‘Stretch and Split’ Journalism: A trending phrase in African journalism practices (original) (raw)
Related papers
Hybridizing journalism: clash of two “journalisms” in Africa
Chinese Journal of Communication, 2018
This article examines the influence of Chinese media on the journalistic orientation of African journalists who have been socialized in Chinese media organizations based in Africa. It employs the ideological level of Shoemaker and Reese's hierarchy of influences model, and is based on interviews with African journalists working in CCTV (later rebranded China Global Television Network [CGTN]), Xinhua News Agency, and China Daily newspaper. The article contributes to the ideologization debate on Chinese media expansion into Africa. While this debate has been predominantly framed through the Manichean prism of positive or negative, this article proposes a hybridization between a Chinese and Western journalism orientation on the African continent. This will result in a hybrid form of journalism professionalization in which Western and Chinese journalistic traditions coexist.
Global Media JournalAfrican Edition, 2009
Development Reporting (DR) has long been considered the cornerstone of journalistic practice in Africa. The high prevalence of Brown Envelope Journalism (BEJ) -defined as a practice that involves news sources granting monetary incentives to journalists -is, however, posing a challenge to DR. BEJ has signaled a shift from a traditional model of DR, where journalists strived to report any legitimate development news to a public relations model where news is heavily influenced by source payments. Using Zambia and Ghana as case studies, this study provides insight into journalists' perspectives on DR and BEJ. Additionally, the study delves into the extenuating factors that perpetuate BEJ.
Research on brown envelope journalism in the African media
This article gives an overview of past and contemporary research on the “brown envelope” phenomenon in African journalism and documents local terminology and appropriation. The research literature on the phenomenon is growing, coinciding with the alleged increase of informal incentives in African journalism practice. The article discusses how the research tradition has invariably interpreted brown envelope journalism in light of the professional and societal atmosphere. It is argued that the research body has clustered around four main topics: documentation of brown envelope journalism; consideration of the impact of poor economic conditions; analysis of the political and social influence; and discussion of ethical and professional concerns. Three directions for further research are suggested, encouraging further empirical, anthropological and philosophical studies on brown envelope practices with the view to interrogate the phenomenon as an exemplar of wider professional and ethical issues.
The three alternative journalisms of Africa
Much African journalism scholarship has had a critical stand towards ‘Western’ journalism models. The criticism has resulted in the submission of alternative African journalism models such as ujamaa journalism, ubuntu journalism and oral discourse journalism. The present article reviews a number of significant contributions to normative African journalism models over the past 50 years and argues that they constitute three major streams: journalism for social change, communal journalism and journalism based on oral discourse. The vital differences between these three journalism models are explicated along the dimensions of interventionism and cultural essentialism. The article goes on to enquire why the three journalism models of Africa, different as they are, appear to be in collective conflict with Western journalism paradigms. It is suggested that the dimensions of socio-historicity and professionalism best explain the conflict
Digging for Transparency: How African Journalism Only Scratches the Surface of Conflict
It has become a pattern to find academics, professionals and students of journalism bragging with the scope, techniques and dilemmas of investigative journalism. But there is one gaping hole: nowhere was information collated about the heroic contributions, and often the sacrifices, that were made for the profession by African investigative journalists across Africa. Writing a history or complete account of African investigative journalism is outside the scope of this article. But I am trying to offer here a series of contributions – some current, some historical – on the topic of safety of journalists, that will, hopefully, lay the foundations for further research, and also lay to rest decisively the myth that journalism which exposes social problems and criticizes the powerful is ‘un-African’.
Journal of African Media Studies, 2009
One of the main dilemmas facing journalism education across Africa is whether one can argue for a 'universal' set of journalistic standards while at the same time maintaining a culturally sensitive journalism practice. Underlying the dilemma is the question of whether there is a need to identify an ' African journalism' philosophy that is normatively different from its Western counterpart. In light of a newly started MA programme in journalism at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, this article argues that rather than seeing journalistic practices as a negotiation between journalism 'universals' and cultural particulars they ought to be seen as the interplay between the two. Following this argument, the article calls for a rethinking and distinction of the roles of conventional news media and alternative media.
Journalism in Africa: Modernity, Africanity
2005
The basic assumptions underpinning African Journalism in definition and practice, are not informed by the fact that ordinary Africans are busy Africanizing their modernity and modernizing their Africanity in ways often too complex for simplistic dichotomies to capture.