ABSTRACT

This production-based ethnographic study investigates citizen participation and news-making practices at the Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) group in Zimbabwe. The focus is on the participation of ordinary citizens in previously closed journalistic processes and their everyday news-making practices at a professional news outlet. The study is anchored on the concepts of citizen participation and news-making practices. Data were collected through field observations and interviews in 2018. The findings reveal that citizen participation in news production processes at the AMH group was enabled by digital technologies and organisational policies. However, there were several contextual factors, such as the gendered digital divide, that limited the potential for citizen participation in journalism. Citizen participation was convenient for the AMH group because it tapped into the free labour of citizen journalists in reporting hyperlocal news and in crowdsourcing for news materials, thereby cutting financial costs of hiring correspondents and maintaining bureau offices. The AMH group shifted from traditional to audience-centric news-making practices that relied on digital technologies to put ordinary citizens at the centre of the news-making through structured, unstructured, hybrid and digital practices. This is a de-Westernised contribution to contemporary debates in journalism studies about citizen participation and digital news production practices.

摘要

这项基于生产的民族志研究调查了津巴布韦 Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) 集团的公民参与和新闻制作实践。重点是普通公民参与以前封闭的新闻流程以及他们在专业新闻机构的日常新闻制作实践。该研究以公民参与和新闻制作实践的概念为基础。数据是通过 2018 年的实地观察和访谈收集的。调查结果表明，公民参与 AMH 小组的新闻制作过程是由数字技术和组织政策促成的。然而，有几个背景因素，例如性别数字鸿沟，限制了公民参与新闻的潜力。公民参与对 AMH 小组来说很方便，因为它利用公民记者在报道超本地新闻和众包新闻材料方面的自由劳动，从而降低了雇用记者和维持办公室办公室的财务成本。AMH 小组从传统的新闻制作实践转变为以受众为中心的新闻制作实践，该实践依靠数字技术通过结构化、非结构化、混合和数字化实践将普通公民置于新闻制作的中心。这是对当代新闻研究中关于公民参与和数字新闻制作实践的辩论的去西方化的贡献。从而减少雇用通讯员和维护局办公室的财务成本。AMH 小组从传统的新闻制作实践转变为以受众为中心的新闻制作实践，该实践依靠数字技术通过结构化、非结构化、混合和数字化实践将普通公民置于新闻制作的中心。这是对当代新闻研究中关于公民参与和数字新闻制作实践的辩论的去西方化的贡献。从而减少雇用通讯员和维护局办公室的财务成本。AMH 小组从传统的新闻制作实践转变为以受众为中心的新闻制作实践，该实践依靠数字技术通过结构化、非结构化、混合和数字化实践将普通公民置于新闻制作的中心。这是对当代新闻研究中关于公民参与和数字新闻制作实践的辩论的去西方化的贡献。