PART 6. NEO-LIBERALISATION, DEMOCRACY AND THE NEW MEDIA

The conventional academic wisdom in the liberal Africa tradition is that democracy, confined to competitive democracy is at variance with African traditions or out with the needs of African countries at all stages of history especially the 19^th and 20^th Century and it is also in the 21^st Century. This makes democracy unsuitable for and unattainable in Africa. Democracy in Africa was therefore held to be a myth and not to belong to Africa.

Most Western writes have acknowledged that freedom was a custom unknown to the African people warning that the white man has to be modest not to export  a system of government that only suit himself but which the Media especially the New Media has succeeded in preaching to the Africans.

Real democracy is not intrinsically alien to African culture or un-African and in many cultural systems in Africa but it belonged to the Western. The above account should also not justify the human rights violation in Africa as has been happening in most countries and here again the new media has championed in guiding on the human rights and pointing out of any violation.

The future of real democracy in African way lies with the emergency of the new media where cities are able to updated in the current events and news of countries political system and this convergence of the new media should help the Africans to be the ones concerned about finding solutions to their own problems, instead of waiting for Western culture liberalization in decline with problem that comes with democracy. Africans should strive to have Africa at heart and this should not be mistaken to be blackness.

The redesign of the socio-economic and political landscape described above has impacted constitutional democracy across Africa. The neo-liberal dispensation has deliberately curtailed democracy to the limited undertaking of regularly scheduled elections. While the election of leaders and public representatives is an indispensible feature of the Western culture, it cannot be well established within the African culture. Yet a carefully grafted participatory politics, reinforced by ideological ratiolization is a new constant diet to the Africans fed by the new media tools.

The demise of competitive political choices from the west is being imported to Africa and this is carefully orchestrated effort to marginalized and disenfranchise the electorate from politics. Among the tools used to redesign a hollow West democratic practice is the funding of political parties by the multinational corporations. The sole mission of these entities is to control the political agenda regardless of political party in office.

SEE ALSO.... Impact of Media on the Quality of Democracy

The media and especially the new media triumphs in supporting this strategy by diverting attentions from policy and focusing voter’s attentions to the candidates’ quality. Voters and up endorsing an image not a platform.

Democracy is an expression of the nation-state. It is an expression of the role and power of individual citizens inside those states. An expression of their ability to engage in national choices to set direction of the nation on internal and external matter. However in the age of neo-liberal globalization the state has been rendered structurally incapable of effectively promoting the public good by the power tools of the new media.

Humankind may have had more bloodthirsty eras, but none was as filled with images of violence as the present. We are awash in a tide of violence representations such as the world has never seen. Images of equity choreographed brutality drench our homes and social spaces

CONT... PART 7. NEW MEDIA, CULTURE IMPERIALISM AND THE DIGITAL DIVIDE