Mobile Phones Transforming Public Communication in Africa

Abstract

The introduction of mobile phones in Africa is having a profound impact on modes of communication and how people interact. Mobile phones are transforming not only the way African people communicate but also the way they do business, the way teachers and students interrelate and the way news and entertainment are disseminated. Mobile phones have reduced or removed the physical distance between people who reside in rural and remote communities and those who live in cities. Part of the reason why mobile phones have been adopted in Africa is because the technology has many communication benefits. Indeed, mobile phones have filled a niche in people’s lives. This chapter analyses the everyday uses of mobile phones in different contexts by men and women, teenagers and adults, as well as urban and rural residents in Africa and other developing regions of the world. The chapter examines how mobile phones contribute to economic development and the factors that drive the uptake of mobile phones, as well as the various challenges that they have brought to people in Africa.