The Communicative Ecology of Social Media in the Organization of Social Movement for Collective Action in Ghana: The Case of #FixTheCountry

Abstract

This study seeks to unravel the media-oriented practices and media technology applications of the #FixTheCountry protests which seek to demand accountability from successive governments of Ghana. While acts by various governmental agencies supposedly worked to prevent a physical convergence due to the Covid-19 pandemic, their efforts proved futile due to the communicative ecology driving the movement. Using the concept of communicative ecology and a multimodal ethnography through observation, semi-structured interviews and time series analysis of happenings after the emergence of the hashtag, #FixTheCountry, the study found out that the diverse backgrounds of the participants of the movement notwithstanding, the hybridity of the communication technologies, especially the use of social media fueled the success of their interaction, leading to enhanced information and communicative ecology, giving them a formidable front both within and outside Ghana. It recommends that political actors need to embrace protest movements for collective action based on purpose, especially because of the complex intertwining technology that characterizes their formation in the digital era.