Zimbabwe’s Mainstream Press in the ‘Social Media Age’: Emerging Practices, Cultures and Normative Dilemmas

Mabweazara, Hayes ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0460-7814 (2014) Zimbabwe’s Mainstream Press in the ‘Social Media Age’: Emerging Practices, Cultures and Normative Dilemmas. In: Online Journalism in Africa: Trends, Practices and Emerging Cultures. Routledge Advances in Internationalizing Media Studies . Routledge, London, UK, pp. 65-85. ISBN 9781138689190

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Abstract / Summary

This chapter is an attempt to contribute an African, particularly Zimbabwean, perspective of how mainstream print newspapers are responding to the wave of changes spawned by social media. Using data drawn from newsroom observations and interviews with journalists, it explores how leading print newsrooms drawn from the dominant state-controlled Zimbabwe Newspapers Group (Zimpapers) and the small but powerful privately owned Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) are adapting to the interactive and participatory cultures associated with ‘social media era’. The chapter specifically examines how the adoption and use of Facebook is impacting on the way the newsrooms generate and disseminate their news. It explores how the technology is reshaping the way journalists connect and interact with their sources and readers, including its general implications for established practices and cultures. The chapter thus examines the professional and ethical dilemmas emerging with the appropriation of Facebook, as well as the challenges faced by newsrooms in handling the transitions, especially the management of volumes of user generated content (UGC) deriving from the platform.

Item Type:	Book Section
ISBN:	9781138689190
Subjects:	Communication > Journalism
Courses by Department:	The School of Communication
Depositing User:	Hayes Mabweazara
Date Deposited:	03 Mar 2017 10:14
Last Modified:	18 Nov 2024 15:06
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/2059

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