OPEN ACCESS
Journal of Media and Communication Studies
April-June 2020 ISSN: 2141-2545 DOI: 10.5897/JMCS www.academicjournals.org
About JMCS
The Journal of Media and Communication Studies (JMCS) is a peer reviewed open access journal. The journal is published quarterly and covers all areas of the subject.
Open Access Policy Open Access is a publication model that enables the dissemination of research articles to the global community without restriction through the internet. All articles published under open access can be accessed by anyone with internet connection.
The Journal of Media and Communication Studies is an Open Access journal. Abstracts and full texts of all articles published in this journal are freely accessible to everyone immediately after publication without any form of restriction.
Article License All articles published by Journal of Media and Communication Studies are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This permits anyone to copy, redistribute, remix, transmit and adapt the work provided the original work and source is appropriately cited. Citation should include the article DOI. The article license is displayed on the abstract page the following statement:
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 Please refer to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode for details about Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
Article Copyright When an article is published by in the Journal of Media and Communication Studies, the author(s) of the article retain the copyright of article. Author(s) may republish the article as part of a book or other materials. When reusing a published article, author(s) should; Cite the original source of the publication when reusing the article. i.e. cite that the article was originally published in the Journal of Media and Communication Studies. Include the article DOI Accept that the article remains published by the Journal of Media and Communication Studies (except in occasion of a retraction of the article)
The article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
A copyright statement is stated in the abstract page of each article. The following statement is an example of a copyright statement on an abstract page. Copyright ©2016 Author(s) retains the copyright of this article.
Self-Archiving Policy The Journal of Media and Communication Studies is a RoMEO green journal. This permits authors to archive any version of their article they find most suitable, including the published version on their institutional repository and any other suitable website. Please see http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/search.php?issn=1684-5315
Digital Archiving Policy The Journal of Media and Communication Studies is committed to the long-term preservation of its content. All articles published by the journal are preserved by Portico. In addition, the journal encourages authors to archive the published version of their articles on their institutional repositories and as well as other appropriate websites. https://www.portico.org/publishers/ajournals/
Metadata Harvesting The Journal of Media and Communication Studies encourages metadata harvesting of all its content. The journal fully supports and implements the OAI version 2.0, which comes in a standard XML format. See Harvesting Parameter
Memberships and Standards
Academic Journals strongly supports the Open Access initiative. Abstracts and full texts of all articles published by Academic Journals are freely accessible to everyone immediately after publication.
All articles published by Academic Journals are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This permits anyone to copy, redistribute, remix, transmit and adapt the work provided the original work and source is appropriately cited.
Crossref is an association of scholarly publishers that developed Digital Object Identification (DOI) system for the unique identification published materials. Academic Journals is a member of Crossref and uses the DOI system. All articles published by Academic Journals are issued DOI.
Similarity Check powered by iThenticate is an initiative started by CrossRef to help its members actively engage in efforts to prevent scholarly and professional plagiarism. Academic Journals is a member of Similarity Check.
CrossRef Cited-by Linking (formerly Forward Linking) is a service that allows you to discover how your publications are being cited and to incorporate that information into your online publication platform. Academic Journals is a member of CrossRef Cited-by.
Academic Journals is a member of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). The IDPF is the global trade and standards organization dedicated to the development and promotion of electronic publishing and content consumption.
COUNTER (Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources) is an international initiative serving librarians, publishers and intermediaries by setting standards that facilitate the recording and reporting of online usage statistics in a consistent, credible and compatible way. Academic Journals is a member of COUNTER
Portico is a digital preservation service provided by ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways.
Academic Journals is committed to the long-term preservation of its content and uses Portico
Academic Journals provides an OAI-PMH(Open Archives Initiatives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) interface for metadata harvesting.
Contact
Editorial Office: [email protected]
Help Desk: [email protected]
Website: https://academicjournals.org/journal/JMCS
Submit manuscript online http://ms.academicjournals.org
Academic Journals 73023 Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria ICEA Building, 17th Floor, Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi, Kenya
Editors Dr. Wole Olatokun Dr. I. Arul Aram Department of Library and Information Studies Department of Media Sciences University of Botswana, Anna University Chennai Private Bag, 0022, Gaborone Guindy Botswana. Chennai 600025
India. Dr. Emmanuel Ngwainmbi E-mail: [email protected] Mass Communication Division [email protected] United Nation, http://www.academicjournals.org/jmcs USA.
Dr. Nara Hiroko Takaki Dr. Zanetta Lyn Jansen Languages Department, UNISA Federal University of Mato Grosos do Sul, Department of Sociology Brazil. PO Box 392
Pretoria, Dr. Balakrishnan Parasuraman 0003 School of Social Sciences, RSA. Universiti Malaysia Sabah.
Malaysia.
Dr. Mozna H. I. Alazaiza Asia and Africa Department Bilateral Relations Sector Ministry of foreign Affairs Palestinian Authority Gaza city Palestine.
Editorial Board
Dr. Kanwar Dinesh Singh
Dr. Juan José Varela Government PG College, affiliated to HP
Fernando III El Santo 7-8th, University,
Santiago de Compostela 15706, Post Box # 5, G.P.O. SHIMLA:
Spain. 171001 HP India.
Dr. Amir El-Said Ebrahim Al-Azab Bossat Karim El-Deen-Sherbin-Mansoura. Dr. Ruzbeh Babaee Egypt. Department of English language and literature, University of Putra, Dr. Maya Khemlani David Malaysia. Faculty of Languages and Linguistics University of Malaya. Dr. Sindkhedkar 50603 Kuala Lumpur, P.S.G.V.P’s Mandal’s A.S.C College, Shahada Malaysia. 425409,
India.
Table of Content
Role of social media in Ethiopia's recent political transition 13 Adamu, Meseret Assefa
Vol. 12(2),pp. 13-22, April-June 2020 DOI: 10.5897/JMCS2020.0695 Article Number: 537183464277 ISSN: 2141-2545 Copyright © 2020 Journal of Media and Communication Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournlas.org/JMCS Studies
Full Length Research Paper
Role of social media in Ethiopia's recent political transition
Adamu, Meseret Assefa
Department of Information Science, Faculty of Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
Received 5 March, 2020; Accepted 17 June, 2020
This research aims to explore to what extent the popular social media positively and negatively affected Ethiopia's recent political transition. Further, the research focuses on how the social media played a role in leading to the overthrow of the state capture by the authoritarian and how they are playing role in the process since then. Qualitative research and analysis have been applied to depict the impact of social media on Ethiopia's recent political transition. The findings of this research have revealed that a large number of the literature as stated positive feedback about the role of social media on Ethiopia’s political transmission such as mobilizing people to stand against the overthrown government, support the reformist actions, expose illegal actions, criticizing all the dangerous movements and creating awareness among the community easily and promptly. Some of the literatures stated the negative impacts of social media networks such as spreading/disseminating fake news from fake accounts, rumors, individual opinions/feelings and ethnic-based information that leads the community to unrest, challenge the current political transition in Ethiopia. To control bad actors over the social media, the government should do many things beyond and aforementioned promulgating laws. Future researches also recommended on social media analytics aiming at collecting, storing, monitoring, analyzing, and summarizing politically relevant user-generated content from social media.
Key words: Social media, political transition, social media for politics, role of social media, Ethiopian politics, Ethiopia.
INTRODUCTION
In the 21st century, social media are said to have an According to the Oxford Dictionary (2012), the term impact on the public discourse and communication in the “Social Media” refers to websites and applications used society (Virgiano, 2011; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). In for social networking. Furthermore, social media is particular, social media are increasingly used (Mary, defined as forms of electronic communication, such as 2019). They are an integral part of our day to day websites through which people create online activities and used for online marketing, job portal, communication to share information, ideas, personal religious stages, academic platform, and social messages, etc. (whatis.com, 2019, Downes, 2005; discussion forums. Siemens, 2006). Social media contains several channels
E-mail: [email protected].
Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License 14 J. Media Commun. Stud.
(Urista et al., 2009) like audios/videos callings, blogging, Nigeria also had the first real test of social media use for communicating, texting, sharing contents all over the political participation during the 2011 General Elections world and so many characteristics (Boyd and Ellison, (Onyedikachi et al., 2017). 2007; Keith, 2016). Social media in the Arab world have also been More recently, popular social medias, such as increasingly used to inform, mobilize, and increase Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (Knight-McCord et al. awareness among people with regards to issues, such as 2016; Maisam, 2019) are believed to have the potential human rights, corruption and democracy. According to for increasing political participation (Surjit and Manpreet, the Sedra‟s Report to World Bank (2013), pro-democracy 2013; Ahmad, 2011). While Twitter is an ideal platform for movements and social media groups, such as Kefaya users to spread not only information in general but also (enough), "We are all Khaled Said", Shayfeencom (We‟re political opinions publicly through their networks, political Watching You) and other movement in Egypt have made institutions (e.g., politicians, political parties, political extensive use of blogs and social media (Sedra, 2013). foundations, etc.) have also begun to use Facebook Furthermore, new media (Social Media) helped pages (Brenner and Smith, 2013). Other groups use activists to mobilize hundreds of people and sparked social media for the purpose of entering into direct widespread protests in the streets, which led to the dialogs with citizens and encouraging more political outbreak of a revolution at different countries. The protest discussions (Stieglitz, 2012; Keith, 2016; Sajithra and carried out at Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis, Tahrir Rajindra, 2013). Square in Cairo, Pearl Square in Manama, and the These social media uses are increasing rapidly by the University Quarter in Sana have ultimately brought the activists, youth and politicians. Social networking is fall of entrenched dictators, such as Zine El Abidine Ben sometimes used by the political parties and their leaders Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Ali Abdullah to advertise and spread their views and opinions (John, Saleh of Yemen, and Muammad Gaddafi of Libya (Arafa 2017; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010; Tayeebwa, 2015). On and Armstrong, 2016). the other hand, the public uses the same media to share The aforementioned events in world politics clearly their views and use it against undemocratic rule and demonstrate the role social media are playing in politics. anarchy (John, 2017). Hence, we can understand that These events are not limited to any one part of the social media networks nowadays are the most important continents but spread over different parts of the world. In tools used by the society, politicians, activists and Ethiopian recent political transition, both positive and political parties to actively participate in political activities negative impacts of social media have been observed. As and impact the political journey. a positive impact, social media took the lion share in One of the earliest impacts of social media on politics mobilizing the youth and realizing the expected political was felt in Philippine. According to Raul (2012), at the reform. Many politicians are recognizing this new and turn of the century, a president was ousted from his rule powerful medium to interact with the masses and make only through the use of text messaging on January 17, them participate and thereby enabling better 2001, during the prosecution trial of Philippine President communication and understanding of the situations. In Joseph Estrada, loyalists in the Philippine Congress fact, there were several Ethiopians who condemn the voted to set aside proof against him. Within two hours, impact of social media on our political transformation. after the congress decision was announced, thousands of These groups only pointed out the negative impact which Filipinos, gathered on crossroads in Manila with the help actually was created due to irresponsible/bad actors on of forwarded text messages to express their anger to social media who posts wrong information that led the their corrupt president. And in the next few days, over a society to conflict or unrest. million people gathered in downtown Manila to continue As a hypothesis to be tested, the researcher believes their protest (Raul, 2012). The country's legislators were that even thought, there were serious negative impacts startled by immense and speedy reaction from public and because of the bad actors, social media have played an they reversed their decision and allowed the evidences to indispensable role in Ethiopian recent political transition be presented for the court. Estrada's fate was sealed and and there has to be a national policy to control the bad he had to quit. In this way, social media had helped to actors in social media networks. It is, therefore, the aim of force out the national leader (Shirky, 2011). this study to investigate the positive and negative impacts According to Onyedikachi et al. (2017) the use of social of these social media on the recent/April, 2018 Ethiopia‟s media in politics has continued to grow in recent times. In political transition. America, Barack Obama broke the world record in the history of social media use for political purpose during the RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2008 and 2012 USA Presidential elections (Roman and Jákup, 2014). Many nations and politicians across the Literatures examining both social media impacts and political globe have also continued to embrace the social media participation generally employ a qualitative based research design and observation (Abreham and Tibebe, 2019). Request were sent platforms to mobilize their citizens and candidates to Ethiopian bloggers, activists and random social media users who towards active participation in the political process. have many followers, active in social media activism to give Adamu 15
information, and most of them showed their willingness and were editor-in-chief of Addis Standard interviewed by Aljazeera interviewed face to face. Some of them responded online for the stated, “Critical media was being decimated one way or questions posed. another, and journalists were leaving the country, we Mainly, the researcher conducted a thorough and systematic social media sites analysis and observations. Social media sites became at some point, the second-largest country were selected based on user‟s potential to meet the research producing journalist asylum seekers". objective and examined how people respond to specific political According to Mulualem (2019), in Ethiopia, the messages online using social media buttons (Like, Comment, December 2015 Oromo protest by students and farmers Share) as metrics of political engagement. Based on this context, on the new master plan of Addis Ababa and around social media interactions, such as liking, commenting and sharing are part of the everyday conversation that represents and shapes Oromo regions, made headlines in the world news. individuals‟ political attitudes; and the number of interactions on Ethiopian government blamed opposition parties for social media posts focusing on the Ethiopian recent political facilitating and organizing the protest via Facebook. transition more or less reflects what captures followers‟ attention, at Consequently, the state had been rocked by opposition least at a basic quantitative level. for about three consecutive years. Especially, the Oromo Hence, known activist pages, bloggers, political party sites, and and Amhara youths called “Qerro” and “Fano” followers were selected purposely and qualitative content analysis was conducted to meet the objective of this study. respectively protested against the violation of human rights and over anarchism, which led to the declaration of two emergency decrees. Lives were lost and property RESULTS AND DISCUSSION damaged. The intractability of political stalemates led to the resignation of the then Prime Minister, Hailemariam Ethiopia’s recent political transition Desalegn. Additionally, during those periods, in Ethiopia, the right As stated by Abreham and Tibebe (2019), before to information and the role of media was restricted. Facebook become popular in Ethiopia, people preferred Private media were blocked. Journalists, bloggers and to listen to radios and watch TVs broadcasted from activists were arrested by the autocrats. The printed outside the country, such as Voice of America (VOA) and media, TV and radio and other medias were controlled by Duetchevelle (broadcasted in Amharic from Germany) the authoritarian government. The private media were radio stations. But nowadays, anyone can use his/her hushed, blocked or highly restricted to report the mobile or tablet to get any news from social media. Even problems. Hence, the people of Ethiopia did not trust the those traditional media are also available in social media reports made by these media, and prefer to gather up-to- by having Facebook pages. Anyone can get those local date and relevant information from social media posted traditional media news as well as political activists and by political activists, bloggers and journalists. During this Diaspora based media which are always willing and time, social media, like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube interested to transmit news to protest against the played a vital role in reporting the real problem or overthrown Ethiopian government. Consequently, social addressed the right information for the right users media in Ethiopia have become a preferred media outlet (society) at the right time. Thus, activists, journalists and which can present political news from the government bloggers who live abroad, used social media as an supporters, activist, journalists as well as from opposition indispensable tool to share information about the day to groups of the government. day government practices, political activities, anarchism, Since 1991, Ethiopia has been ruled by the Ethiopian human right violations, corruptions, and set strategies to People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) mobilize the society for freedom and democratic functioned as a de facto one-party state. Until 2012, the reformation. All these activities led to the current newborn country was led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a political situations in the country at large. cunning hardliner who consolidated power around one As mentioned earlier, Ethiopia's newborn political ethnic group, the Tigrians, and cemented Ethiopia's transition was no coincidence; it was the culmination of political order. After his sudden death six years ago, he hard-fought political activism, youth protest and pressure was replaced by Hailemariam Desalegn, who largely of internal reformist group that forced the authoritarian continued practicing Meles‟s Legacy which led the regime to restructure its leadership. Finally, the country in a crisis of legitimacy (Aljazeera, 2018; Fortune, anticipation ended, and Abiy Ahmed was elected by 2018). EPRDF as a Prime Minister of Ethiopia on Monday, April Historically, Ethiopia's diverse ethnic groups were 2, 2018 (Ethiopian Herald, 2018). Abiy became the third subjugated and politically marginalized. This was chairman of the ruling collation party that has been at the primarily felt among the two largest groups, the Oromos helm of politics for the past three decades and the first (34%) and the Amharas (27%). Crafty legislation, like the Prime Minister from the Oromo Peoples‟ Democratic 2009's anti-terrorism law, silenced criticism of the political Organization (OPDO) latter changed to Oromo order. Prisons became crammed with bloggers, activists, Democratic Party (ODP) (Fortune, 2018) and now united opposition politicians and journalists who reported with other parties and changed to Prosperity Party. governmental abuses. Tsedale Lemma, the When Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed delivered 16 J. Media Commun. Stud.
his inauguration speech on April 2, 2018, the bold sharing possible in Ethiopia‟s politics. This means that it rhetoric suggested a political revolution for Ethiopia in allows the young/youth age-group to be actively involved particular and the East African nations in general. Abiy's in politics. Even if youth participation was relatively speech promised a new era for the unity of Ethiopia, normal in Ethiopian political history since the 1960s, the democracy and freedom of speech/media. It was intensity, size, and level of youth political participation, reported as a radical departure for a country embroiled in such as activism, blogging, audio/video communications, long-standing ethnic and political divisions (Aljazeera, message exchanges through viber, WhatsApp, IMO, 2018). Facebook, Paltalk, telegram, and Skype tremendously increased very icing recently. This is a new political experience in Ethiopia”. Social media on Ethiopia’s political transition During the transition period, prominent opposition political members, such as Andargachew Tsige, Out of the total of hundred million people more than Andualem Arage, Merara Gudina as well as journalists twenty million Ethiopians use Facebook in Amharic, and activists such as Eskindir Nega and Temesgen English, Oromiffa and other languages. Statistics shows Dessalegn were released from prison; critical websites that social media users for political participation and and blogs were unblocked. In an interview with Aljazeera, news, especially Facebook and YouTube users regarding the recent Ethiopia‟s political transition and the increased by 14.1% after the political unrest, which is role of social media, Eskindir Nega, an Ethiopian 94.6% of the total internet and smart phone users. Data journalist who was released recently after six years of on Ethiopia shows the annual growth of internet users is imprisonment stated "If Abiy Ahmed does not deliver the estimated to be around 37% and the number of active democracy he promised, then we'll be back to social social media users is growing by 20%. Research findings media". He asserted his position by saying “I'm prepared show that majority of Ethiopians access the internet from to go back to prison again. So, whether there's a mobile device (Staff, 2018). The three top most democracy or no democracy, it's back to work (social searched teams on Google are „Facebook‟, „News‟ and media). There's no choice.” Finally, Aljazeera (2018) „Ethiopian‟. Most of the user‟s age groups range from 16 concluded that the use of social media in Ethiopia has to 40 years old, that is, the youth and adult group that contributed essentially to the success of the protest. cover the majority of the total population in the country (Africa Internet Usage, 2019). It was the first time in Ethiopian history that events of Positive roles of social media on Ethiopia’s political the transition were mainly covered and reported by transition ordinary citizens via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs rather that the main stream media. As per the According to the findings of this research, the following Aljazeera news/information collected from different are the positive roles of social media on Ethiopia‟s journalist, activist and politicians, social media played a current political transition. significant role for Ethiopia‟s political transition. Jawar Mohammed, the founder of the Oromia Media Network and Diaspora based in Minnesota, USA, played Mobilizing people major role in the Oromo protests and exemplified how social media could mobilize a large number of people and Social media sites allow the people of Ethiopia to bring a change. He took advantage of social media mobilize challenges and stand against the autocracy of platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, to bypass strict the government. During the protest to the ruling government censorship and organize protests. In an government, cell phones and social media were widely interview with Aljazeera (2018), Jawar Mohammed “You used to communicate straightaway with a large numbers cannot imagine this revolution, this change without social of people, form ad hoc teams at a very large scale and media,” through these mediums, Jawar orchestrated exchange crucial information in a timely manner. demonstrations and broadcasted undeniable proof of the Especially, activists living abroad were the one who used government's abuses to millions of people or to his social media to set strategies and mobilize the youth to followers Jawar further described how he and his collaborate and say NO for the government illegal followers used the social media as follows “People from actions. Street demonstrations were organized and led by all corners of the world will snap a picture, record a video activists in different cities like Gondar, Ambo, Bahirdar, and send it to us through WhatsApp or through Woliso, Debremakos and other cities at the same time Facebook. We take that, we verify it, we edit it and we air and Facebook profile pictures were changed to show the it back to them." protest. With regard to the role played by social media, via our For instance, in 2017/2018, a powerful Facebook group email communication Mukerrem Miftah stated that: named “OroMara” was created. The name was coined by “Social media facilitated effective and instant information blending the ethnonyms “Oromo” and “Amhara” which Adamu 17
Image 1. The Medemer Banner wildly spread over the social media in support of the reform.
are the two main ethnic groups in terms of population youths at different towns, cities and villages used size. The group was created mainly to bring together the Facebook as a platform to organize demonstrations to alliance of the people of the two regions and stand show their support to the political transition. Slogans, together for freedom and strengthen the movements of such as “we support you”, “we are united”, “You are our the „Qerro‟ youth of Oromia and „Fano‟ youth of Amhara hero”, “we are with you”, “Ethiopia is an addiction”, “One regions. love, one Ethiopia” and the pictures of the reformations Once the OroMara alliance was created, a number of were prepared by the organizers and shared through Facebook and Twitter pages like #OroMaraኦ ሮማራ, social media. Also, demonstrators wearing T-shirts with #ኦ ሮማራ-OroMara, #Oromo Protest, #Amhara Protest with the photos of the reformists printed on it and holding a significant number of followers were created. Once the banners gathered around the streets to confirm their page is created, political activists and youths from both support. The demonstration was also to appeal to all regional states discussed and exchanged information Ethiopians living worldwide to break the silence and about the strategies to throw out the authoritarian group speak out against the social injustice and brutality done who captured the government power. Therefore, popular by the ousted political leaders. social media, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter Furthermore, like that of the speech made by Martin created a platform for rapid interaction which helped Luther King “I have a dream” and Barack Obama‟s “Yes various groups to communicate easily and organize We Can”, leader of the Ethiopia‟s current political demonstrations how, where and when to oppose reformist group Abiy Ahmed come with a new slogan or መደመር 1 government forces. concept of „Medemer/ ‟‟ which means synergy, unity, inclusion, unification and envisioned to bring pragmatic and inclusive change in Ethiopia (Yilma, 2018; Mulualem, 2019). Support the reformist actions This slogan was widely and quickly spread over the different social media and almost every individual who As stated earlier, the political transition in Ethiopia use social media networks owned the idea of „Medemer‟, became real not only by the activist, bloggers and youth and changed his/her profile picture with the medemer protests, but also by the sum of internal reformist struggle slogan in different formats such as a banner or T-shirt called “Team Lemma”. The “Team Lemma” was with a slogan „Tedemiryalehu‟ meaning „I am united‟. composed of the internal reformists organized secretly to Image 1 show one of the banners/picture which was over throw the authoritarian ruling group and bring widely spread over the social media. According to a small democracy to the people of Ethiopia. The communities, number (10) selected Facebook users assessment made, who need political transformation, fully supported the the picture was shared, commented and liked over 6.8 reform activities and stand along with reformists. For million, 12.5 million and 13.1 million times, respectively. instance, on June 23, 2018, when supporters of the There were a number of different groups created to reformist group called a demonstration at Meskel square support the reformist groups, such as የዶ/ር አ ብይ አ ህመድ in Addis Ababa, a large number of people, especially the youths, from all corners of the country were informed 1latter the concept converted into a book by prime Minister Abiy Ahmed with through social media and gathered to show their strong same title in Amharic and Oromifa languages and used as a political roadmap support for the political transformation. Furthermore, or philosophy for the reformist group. 18 J. Media Commun. Stud.
Image 2. Mob killing of innocent man in Shashemene.
ደጋፊዎች/ Dr. Abiy Ahimed supporters, which was created Oromo activist who was based in USA also came to on April 3, 2018 and have over 284,140 followers. Ethiopia. On August, 2018, a rally was held to welcome Jawar Mohammed in Shashemene. The mob attacked the young man, accusing him of carrying a hidden bomb. Exposing and criticizing illegal actions He was hanged upside down and beaten to death. The regional police reported that no bomb was found on this During the recent political transition period in Ethiopia, person. social media users were curious for the change to Following this action the society condemn the killing of progress. According to the assessment made by this the innocent man through social media. According to my study, the transformation was not smooth and easy at all. review of selected Facebook pages, the upside down Some groups and individuals were not happy with the hanged picture was shared over and commented on change, and they tried to terrorize and create obstacles popular social media more than 7.2 million times. Jawar so many times. The damages done by the reactionaries Mohammed on his official Twitter and Facebook pages include killing groups/individuals, pushing different groups that he has more than 112,000 and 1,671,625 followers for conflict, illegal gun and money smuggling, etc. respectively, Twitted and shared on August 12, 2018 to Following the political transition, ethnic violence and mob denounce the mob injustice as: “The mob attack that attacks across the country have resulted in the death of happened in Shashemene was cruel, disgusting and innocent citizens. damaging to the image of this beautiful city that has been For instance, in the Somali region churches were burnt, hot bed of resistance that brought this changes we enjoy priests, deacons and congregates were killed, and many today.” displaced and properties damaged by reactionaries on Other social media users have also commented on as: July, 2018. During that time, social media were widely “It is still heartbreaking to see images or hear about what used by almost all Ethiopians who use social media to happened in Shashemene. However, there seem to be condemn such evil actions and support those who were reflections being made by many that their action does not in danger. represent our (Oromo) society. I beg to differ”. On the other hand, as shown in Image 2, in Another social media user also commented as: “Very Shahemene, Southern Oromia region, an innocent man sad to see this happening in Ethiopia today. No matter was killed by mob attack. The case was like this, in the reason, this shameful and illegal act should be accordance with the call made by a reformist Prime stopped.” Minister, Abiy Ahmed, a number of exiled political groups One user observed by stating that “It is totally inhuman and activists returned home. Jawar Mohammed, an act…….barbaric……. Government must arrest the Adamu 19
youths/attackers”. to unleash chaos and instability. This has already caused Therefore, during the time of the political transition, significant problems in many times and places in Ethiopia together with the national security force, the society used and challenged the current political transition in Ethiopia. social media played a vital role to expose, denounce/condemn such acts. Fake news (Rumors)
Creating awareness among the community Among the top most negative effects of social media in Ethiopian politics is spreading/disseminating fake news Literatures reveal that citizens prefer social media rather (rumors) from fake accounts. Political issues that get than the local, traditional or main stream media for spread over the internet are distorted by each story, political news and information (Karolak, 2018; Chimee, regardless of being genuine or not. It is getting 2016). No need of visiting websites, buy newspaper, increasingly harder to isolate genuine news from fake listen to radios and watch televisions programs to follow ones on the web. The consistent stream of images, up new political developments. Social media provide connections, and gossips about political leaders are news faster and less-costly than other mediums. Among blend of truths and lies. There are currently a significant the popular social media, Facebook is the most preferred number of fake news websites and pages created by social media for news on Ethiopian politics and other unknown individuals that frequently post rumors and fake related issues (Abreham and Tibebe, 2019). news. There are more than 10 Facebook accounts For instance, social media widely used to support created by his identity and profile picture. Furthermore, different group of societies displaced due to ethnic or #ZemedkunBekele, #Seyoum Teshome, #MikyAmhara, political violence. GLOBAL ALLIANCE led by activist 2 #MulukenTesfaw, #Daniel Berhane and others are also Tamagn Beyene solicited funds for the victims of ethnic- activists who have an official Facebook account and violence in the town of Burayu. Tamagn‟s fundraising significant number of followers. But, different plea was shared about 289,000 times over social media irresponsible individuals created another account using and around $483,973 was raised in three days. the names or identities of the aforementioned activists, Similarly, a social media movement led by Zemedkun 3 bloggers and politicians and spread fake, fabricated news Bekele started to raise funds to rebuild the Orthodox supported by photo shopped images and photos that led Churches burned in Somalia region, Jigjiga. This different groups to conflict and unrest. I have even found fundraising call was shared over 349,000 times on social more than 20 Facebook accounts created using the media and all the required expenses to rebuild the name and title of the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, such as churches were raised within a week. #PM abiyahmed, #DrAbiy Ahmed PM, #Pm Abiy Ahmed, Hence, during current Ethiopia‟s political transition, #Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali PM, Ethiopian PM Dr.Abiy Ahmed, social media, especially Facebook has played a vital role etc., with a significant number of followers. As stated by in terms of serving as means of a communication the office of the Prime Minster, Prime Minister Abiy platform between the community, politicians, activists, Ahmed has no Twitter account. But, as shown in Image government reformist and supporters. 3, there are a number of twitter accounts created by his appellations. Using all the fake accounts created by different Negative impacts of social media on Ethiopia’s unethical individuals fake news and photo shopped political transition images are posted and spread on social media that led innocent Ethiopians to conflict and unrest. For example, The information posted on social media, such as as shown in Image 4, the original picture was from spreading/disseminating fake news/incorrect Central Africa posted some years back, but irresponsible information/rumors from fake accounts, individual individuals (bad actors edited the picture by including opinions/feelings, ethnic-based information, false Oromo Liberation Fronts‟ OLF) flag and tried to show that allegations, hate speeches, misrepresentations, and the disturbance happened in Ethiopia and spread it over inciting ethnic violence have negative impacts on the social media. political transition of the country. In our email correspondences, Mukerrem Miftah has made the following remark. Since no one controls the content of information shared Group/ethnic interest in these platforms, it has a dangerous natural propensity In Ethiopia, a radical ethno-nationalist politics is certainly producing an extremely irrational youth groups in different 2 Human rights activist, political commentator, talk show host, Ethiopian parts of the country. In an interview with Addis Standard, Nationalist and comedian based in USA. 3He is a spiritual preacher of Ethiopian Orthodox church, blogger, writer and Mukerrem (2018), stated that activists can be divided into activist based in Germany with more than 570,000 followers two groups: those who have institutional affiliations, 20 J. Media Commun. Stud.
Image 3. Fake accounts by name and title of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Image 4. Photoshopped image posted on Facebook used to spread fake information.
refined goals, and a certain degree of stability (a sense of Some are well educated with significant influences than directionality), and those who do not necessarily have others. Yet, devoid of any institutional affiliations, refined any institutional affiliations, and possess a blurred sense and specific goals and directions, individual activists of goal (and direction). Mukerrem further explained, for inspired by their ethnicity, religion, or group mentality, the former group of activists, broadcast and print media have been the major source of discontent in Ethiopia. serve as an important vent for reaching out and initiate Finally, Mukerrem has remarked that, “Social media change efforts. Here activists are personally and platforms, including Face book, Twitter and YouTube, institutionally identifiable. This entails a certain degree of have been the major means of their outreach. Being refined role and status, for any status confers largely uncontrolled, social media has allowed for the responsibility. In other words, activism under this modality expression of views, relevant or destructive, affecting the assumes responsible activism, making the act of activism way “normal” citizens think, act, and behave” (Mukerrem, nuanced and strategic (Mukerrem, 2018). However, 2018). despite some fluctuations among the first group of Currently, there are different types/category of social activists, the second group of activists and the kind of media activists who have large number of followers in activism within which they function is apparently causing Ethiopia. Among the different categories, unity centered more chaos, unpredictability, crisis, and identity-based activist, ethno-nationalism activist and religion based frictions in Ethiopia. It should be noted, however, that activist can be mentioned. For instance, we may take the some of the individual activists have been genuinely Oromo-centered activism, especially Jawar Mohammed, engaged in harnessing peace and stability for the country. and the unity-centered activist Tamagn Beyene, Adamu 21
represent a different strand of political activism in media is that since many of the activists and followers Ethiopia. Despite all their shortcomings, one can use fake usernames and appellations, it makes it harder relatively predict the overarching discourse underpinning for the relevant authorities to take any corrective their activism (Mukerrem, 2018). The Ethno-nationalism measures. It is, therefore, the contribution of this study to activists with a large number of followers posted and the political parties, activists, youth, government shared different information on social media using their (including policy maker) and society of Ethiopia at large local language about the interests of those specific ethnic regarding the proper and wise usage of social media groups. Because of the different attitudes and interests of networks. Youths, activists, journalists and others are the different category of social media activists and the expected to use the social media in a responsible kind of activism within which they function is apparently manner. In general, social media users should not give causing more chaos, unpredictability, crisis, and identity- attention for the unknown or fake accounts who may based frictions in Ethiopia. For instance, in Oromia and share rumors or fake news that leads to conflict and Benishangul regions, ethnic-based attacks and displacement. The government together with the displacement have become a recurrent problem. In Guji Facebook CEO has to be cooperate, transparent and Zone of Oromia region, nearly a million ethnic Gedeos deliver genuine information for the society at the right were displaced, and many seem to think that it is a sort of time, and take corrective measures upon the fake ethnic cleansing effort. In Amhara region, the conflicts accounts or individuals who shared fake news over the between Amhara and Qimant communities in Gonder, social media. Finally, even though it is open for subjective Amhara region have resulted in dozens of deaths and judgment, the recent declaration/policy by Ethiopian displacement of well over 40,000 people (Borkena, government to control or restrict hate speech is one way 2019). of going about it. However, the government can do many The sentiments for ethnic conflict are still (end of 2019) things beyond and above promulgating laws. there. Activists with a conviction of unstated radical In the future, a research on framework is proposed for ethno-nationalism with huge followers on social media social media analytics aiming at collecting, storing, could cause a lot of damage to the country. As a result, monitoring, analyzing, and summarizing politically ethnic-tension in the country is taking root so much so relevant user-generated content from social media for that now the government is considering it as a national political institutions in Ethiopia. security concern (Borkena, 2019).
CONFLICT OF INTERESTS
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS The author has not declared any conflict of interests.
The primary objective of this research is to investigate and evaluating both the positive and negative aspects of REFERENCES social media for Ethiopia‟s political transition. The findings of the study have shown that a positive Abreham G, Tibebe B (2019). The Role of Social Media in Citizen‟s Political Participation. IFIP WG 8.6. International Conference on development of social media emergence has been Transfer and Diffusion of IT. Accra, Ghana. emerged as an indispensible tool that the society, Africa Internet Usage (2019). Ethiopia Internet Users statistics. specially the youth is talking about the political issues. Retrieved from https://www.internetlivestats.com/internet- Before the emergence of social media, the political users/ethiopia/ Ahmad A (2011). Rising of Social Network Websites in India Overview. interests were restricted only to those individuals who International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security have an access to read newspapers, watch TV news or 11:155-158. radio channels. But recently, social media helped Aljazeera (2018). Social media shaped calls political change in Ethiopia. activists to mobilize millions of people and spark Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2018/08/social- widespread protests in the streets, which led to the media-shaped-calls-political-change-ethiopia-180811084501289.html outbreak of a revolution or transformation at different Arafa M, Armstrong C (2016). Facebook to Mobilize, Twitter to countries including Ethiopia. The outcome of this report Coordinate Protests, and YouTube to Tell the World: New Media, also shows negative impacts of social media, for Cyber activism, and the Arab Spring. Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective 10:1. instance, false allegations, incorrect information, hate Borkena (2019). Ethiopia admits ethnic politics constitute greatest speeches, misrepresentations, inciting ethnic violence, national security risk. Retrieved from and many others which specifically characterize specific https://borkena.com/2019/04/05/ethiopia-admits-ethnic-politics- group. Since no one controls the content of information constitute-greatest-national-security-risk/ Boyd DM, Ellison NB (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, shared in social media platforms, it has a dangerous and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication natural propensity to unleash chaos and instability, and 13(1):210-230. these uncontrolled social medias have caused significant Brenner J, Smith A (2013). 72% of online adults are social networking problems many times and places in Ethiopia, especially site users. Washington, DC: Pew Internet and American Life Project. Chimee I (2016). Social Media and Political Change in the 21st Century: since Abiy came to power. The worst feature of social the African Experience. Retrieved from: 22 J. Media Commun. Stud.
http://www.glocalismjournal.net/Issues/NETWORKS-AND-NEW- Stieglitz S (2012). Social media and political communication: A social MEDIA/Articles/Social-Media-And-Political-Change-In-The-21st- media analytics framework. Springer. Century-The-African-Experience.kl. Surjit K, Manpreet K (2013). Impact of Social Media on Politics. Gian Downes S (2005). Semantic Networks and Social Networks: The Jyoti E-Journal 3:4. Retrieved from www.gjimt.ac.in/GianJyotiE- Learning Organization. An International Journal 12:411-417. Journal.htm 23. Ethiopian Herald (2018). Abiy Ahmed third EPRDF Prime Minister. The Shirky C (2011). The Political power of social media- Technology, Ethiopian Herald 82(179):6. Public sphere and Political Change. Retrieved from Fortune (2018). Abiy Ahmed deserves a chance. Fortune newspaper www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67038/. 18(935):30-56. Tayeebwa W (2015). Assessing the impact social media has on John S (2017). A study on Impact of Social Media on Education, traditional journalism and the resulting opportunities and challenges Business and Society. International Journal of Research in for media houses in Uganda. Management and Business Studies 4:3. Urista MA, Dong Q, Day KD (2009). Explaining why young adults use Kaplan AM, Haenlein M (2010). Users of the world, unite! The Myspace and Facebook through uses and gratifications theory. challenges and opportunities of social media. Business Horizons Human Communication 12(2):215-229. 53(1):59-68. Virgiano L (2011). ICT and Social Media: Definitional Issues and the Karolak M (2018). Social media in democratic transitions and Relationship. consolidations: What can we learn from the case of Tunisia?. The Whatis.com (2019). Retrieved from Journal of North African Studies 10:12. https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media Keith T (2016). The History of Social Media: Social Networking Yilma B (2018). Goolgul Discourse on the concept of Medemer. Evolution. Retrieved from https://historycooperative.org/the-history-of- Retrieved from http://www.goolgule.com/discourse-on-the-concept-of- social-media/ medemer Knight-McCord J, Cleary D, Grant N, Herron A, Lacey T, Livingston T, Emanuel R (2016). What social media sites do college students use most. Journal of Undergraduate Ethnic Minority Psychology 2(21):21- 26. Maisam H (2019). Latest Social Media Stats for 2019. Retrieved from https://socialmedianewstime.com/2018/01/22/latest-social-media- stats-for-2019/ Mary B (2019). History of Mail and the Postal System. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-mail-1992142. Mulualem DT (2019). Qeerroo Fi Qarree: The Engine of Current Transition In Ethiopia Politics. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications 9(5). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.29322/IJSRP.9.05.2019.p8964www.ijsrp.org Mukerrem M (2018). Ethiopia in transition is facing critical challenges. Addis Standard. Retrieved from http://addisstandard.com/oped- ethiopia-in-transition-and-critical-challenges/ Onyedikachi M, Celestine N, Chibuzo O, Adaeze A (2017). The Role of Social Media in Enhancing Political Participation in Nigeria. International Digital Organization for Scientific Research 2(3):44-54. Oxford Dictionary (2012). Retrieved from http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/social%2Bmedia?q=social+me dia Raul P (2012). The New Media, Society & Politics in the Philippines. fesmedia Asia. Roman G, Jákup J (2014). Obama‟s 2012 Facebook Campaign: Political Communication in the Age of the Like Button. Journal of Information Technology and Politics. Sajithra K, Rajindra P (2013). Social Media History and Components. Journal of Business and Management 7(1):69-74. Sedra K (2013). The Role of Social Media & Networking In Post-Conflict Settings. Paper presented at the World Bank/TDRP – African Development Bank Conference, Tunis. Siemens G (2006). Knowing Knowledge. A Creative Commons Publications. Staff R (2018). Staff Reporter. Retrieved from https://www.capitalethiopia.com/capital/digital-2018-report-shows- fast-growing-internet-use-africa/.
OPEN ACCESS OPEN ACCESS OPEN ACCESS
International Journal of International Journal of Journal of Languages and Culture Educational Administration and Policy Studies English and Literature
OPEN ACCESS OPEN ACCESS OPEN ACCESS
Journal of International Journal of Journal of Media and Library and Information Communication Studies Fine and Studio Art Science
OPEN ACCESS OPEN ACCESS OPEN ACCESS
Journal of Journal of Philosophical Papers and Review African Studies and Development Music and Dance
www.academicjournals.org