The Impact of New Media on Journalism Practice in Tanzania

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology

Advancement in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are revolutionizing Development Journalism (DJ) into an effective strategy for building competitive economies globally. However, many countries in Africa including Tanzania are slow in tapping potentials of ICT for development journalism. Digital penetration in the form of the Internet and social media are changing the way in which journalists are mobilizing and engaging communities in journalism practises, a key strategy for a competitive digitalised economy. This paper was guided by Development Communication Theory and Diffusion of Innovation Theory to explore the use of online social media by journalists in Tanzania to practice development journalism. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, this paper analyses risks and benefits of online social media platforms in contributing to national development goals. A total of 15 social media journalists and managers from Mwananchi Digital, Ayo TV and Azam TV gave the...

2019

The emerge and uses of social media in the recent years, has rapidly developed to majority of journalists around Africa including Zanzibar, the energetic participation of the professional journalists in this technological innovation has widened space and impacted ethical principles of journalism as a professional and raised the doubt to the public on trusting the mainstream media journalists in Zanzibar. This article discussed the findings on how far the emerging of social media (Facebook) affect journalistic ethics observance notable 'truthfulness, objectivism, balance and fairness and accuracy' as a fundamental tool for the mainstream media journalism and how journalists used social media in their work. About 53.0% are on the views that social media affect principle of fairness, 46.34% journalists didn't observe ethical principle of objectivism in their reports, 66.3% of broadcasting journalists reports contained bias, 43.4% of the reports has less of facts check-up wh...

PONTE International Scientific Researchs Journal, 2019

The growth of the Internet and World Wide Web has brought about newest medium for journalism, otherwise called online or cyber journalism. This development has engendered inevitable revolutions in both the practice and training of journalism. This development, for instance, has brought about certain phenomena which include Convergence. For instance, newspaper websites now include video, podcasts, blogs and slideshows. These developments have triggered up new challenges for the journalist who must be well acquainted with the new media, and for the journalism teachers and schools who must be up-to-date in knowledge, resources and facilities. This new development has also challenged the corpus of mass communication theories, to the extent that some sorts of reviews have been attempted. This paper considers the foregoing, and specifically examines how the digital developments have impacted on both the formal and informal training of journalism. The paper observes that while many journalism schools in Africa are yet to grasp the full import of the new phenomena, a certain few are doing pretty well. The paper also acknowledges the informal training in ICT Journalism being provided on platforms such as

Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies

In July 2016, the budget padding scandal hit the Nigerian airwaves. Abdulmumin Jibrin had accused Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and House of Rep officers of trying to appropriate N40 Billion Naira through padding. Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin, Former Chairman of House Appropriations Committee and member, representing Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency, Kano State, made these allegations against the House of Representatives and its leaders, through his Twitter handle and more recently using his email and even Facebook accounts. The media war started after Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, announced the sack of Jibrin as the chairman, house committee on appropriation on Wednesday 20 th July. Jibrin was immediately replaced with Mustapha Dawaki Bala and Jibrin, in reaction, took to his Twitter page to make the wild allegations the next day and had since continued to use the social media for right to reply to post his own version of the story. The budget padding scandal cited above that erupted recently in the country is illustrative of one of the different ways the new media have influenced how news is gathered and reported in Nigeria and many other countries. Before the advent of the new media a reporter was given a lead or went out to find a story. Today many stories are received third hand through Facebook accounts, Twitter, Digs or Instagram, so that by the time a story is assigned to the reporter the story in some form or another is already out there in the social media. As these changes occur they continue to generate debates on the extent of effects on journalism practice in three key areas: nature of journalists; nature of news gathering and the way news is disseminated (Veglisetal,2005; Hermans ,2009; Fenton, 2010; Olakitan, 2012). Prevalent discourses on the issue, seem polarized as to the extent of effect of the new media on media practice, audience preference and audience use. And tend to often generalize these effects, muffling the differences arising from regional specificities from divergent cultures. It is

Media, Culture & Society, 2020

The article discusses the role of social media in relation to the traditional journalistic sphere in Uganda. Through an analysis of how journalists in three Ugandan newspapers use social media in their daily work, the article discusses how social media affect conventional sourcing practices, reportage and professional norms. The article is particularly interested in how Facebook and Twitter serve as alternative channels through which sources with less access to traditional means of communication get their message(s) across to journalists. The findings are discussed in light of the present development of social media legislation in Uganda. The discussions feed into a larger reflection on social media’s potential to create avenues of access in a semi-democratic setting where attempts to curtail media freedom and freedom of expression are frequent.

African Communication Research Journal, 2020

This study set out to quantify the value of social media usage among journalists in Zambia and Tanzania. Using surveys conducted among journalists in both Zambia and Tanzania, findings suggest that most reporters from the two countries place more value on Facebook than any other social platform such as WhatsApp and Twitter as it relates to professional practice. Individual journalists' value perception suggests that unlike Facebook, the value of other social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Twitter were respectively tied to their usage in querying friends and sharing 'fake news' for entertainment purposes. While Facebook was also used for querying friends, most journalists significantly tied its value to activities associated to journalistic practices, such as contacting sources and performing research for a story.

UMMA-The Journal of the Contemporary Literature and Creative Arts 9 (1), 2022

Ineffective media engagement of ordinary people in development processes has emerged to be one of the reasons behind slow socioeconomic progress in Tanzania. This paper assesses the practice of Development Journalism (DJ) as a tool for mobilising the participation of ordinary people in development programmes. Specifically, the study targets emerging social media platforms, which facilitates the sharing of user-generated content to be shared online. It explores the extent to which YouTube online TV in Tanzania practices development journalism. The fast penetration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) evolves a media convergence that provides golden opportunities for fostering development journalism through social media (SM) platforms. It addresses one question: To what extent do SM support the growth of DJ in Tanzania? Using quantitative research methods, the study collected data from study a sample of 270 published stories over three months from three YouTube online TV; Mwananchi Digital, Ayo TV and Azam TV. The stories from the online SM platforms associated with the YouTube were measured using Development Journalism principles and indicators as developed by internationally-renowned media academics to determine their DJ status. Historical and political factors affecting DJ have been reviewed and analysed. Key finding reveals low rate of Development Journalism practice through ICTs-powered social media platforms. In fact, the overall number of stories with Development Journalism status is fewer than those with non-Development Journalism status was. Economic, technology and policy actions must complement DJ efforts including training to support the growth of DJ in Tanzania.

The Percieved Impact of Social Media on Mainstream Journalism practices, 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of Social Media on mainstream journalism practices focusing on Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) and Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC). Mixed research methods were adopted for the study where survey questionnaire and in-depth interview were used as specific methods for gathering the data. The explanatory sequential mixed methods was deployed to design the research. The data obtained and subsequent data analysis certainly emphasized the fact that social media has had, and continues to have a strong influence on the field of journalism and practitioners’. The notion of the journalist has moved so significantly away from aspects of its mainstream media basis because of favorability social media platform for interactivity with the audience and potential sources. A total sample of 283 journalists was randomly selected to fill the survey questionnaire. Whereas, 13 media professionals like media managers, editors and senior reporters were purposefully selected for the in-depth interview to support the findings from the questionnaire. As a result, the findings from these sources of data revealed that Journalists’ rated Social Media as very important in sourcing, processing, disseminating and getting feedback for local news. Similarly, Social Media have impacted on the mainstream journalistic practice to the level of creating new practices. Journalists used social media tools in their daily workflows, the access they each had to suitably reliable computing technologies remains an arguable issue within media organizations. Media organizations were converging and increasingly encouraging the use of social media in the daily work practices and routines of their employees. Both EBC and FBC directly linked to social media to broadcast online in addition to mainstreaming through Television and Radio. This indicates that the impact of internet technology on mainstream media. Unfortunately, both media institutions begun outlet their news with social media tools to attract audience worldwide. Therefore, it is recommended that proper training, attention and leadership needed both from the Media houses, journalists, researchers, educational institutions as well as policy makers.

AFRREV IJAH: An International Journal of Arts and Humanities, 2013

The emergence of New Media has brought enormous changes to the practice of journalism. Many journalists around the world now adopt these media forms in their daily operations, especially in the areas of research, information gathering and dissemination. With the financial constraints faced by most journalist in developing nations, no one knows whether Nigerian journalists have embraced New Media forms in the practice of their profession. This is the thrust of the study. It is aimed at finding out the percentage of journalists in South Eastern Nigeria who make use of New Media forms, the new media forms they use and the factors that promote or mitigate against the use of New Media forms by journalists. Using survey as the research design, purposive sampling technique was used in studying 300 registered journalists in South East Nigeria. Questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection while Likert scale was used in analyzing the generated data. Findings revealed that few jour...

The internet was first used in 1985 and since then it has led to certain significant innovations in many fields around the world. These innovations area also valid for journalism. The internet has transformed both Professional practices and publishing methods in journalism. In our study, we analyzed the transformative impacts of the internet on journalism practices. In accordance with the study, a questionnaire on internet usage habits was conducted to a group of local journalists working in Konya. There are 15 local newspapers active in the center of Konya province according to the 2016 database registration of Konya Press Advertising Agency. Besides there are 33 newspapers in nearby towns of Konya. While the newspapers located in the city center have 225 journalists, the ones in nearby towns have 100 in total. 42 of the journalists who applied the questionnaire have closely experienced some professional transformations while working actively in the press. The survey was conducted to measure how often and to what extent journalists used the internet in the process of making and publishing news. Throughout this survey, innovations that the internet brought to journalism was questioned and the internet`s impact on the journalism of tomorrow was reported. The journalists conveyed their internet experiences about the profession and we analyzed how journalism was changed by the internet and new technologies.