From platform jumping to self-censorship: internet freedom,social media,and circumvention practices in Zambia |
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| Authors: | Lisa Parks Rahul Mukherjee |
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| Institution: | 1. Film &2. Media Studies, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, USA;3. Department of English, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA |
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| Abstract: | This article describes the complex media environment of urban Zambia based on qualitative interviews with 42 active ICT and social media users in Lusaka. After a contextual discussion of media censorship and Internet freedom, the article draws upon interview data to delineate four circumvention practices: (1) platform jumping; (2) anonymity; (3) self-censorship; and (4) negotiation of legal challenges. Rather than approach circumvention as a set of techniques disseminated from the information capitals of the world to those in the “global south,” this study approaches it as a set of cultural practices that emerges within particular sociohistorical conditions and platforms of communication. |
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| Keywords: | social media Zambia journalism censorship Internet freedom |
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