Perspective Chapter: The Use of Social Media in Sharing Information in Sub-Saharan Africa Region – The Types, Purpose, Benefits and Challenges

Abstract

This chapter discusses the use of social media in sharing information in the Sub-Sahara Africa region: The types, purpose, benefits, and challenges. However, the discussion on the above subject matter focused on Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, the paper exploited empirical and theoretical literature written about the region to support the discussion on the basic concept of social media, the various types, and purposes of using social media, the importance of social media, challenges prohibiting effective utilization of social and way of resolving the challenges in Sub-Sahara Africa. More importantly, the paper discussion revealed the increased use of social media on health, agriculture activities, politics, etc. with Nigeria and Ghana at the top. The discussion also exposed the various challenges (Poor power outrage; Low level of technology development, Network hitches, High level of poverty, etc.) hindering the effective utilization of social media in the Sub-Saharan region of the world. Based on the challenges observed in the discussion, the paper outlined and discussed some ways of improving social media usage in the region.

1. Introduction

The advent and advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) does not only lead to the advancement of technology but, have also re-shaped the narrative and way people communicate with one another in the Sub-Saharan Africa region and other parts of the world. One of such widely used technologies that have re-shape the ways people communicate among themselves in our digital age is the social media platform. Today, social media network sites are known to be playing significant roles in communication and other services-oriented areas of life. That is the more reason why the usage and impacts of social media cannot be overemphasized. In providing a clear understanding of the term social media, social media was described as a “web-based communication tool that enables people to easily interact with one another by sharing and consuming information, sharing information, interacting with friends and family members, and getting the latest information at accelerated speed [1].

Due to its importance in society, “social media usage has fast become a staple in the online world [2]. However, the usage is not limited to the developed nations, but also in Sub-Saharan Africa, and other under-developed countries in the world. Sub-Saharan Africa region with over forty eight countries, like any other part of the world, also need to speedily share accurate and current information, most especially information that is relevant to economic development, politics, social life, health-related issues, etc. within and outside the region. Today, we have several pieces of literature that affirmed social media networking sites as the most commonly used platform among youths and adults, in communicating in their comfort, particularly in their homes, institutions of learning, and offices, and as well as become part of their lifestyle. As a result, several individuals have resolved to deploy social media as a communication channel for sharing pictures, music, advertisement, and other vital information regarding health-related issues, politics, agriculture activities, etc.

However, despite the importance of social media in enhancing education, health institutions, and other sectors of mankind, observation shows that the increased usage of social media came with a series of challenges that are threatening human co-existence. These challenges are identified to include; fake news, the posting of nude pictures, propagation, and posting of hatred clips, defamation of people, and posting of false and misleading information [3]. Despite the challenges, social media remain the most popular and widely used networking site in Sub-Saharan Africa and the world in general. It is against this background that, this study opined that, the types, importance, purpose of usage, challenges of social media, etc. in Sub-Saharan Africa may differ significantly from other parts of the world due to the disadvantages such as inadequate education, inadequate technologies infrastructures, inadequate electricity and as well the under-development of the region. Therefore, this paper aims to review or explore empirical and theoretical works on social media, focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa to critically examine the types, usage, and purpose of usage, importance, challenges, and ways of improving social media in Sub-Saharan Africa.

2. Sub-Saharan Africa

This section gives a brief of Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is the continent of Africa that lies in the Sub-Saharan region. In other words, Sub-Saharan Africa refers to African countries and territories that are situated in the African region. The region straddles the equator, having almost equal south and north extent. It is the most tropical of all continents. The climate and vegetation range from the equatorial rainforest, tropical deserts, and savanna grassland to the Mediterranean. The Sahara Desert, the largest of its kind anywhere in the world, is over 10.4 million km2 and the North to South is approximately 1800kms and East-West is 5600km” [2]. Forty-nine countries make up the sub-Sahara Africa namely: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Democratic Republic), Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe (https://www.loc.gov/rr/amed/guide/afr-countrylist.html).

The region has some major cities such as Abuja, Lagos, Harare, Addis Ababa, Cape Town, etc., and several towns and villages. These individual countries have well-established higher institutions of learning, petroleum refineries, organized administrative institutions, etc. with large population sizes. According to available UNHCR global trends statistics, the region has a population of 1.1 billion with diverse religious groups (Christian, Islam, Traditional faiths, and others).

The continent has over 1,000 languages with a large number of the population living in rural communities that lacks basic social amenities (electricity, water, schools, etc.). The major occupation in the region is agriculture and mining because some of the countries are endowed with mineral resources. In addition, one other important characteristic that distinguished the Region from other parts of the world is the unique cultural heritage of the region. The region has several cultural organizations and festivals (Mombasa Carnival – Kenyan, Calabar Carnival – Nigeria, Abu Simbel Festival – Egypt, etc.) that portray the unique cultural heritage of the region. And some of these cultural activities are celebrated annually by people from all works of life within and outside the continent. The continent is also recognized for its high profile in tourism. The study could have discussed some of the countries one after the other but, because of the limited space for the chapter, only a brief of Nigeria is discussed.

Nigeria is one of the most popular countries on the continent. It is situated in the West Africa region and lies between longitudes 3 and 14 degrees, and latitudes 4 and 14 degrees. It has a land mass of 923,768 square kilometers. The country is made up of thirty-six states with its administrative headquarter in Abuja as the “Federal Territory”. Politically, the Federal Republic of Nigeria is divided into six geo-political zones. The population size of the country is over 180 million, with diverse cultural, and ethnic groups, and over 300 languages. And the major occupation of the population is agriculture and fish farming, very few numbers of the population work in government institutions, private industries, cooperative organizations, and small-scale businesses. In addition, the country is endowed with natural resources such as Petroleum, Gold, Coal, etc. which formed the major income of the country.

The petroleum resources are found in the Niger Delta area which is in the Southern part of the country. Administrative, economic, and health-wise, Nigeria has well organized political structure, economic sector, health institutions, etc. The country is proud of its diversity in religion, ethnicity, language, culture, etc. We have Christians, Muslims, and traditional faiths from different ethnic groups and languages living together in the various cities and villages. The country’s diversity is also reflected in our social-cultural activities. Notable among these cultural activities include the Egbesu festival, Calabar festival, New yam festival, etc. celebrated annually in the various parts of the country.

In Sub-Sahara Africa, experience shows that all categories of persons regardless of economic status, financial and educational status make use of social media for one purpose or the others, particularly, in academic institutions, cooperative organizations, agro-industries, government, etc. most importantly for the sharing information relating to research findings, products, and prices, policies, etc. the region.

3. The types of social media used in Sub-Saharan Africa

We have many types of social media used in Sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world. Some authors in their research identified the various types of social media popularly use in Sub-Saharan Africa including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Zoom, Twitter, Skype, YouTube, WhatsApp, Google+, Blogs, ResearchGate, Pinterest, MS Teams, TikTok, Telegram, WeChat, Quora, SciHub, SciFinder, Gmail and Outlook [4, 5]. In Nigeria, Kutu and Kutu [4] attested that eight different types of social media networking sites are popularly used in Sub-Saharan Africa and as well in other parts of the world. Therefore, the authors outlined the eight social media networking sites to include:

1. Social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Academia.

2. Discussion forums such as Quora, Digg, and Reddit.

3. Blogging and publishing networks such as WordPress, Tumblr, and Medium.

4. Cybernetic worlds such as Second Life and Open Sim.

5. Presentation sharing network tools such as Scribd, Slide Share, and Slide Rocket.

6. Video and audio sharing networks such as YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, and Livestream.

7. Writing and research collaboration tools such as PBworks, Wikispaces, and Wikipedia.

8. Meeting, project management, and collaboration tools such as Big-Blue Button, Skype, and Zoom

Similarly, in Tanzania, “apart from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Blogs, WhatsApp and Instagram, local popular social media platforms such as Jamii Forum, Michuzi blog, Mabadiliko forum, Millard Ayo blog, Mpekuzi blog, Bongo 5, Bongo-Lob, and others have been deployed to be used in various activities. Other sites with added social media features include newspaper sites such as the Citizen, Daily News, Global Publishers, and This Day” Bennett [6] and Stelzner [7]. And it was also revealed that “Facebook 86.55% was ranked the highest used social media, followed by YouTube 7.14%, Twitter 2.76%, Instagram 1.7%, and Pinterest 1.56% respectively are the top popular social media used in Africa (https://www.newsafrica.com). Each month, across Sub-Saharan Africa more than 95 million people access Facebook, with 97% of them using their mobile phones (https://facebook.com). It was further reported that, by the end of 2020, Nigeria was the country in West Africa with the largest number of Facebook subscribers. About 31.6 million users have a Facebook account, followed by Ghana with almost 8 million users [8].

A critical examination of the various reports, regarding the different types of social media used in Sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world, the paper established that additional customized types of social media are also used in Sub-Saharan Africa.

4. The purpose of social using media in Africa

In Sub-Saharan Africa, like in any other part of the world, social media technologies are used for different purposes. Perhaps sharing of information is the major reason why many people widely embraced social media in both developed and developing countries. Sub-Saharan African countries are not industrial countries, so their major occupation is agriculture. Therefore, it is not out of place that social media are used in disseminating agricultural activities among the farmers and as well among buyers of farm products. Before the advent of social media technology, perhaps the inhabitants were solely depending on town hall meetings, cultural gatherings, community meetings, traditional rulers, and friends to gather information relating to fishing and farming activities. As of today, information relating to agricultural activities is shared at an accelerated speed with the aid of social media. There are different groups of users and, their purpose of usage differs from one group to another. In Africa, most users were confirmed using social media to keep in touch with friends or to measure the impact of services, build an audience, monitor trends, and stay informed. Others used them to read and watch online news, interact with colleagues, teach and learn, and do business [9]. In Nigeria, for example, it was discovered that librarians’ purpose in using social media was to disseminate information and render services to library users. Similarly, in the education sector, African undergraduate and postgraduate students use social media for different academic purposes [10].

In South Africa, social media are used to develop online participation where people share, contribute and communicate knowledge and content on the Internet. The authors also revealed that the main academic purposes for which students used social media are learning, personal research/development, personal growth, and assignments [4]. In South Africa also, eNCA, SABC News, and Newsroom, Africa effectively employed Twitter to engage and keep their online audience abreast about the dangers, prevention measures, and containment of the coronavirus pandemic. Furthermore, the majority of rural-based youth who were active users of Twitter were always engaged and well-informed about the breaking news stories and spread of the Covid-19 pandemic [11]. The social media platform has become a site for the production and consumption of breaking news stories and a platform for the interaction between journalists and politicians”. Recently, Twitter is the most used online platform by various news media organizations to disseminate news and timely information to the users” [11].

Similarly, the 23 anglophone Sub-Saharan African countries’ national health ministries and infectious disease agencies disseminated COVID-19-related information through their social media accounts within the first three months after the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Over 86%of the African countries had a presence on social media; Facebook was the most popular, though Twitter contained more posts and information dissemination became more deliberate and increased significantly after the announcement of the first cases of COVID-19 in the countries under review. Awareness creation, updates, and news constituted the major categories of information that were disseminated, mostly in the form of derivative social media information before the announcement of the first COVID-19 case in the surveyed African countries” [12].

In the area of security, social media technologies used in Africa are a more or less double-edged sword. For example, the Government, particularly the security agencies used it to fight against crime and terrorist, and bandit activities while, in return, the terrorist and other criminal groups use the technology to advance crime and other menaces in the continent. Some scholars in their various research affirmed these facts when they reported that “terrorists used Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media platforms to attract, train and communicate with followers and potential recruits. Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and other violent extremist groups in Africa now use social media to share voice and video messages” [13]. It was stated that:

“Al-Shabaab uses social media to share propaganda, recruit followers, coordinate activities, and secure access to funding, particularly active on Twitter, YouTube, and its al-kataib news channel and also use Video communication to focus on recruiting foreign fighters and demonstrating military strength. In areas with limited Internet access, the group uses radio programming to engage with local communities. Boko Haram also uses social media purposely to share propaganda, attract recruitment and coordinate its activities. Similarly, the ISIL also uses a very wide range of social media. Today, reports revealed that ISIL has a preference for Twitter but recently shifted to Telegram in response to Twitter crackdowns ISILs emphasis on social media is linked to its far-reaching international support base” [13].

5. Importance of social media in Sub-Saharan Africa

The importance of the use of social media in Africa cannot be overemphasized. In Sub-Sahara Africa, there is no aspect of human life that social media do not have an impact on. The importance of social media has been significantly reflected in our social life, economy, business transaction, education, etc. In “South Africa for example, it was affirmed that social media came with an important development in creating online participation, where people share, contribute and communicate knowledge and content on the Internet” [14, 15, 16]. Similarly, the importance of social media in human culture and values is that it deeply transforms humankind’s culture and values. In just a few decades, social media platforms managed to permeate the society and ultimately changed their lives and play an integral role in the daily habits of people” [17].

The platforms also give people the opportunity to air their views on the problems and progress of society in evaluating successive governments’ policies” [18]. And due to its ease of use, speed and reach, internet spread and connectivity are a vital component and a driver for e-governance. Not only does it provide a platform for dialogue and engagement among citizens, government and businesses but also offers citizens an opportunity to engage in governance, including demand for accountability” [19].

In education in Sub-Saharan Africa, “social media has demonstrated its strengths in connecting several stakeholders, including students to each other, teachers to themselves, students and teachers, all the entities in the university, as well as external actors” [20]. “Universities are not excluded from using social media to engage with their stakeholders. Unlike most other brands, universities do have a diverse range of stakeholders which inadvertently influences their communication strategies, suggesting the need to recognize and embrace the benefits and opportunities that social media can bring as a tool” [20]. Unfortunately, very few African universities have communication strategies and are present on social media, whereas Africa has one of the highest rates of social media use, given that young people are strongly represented. For many African institutions, social media is limited to entertainment and friendly exchanges. The strategic communication aspect is strongly neglected. Social media is exponentially invading many parts of African society, and education is the most affected sector. This is because the majority of Internet users in Africa are mostly young, and this amount has doubled since 2010” [20].

Therefore, in conclusion, the review shows that social media network sites are very important to the region, particularly in areas of sharing health information, e-government, transforming culture and values, reporting news items and communicating knowledge.

6. The benefits of social media use in Sub-Saharan Africa

Several researchers reported that several benefits of social media cut across all human endeavours of life in Sub-Saharan Africa continent. The most frequently cited advantages of the use of social media by students is their ability to aid collaborative learning and communication amongst their peers and others in academia.” In addition, social media technologies are notable with the capability to aid digital literacy and information distribution. Other than communication, “academics who used Twitter refer to “information distribution” as one of the main advantages of using the medium. Its use has proven popular, particularly in academic conferences” [21, 22, 23]. Some other benefits of the use of social media in education in Africa include the following:

1. Providing platforms that foster communication and lifelong learning and facilitates access to distance and open education;

2. Providing e-learning resources and e-libraries [24].

3. Lecturers who impart knowledge to students also benefit from the use of social media by sharing educational materials, exchanging ideas, reading through colleagues’ research, getting updated on research trends and, most significantly, establishing their professional networks [25].

4. Social media founded for educational audiences creates a distinct opportunity for the audiences to learn and create a robust academic discussion among themselves.

5. Social media encourage personal connections that can lead to the establishment of new information and knowledge.

6. Social media provides the potential to aid more rapid interactions between libraries and their users regardless of where the users are located or how they decide to learn or access the library services and resources [26].

In the economic sector, Writer [27] also identified ten potential benefits of social media usage in business in Sub-Saharan Africa including the following:

1. Increased Website traffic

2. Boosts customer engagement

3. Leverage Various Media Formats.

4. It’s cheaper/decreased marketing costs

5. Identify target audience and reach out to new ones

6. New product/service introduction and education of target audience

7. More brand mentions/reach millions of customers with hashtags

8. Open communication (two-way communication)

9. It’s faster

10. Showcase organizational culture and values

It is evident that “previous academic studies have explored social media in the context of marketing communication strategies by universities to reach prospective customers, social media for brand engagement and social media for teaching [20]. In addition, it was summarized the benefits of using social media are increasing social interaction; providing access to information sources; encouraging creativity among individuals and groups; creating a sense of belonging among users; providing more choices to promote engagement among individuals and groups; reducing barriers to group interaction and communications and increasing the technological competency levels of users” [28].

In the health sector, it was revealed that the use of social media reduced costs, create ways for the patient to access medical workers and patient to patient interactions, increased access to tailored consultations, and improved chronic disease management among others” [29].

In a summary, this paper concluded that Sub-Saharan Africa has benefited immensely from the users of social media networking sites, especially in the digital economy, e-learning, distance learning, e-libraries, marketing and digital literacy. Other areas of benefits include; creating awareness of health-related issues, promoting social-cultural activities, enhancing communication, etc. that equally improve the style of living, creation of wealth and the development of the entire continent.

7. Challenges of social media use in Sub-Saharan Africa

In Africa, it is believed that the number of users of social media is on geometry increase but, there is still a very large population that is yet to use social media technologies due to one challenge or the other. The challenges may cut across all areas of life. In Africa, the common challenges prohibiting “the use of social media include the following: the high cost of subscription to Internet data bundles, high cost of social media enabled phones (smartphones), poor internet connectivity, low ICT literacy, low awareness of the social media for academic purposes, the apathy of friend to communicate academic issues, Poor knowledge of social media application software and sites” [4].

Similarly, other challenges were also identified militating against the successful integration of most social media for strategic communications in Africa. And these highlighted challenges are from the perspective of the university as they make effort to engage with their stakeholders” [20]. These challenges are:

1. The motivation to engage – “There appeared to be a lack of motivation by African universities to engage on social media. There are challenges with the content to be updated, the frequency, and the relevance of the content. Marketing to reach prospective students is often limited because the universities are oversubscribed. If universities, especially the public universities, do not market, they are guaranteed of recruiting their students” [20].

2. Content Creation – universities in the developed world showcase their facilities, campuses, and students having a good time around their campus. However, there is a challenge with African universities with regards to what they can showcase. There are funding challenges, and the facilities are often in a poor state which cannot be showcased. Research activities are limited [20].

3. The Technical Skills – [20, 30] reported the “lack of creative designs in African universities, highlighting the limited technical skills to adopt social media for effective communications with stakeholders”.

4. Internet Bandwidth – “Africa is still considered an emerging market, with the rate of Internet penetration still quite low as compared to her Western counterparts” (Wawira, 2017 as cited in [20]). “By June 2019, Internet World Stats estimates a 39.8% Internet penetration rate in Africa, contributing to only 11.9% of the world users” (IWS, 2019 as cited in [20]). This means that most people are still offline. While the universities are willing to engage, the challenges of Internet bandwidth inhibit the stakeholders, especially the prospective students who have limited access to the Internet.

5. Languages – Linguistic mismatch is another challenge in the process of strategic communications with stakeholders in Africa. In some regions of Tunisia and Algeria, students are taught in Arabic while some books are written in French instead of English, which is a universal language (Ndofirepi et al, Forthcoming). In the south of Africa, especially South Africa where the constitution recognizes official languages, the adopted language of communication can pose a challenge as they try to engage with stakeholders [20, 29].

It was revealed that the failure of healthcare institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa to adopt social media may be due to inadequate implementation policies, standards and frameworks among other factors [29].

Students in Nigeria and South Africa are facing the use of social media in education due to a lack of basic amenities, lack of conducive environment, lack of access to computers, the cost of Internet connectivity and a lack of enthusiasm on the part of instructors, lack of time, lack of access to the Internet, lack of interest in online groups, and the lack of the necessary skills required to use social media [31, 32].

In Ghana, it was reported that “social media sites are not monitored properly, there is the likelihood that some pornographic being accessed. Underage children could have access to such materials and this may lead to moral corruptibility in the children. Therefore, there is a need to intensify effects to restrict students to such sites by using passwords to prevent easy access. Furthermore, social media tends to make both students and teachers become social media addicts. Instructional hours are lost when teachers rather than teaching in the class are caught in social media milieu outside of the class” [33].

Similarly, in Tanzania, “the notable side effects of social media are, the posting of nude pictures, propagation and posting of hatred clips, defamation of people, posting of false and misleading information, just a few to mention” [3]. In a summary, this paper draw conclusion from the literature reviewed that, despite the increased use of social media platforms recorded in Sub-Saharan Africa, there are still a series of challenges prohibiting the integration, customization and effective utilization of social media in the various sectors of the continent.

8. Ways of improving the use of social media in Sub-Saharan Africa

There is evidence of increasing use of social media in Sub-Saharan Africa but, considering the large numbers of population size that is in the rural areas without Internet and technology infrastructures, and the challenges reported across the continent, there is an urgent need to fashion out measures to take advantage of Web technologies and social media networking sites to improve on the level of usage in the region. Improving social media usage in this paper implies the need to explore the available opportunities to use social media to address every aspect of life, security, agriculture, politics and education in Africa. Therefore, improving the use of social media to address the challenges confronting the region is the responsibility of the government and as well private bodies. The government must endure that, it provides the required infrastructures, create awareness among the citizens, particularly on relevancy and areas social media can productively use to create wealth, and make appropriate policies to create enabling environment for wide and gainfully use of social media in both urban and rural areas in the region.

Certainly, professional development of employees and educators through a workshop, seminars, in-house training and re-training, and conferences among others are seen as a panacea/measure to improve the challenges of using social media networks to disseminate information to library users. And, the regulation of social media use in Africa through policy is a prerequisite to improving the usage of social media [3]. However, the clampdown on the use of social media cannot unnoticed, particularly by the government of Tanzania. Therefore, the Tanzania Communication Regulation Authority was established to curb the usage of social media in the country. In addition, in 2016 the Cyber Crime Act was also established to cement the control of the usage of social media in Tanzania [34].

9. Conclusion

Sub-Saharan Africa, is an African continent situated in Sub-Saharan with a population of 1.1 billion. The continent has recorded a tremendous increase in usage of social media technologies since the advent of Web-based technology. The various definitions of the concept revealed that social media is a Web-based technology that allowed content creation, modification of content, dissemination and sharing of information, group discussion, etc. in accelerated speed globally. There are several types of social media (Wiki, Bloggs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. used for diverse purposes such as promoting library products and services, disseminating research outputs, sharing relevant agricultural information, exchanging ideas, etc. in society. The paper revealed several benefits of social media which include; decrease marking cost, accelerated sharing of ideas, easy identifying of target audience and reaching out to new ones, showcasing of organizational culture and value, etc. Despite these benefits, several challenges (poor ICT infrastructure, lack of Internet connectivity, lack of access to technology devices, etc.) were identified to be hindering wider and more effective usage of social media in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Some ways to improve social media use in Sub-Sahara Africa were identified to include: the provision of adequate and workable Internet connectivity, the need to create more awareness programmes on the benefits of using the social media network in the library and other institutions, the need to organize conferences/workshops as regards the importance and relevance of social media in all sectors among others.