Media Viability, Covid-19 and the ‘Darwinian’ Experience in Southern Africa: Glimpses from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe

Dralega, Carol Azungi

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-95100-9_4

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 27 publications

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“…Newsrooms across Africa were forced to integrate technology into their workflows to re-spond effectively to the crisis . The necessity for media viability amidst the ongoing health crises became evident as journalists and newsrooms sought ways to stay relevant and operational (Dralega, 2022). This change in news processing reflects broader global dialogues on technological determinism and urban fragmentation, where the influence of technology on society's spatial and temporal dimensions can be observed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Technologies and Journalistic Practices at the Time of COVID-19 in Africa

Jean-Paul,

Erneo,

Rosemary

2023

AJC

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This article aimed to show how new information technologies have influenced and innovated journalism practice during COVID-19 in terms of collecting, processing and disseminating news and information. The study was literature based. A literature-based study primarily relies on existing published literature rather than collecting primary data through experiments or surveys. The findings reveal that the management of new information technologies has led to the rise of infodemia, a phenomenon of misinformation that disrupts the informational ecosystem due to the prevalence of erroneous or misleading news. As a result, the media's role as a watchdog is compromised. Infodemia has become the most prominent dimension of this challenge, with traditional media struggling to maintain their status as reliable source of information amidst the influence of amateur journalism on social media. The traditional media plays a crucial role in covering COVID-19 but faces challenges in producing and disseminating accurate information due to the specialization of journalism and the shortage of specialists. The emergence of new categories of journalistic practices, including terrorist journalism, diversionary journalism, ideological journalism, and journalism as a business, poses a major threat to the credibility, trust, and timeliness of real news. New technologies, particularly social media, have filled the void left by traditional media and facilitated the spread of fake news and rumors. Despite the challenges, information and communication technologies have brought innovation to journalistic practices in raising awareness against COVID-19 in Africa. The study provides several recommendations based on its findings. Traditional media outlets in Africa are recommended to prioritize hiring and training specialist journalists to cover health-related topics, establishing measures to combat the spread of fake news and rumors related to COVID-19, continuing to adapt to the use of new technologies in disseminating information, upholding ethical standards in reporting, and prioritizing public health How to cite this paper:

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Technologies and Journalistic Practices at the Time of COVID-19 in Africa

Jean-Paul,

Erneo,

Rosemary

2023

AJC

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Assessing journalists’ language tone and sources used in reporting HIV/AIDS information in Tanzanian newspapers

Kanyika,

Siyao

2024

Information Development

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This paper assesses the tone of the language and the key sources used by the journalists when reporting HIV/AIDS information in Tanzania's newspapers for six years between 2002–2004 and 2017–2019 respectively. Two leading broadsheets published on daily basis, the Daily News and Mwananchi were selected. Content analysis and discourse analysis were used as the data collection and analysis methods. Microsoft Office Excel 2010 was used to analyze quantitative data whereas NVivo was used to analyze qualitative data. The findings indicate that the language employed was offensive, discouraging, and laden with complex terminology. Additionally, the study uncovered an optimistic and positive tone in the messages, yet the structure of sentences lack persuasiveness. Moreover, the findings underscore a reliance on international sources for HIV/AIDS information. The research suggests that the overall language employed was inadequate. It asserts that despite the usage of positive tone, yet the language employed lack constructive, informative qualities and not suitably framed for the easy comprehension of their target audience. Furthermore, the findings advocate for journalists to consistently seek improved language tone for conveying HIV/AIDS information to the public. Moreover, the current study proposes that media outlets should provide training to the journalists on the good techniques of framing HIV/AIDS information covered in Tanzanian newspapers for awareness creation. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on the journalists’ importance of using positive language tones when covering and reporting HIV/AIDS information in the newspapers for awareness creation in Tanzania.

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Media Viability, Covid-19 and the ‘Darwinian’ Experience in Southern Africa: Glimpses from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe

Cited by 2 publications

References 27 publications

New Technologies and Journalistic Practices at the Time of COVID-19 in Africa

New Technologies and Journalistic Practices at the Time of COVID-19 in Africa

Assessing journalists’ language tone and sources used in reporting HIV/AIDS information in Tanzanian newspapers

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