The book takes a critical look at claims, developments and initiatives linking Civil Society Organizations, new media, and democracy. Based on research carried out among urban political non-governmental actors in Nairobi and Lusaka, and observations of trends in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, the author argues that ICTs enhance the efficiency and operations of CSOs and make it easier for them to overcome ideological and other state obstacles but that states still remain powerful controllers of key instruments of dominance thus making real impact of new media minimal.

The book's introductory section defines the debate with a foundational piece on liberation technology and is then followed by essays discussing the popular dichotomy of "liberation" versus "control" with regard to the Internet and the sociopolitical dimensions of such controls. Additional chapters delve into the cases of individual countries: China, Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia.

The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) at the National Endowment for Democracy released its report titled Bigger Cities, Smaller Screens: Urbanization, Mobile Phones, and Digital Media Trends in Africa written by Adam Clayton Powell III from the University of Southern California. The report "traces the dramatic spread of mobile telephony in Africa and examines how this is affecting the news media landscape on the continent."