ABSTRACT
Chapter 7, ‘Social media and social movements: The hashtagged activism of #ZumaMustFall’, explores the hashtagged campaign by that name. Through a media ecology approach, the chapter draws on data from Facebook and Twitter to explore online citizen political engagement in South Africa. After the events of the Arab Spring, the internet and social media are increasingly playing a key role in social protest around the world. During such periods of uprisings or political instability, social media provides a means for organising, complementing traditional forms of political participation. Social media is often used to choreograph collective action, despite critiques of the potential for it to serve simply as a form of ‘slacktivism’. Using a case study approach, the chapter argues for the potential role of social media in expanding the democratic political space in South Africa via forms of hashtag activism. The Zuma Must Fall case study highlights the potential for social media in South Africa to play the role of amplifying citizen discontent through facilitating the building of horizontal connections between citizens. It highlights the possibilities for social media to help movements gain momentum, even if social media alone does not make these movements more effective in driving offline policy change.
