WHY AFRICAN SCHOLARS SHOULD EMBRACE INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA PUBLISHING IN THE 21ST CENTURY

There is no doubt that Internet and social media have revolutionised the way we communicate and socialise in Africa (e.g., Bhanye, et.al., 2023). In this century of of new and different knowledge production systems or cultures, fast communication, and new knowledge production, one is disadvantaged if one is not taking advantage of internet and social media. Unfortunately, many African scholars and their universities are still stuck in the 20th Century when one was considered credible if one did not publish in print media-base journals. They continue to ignore that even print media -journals of repute and even universities are publishing on internet and in social media. This means, then that most of our academics or scholars and their universities have not yet arrived in the 21st centuries but still believe they are Africa’s professionals and universities of the 21st Century and of the future. Communication is already dominated by the Weld Wide Web and Artificial Intelligence (AI)- two revolutions in the world of communication that have rendered reliance on printed journals really a thing of the past.

Although social media is a double-edged sword. On the positive side, social media has connected geographically separated people, enabled user-generated and interpersonal communication, enabled fast and efficient communication, empowered society with an unrestricted flow of information, and facilitated online learning and work-related functions. Social media also facilitates decentralized democracy and the political engagement of the masses. It has become a platform for Africans to demystify the “dark continent” narrative ((eg., (eg., Bhanye, et.al., 2023)

On the negative side, social media is time-wasting, creates an anti-social generation, and negatively influences African culture. It promotes cyberbullying, criminal activities, the spread of sensationalism, hate speech, xenophobia, threats to national security, and false information. Overall, social media has become a “valuable repository of information,” a “hyperspace,” a “new world,” and a “form of currency” in its own right. In essence, new forms of citizenship are emerging across the continent, placing African governments in a complex puzzle of considering censorship and regulatory control to curtail the power social media is granting to the masses. However, an increasingly networked society in Africa is not merely a potential threat to the continent; the increased connectivity also has positive implications for the continent’s political, economic, and socio-economic transformation (e.g., Bhanye, et.al., 2023).

Whatever, the case, we can no longer pretend that measuring the value of an academic can only be done using printed journals. Scholarly use of social media is growing and developing very fast (e.g., Ashraf and Mohamed, 2016). Thise scholars who have chosen to spread their scholarly value by exploiting academic social media have become amply exposed globally and are being read and cited.

So many social networking sites now exist (Boyd and Ellison, 2008). The best known academic social networking sites globally are ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Mendeley and Zotero (Bhardwaj, 2017). Bhardwaj (2017) has carried out a comparative analysis of these academic social media. I have personally used Researchgate.net and Academia.edu, and as I write this article, Academia.edu tells me tht well over 6000 renowned academics scattered all over the globe have cited my works. So, if I was not adequately exposed via print media in the last century when I was academically active, I have been adequately exposed this millennium via academic social media. However, many other non-academic social media have also variously exposed me to the reading humanity. I am far known as a producer of knowledge today when am retired but not tired than when I was active as an academic.

There is no reason why an academic, or even an academic institution, should continue being inconspicuous when there are social media platforms for him or her to exhibit his or her knowledge. Waiting to be published in a print journal will only suffocate the academic and expose him or her as an unknown quantity. In their article Wiechetek Pastuszak (2022) suggest that academic social networks metrics can be an effective indicator for a university’s performance.

In Africa South of the Sahara, South Africa and Nigeria have progressed fastest in the adoption and use social media in academic libraries. However, it is true to say that in most African universities there is still a lot of hesitation to use academic production in social media such as Researchgate.net and Academia.edu to measure academic success and reward those who publish in these media, however qualitative their work is. This is probably true in most universities of the world.

Yes, we need to embrace Internet Publishing, also called Online or Digital publishing, which is the distribution of a variety of content to build an audience. Internet’s rapid growth and development is, no doubt, transforming the way information is accessed and used in the world in general and Africa in particular. Content creators, readers, and viewers are moving away from traditional publishing (in books) and relying more often on online publishing because of print media’s limitations (Advisory Excellence, 2022), which are not few. For example, many academics have stayed with thei manuscripts for extended periods time because either they can not find suitable journals to publish in or because the suitable journals have severally rejected their manuscript for publication. It is important for all writers and creators of knowledge change is a fact and that interned now dominates change, which has transformed the way we create knowledge and information, share knowledge and information and consume knowledge and information. There is no going back.

One thing is true. Social media publishing can greatly enhance and proliferate communication and collaboration between intellectual and academic communities, particularly in the learning or interactive sciences of interdisciplinarity, crossdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and extradisciplinarity or nondisciplinarity where team learning and action are most valued than in disciplinarity and multicollinearity (which is glorified disciplinarity. We should, however, be cognizant of not only the opportunities but also the risks of adoption and use of social media for academic purposes (e.g., Akram and Kumar, 2017).

There is no looking back to the 20th Century. We are fast transitioning from conventional to Internet publishing mechanisms. Few doubt that Internet publishing provides a new way of knowledge delivery to educational institutions in the 21st Century and beyond. Internet is the means of distributing publications that conventionally has been done in a paper form. The Internet publishing industry has taken a number of steps to improve digital literacy and media education (BMDU, 2024). If you are a writer, you should be aware of thse steps. Whatever the case the importance of internet publishing industry is seen in the following (BMDU, 2024):

Accessibility: Whatever one’s geographic location or socioeconomic status, so long as one has connection one accesses information.

Diversity: Material published on line enables greater education and activism as well effective democratic sharing of information.

Interactivity; There is greater interaction with publisher and readers.

Cost-effectiveness: No printing or distribution expenses.

Individuals and institutions must accept that internet has not only revolutionised publishing but also the distribution and access to information. All people and institutions must take advantage and widen their world and worldviews, and escape from imposed ignorance.

Some university lecturers and professors will discourage their students from using sources they find or access over the Internet. But books have one problem> In a century of fast changing knowledge and information, they tend to get out of date even before they are published. I have books in print, which I believed would be published before the end of last year but they are still in the press!

It is much easier to publish information on the Internet than to publish a book or periodical in print. The latest publications will be far-more internet -based than book or periodical-based. Consequently, the students will not be up todate with the newer knowledge or newer theories. They will more likely come across old information and theories in old books and periodicals. Many open access journals online, such as the African Journals Online (AJOL), exist to benefit researchers, students and their lecturers and professors. Rather than discourage learners from accessing online knowledge and/or information, we should encourage them to read the materials critically and write critically. We should teach and equip them with the skills of critical thinking, critical analysis, critical reading, critical writing and critique rather than deny them tracking the emergence and growth of knowledge outside books and periodicals. They must belong to the 21st century rather than the 20th century.

Below I detail some relevant resources, which will definitely help you to know why it is no longer acceptable to avoid internet and/or social media publishing.

Further Reading

Advisory Excellence News Desk (2022). What is Internet Publishing? Everything You need to know. Advisory Excellence, May 23 2022, https://www.advisoryexcellence.com/what-is-internet-publishing-everything-you-need-to-know/ Visited on 25 February 025 at 11:45 am EAT

Akram, W., & Kumar, R. (2017). A study on positive and negative effects of social media on society. International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering, 5(10), 347-354.

Ashraf, K. & Mohamed, H.K., 2016, ‘Scholarly use of social media’, Annals of Library and Information Studies 63(1), 132-139.

Benford Rabatseta, Jan R. Maluleka and Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha (2021). Adoption and use of social media in academic libraries in South Africa. Sabinet, 13 Oct 2021, https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-liasa_v87_n1_a4 https://journals.co.za/doi/full/10.7553/87-1-1926 Visited on 25 February 2025 at 10:51 am EAT.

Bhanye, J., Shayamunda, R., Tavirai, R.C. (2023). Social Media in the African Context. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68127-2_366-1

Bhardwaj, R.K., 2017, ‘Academic social networking sites: Comparative analysis of ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Mendeley and Zotero’, Information and Learning Science 118(5/6), 298-316. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-03-2017-0012

Boholano, H. (2017). Smart social networking: 21st century teaching and learning skills. Research in Pedagogy, 7(1), 21-29.

Boyd, D.M. & Ellison, N.B., 2008, ‘Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship’, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1), 210-230. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x [ Links ]

BMDU (2024). What Steps is the Internet Publishing Industry Taking to Improve Digital Literacy and Media Education? https://bmdu.net/what-steps-is-the-internet-publishing-industry-taking-to-improve-digital-literacy-and-media-education Visited on 25 February 2025 at 12:29 pm EAT

Brian Kahin and Hal R. Varian (2000). Internet Publishing and Beyond: The Economics of Digital Information and Intellectual Property. The MIT Press, https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262611596/internet-publishing-and-beyond/ Visited on 25 February 2025 at 12:06 pm EAT

Carrigan, M., 2019, social media for academics, 2nd edn., Sage, London.

Chawinga, W. D. (2017). Taking social media to a university classroom: teaching and learning using Twitter and blogs. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14(1), 1-19.

Georgescu, M., & Popescul, D. (2015). Social media – the new paradigm of collaboration and communication for business environment. Procedia Economics and Finance, 20, 277-282.

Harrison, A., Burress, R., Velasquez, S., & Schreiner, L. (2017). Social media use in academic libraries: A phenomenological study. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 43(3), 248-256.

Jacob Oloruntoba Kutu and Febishola Idowu Kutu (2022). Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)March, 2022. The use of social media for academic purposes by postgraduate information studies students: a case of University of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa.

Johannes Bhanye, Ruvimbo Shayamunda and Rungamayi Chipo Tavirai (2023). Social Media in the African Context: A Review Study on Benefits and Pitfalls. Researchgate, July 2023. DOI: 10. 1007/978.3-030-68127-2_366-1 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/372382503_Social_Media_in_the_African_Context_A_Review_Study_on_Benefits_and_Pitfalls Visited on25 February 2025 at 9:32 am EAT.

Jordan, K. & Weller, M., 2018, ‘Academics and social networking sites: Benefits, problems and tensions in professional engagement with online networking’, Journal of Interactive Media in Education 1(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.448 [ Links ]

Kambale V. Muhongya and Manoj S. Maharaj (2022). The adoption of professional social networks by researchers at South African public universities. South African Journal of Information Management On-line version ISSN 1560-683XPrint version ISSN 2078-1865

Leon, J. Zhao and Vincent H. Resh (2001). Internet Publishing and Transformation of Knowledge Processes: Surveying the Transition from Conventional to Internet-based Publishing Mechanisms. Communications ACM, December 1 2001. https://cacm.acm.org/research/internet-publishing-and-transformation-of-knowledge-processes/ Visited on 25 February 2025 at 12:17 pm EAT

Leonardi, P. M. (2014). Social media, knowledge sharing, and innovation: Toward a theory of communication visibility. Information Systems Research, 25(4), 796-816.

Li, N. & Gillet, D., 2013, ‘Identifying influential scholars in academic social media platforms’, paper presented IEEE/ACM international conference, IEEE, Niagara, 25-28th Augus

Wiechetek, Ł., Pastuszak, Z. Academic social networks metrics: an effective indicator for university performance?. Scientometrics 127, 1381–1401 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04258-6 Springer Nature Link, 27 January 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-021-04258-6 Visited on 25 February 2025 at 12:56 pm EAT

Lupton, D., 2014, ‘Feeling better connected’: Academics’ use of social media, News & Media Research Centre, Canberra.

Meishar-Tal, H. & Pieterse, E., 2017, ‘Why do academics use academic social networking sites?’, International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 18(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i1.2643

Palmer, J.C. & Strickland, J., 2017, Academic social networking websites, viewed 14 January 2018, from http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2017/02/academic-social-networking.aspx.

Sheikh, A., 2016, ‘Awareness and use of academic social networking websites by the faculty of CIIT’, Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries 5(1), 177-188.

Thelwall, M. & Kousha, K., 2015, ‘ResearchGate: Disseminating, communicating, and measuring scholarship?’, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 66(5), 876-889. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23236

Victor O. Idiedo and Bassil Ebiwolate Posigha (2024). Perspective Chapter: The Use of Social Media in Sharing Information in Sub-Saharan Africa Region – The Types, Purpose, Benefits and Challenges. Open access peer-reviewed chapter. IN: Book Shafizan Mohamed and Shazleen Mohamed (Editors). Social Media -Opportunities and Risks. https://www.intechopen.com/books/11437 Visited on 25 February 025 at 11:13 am EAT.

Yan, W. & Zhang, Y., 2018, ‘Research universities on the ResearchGate social networking site: An examination of institutional differences, research activity level, and social networks formed’, Journal of Informetrics 12(1), 385-400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2017.08.002