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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:African Media, Information Providers and Emigrants as Collaborative Nodes in Virtual Social Networks
Author:Olorunnisola, Anthony A.ISNI
Year:2000
Periodical:African Sociological Review (ISSN 1027-4332)
Volume:4
Issue:2
Pages:46-71
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:Internet
diasporas
information technology
Literature, Mass Media and the Press
Development and Technology
science and technology
social networks
media
Emigration and immigration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/24487391
Abstract:This paper proposes that the Internet offers African media and information providers the opportunity to elevate their current engagement to that of 'content providers' to African emigrants in the diaspora. The paper finds evidence in the intercultural adjustment and social networks literature to support the feasibility of such an interaction. A composite profile of African emigrants in the diaspora - predominantly educated elites - allows the discussion of ways in which they represent 'virtual' communities whose on and off-line discourses can be enriched by African content providers' participation. The problems accounting for the current status of African media content providers on the Internet include African governments' refusal to invest in the development of the requisite infrastructure, the near absence of a mass audience on the continent and the consequent lackadaisical commitment to bolder Internet presence on the part of African content providers, and the continuing underestimation of the posture of African emigrants on the Internet. The proposed engagement finds African content providers and emigrants interacting as active nodes in computer-mediated social networks.The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this prototypical presence of African content providers on the Internet for policy and research. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum.
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