Claim OwnershipThe Digitally Native Podcast with Fungai Machirori
Subscribed: 4Played: 20
Subscribe
© Fungai Machirori
Description
This podcast explores what it means to be digital, and to live digital lives. Featuring a various personal reflections and interviews with experts, I will explore a range of topics and trends around digital and social media, and digital innovation.
37 Episodes
Reverse
My guest today is scientist, Bonaventure Doussou, who works with Lelapa AI which is developing AI solutions in African languages including isiZulu and Sesotho. It’s an episode in which we discuss some of the science behind AI, language technologies and the difference between large language models (like Chat GPT) and natural language processors (predecessors like Siri and predictive text).
In this episode, I am joined by Moky Makura, Executive Director of Africa No Filter. We talk through the importance of the organisation's work in shifting narratives about the African continent using storytelling, the diverse storytelling techniques it supports and how. We also go into a deep dive around the narrative change work of Bird, the news agency Africa No Filter supports to champion the production and dissemination of African content. And we also explore the role and influence of new social media platforms like TikTok on Gen Z.
Tune in!
In the second part of my interview with Kenyan digital and marketing strategist, Mark Kaigwa, we go into a deep dive around generations shifts in the Kenyan online space. Millennials, once the only generation with claims to being digital natives, have been usurped by Gen-Z. And ironically, they too have begun to adopt similar critiques of Gen-Z to those that they themselves experienced at the height of their digital output. We explore these dynamics, and many others, in greater detail.
On this episode, my guest is Ugandan feminist, thinker and writer, Rosebell Kagumire. Together we walk through the history of #KONY2012, a viral social media hashtag and online movement in response to the Youtube documentary, Kony 2012, produced by Invisible Children Inc, a United States based NGO. The film sought to bring a Ugandan warlord, Joseph Kony, to justice and garnered support from various Western celebrities and activists. But as it eventually turned out, the documentary featured many inaccuracies which Ugandans took to social media to redress. We talk through this moment and the role of Western social media framing of Uganda and Africa at that time, and today.
In this week's podcast episode, I am joined by Ranga Mberi, a Zimbabwean social commentator and curator of Sungura Central, a platform that he manages via Twitter/ X and on Tumblr, where he brings facts and history about the Zimbabwean musical genre of Sungura to collective public consciousness. We discuss classist historical perspectives on the genre, why he does this work and why the Zimbabwean public digital archive matters.
My guest on this week's episode is Brett Davidson, a consultant with many years' experience in looking at narratives, storytelling, agency and social justice and social change. We go on a wide and diverse conversation about the the role of social media in mediating what we believe about the world and look at this from a lens of current affairs with among other issues - an exploration of the ongoing conflict in Gaza currently filling social media space.
In this podcast episode I am joined by Mark Kaigwa, a Kenyan digital entrepreneur and commentator. We talk through the history of Kenya's digital presence, which remains one of the most powerful on the African continent and for which the nation has been popularly referred to as the Silicon Savannah. We also talk through the 2007 Kenyan elections, the emergence of Ushahidi and spaces of digital communality like the iHub and the renowned digital force that is Kenyans on Twitter, or #KOT. Beyond digitality, we look at other factors that facilitated Kenya's digital rise the early 2000s and 2010s.
In this second part of my interview with Professor Sean Jacobs, we explore more about the history of Africa Is a A Country, a blog promoting African thought leadership. We also delve into some narrative power dynamics about the platform, looking at why - for a long time - African diasporic voices dominated the platform's perspectives.
Zimbabwean influencers can largely be categorised along two lines; political influencers who engage in activism and politics and entertainers who thrive on comedic humour and/ or controversy. In this week's episode, I explore an outlier influencer - the late public intellectual, Alex Magaisa - who found the sweet spot between academia, acclaim and simplicity.
In this episode I interview Professor Sean Jacobs, founder of Africa Is A Country on the history of setting up this platform that has promoted pan-African digital intellectualism for over a decade. We talk through his impetus for setting up the platform as a South African given the often insular nature of South Africa’s content and knowledge production, and politics. We also talk about some precursors to digitality, like Dstv, which fomented inter-African cultural exchanges through the media.
Earlier this month, I moderated a session at the Internet Governance Forum - held in Kyoto, Japan - on African social media futures. My session panelists were Juilet Nanfuka who works with the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) and Tigist Shewarega of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). We covered a lot of interesting ground around social media use on the continent and policy implications thereof.
In this week's podcast episode, I am joined by Sherylle Dass, the Regional Director of The Legal Resources Centre, to discuss a new initiative called The Global Coalition for Tech Justice. Launched on September 15, the Coalition will seek to hold big tech companies to account for the spread of online disinformation, hate speech and manipulation. We talk through the work the Coalition will do from a global south - or global majority - standpoint.
WARNING: This episode discusses themes of depression, suicide and mental health.
In this episode to commemorate World Suicide Prevention Day, I am joined by Dr Monique Kwachou for a deeply intimate conversation about mental health and wellbeing, and her experiences of discussing her own mental health struggles online. We hope that this openness helps anyone who might be experiencing similar mental distress to know they are not alone, and to find someone to speak to to help with overcoming the negative thoughts and feelings that come with this. Please visit https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-suicide-prevention-day/2023 to find more resources.
In this podcast episode, Tiffany Kagure Mugo and I continue our conversation. We talk about the shifting dynamics of digitality, influencer culture, lurking online and what we see as our futures in the online world.
Did you ever play Wordle, perhaps even get addicted? I certainly did. In this week's episode, I tease out some of the reasons (the COVID pandemic being of those) for platform's rapid uptake and then look at some of the factors that have impacted its significant decline in use.
On this week's episode, I am joined by Irene Mwendwa, the incoming Executive Director of Pollicy.org a data-driven feminist civi-tech organisation. We talk through the work that Pollicy does with its focus on research around gender, power and access to the internet. We also dive into transitional leadership and the language of the internet. We also shout out to Elsa Majimbo and talking about thrifting at African markets. Have a listen to learn more.
On this episode, I am joined by Tiffany Kagure Mugo, co-founder of HOLAAfrica! - a Pan-Africanist digital platform focusing on archiving stories on sex and sexuality on the African continent. Tiffany is also author of the book 'Quirky Quick Guide to Having Great Sex' and has had her writing published by This Is Africa, the Mail and Guardian and other platforms and spaces.
We talk through the history of documenting narratives around sex and sexuality online from an African and queer standpoint.
On July 31, 2020, there was a mass call to action against the ongoing sociopolitical decline in Zimbabwe during the COVID pandemic. Few heeded the call for physical action, but a few days later, #ZimbabweanLivesMatter emerged as an online movement. No one could tell where and how it had developed. But it helped to shed important light on issues being experienced by many Zimbabweans at that time. How it disintegrated, however, is worth talking through and reflecting upon. In this episode, I unpack some of this.
In a second part to a conversation with Chenai Chair of Mozilla, we talk through, and unpack, many interesting concepts including data feminism.
Have a listen to learn more.
Last week was my 14th year anniversary on Twitter. 14 years! How time flies. To commemorate the event, I look through some pivotal moments in the timeline of Zimbabwean Twitter, or #Zwitter as it is sometimes called. Some key players and moments like #ComedyThursday, #263Chat, #ThisFlag and Econet's Free Twitter promotion all get mention. It's fascinating when you look back in time and can see how each moment built on to the next. Have a listen.
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States