Papers by David Cheruiyot
The virtual 71st Annual International Communication Association Conference: Engaging the Essential Work of Care: Communication, Connectedness, and Social Justice, May 27, 2021
Digital Journalism , 2024
This article interrogates the level of appreciation of the informational ecology that informs tod... more This article interrogates the level of appreciation of the informational ecology that informs today's news production. through a scoping review of literature on media production in global conflict between 2000 and 2019, we assess how the study of non-journalistic actors evolved in scholarship across the human and social sciences.
The International Communication Gazette, 2023
Scholars have recently suggested that a peaceocracy is emerging in nations experiencing intermitt... more Scholars have recently suggested that a peaceocracy is emerging in nations experiencing intermittent conflicts. A peaceocracy is an institutionalised political strategyrather than a political systemthat aims to promote stability in states considered fragile. While scholars know how the press functions in a democracy, little is still known about how a peaceocracy shapes journalism. This article explores the Kenyan context to illuminate how the press co-opts a peaceocratic discourse and discusses its implications to the profession. We pose that a political consensus between the state and the press foments a strong peace-building discourse that challenges professional autonomy. Secondly, in a peaceocracy, the state takes the role of the guardian of peace and the press, a promoter of peace, both of which legitimise a degree of restriction on press freedom.
Journalism Studies, 2022
This article examines the post-award implications of international prize culture within the journ... more This article examines the post-award implications of international prize culture within the journalism profession. Through qualitative interviews with winners of CNN competitions, this paper specifically investigates how news professionals discursively construct the notion of excellence within the space of international award practice, and then how they subsequently perceive their roles in the post-award dispensation. The key findings show that journalists' understanding of excellence through awards is fluid and based on individual, institutional as well as professional notions of what constitutes par/sub-par journalism. These "bearers of excellence" perceive themselves as promoters of high standards of journalistic practice and champions of normative roles, such as the watchdog role, which fits into the broader mission of the specific institution sponsoring the awards.
Digital Journalism, 2022
This study examines digital media criticism-publicly shared evaluations and judgements of journal... more This study examines digital media criticism-publicly shared evaluations and judgements of journalistic text and actors on various digital platforms-as a risk to journalism. It specifically interrogates how journalists negotiate the diverse nature of criticism in digital spaces and in a comparative context. Through qualitative interviews with practising journalists, the paper identifies the following four main journalistic responses to digital media criticism: consolidation (ringfencing journalistic discourse); filtering (cleaning up journalistic discourse); rationalisation (acknowledging criticism or non-responses) and counter-discourse (counteracting antimedia discourses). These responses, referred to as forms of digital discursive resistance, show that journalists are both defensive against and accommodating of risks to journalistic authority, but usually aim to reinforce and expand journalistic discourse in digital spaces.
AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research
Despite the complex interdependencies in today’s digital news ecology, it is still common to stud... more Despite the complex interdependencies in today’s digital news ecology, it is still common to study digital journalism primarily by looking at how ‘non-journalists’ are influencing journalists from ‘outside’ the field of professional journalism. When it comes to how digital journalism is shaping non-journalists, we mostly find audience research or research on the effects of journalistic reporting. We argue that understanding journalism’s role in society today requires us to more broadly ask how imaginaries about journalism influence all kinds of actors that make up our digital public. In this paper, we therefore discuss how imaginaries about journalism shape the practices and identity of Mozilla, an organization best known for the development of the Firefox web browser. Mozilla currently explores collaborations with, or support of journalism, and we argue that this exploration is shaped by imaginaries about journalism. Using a Mozilla project as an example that seeks to support alter...
African Journalism Studies, 2021
To mark the 40th Anniversary of African Journalism Studies, it is important to reflect on its con... more To mark the 40th Anniversary of African Journalism Studies, it is important to reflect on its contribution to a subfield the journal has built. This essay gives a broad overview of the African journalism subfield's developments and addresses the journal's most notable achievements and shortcomings.
Media, Culture & Society, 2020
Should regional context overshadow theoretical contributions of a doctoral dissertation or an int... more Should regional context overshadow theoretical contributions of a doctoral dissertation or an international journal article? In this essay, we argue that expendable region-centricism diminishes the contributions of Majority World Countries to the media and communication discipline. We propose that ‘de-contextualized’ studies – which accentuate the theoretical, conceptual, or methodological import of research – could complement current efforts to decentre knowledge.
PhD Dissertation, 2019
Does criticism in digital spaces matter to journalism? Legacy news media face intense criticism o... more Does criticism in digital spaces matter to journalism? Legacy news media face intense criticism on social networks or blogs, while their accountability towards the public is weak. This dissertation explores the contribution of digital media critics and their criticisms to journalism, through qualitative interviews with journalists, critics and media accountability agents. The main findings show how journalists negotiate a variety of criticisms (from the rational to the uncivil) and critics (with varying expertise and influence) in digital spaces. The study is relevant today because digitality complicates the journalist-critic relationship as critical text from the public circulate in the same universe as journalistic text. What this means is that journalists must find new ways to cope with the logics of digital platforms, such as social networks and blogs. At the same time, news professionals must respond to pressure to conform to social norms such as equity in gender representation in the news, that comes through, for example, hashtag campaigns on social networks.
Global Media and Communication, 2019
From the 1980s, international organizations have devised strategies to develop national media sys... more From the 1980s, international organizations have devised strategies to develop national media systems to make them more diverse and inclusive so as to both exhibit and preserve local cultures. However, these strategies have not always been successful since information has become a commodity, because the interests of private actors prevent equal access to communication rights. This article outlines a perspective on media development from a rights-based approach, derived from a critique of dominant perspectives from international organizations with a strong focus on technology provisions. The article argues for media development based on the right to communication as an alternative to commodification of information. Through examples from Brazil and Kenya, the article illustrates that viewing communication as a basic right can lead to the inclusion of more voices in the public discourse. In addition, a model for media development is proposed, suggesting that the state and national civil society play a significant role in promoting diverse national public spheres.
Global Media and Communication
From the 1980s international organizations have devised strategies to develop national media syst... more From the 1980s international organizations have devised strategies to develop national media systems to make them more diverse and inclusive, and preserve local cultures. In many countries, these strategies have been unsuccessful and information has become a commodity as the interests of private actors prevent many groups from full access to communication rights. This paper outlines a perspective on media development from a rights-based approach, derived from a critique to dominant perspectives from international organizations with a strong focus on technology provision. The paper argues for media development based on the right to communication as an alternative to commodification of information. Through examples from Brazil and Kenya the paper illustrates that viewing communication as a basic right can lead to the inclusion of more voices in the public discourse. In addition, a model for media development is proposed suggesting that the state and national civil society should play a significant role in promoting diverse national public spheres.
Journal of African Media Studies,, 2019
Pan-Africanism, a concept that attempts to capture the essence of being an African, needs to be r... more Pan-Africanism, a concept that attempts to capture the essence of being an African, needs to be reconsidered in the age of social media. In this article, we examine how Twitter users negotiate the question of African identity through humorous hashtagdriven conversations. We specifically question whether a new kind of Pan-Africanism is emerging on Africa’s Twitterverse through the use of a popular hashtag in 2015, #IfAfricaWasABar. In our analysis of tweets linked to #IfAfricaWasABar, we conclude that Twitter provides temporary solidarity by engaging users in humorous exchanges regarding the sociocultural, political and economic issues that define the African continental condition today.
Digital Journalism, 2019
Research has paid relatively little attention to two aspects that are increasingly important in u... more Research has paid relatively little attention to two aspects that are increasingly important in understanding data journalism as a maturing field: (a) journalism today is increasingly provided by a diverse set of actors both inside and outside of legacy media organizations, and (b) data journalism has become a global phenomenon that cannot be fully grasped within national contexts only. Our article brings both of these aspects together and investigates the roles and practices of peripheral actors in European and African contexts. We engage with research on the role of non-profits and civic technologists in journalism to interrogate further the entanglements between civic technology organizations and data journalism. Following in-depth interviews with 29 practitioners of data-driven non-profits in Europe and Africa, we conclude that practices and roles of these non-profits in relation to journalism are similar, but transcultural and contextual influences shape how they complement or expand data journalism.
Comunicació. Revista de Recerca i d'Anàlisi, 2017
Bloggers criticizing the traditional media over poor quality journalism are being touted as poten... more Bloggers criticizing the traditional media over poor quality journalism are being touted as potentially influential instruments of media accountability. This paper questions whether in retrospect the old order of media accountability still has relevance in an increasingly networked media environment. The aim of the paper is to suggest a framework for understanding how bloggers criticizing the traditional journalism practice can be examined in a study on media accountability in the digital era. The essay interrogates the concept of media accountability and the significance of bloggers’ criticism on journalism practice.
International Journal of Communication, 2019
Much has been written about the production and textual features of international media portrayals... more Much has been written about the production and textual features of international media portrayals of Africa, but very little about how audiences on the continent perceive such coverage. This study fills this gap by investigating a campaign led by Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) to challenge CNN's portrayals of their country. Our analysis of the most prominent tweets, images, and users reveals the various strategies adopted by Kenyan audiences to criticize Western representations. This criticism, we argue, constitutes a form of metajournalistic discourse, which should not be reduced to a single story of digital empowerment. While contesting long-standing stereotypes and inequalities shaping global media narratives, this criticism recreates an image of Kenya aligned with a corporate project of nation branding that uplifts the voices and perspectives of digitally connected Nairobi-based elites. In response, we call for greater consideration of the interplay of global and local power relations in which such digital practices are embedded.
Digital Journalism, 2018
The prominence of “fake news” today has sparked an open challenge to the legitimacy of traditiona... more The prominence of “fake news” today has sparked an open challenge to the legitimacy of traditional news media. As a result, a series of independent data-driven organisations are emerging to fact-check legacy news media as well as other news sources. This study examines how these actors advocate and adopt journalistic practice and the perceived impact they have on news journalism. We draw our data from in-depth interviews with 14 practitioners working in three organisations—Code for Africa, Open Up and Africa Check—that are currently leading major data and fact-checking operations in sub-Saharan Africa. Our findings show that while these non-journalistic actors are at the periphery of news media as institutions, their operations, activities and goals are at the heart of journalistic discourse. In their data strategies, they emerge as data advocates and activists seeking to reformulate fact-checking processes within news media.
Journalism Practice , 2018
Popular criticism of legacy news media is argued to have the capacity to influence journalistic p... more Popular criticism of legacy news media is argued to have the capacity to influence journalistic practice and subsequently keep journalists accountable. Scholars give prescriptions of the kinds of criticisms journalists need, if they are to be kept accountable to journalistic norms and values, but this has not been matched with perspectives of journalists. Following in-depth interviews with 24 practising journalists in Kenya and South Africa, the study found that although journalists treat fairness,
facts and positiveness as “good” attributes of media critique, they are more inclined towards criticisms that show an understanding of news processes.
Conference Presentations by David Cheruiyot
Pan-Africanism, a concept that attempts to capture the essence of being an African, needs to be r... more Pan-Africanism, a concept that attempts to capture the essence of being an African, needs to be reconsidered in the age of interactive social media. In this chapter, we look at how Twitter users negotiate the question of African identity through humourous hashtag-driven conversations. We specifically interrogate the question whether a new kind of Pan-Africanism is emerging on Africa's Twitterverse through the use of a popular hashtag in 2015, #IfAfricaWasABar. In our analysis of tweets linked to #IfAfricaWasABar, we conclude that Twitter provides temporary solidarity by engaging users in humorous exchanges about socio-cultural, political and economic issues that define the African continental condition today.
In order to conceptualize the ways in which data is permeating journalism practice, practitioners... more In order to conceptualize the ways in which data is permeating journalism practice, practitioners and researchers often focus on the instrumental value of data and its incorporation in existing journalistic processes. Data journalism and its many manifestations attempt to make use of databases – usually open data but also large sets of leaked documents – as a form of reporting by applying data analysis and new forms of data visualization as a storytelling technique. However, while the need for more 'scholarly narratives' of data journalism is being acknowledged, literature on the subject still focuses on models and examples in the West. Indeed the focus on data-driven practices in North America and Europe are valid and illuminating on the new developments in journalism today, but they confine this emerging area to the old problematic of Western-centricism. Accordingly, the role of cross-cultural research, especially in the neglected Global South, is increasingly being acknowledged. We therefore argue here that there is need to integrate fresher perspectives and a broader overview of the wide range of uses of data by news organizations in journalistic cultures beyond the West. This paper aims to map emerging data-driven practices and evaluate how they are shaping news journalism in Sub-Saharan Africa. Departing from the theoretical epistemological and emotional implications of the datafication and affective turn of journalism, we conceptualize the context-specific underpinnings of data journalism while mapping the use of data in African nations. To do so this paper draws its empirical data from two case studies of 'continent-wide' data-driven projects: Code for Africa and Africa Check; as well as several ‘country-specific’ examples of data journalism. Here we study the instrumental uses of data, the actors that participate in the process of acquiring and selecting data, as well as the interactions and output within the media systems in Africa. Our preliminary results show that while data journalism in African nations is still at its infancy, there are examples of sophisticated and widespread use of data journalism in some English-speaking countries in Africa. Additionally, we see a salient participation of Western third-party organizations offering data services to news media organizations, heralding a celebratory rhetoric of data as an empowering tool to hold to account those in power. Hence, apart from the visualization of data and the storytelling techniques, the most prominent use of data in journalism is that of a “watchdog” function. An activist approach to data, serving as a fact-checking tool against governments and other media organizations, seems to be context-specific. Data however are seldom problematized in terms of origin, quality, or degrees of openness. This paper contributes to the existing body of literature on data journalism by expanding the study of data journalism beyond the Western perspective. We do so by mapping how data journalism manifests in Sub-Saharan African countries while taking into account the context-specific socio-cultural media system. Furthermore we conceptualize the notion of activist data journalism that advocates for the use of data as a fact-checking device and an empowering tool against the ruling power structures.
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Papers by David Cheruiyot
facts and positiveness as “good” attributes of media critique, they are more inclined towards criticisms that show an understanding of news processes.
Conference Presentations by David Cheruiyot
facts and positiveness as “good” attributes of media critique, they are more inclined towards criticisms that show an understanding of news processes.