Ingrid Volkmer

Digital communication, especially social media interaction, has emerged as a key domain for civic debates specifically in urban areas of Tanzania. However, how policy-makers perceive these as opportunities for societal development is rarely assessed in research. This study will fill this gap through semi-structured interviews with policy-makers in Dar es Salaam and focus on assessing their perception of the role of social media in digital policy-making in society. Based on the study results, we suggest a new strategic approach for policy collaboration across African regions for building sustained policy capacity and to enable resilient public spheres as a core component of societal development in digital Africa.

Public communication is emerging as one of the key domains of today’s advanced digital spheres. However, the methodological debate of ‘public spheres’ is mainly based on traditional ideas of normative legitimacy and deliberation. In order to develop nuanced approaches for the assessment of new dense globalized structures of communication, it is important to fully explore the conceptual framework of public discourse in an interdisciplinary context. Based on the review of ‘breaking points’ of traditional public sphere conceptions, this article suggests a new communicative dimension of ‘reflective interdependence’ as a model for public communication, unfolding in fine-lined trajectories connecting citizens across all societies.