Digital Political Literacy? How Three Community-Based Organisations in Inner-City Johannesburg Miss the Mark on Social Media

Abstract

ABSTRACT Social media has been highlighted as a tool for social justice organisations to access networks, increase their visibility and thereby increase their power. However, using social media platforms for political ends requires both technical skills and political know-how. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s (1983. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press) concepts of desire and desiring-machines, this study used participatory action research, ethnographic observation, and content analysis to explore how three community-based organizations in central Johannesburg used social media to further their political aims. The study revealed that low digital political literacy hampered their political impact, notwithstanding access to technical skills, fluent English, and regular data access. Their social media posts noticeably failed to elicit interaction or to build their networks; instead, they experience similar exclusion and inequality as in the offline world.