New media practices in a changing Africa

The research project starts from two empirical facts; (i) Africa has experienced a relatively consistent economic growth, suggesting that broader social transformations are unfolding; and (ii) the continent is in the middle of a media revolution. They are undoubtedly connected but to this day, there is very little knowledge as to how. Thus, the primary objective of the project is to investigate to what extent and in what ways processes of change in sub-Saharan Africa are affected by new media. Secondary objectives are (i) to investigate how media practices are linked to people's everyday life; (ii) to study how media uses are linked to gender relations, as well as economic, political and cultural concerns; (iii) to study how mobility and flows are connected to, and affected by, new media; and (iv) to use diachronic data to explain change as particular processes and to link them to wider social forces in order to develop mechanism-based explanations of social change. The project has aimed at generalizable knowledge: Two sites in Botswana represent the major case while field sites in South Africa, DR Congo and Zambia serve as supplementary cases. This shall provide the basis for systematic comparisons along several lines; between urban and rural settings, different socio-economic and social environments, and - as all sites have been studied by the researcher previously - over time, as change. The project represents bold and novel ambitions by: (i) producing new, groundbreaking knowledge on an extremely important social development; (ii) develop an advanced methodological tool-kit, based on triangulation, comparison and researcher-cooperation, which can serve as a master study that others can build on; and (iii) generate new theoretical perspectives based on radical practice theory. Results: All planned fieldwork and other data gathering has been carried through, and a solid amount of publications has been delivered. The PI spent the academic year 2016/2017 at Harvard (at Department of African and African American Studies) as a Visiting Professor. The project's post doc spent fall semester 2017 at the same institution as a Visiting Scholar. With one exception (see below), the objectives have been reached. In terms of substantial academic findings, we conclude that there are important causal links between the ICT revolution and socio-economic development in the countries studied (see Helle-Valle 2019) but that the nature of these links vary according to how these mechanisms are affected by various other local and regional social mechanisms. Thus, the project has gained insight into the relationship between ICT and socio-economic development in Africa but in a manner that demonstrate that general laws cannot be applied. Rather, it requires meticulous, triangulated methodologies, including ethnographic methods, with focus on people's everyday media practices. The project's various comparative approaches have strongly added to these insights. Both novel theoretical perspectives and innovative methodologies have been generated from this work (see project anthology). 15 journal articles, 17 book chapters and 4 books (either already published or to be published in 2020) have emanated from the project (see attached list of publications). In addition, the project's researchers have been exceptionally active on the conference front. During the reporting period, they have participated and presented ca. 50 papers in conferences and seminars. Furthermore, the project have launched two innovative, high-quality web pages: the project's homepage (www.mediafrica.no) and a village homepage in the principal Botswana study site (www.letlhakeng.com). These are active, and will continue to be active in the years to come. The former by continuing to publish on the theme, as well as being used as a platform for a web survey, while the latter is a villager-driven web page that was developed by the PI, project researcher Ardis Storm-Mathisen and the web designer Niels Theissen. The web page is used actively by villagers and have been heartedly endorsed by both various key actors in the village as well as ordinary villagers. One of the main tasks of the project was not realized: the project's end conference. It was going to include speakers from Harvard, LSE and University of Cape Town. This would provide the project researchers with a high-profile arena to broadcast the project and its findings and simultaneously be an event to launch the project anthology (see publication list). The project's Advisory Board would play an active role as constructive commenters on the project's findings. Also, the conference was going to be streamed live through our homepage. If realised, it would have represented something new and innovative. The conference did not see the light of day due to mismanagement by the economy section in the LUI faculty at OsloMet.

Apart from being a foundation for further research collaboration, there is one which should be highlighted: the PI and project researcher Ardis Storm-Mathisen, together with web designer Niels Theissen, designed the web page www.letlhakeng.com in 2018 for the village in which the bulk of data gathering for the Botswana part of the project took place. This is a home page for the village and by villagers. Theissen constructed the web page, a handful of locals were trained to run it, and it has since then been filled with information about local public and commercial services and institutions, on local political issues, various information relevant to the villagers themselves and those who plan to visit, as well as serving as an information and communication hub among locals. The page is extremely popular, used by locals for various purposes. It is hoped it can represent a new and innovative type of social impact, benefiting ordinary people who have been subject to/ involved in research.

This multi-disciplinary project, involving 8 researchers from 5 countries, starts from two empirical facts; Africa has experienced a relatively consistent economic growth, suggesting that broader social transformations are unfolding; and that the continent is in the middle of a media revolution. The main research question is: to what extent and in what ways are processes of change in sub-Saharan Africa affected by new media? The novelty of the current social situation implies a lack of solid knowledge about the media-related changes. The research is based on two analytical pillars; it is practice-oriented and comparative. Media's social significance requires it to be linked to people's everyday concerns and while change is seen as processual and shall be explained by way of social mechanisms, The project's strategy is to base research on triangulated methodology aiming to gain ethnographic insights into how media is linked to social practice. However, as the project aims at generalizable knowledge, the design is a 'slanted comparison': Two sites in Botswana represents the major case while field sites in South Africa, DR Congo and Zambia serve as supplementary cases. This shall provide the basis for systematic comparisons along several lines; between urban and rural settings, different socio-economic and social environments, and - as all sites have been studied by the researcher previously - over time, as change. The project represents bold and novel ambitions by: (i) producing new, groundbreaking knowledge on an extremely important development; (ii) develop an advanced methodological tool-kit, based on triangulation, comparison and researcher-cooperation, which can serve as a master study that others can build on; and (iii) generate new theoretical perspectives based on radical practice theory.