Browsing by Author "Bekele, Bezawit"

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    The Use of Social Media for Activism and Awareness Creation on Violence against Women in Ethiopia
    (Addis Ababa University, 2016-07) Bekele, Bezawit; Kedir, Abdulatif (phD)
    This study explores the use of Social Media for activism and awareness creation on Violence against Women and Girls. The scope of social media activity explored was limited to Facebook and Twitter mediated activities due to the relative popularity of these platforms. This study sets out to examine: the extent of social media use among individual activists and organizations working on women’s rights; similarities and differences in social media use among individuals, and organizations; attitudes about the potential of social media as a tool of activism and the extent of online to offline linkage. This study employs an exploratory qualitative case study design provided the absence of similar prior studies in the area. Multiple cases were selected from individual activist and organizations working on women’s rights in order to highlight different facets of the topic under study. Semi-structured interview guides were used in conducting in-depth interviews from individual activists and organization representatives. In addition, social media content analysis was used to support data from the interview and explore the social media engagement of the participant individuals and organizations. The findings of the study include the following. Facebook emerged as the preferred platform for activism and awareness creation across participants due to availability to larger public facilitating wider reach and congruence of the features of the platform with the habits of the participants. Individual activists were more active on both platforms as compared to organizations which either did not have a social media presence or were limited to sparse postings on Facebook. For organizations which were not active on social media man-power and expertise limitations, age and attitude of the management and access to the internet were found to be hindrances to using social media. The attitude of the participants towards the potential of social media as a tool of activism were mostly positive, while still recognizing its limitations such as reach when compared to the mainstream media. Social media was said to be less costly for activists and allows posting pictures and videos. On a few occasions, such as fundraising, invitations to events, reporting court cases online, social media has been used to support offline activities. In conclusion, the use of social media for activism on violence against women, although it carries a lot of potential, is still at the early stages. Key Terms: Violence against Women and Girls, Gender Based Violence, Social Media, Activism, Offline-Online Linkage, Facebook, Twitter