NEWSROOM NORMS AND PRACTICES IN A DIGITAL ERA: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF NEWSROOMS IN NIGERIA (original) (raw)
2019, Benue Journal of Communication and Development
This research is an exploratory study to examine how newsrooms and the practice of journalism are evolving in the digital era, how digital technology is redefining organisational roles for journalists, changing newsroom operational routines, focusing on the skills and job roles that exist in newsrooms today. The study finds that newsrooms in Nigeria are changing into hybrid of traditional and online. Established traditional roles continue to dominate across all newsrooms but new roles are evolving. Nigerian journalists now have basic skills such as publishing across platforms, albeit they lack advanced skills such as creating data visualizations and web statistics. This reality suggests that most journalists in Nigeria are regularly using a narrow range of digital skills. Using social media to post stories appears a common skill in newsrooms but social media connectedness does not seem a priority because social media platforms are not being used in newsrooms to recognize audience's preferences and opinions, track receptiveness to stories, maximise distribution, and drive greater reach and engagement. In sum, we can conclude that newsrooms across Nigeria are adapting to the digital age but only a few of digital skills are used more regularly by journalists. Advanced skills such as using data analytics and web statistics to drive news agenda, cyber security, building and adapting digital tools/apps for newsroom use and podcast production are hardly used by journalists in any of the newsrooms, albeit technology is expanding skills required to perform newsroom jobs and redefining and expanding the role of journalists.
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