Mainstreaming African digital cultures, practices and emerging forms of citizen engagement

Mabweazara, Hayes Mawindi

doi:10.1080/23743670.2015.1119486

Cited by 32 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…To gather data for this study qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted between 2008 and 2016 with journalists selected from mainstream newsrooms in three sub-Saharan African countries, Zambia (The Post 2 & The Zambia Daily Mail), Uganda (The Monitor & the New Vision) and Zimbabwe (The Sunday Mail, The Herald, The Zimbabwe Independent & The Standard). Journalists were the focal point for the study primarily because they are widely classified among early adopters and trendsetters in technological innovation across Africa (Berger, 2005;Mabweazara et al 2014). Beyond their professional roles, journalists are citizens who are also directly implicated in the everyday challenges and experiences faced by ordinary people.…”

Section: Methodological Overview and Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…technology adoption trends which resonate with the wider contemporary African continent outside South Africa and a number of North African countries, whose newsrooms have elements of First World digital technology adoption trends (see Mabweazara et al 2014). In many ways, therefore, the selected newsrooms can offer useful insights that are qualitatively generalisable across a range of sub-Saharan African countries.…”

Section: Methodological Overview and Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Towards reimagining the ‘digital divide’: impediments and circumnavigation practices in the appropriation of the mobile phone by African journalists

Mabweazara

2020

Information, Communication & Society

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The rapid proliferation of the mobile phone in Africa has often been celebrated in deterministic ways that blindly eschew the stark and intricate realities associated with the challenges of the 'digital divide'. Equally, very little attention has been paid to the sophisticated ways in which citizens (in association with mobile phone operators and manufacturers) negotiate their way around these challenges. Against this backdrop, this essay draws on interviews conducted between 2008 and 2016 to explore the experiences of African journalists in their deployment of the mobile phone as a journalistic and everyday communication platform. It specifically examines the localised challenges faced and the strategies employed to circumnavigate them. The findings show that, to remain connected, journalists as both professionals and citizens, generally deployed tactics hinged on their individual and collective agency as well as the creative innovations of mobile phone operators and manufacturers. Collectively, these strategies, as the paper argues, present an opportunity to reimagine the notion of the 'digital divide' as a multifaceted, inherently contextual experience embedded in the interplay between social actors, their immediate context of 'practice' and the wider social milieu.

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Section: Methodological Overview and Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodological Overview and Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards reimagining the ‘digital divide’: impediments and circumnavigation practices in the appropriation of the mobile phone by African journalists

Mabweazara

2020

Information, Communication & Society

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“…Data-driven journalism, though still at its nascent stages of development in most Africa countries is gained traction in the newsrooms. Research on Africa newsrooms has shown an increased practice of data-driven journalism (Mabweazara, 2015;. Some journalists practice data-driven journalism even though they do not consider themselves as data journalists .…”

Section: Forewordmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prelims

2023

Digitisation, AI and Algorithms in African Journalism and Media Contexts

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To my Late father Mr Jerome Dralega whose great sacrifices, wisdom and love are the reason for all my successes. To Late David Dralega, for unconditional love and for being the best big brother a little girl could ever ask for. To my children, Aleni and Amani, for sustaining me. I hope you are proud of your mamma. To all 'team Azungi' for being in my corner. And to God, for unconditional love and for being my rock and anchor.

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“…The top two ranked roles support research that has consistently shown that journalists in the East African region value both the traditional dissemination function and a social advocacy function that appears to be more present in countries with increased political and media restrictions. Despite these similarities, journalistic role conceptions tend to vary from country to country (Ireri, 2017) and may be shifting alongside rapid digital advancements which are changing the way that African journalists gather, produce and distribute news (Mabweazara et al, 2014).…”

Section: Journalistic Rolesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Journalistic role orientations in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya

McIntyre

Sobel

2022

International Communication Gazette

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This study examines how journalists in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya perceive their journalistic role orientations in light of the countries’ differing political systems, Rwanda representing the nation with the most restrictive political system, Uganda sitting in the middle and Kenya illustrating the nation that is home to the least restrictive political system. Data were analyzed from a comparative, quantitative online survey completed by 424 journalists from the three East African nations. Overall, the journalistic role orientations that emerged in each country align with the freedoms afforded by the political system in each country, revealing a trend that journalists in non-Western countries lean toward more interventionist roles (at times to the point of actively supporting their government), and journalists in countries with less restrictive political systems lean toward more adversarial roles (keeping their government in check).

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Mainstreaming African digital cultures, practices and emerging forms of citizen engagement

Cited by 32 publications

References 18 publications

Towards reimagining the ‘digital divide’: impediments and circumnavigation practices in the appropriation of the mobile phone by African journalists

Towards reimagining the ‘digital divide’: impediments and circumnavigation practices in the appropriation of the mobile phone by African journalists

Prelims

Journalistic role orientations in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya

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