An Exploration of Social Media as Forms of Social Control and Political Othering

Abstract

The twenty-first century problem is of “Othering.” In a world beset by challenges, global, national, and regional conflict wrapped within or organized around group-based difference. The concept of “Othering” is used for social media platforms as the cause of many, if not all of the stresses of globalization, and the “collision of cultures.” This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of social media in the wake of political othering on the Zimbabwean political landscape. More so, political othering is viewed as exacerbated by the various manipulations of different social media platforms. The article uses critical discourse analysis to unravel the unequal power relations inherent in social media platforms as both users and receivers of the peddled messages. Much as public media platforms are known to propagate a certain kind of mediated reality aimed at agenda setting and ideological persuasion in the presumed receivers. Social media platforms are used to negatively propagate rivalry, especially among political opponents.