Speaking Up and Talking Back? Media, Empowerment and Civic Engagement of African Youth: Yearbook 2012/2013 of The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media. NORDICOM and UNESCO: University of Gothenburg

The book questions whether and how young citizens in Africa engage with
media and communications technologies and platforms in a desire to be
included in the change processes of their societies. The theme echoes some
of the claims made by disenchanted and frustrated youth and other citizens
in the streets of North Africa’s cities in 2011 and 2012. They were severely
critical of the governance structures in their countries, mass social mobilizations
took place, governments fell and, in the aftermath, the slow process
of transition continued, now with one tyrant less but still with
uncertain outcomes and huge challenges for the social and economic development of these countries.
Youth in particular engaged massively, visibly, loudly and dramatically
around demands to be involved and included in their countries’ development
processes. This yearbook taps into the less visible and dramatic, but nevertheless highly dynamic and influential, process of media development and
the enlargement of youth-driven, deliberative spaces which sub-Saharan
Africa is currently experiencing.