ECAS 2013

This paper makes an overview of various approaches to the study of the popular in media and communication, with a particular emphasis on African contexts. The focus then moves to a critical examination of certain aspects of dynamics of the popular in social media in contemporary Africa. Examining social networking sites and popular news sites, the author examines challenges to political power and how the dynamics of social media tie in with the dynamics of the popular. While a number of contemporary studies tend to concentrate on the conventionally political or democracy-enhancing side of the continuum, this paper aims to re-approach the popular with a view to studying the role of popular pleasures in the political significance of social media.

Before the close of 2011, Kenya launched its own local version of a 'war on terror' following persistent border incursions by the al-Qaida affiliated al-Shabaab militant group. In a conflict that was seen by many to be fought largely through modern military hardware, the emergence and effective use of social media as yet another site of this warfare reflected the growing influence of new media in mobilizing, debating and circulating issues of public interest. Specifically, this paper reveals the particular frames that were used in Twitter to keep members of the public informed on the front line developments of the military campaign. Secondly, the study shows how the entrance of al-Shabaab into Twitter disrupted the hegemonic voice of a war previously dominated by the more 'legitimate' KDF Twitter account (Kenya Defense Force). And finally, in a situation where Twitter discourse was perceived and defined by the KDF as the official account of the war, this paper shows how the new and the old media converged in news reports drawn from Kenya's leading newspapers.

Key words: Twitter, Frames, Mainstream/Traditional Media, New Media, Convergence

The liberalization of public sphere those last two decades due to the resurgence of liberal democracy are two marking facts of the recent political history of Burkina Faso.

This pluralism of public space has opened up some space for political debate in the public sphere. This pluralism at work defines the rules for political struggles, new stakes and some strategies for the struggle to gain political power. In fact, in this political game, accessing information has become a major element and also a political challenge in this struggle. The production and circulation of information reveal the modes of functioning of the political space through the explanation of political meanings and an agreement on the symbols. The advent of new information technologies has also brought new types of communication like social media such as: Facebook, Twitter, Networking, etc. The appropriation of these novel tools of communication by politically engaged actors and by those who fight to gain political power features more and more prominently in the Burkinabe public sphere.

Taking into account this aspect, the paper focuses on the condition under which these social media have emerged as a means of political engagement in Burkina Faso through the role of these media in the social movement and in the struggle to gain political power. Finally I shed light on the impact of the utilization of those media on the burkinabe political game.