Women and digital political communication in non-Western societies

ABSTRACT

This special issue brings together contributions and theoretical insights that probe ways through which gender interacts with context to shape non-Western-based political communication trends. It seeks to address the need to diversify theory and research in political communication. Our key contribution is to provide empirically-guided, contextually-shaped and methodologically-rich research on digital political communication strategies that facilitate women's political participation in geographical areas underrepresented in the scholarship. We do this in five ways. First, feminist approaches to digital political communication have rarely been studied this way, focusing exclusively on previously unaddressed developments in non-Western settings while also theorizing their contributions to communication scholarship through a special issue format in a credible journal that retains a wider audience. Second, it is of scholarly interest to know whether women politicians in richer and poor countries grapple with the same issues when it comes to political communication. Third, we provide novel ways to expand scholarship on women's digital political participation through incorporation of indigenous knowledge and practices. Fourth, the diversity of fresh voices coupled with pioneering findings assembled in this special issue is encouraging in a field dominated by a few. Finally, the number of women vying for political office in the Global South is increasing. Therefore, studying how they are faring on the political frontline has a significant bearing on how current and future studies within the remit of understudied non-Western digital political communication can and should be framed, paving way for new and better understandings on the region and its multifaceted political perturbations.

KEYWORDS:

• Women politicians
• gender
• digital campaigning
• political communication
• Global South
• social media

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sally Osei-Appiah

Dr Sally Osei-Appiah is the Postgraduate Research Diversity Lead (Student Success) at the University of Leeds where she provides strategic leadership for the Leeds' PGR Diversity project for student success. Prior to her current role, Sally served in different academic roles including as a Research Fellow at the School of Law, and Teaching Fellow at the School of Media and Communication (University of Leeds). Her research interests sit at the intersection of gender, media and politics with a special focus on Africa. Recently, her interests have extended to equity, diversity and inclusion in higher education. Sally sits on a number of strategic, (cross) institutional committees and working groups such as for Generation Delta, the Yorkshire Consortium for Equity in Doctoral Education, and the University of Leed's Race Equality Charter Self-Assessment team.

Bruce Mutsvairo

Bruce Mutsvairo is a Professor in the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He has authored and edited several books and special issue projects focusing on the development of journalism and political communication in non-Western societies.

Kristin Skare Orgeret

Kristin Skare Orgeret is professor at the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway where she co-heads the research group Media, War & Conflict (MEKK). She leads several international research projects and has published extensively on the role of media in war and conflict, digital journalism, gender, media and power relations.