ABSTRACT

Citizen journalism is the practice of an ordinary person or a group of ordinary people in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news information. These practices have been necessitated by, among other things, increased global digitization. Over the years, citizen journalism has been regarded as illegitimate, unprofessional, unconsolidated, uncoordinated and even ungoverned. This study hopes to contribute to the thin body of literature on citizen journalism in Africa. This ethnographic case research was carried out at Kibera News Network in Nairobi. The study sought to examine the extent to which their practice was consistent with the practice of journalism, how their practice supplemented and complimented the news and information ecosystem within their locality and how their practice is challenging the practice in legacy media. Key findings in this study indicate that although the citizen journalists were not trained journalists, they were aware of the expectations of journalism, their practice contributed to the news and information ecosystem in Kibera and their focus on some of their news and information production challenged the focus of news and information productions on Kibera in legacy media.

摘要

公民新闻是一个普通人或一群普通人在收集、报道、分析和传播新闻信息的过程中的实践。除其他外，全球数字化程度的提高促使这些做法成为必要。多年来，公民新闻一直被认为是非法的、不专业的、不统一的、不协调的，甚至是不受监管的。这项研究希望为非洲公民新闻的薄弱文献做出贡献。这个民族志案例研究是在内罗毕的 Kibera 新闻网进行的。该研究试图检查他们的实践在多大程度上与新闻实践相一致，他们的实践如何补充和补充当地的新闻和信息生态系统，以及他们的实践如何挑战传统媒体的实践。本研究的主要发现表明，尽管公民记者不是受过训练的记者，但他们了解新闻业的期望，他们的实践为基贝拉的新闻和信息生态系统做出了贡献，他们对某些新闻和信息生产的关注挑战了关注焦点传统媒体中有关 Kibera 的新闻和信息产品。