Abstract

Social networks are believed to broaden participation and deepen democracy, but may play a role in reproducing social divisions. This project highlights the differences between computer users, whose social network use constitutes a form of mediated public, and mobile-centric users who primarily access the Internet via their phones, and whose contributions often remain digitally invisible. Mobile social networks serve a growing number of people with limited or no access to computers, who use their mobile phones as a primary form of Internet access, and who often do not use the platforms popular among computer-users. Differences in platform thus inscribe race, class, urban-rural and national divisions.

• Marion Walton (ZA) is a senior lecturer in the Centre for Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her research confronts the issues of power and regulation of meaning for software users, particularly those in marginalized contexts.

Full text (PDF) p.  70-72