[Commlist] Call for Book Chapter Proposals: Young People and Mobile Media: Perspectives from Africa

*Call for Book Chapter Proposals*

*Young People and Mobile Media: Perspectives from Africa*

*Editors:*

Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam, Rhodes University, South Africa

Sarah Gibson, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

*Publisher:*Routledge (under the “Routledge Book Series - Advances in 
Mobile Communication”)

*_Context_*

Africa remains a continent in which the Internet and digital media 
penetration is steadily increasing. However, there is still a lot that 
is unknown and documented on the everyday practices and patterns of 
children and young people’s engagement with digital technologies and 
mobile media in the continent (Uzuegbunam, 2024). Research evidence 
indicates that using the internet and other technologies have become a 
daily routine for many children and adolescents from high-income to 
low-income countries. They are accessing the internet at increasingly 
younger ages, and mobile devices such as smartphones are becoming 
embedded in many children’s daily life, for education, socialisation, 
and play. Adolescents are nowadays often the primary adopters of mobile 
technology, utilizing social media as a critical avenue for 
self-expression and community engagement. The problem is that while 
several studies have been conducted in the global North and there is 
wide evidence pointing to how digital technology is impacting youth and 
children in these contexts, in the global South or the Majority World, 
there is a deficiency in research evidence and policy. With technology 
at the centre of human communication, home schooling for many children, 
and access to health information, the need for research around the 
digital connectivity and mobile practices of children and young people 
in both privileged and underprivileged backgrounds in Africa; and this 
has never been more urgent now that there is need for a dedicated book 
on this topic and from this geopolitical location. This scholarly gap 
needs to be filled also to inform policies, education, media literacy, 
and programmes.


Mobile technology and social media have emerged as pivotal tools for 
communication among adolescents in Africa. The growing accessibility of 
smartphones has facilitated a notable increase in mobile media 
engagement, enabling children and young people to access diverse forms 
of information from health, sociality, wellbeing, to educational 
resources. Despite the positive roles played by digital and mobile 
technology, challenges posed by mobile media, especially regarding 
addictive behaviours and health risks, continue to be at the forefront 
of scholarly discourse (Meng et al., 2023; Keles et al., 2019; Babic et 
al., 2017; Fortunato, et al, 2023). This juxtaposition of risks and 
benefits serves as a critical reminder of the intricate relationship 
adolescents share with their devices, necessitating ongoing research and 
responsive programming that reflects their lived experiences and 
contextual realities. As digital media becomes increasingly intertwined 
with daily life, it influences both social dynamics and individual 
identities among youth in these contexts. Moreover, in low- and 
middle-income countries (LMICs), disparities in access and digital 
appropriation can exacerbate existing social inequalities, particularly 
along gender lines (Magis‐Weinberg et al., 2021).


*_Mobile Media Studies_*

In outlining the emergence of the field of mobile media studies, Jason 
Farman noted that the term “covers a huge spectrum of technologies in 
the early twenty-first century and that these media are used in vastly 
different ways depending on the context” (Farman, 2015: xiii). The study 
of mobile media needs to attend to its technical, cultural, social, 
political, and economic dimensions (Hjorth, Burgess and Richardson, 
2012: 1). As Goggin and Hjorth suggest, “Whether as an artifact, a set 
of practices across material and immaterial forms of personalization, or 
as a researcher’s tool, mobile media has been an active participant in 
the dismantling of many boundaries such as public and private, work and 
leisure, here and there, online and offline, embodied and disembodied” 
(Goggin and Hjorth, 2014: 32). Key areas of research within mobile media 
studies focus on specific practices and experiences of gaming, 
smartphones, mobile internet, the mobile audience, mobile journalism, 
mobile music, mobile storytelling and creativity, and mobile media and 
location technologies.


The interdisciplinary field of mobile media studies has grown 
exponentially with a number of different handbooks published that have 
focused on mobile media (Farman, 2015; Goggin and Hjorth, 2014, 2025; 
Hjorth, de Souza e Silva and Lanson, 2020), mobile communication (Katz, 
2008; Ling, Fortunati, Goggin, et al., 2020), mobile music (Gopinath and 
Stanyek, 2014a and 2014b), and mobile socialities (Hill, Hartmann and 
Andersson, 2024). There has also been the development of mobile media 
methods (Hjorth and Goggin, 2024) and dedicated journals such as /Mobile 
Media and Communication/ (Sage).


In introducing their /Companion to Mobile Media/, Goggin and Hjorth 
position it as part of what they term “a critical and barely commenced 
project to promote, circulate, and engage with research on mobile media, 
across the many languages, settings, and cultures in which it is 
actually taking place now” (Goggin and Hjorth, 2014: 38). However, 
despite the global ubiquity of mobile media, they reflect that there are 
“few contributions and contributors from many important centers of 
contemporary mobile media diffusion and innovation” such as Africa 
(Goggin and Hjorth, 2014: 38). A similar gap is noted in studies on 
children, adolescents and the media, with  Dafna Lemish lamenting that 
whilst most research has focused on children from WEIRD societies 
(Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) there is an urgent 
need to elevate the voices of those marginalized and invisible children 
and adolescents in order “to understand their own experiences, 
motivations, aspirations as grounded in their unique cultures and 
circumstances” (Lemish, 516).


Despite the fields of mobile media studies and research on children, 
adolescents and the media, there is – to date – no edited collection 
that focuses on mobile media studies and young people in Africa despite 
the growth of African-centred media studies (milton and Mano, 2021; 
Mutsvairo, 2018; Willems and Mano, 2017). Given that “over half of the 
population of many African countries consists of children and young 
people under the age of 18” (Porter, Hampshire, Abane, et al., 2017: 1), 
this is a striking omission.


*_Our intervention and interest_*

We are looking to provide a multi-layered portrait of the ways in which 
children and young people in Africa (from 12 to 18 years old) access, 
understand, work and play with and navigate mobile media technologies 
alongside mediation practices by adults in their lives. We are also 
particularly interested in work that foreground the sociology of 
childhood research tradition (Critcher, 2008), which is a child-centred 
approach that takes into account children’s voices and perspectives 
about their digital lives, alongside the adults in their lives. There is 
a tendency for scholarly debates to focus on the risks and fears 
associated with young people’s use of media and technology in general, 
and so we see a need to shift focus from the concerns and discomforts of 
children’s technology use to a socio-cultural paradigm that is more 
encompassing (Uzuegbunam, 2024).


This proposed book is situated at the intersection of three vibrant yet 
underexplored research domains in Africa: the field of mobile media 
studies, scholarship on children, adolescents and the media, and African 
studies of children and young people. These areas have produced 
extensive international research (monographs and edited volumes), and 
each continues to expand in scope, theoretical sophistication, and 
emergent methodologies. However, despite this proliferation, there 
remains a notable absence of such publications and work in the African 
context. This book seeks to fill this gap – offering a timely and 
critical intervention that not only expands mobile media scholarship, 
but also centres African children as active and situated participants in 
the digital world.

*Possible topics include, but are not limited to:*

·Decolonising and Africanising mobile media studies

·Mobile media methods for researching with children and young people

·Mobile Internet and the Digital Divide in Africa

·Second Screens and Streaming Cultures

·Mobile Music and Listening on the Move in Africa

·Mobile Socialities: Young People and their Social Networks

·Indigenous and African Language Mobile Media

·Creativity, Storytelling and Mobile Media in Africa

·Young People and Smartphone Cultures in Africa

·Gaming and Young People in Africa

·Health Communication and Mobile Media (mHealth) in Africa

·Mobile Communication and Everyday Life

·Mobile Media Activism and Young People

·Mobile Media Misinformation in Africa

·Developing Mobile Media Literacies in Africa

·Teaching and Learning with Mobile Media, in and out of the classroom

·Researching with Mobile Media and Children in Africa

·Digital Gatekeepers, Mobile Media and Young People in Africa

·Mobile Media, AI, and Young People in Africa

·Mobile Media, Disability, and Young People in Africa

·Children and Young People’s Digital Rights in a Mobile Media Age

*How to submit*

Please send us a 300-500 word abstract proposal along with a 100-word 
bio of yourself. Email:(africamobilemedia /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(africamobilemedia /at/ gmail.com)>

*Schedule/Timeline*

30 September 2025 – Submission of Abstracts + Keywords + Author Bios

31 October 2025 – Notification of Acceptance of Abstracts

30 November 2025 – Submission of proposal to publishers, including 
chapter synopses and a draft chapter

31 March 2026 – Full draft submission by authors

31 May 2026 – Peer-Review

30 June 2026 – Submission to publisher

*Editors Details *

·Dr Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam

Chikezie Uzuegbunam is Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head of School of 
Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University. He is the Assistant 
Editor of /African Journalism Studies /and /Annals of the International 
Communication Association/, and a member of the editorial board of 
/Social Media + Society/ and several other peer reviewed journals.

·Prof Sarah Gibson

Sarah Gibson is an Associate Professor in CCMS at the University of 
KwaZulu-Natal. She is the Assistant Editor of /Transfers: 
Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies/ and a member of the 
editorial board for the /South African Review of Sociology/.

*References*

Babic, M., Smith, J., Morgan, P., Eather, N., Plotnikoff, R., & Lubans, 
D. (2017) Longitudinal associations between changes in screen-time and 
mental health outcomes in adolescents. /Mental Health and Physical 
Activity/, 12, 124-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2017.04.001 
<https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2017.04.001>

Critcher, C. (2008) Making Waves: Historical Aspects of Public Debates 
about Children and Mass Media. In /The International Handbook of 
Children, Media and Culture/ (pp. 91–104). 
https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608436 
<https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608436>

Farman, J. (2015) ‘Introduction’. In Farman, J. (ed.) /Foundations of 
Mobile Media Studies: Essential Texts on the Formation of a Field/. 
London: Routledge, pp. xi-xxii.

Fortunato, L., Coco, G., Teti, A., Bonfanti, R., & Salerno, L. (2023) 
Time spent on mobile apps matters: a latent class analysis of patterns 
of smartphone use among adolescents. /International Journal of 
Environmental Research and Public Health/, 20(15), 6439. 
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20156439 
<https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20156439>

Goggin, G. and Hjorth, L. (eds.) (2014) /The Routledge Companion to 
Mobile Media/. London: Routledge.

Goggin, G. and Hjorth, L. (eds.) (2025) /The Routledge Companion to 
Mobile Media/. 2nd edition. London: Routledge.

Gopinath, S. and Stanyek, J. (eds.) (2014a) /The Oxford Handbook of 
Mobile Music Studies, Volume 1/. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gopinath, S. and Stanyek, J. (eds.) (2014b) /The Oxford Handbook of 
Mobile Music Studies, Volume 2/. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hill, A., Hartmann, M. and Andersson, M. (eds.) (2024) /The Routledge 
Handbook of Mobile Socialities/. London: Routledge.

Hjorth, L., Burgess, J. and Richardson, I. (eds.) (2012) /Studying 
Mobile Media: Cultural Technologies, Mobile Communication, and the 
iPhone/. London: Routledge.

Hjorth, L., de Souza e Silva, A. and Lanson, K. (eds.) (2020) /The 
Routledge Companion to Mobile Media Art/. London: Routledge.

Hjorth, L. and Goggin, G. (2024) /Mobile Media Methods/. Cambridge: Polity.

Katz, J.E. (ed.) (2008) /Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies/. MIT 
Press.

Keles, B., McCrae, N., & Grealish, A. (2019) A systematic review: the 
influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological 
distress in adolescents. /International Journal of Adolescence and 
Youth/, 25(1), 79-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2019.1590851 
<https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2019.1590851>

Lemish, D. (2022) ‘Afterword: The Invisible Children, Adolescents, and 
Media and the Future of our Research.’ In Lemish, D. (ed.) /The 
Routledge International Handbook of Children, Adolescents, and Media/. 
2^nd edition. London: Routledge, pp. 514-516.

Ling, R., Fortunati, L., Goggin, G. et al. (eds.) (2020) /The Oxford 
Handbook of Mobile Communication and Society/. Oxford: Oxford University 
Press.

Meng, S., Kong, F., Dong, W., Zhang, Y., Yu, T., & Jin, X. (2023) Mobile 
social media use and life satisfaction among adolescents: a moderated 
mediation model. /Frontiers in Public Health/, 11. 
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1117745 
<https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1117745>

milton, v. and Mano, W. (eds.) (2021) /Routledge Handbook of African 
Media and Communication Studies./ London: Routledge.

Mutsvairo, B. (ed.) (2018) /The Palgrave Handbook of Media and 
Communication Research in Africa/. London: Palgrave.

Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Abane, A. et al. (2017) /Young People’s Daily 
Mobilities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Moving Young Lives./ Basingstoke: 
Palgrave Macmillan.

Uzuegbunam, C. E. (2024). /Children and Young People’s Digital 
Lifeworlds: Domestication, Mediation, and Agency/. Springer 
International Publishing.

Willems, W., and Mano, W. (eds.) (2017) /Everyday Media Culture in 
Africa: Audiences and Users./ London: Routledge.


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