Social Media and Election Campaigns in Sub-Saharan Africa

Within the last four years, election campaigns in some African countries such as Nigeria (2011), Ghana (2012), Kenya (2013), and South Africa (2014) have been followed by extensive commentaries on the appropriation of social media by politicians in these countries (Ogunlesi 2013; Mutiga 2013; Ndlela, Chapter 33 in this volume). On the surface, these regularly cited, high-profile instances of social media use by politicians in these countries give the impression that all the continent’s politicians are hopping onto social media platforms in massive numbers.