
dc.date.accessioned	2022-12-23T08:42:06Z
dc.date.available	2022-12-23T08:42:06Z
dc.date.issued	2022-08
dc.identifier.uri	http://ir.bdu.edu.et/handle/123456789/14730
dc.description.abstract	The prime purpose of this study has been to unveil the inter-relation between Facebook and offline communication to bring about political mobilization and social movement among the youth community in Ethiopia in 2016. The use of Facebook as a political forum of discussion in Ethiopia has steadily been increasing and its role as an organizing tool is mounting and overtime, its effect has sternly been felt. Since there has been an active social media political participation and vigorous social movements, Oromia, Amhara and Tigray regions were chosen for the study. Social movement and mobilization theories are among the theoretical frameworks used in the study. An explanatory research design is used in the study. In an effort towards generating pertinent and vital data to the study, in-depth interview, Focus Group Discussion and content analysis were used and the findings are analyzed thematically. The finding reveals that, oftentimes, the political discourses on Facebook are a replica of the actual political trend on the ground. The polarized/fractionalized politics on the ground is a source of dialogue starter and discourse initiator on Facebook. The outcome of the study attests that a wide arching politically sensitive issues had been posted on the influential ‗activists‘ FB pages that surely awaken and mobilized the youth to engage in an offline political action. And the offline political action had been tactfully used by ‗activists‘ as a catalyst to further mobilize the youth. Besides, the finding reveals that political information reaches to the masses via offline means. Thus, physical spaces such as cultural and religious settings in the rural areas and large public gathering venues in cities were the primary public spheres of political information dissemination. The finding also indicates that while many parts of Oromia and Amhara regions were quivered with violent and non – violent social movements against the EPRDF government, there had been quite insignificant political mobilization and movement in Tigray regional state. It is justified in the finding that the trivial social movement in Tigray was due to the fact that the social media in general and Facebook in particular had been almost in total control of the systemic, organized and pro-government group called the ‗Digital Weyane‘. Thus there had been a fierce digital duel between the opposition group i.e. the alliance of the Oromo and Amhara activists and elites groups called ‗Oromara‘ and the ‗Digital Weyane‘. On top of the political gains the Facebook platform has brought about as an instrument of awareness raising, organizing tool and alternative press, it has also caused huge problems in that it exacerbated hate speech, multiplied fake news, vi spread misinformation and disinformation that contributed for inter-ethnic conflicts. Hence, media literacy education shall be given to the youth to mitigate the irresponsible use of social media and double its significance.	en_US
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.subject	Journalism and Communication	en_US
dc.title	Probing the Interplay of Facebook and Offline Communication for Political Mobilization in Ethiopia: Activism and Social Movement	en_US
dc.type	Thesis	en_US