Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on the condition under which these social media have emerged as a means of political engagement in Burkina Faso through the role of these media in the social movement and in the struggle to gain political power

Paper long abstract:

The liberalization of public sphere those last two decades due to the resurgence of liberal democracy are two marking facts of the recent political history of Burkina Faso.

This pluralism of public space has opened up some space for political debate in the public sphere. This pluralism at work defines the rules for political struggles, new stakes and some strategies for the struggle to gain political power. In fact, in this political game, accessing information has become a major element and also a political challenge in this struggle. The production and circulation of information reveal the modes of functioning of the political space through the explanation of political meanings and an agreement on the symbols. The advent of new information technologies has also brought new types of communication like social media such as: Facebook, Twitter, Networking, etc. The appropriation of these novel tools of communication by politically engaged actors and by those who fight to gain political power features more and more prominently in the Burkinabe public sphere.

Taking into account this aspect, the paper focuses on the condition under which these social media have emerged as a means of political engagement in Burkina Faso through the role of these media in the social movement and in the struggle to gain political power. Finally I shed light on the impact of the utilization of those media on the burkinabe political game.