Examining online and offline community perceptions of social media activism in Zimbabwe: a case of a Facebook campaign against ‘child sex work’ in Epworth, Zimbabwe.

Abstract

Zimbabwean activism is migrating from physical activism to new media platforms. Noting these changes, this research seeks to investigate the perceptions of the online audience as well as local offline communities on the use of social media as a platform for activism, using Doubt Chimonyo’s Facebook campaign against child sex work in the high-density community of Epworth (Zimbabwe). Social media activism scholarship tends to prioritise seminal case studies such as the Arab Spring, while leaving out relatively small-scale case studies that show contextualised social media practices at the local level. However, there are multiple factors that pose as challenges for the Zimbabwean populace to fully utilise social media. These include the digital divide and retrogressive laws stifling social media use. In the context of this study the extreme poverty in Epworth is attributed as a main driver of child sex work in the area. Scholars have noted that efforts by both government and NGOs to curb the practice are not producing desired results. Consequently, social media activism attempts to fill the gap as exemplified by the Facebook campaign under study. This study contributes to the understanding of the perception of social media activism within the complex specificities a high-density community within Zimbabwe. More specifically it presents findings on, 1.) the principles and practice that constitute someone as a social media activist, 2.) the ways in which Facebook, as a participatory platform, mediates activism in Epworth (Zimbabwe), and 3.) if/how social media activism resonates with online and offline communities, using Chimonyo’s campaign as a case study. These findings are analysed in relation to Henry Jenkins (2006) theory of participatory culture. Data was collected through interviews, focus group discussions, comments from the online audience in response to the videos presented on Facebook, and literature from key scholars. Two focus group discussions were conducted with a sample of Epworth community members in order to gain an understanding of their perception on the campaign against child sex work. A semi-structured interview was conducted with Doubt Chimonyo as the creator of the campaign against child sex work with the purpose of establishing the preferred reading of the campaign in order to draw comparisons with the Epworth and online responses. In comparison to other online campaigns discussed in this study, such as #Thisflag campaign (2016), #ZimbabweanLivesMatter (2020) this study concludes that political campaigns have more potential to create resonance offline unlike social campaigns such as the campaign against child sex work. Considering that the campaign set out to involve the Epworth adult community in finding solutions to curb child sex work in the area, the choice of an online platform is questionable as it effectively excluded the Epworth audience thereby rendering this particular campaign not successful.