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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | African Media, Information Providers and Emigrants as Collaborative Nodes in Virtual Social Networks |
Author: | Olorunnisola, Anthony A. |
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. |