The Reconfiguration of News Work in Southern Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Santos, Phillip; Mare, Admire

doi:10.1080/21670811.2021.1974914

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The resulting lockdowns exacerbated existing inequalities. During the lockdown, as much as most of the society migrated online, inaccessible digital infrastructure made it difficult for those with impairments to access information (Santos & Mare, 2021). Since then, libraries have had to develop new ways to serve their patrons.…”

Section: Information Services To Persons With Disabilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Every “reader” his or her “book”

Awuor,

Kwanya

2023

KLISC JISKM

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Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan, an Indian librarian, and mathematician developed the Five Laws of Librarianship in 1931. Principles drawn from these laws undergird the design and delivery of library services to date. The second law states that “every reader his or her book”. This implies that libraries should deliver services and resources which are customised for the specific needs of unique categories of their users. The degree to which academic libraries in Kenya offer appropriate services to persons with disabilities (PWDs), particularly in the post-COVID-19 era, is unknown. This paper evaluates the services offered to PWDs by academic libraries in Kenya using Tangaza University College Library as a case study. Specifically, the paper assesses the preparedness of academic libraries in Kenya to meet the information needs of PWDs, identifies the services and resources offered to PWDs by academic libraries in Kenya, evaluates the usability of the services, and proposes a framework for providing information services to PWDs in academic libraries in Kenya in the post-COVID 19 era. This paper was developed using concurrent triangulated mixed methods research through which quantitative and qualitative data was collected from 11 librarians and 9 PWDs using questionnaires and interviews respectively. Due to the small number of the target population, a census was used. The findings of the study reveal that academic libraries are least prepared to offer information services and materials to PWDs. Although commendable efforts are being made, there are gaps in the conceptualization, design, and delivery of the services. There is a need for a framework to mainstream the needs of the PWDs in the bouquet of services offered by academic libraries in Kenya. The findings contribute to the discourses on the emerging role of libraries in safeguarding the information and communication rights of PWDs in Kenya and abroad in the post-COVID era. A framework to enhance information services to PWDs by academic libraries in Kenya is proposed.

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Section: Information Services To Persons With Disabilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Every “reader” his or her “book”

Awuor,

Kwanya

2023

KLISC JISKM

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“…Besides technological disruptions, the COVID-19 pandemic also led to a situation where newsrooms began to over dependent on digital journalism to produce, distribute and engage with their advertisers, news sources and audiences (Posetti et al, 2021; Santos and Mare, 2021a). Undeniably, platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube offer journalists timely news production and dissemination channels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The intersectionality approach is more relevant as it proposes that “gender cannot be used as a single analytic frame without also exploring how issues of race, civil status, history, and social class, in particular, come to bear on one’s experience as a woman” (Samuels and Ross-Sheriff, 2008, p. 5). It further brings to light analytical explanation of the ways in which heterogeneous groups (such as females) experience multiple forms of discrimination or subordination, which structure the relative positions of women in the workplace (Crenshaw, 1991). As professionals whose mandate is to act as a watchdog against wrongdoings in power dynamics within societies, online attacks on female journalists are not only acts of gender-based violence, but also violation of press freedom (Zviyita and Mapudzi, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The attribute of misogyny, which manifest through gender-based violence, result in males dominating females through gender trolling and sexual harassment (Crenshaw, 1991). This analytical toolkit enables us to analyze how multiple social categories intersect at the micro level of individual experience to reflect multiple interlocking systems of privilege and oppression at the macro, social-structural level (Crenshaw, 1991). This explains the importance of understanding the patriarchal context which shapes and influences multiple levels of domination and subordination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Same threats, different platforms? Female journalists’ experiences of online gender-based violence in selected newsrooms in Namibia

Zviyita

Mare

2023

Journalism

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Concerns about the disproportionate levels of online gender-based abuse experienced by female journalists when compared to their male counterparts have attracted sizeable scholarly attention in the last few years. Extant studies have highlighted that female journalists experience online forms of harassment such as name calling, body shaming, trolling, verbal abuse, sextortion, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, manipulation of photos, cyberstalking, doxing, hacking, receiving unwanted, offensive sexually explicit emails or messages, and inappropriate advances on social media platforms, in the line of duty. Although these findings are true in some of the newsrooms in the global North, there is a disconcerting absence of systematic studies looking at the experiences of female journalists in selected newsrooms in Africa in general and Namibia in particular. This article seeks to fill this lacuna by empirically investigating the extent to which online gender-based violence is deep-seated social problem in selected Namibian newsrooms. It deploys the intersectional approach to analyze the online gender-based violence experienced by female journalists in Namibia. Drawing our data from interviews with female journalists in selected Namibian newsrooms, overall, our findings suggest that cases of online gender-based violence against female journalists are still negligible when compared to other contexts, it is happening, nonetheless. This emerging phenomenon is largely underreported. Furthermore, it is occurring in an environment devoid of legislative, institutional, and newsroom-specific mechanisms aimed at ensuring the safety of female journalists. Namibian female journalists are facing unique online gender-based violence, which contributes immensely towards self-censorship and retreating from the public sphere.

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“…Journalists were required to negotiate tensions between sharing important information from official sources and holding the powerful to account. Doing so became more challenging as social distancing and lockdowns made it difficult for journalists to access their sources as it reduced opportunities for interaction and, conversely, increased the control exercised by sources through selective responses to e-mails, texts and messages (see Vobic and Saptorini, Zhao and Jackson's contribution; Santos & Mare, 2021). As Saptorini, Zhao and Jackson summarised it, ""The lack of physical contact between journalists and their official sources transformed into a practice that allowed untested and unchallenged information" (Saptorini, Zhao and Jackson, 2021).…”

Section: Introduction: Global Perspectives On Journalism and The Coro...mentioning

confidence: 99%