AJIC Issue 28, 2021

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    AJIC Issue 28, 2021 - Full Issue
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2021-12-06)
    Articles on social media, mobile banking apps, cyber threats, ICT intermediation, e-government IS projects, m-learning, and cybersecurity policymaking.
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    Social Media Use, Disbelief and (Mis)information During a Pandemic: An Examination of Young Adult Nigerians’ Interactions with COVID-19 Public Health Messaging
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2021-12-06) Akingbade, Olutobi
    This study contributes to transdisciplinary understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic through an examination of perceptions of public health messages as consumed primarily through social media by a purposively enlisted set of young adult Nigerians. The research used focus group discussions and in-depth interviews to elicit the views of 11 young adults, aged 21 to 24, resident in Ajegunle, a low-income community in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. The study identifies the centrality of social media platforms to the respondents’ processes of meaning-making, and draws on Hall’s (1980) encoding/decoding model in order to bring to the fore their oppositional interpretations of public health messages. The study also identifies respondents’ varying levels of disbelief about the realities of COVID-19, their mistrust of the government officials conveying and enforcing decisions to combat the pandemic, and the propensity for the social media messages they consume and propagate to serve as channels of misinformation.
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    The Cyber Threat Landscape in South Africa: A 10-Year Review
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2021-12-06) Pieterse, Heloise
    The world is witnessing a rise in cyber-related incidents. As information technology improves and the reliance on technology increases, the frequency and severity of cyber incidents escalate. The impact is felt globally, and South Africa is not immune to the effects. The country’s fast-paced technological evolution continues to increase the attack surface within the cyber domain. The increased attack surface is confirmed by recent cyberattacks affecting well-known and established South African organisations. This article reviews findings from an evaluation of South Africa’s cyber threat landscape that analysed 74 cyber incidents identified as occurring between 2010 and 2020. The 74 incidents are categorised according to incident type, affected sector, perpetrator type, and motivation. It is found that the most common incident type is data exposure, the most-affected sector is the public sector, the most prevalent perpetrators are hackers, and the most common motivation is criminal. The article makes recommendations about how South Africa can reduce the risk factors in its cyber threat landscape.
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    Intermediation Capabilities of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Ghana’s Agricultural Extension System
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2021-12-06) Munthali, Nyamwaya; Lie, Rico; Van Lammeren, Ron; Van Paassen, Annemarie; Asare, Richard; Leeuwis, Cees
    Information and communication technologies (ICTs), specifically those that are digital and interactive, present opportunities for enhanced intermediation between actors in Ghana’s agricultural extension system. To understand these opportunities, this study investigates the capabilities of ICTs in support of seven forms of intermediation in the context of agricultural extension: disseminating (information), retrieving (information), harvesting (information), matching (actors to services), networking (among actors), coordinating (actors), and co-creating (among actors). The study identifies the types of ICTs currently functioning in Ghana’s agricultural system, and applies a Delphi-inspired research design to determine the consensus and dissensus of researchers, scientists, and practitioners about the potential of these ICTs to support each of the seven intermediation capabilities. The findings reveal that experts reached consensus that interactive voice response (IVR) technologies currently have the highest potential to support disseminating, retrieving, harvesting, and matching. Meanwhile, social media messaging (SMM) technologies are currently seen as highly capable of supporting coordinating and, to a lesser extent, co-creating, but no consensus is reached on the potential of any of the technologies to support networking.
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    E-Government Information Systems (IS) Project Failure in Developing Countries: Lessons from the Literature
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2021-12-06) Nyansiro, Joseph B.; Mtebe, Joel S.; Kissaka, Mussa M.
    E-government information systems (IS) projects experience numerous challenges that can lead to total or partial failure. The project failure factors have been identified and studied by numerous researchers, but the root causes of such failures are not well-articulated. In this study, literature on e-government IS project failures in developing-world contexts is reviewed through the application of qualitative meta-synthesis, design–reality gap analysis, and root cause analysis. In the process, 18 causal factors and 181 root causes are identified as responsible for e-government IS project failures. The most prevalent of the 18 causal factors are found to be inadequate system requirements engineering (with 22 root causes), inadequate project management (19 root causes), and missing or incomplete features (16 root causes). These findings can be of use to future researchers, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to identify methods of avoiding e-government IS failures, particularly in developing-world contexts.
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    A Sociocultural Framework to Analyse M-Learning Options for Early Childhood Development (ECD) Practitioner Training
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2021-12-06) Oosthuizen, Susanna; Roberts, Nicky
    This article, a contribution to m-learning (mobile learning) research, centres on the motivation for, and development of, a suitable framework to analyse m-learning options for early childhood development (ECD) practitioners. Grounded in a sociocultural learning perspective, the framework was developed as part of a larger study into the feasibility of m-learning for ECD practitioners in the Penreach professional development programme in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. Analysis of existing frameworks enabled the development of a new, modified framework to suit the Penreach context. Here we unpack the framework and explain its development. The new, modified framework aims to assist researchers, developers, and implementers by prompting consideration of five sociocultural learning features associated with m-learning in ECD, namely: device access, data affordability, authenticity, collaboration, and personalisation.
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    Cybersecurity Policymaking in the BRICS Countries: From Addressing National Priorities to Seeking International Cooperation
    (LINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, 2021-12-06) Belli, Luca
    In the concluding statement of the 2021 BRICS Summit, the bloc’s five members—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—pledged to pursue enhanced cooperation on cybersecurity issues, including by “establishing legal frameworks of cooperation among BRICS” and a BRICS intergovernmental agreement on cybersecurity. This piece briefly outlines the mounting relevance of cybersecurity for the BRICS countries, recent national policymaking in this area in the bloc, and the dynamics at play as the BRICS countries seek to further intensify and structure their cooperation on cybersecurity matters.