Citizen Journalism and Democracy in Africa - An Exploratory Study

From the Introduction:"The general aim of this exploratory study was to analyse the nature of citizen journalism in Africa and its impact on the institutions and processes of democracy, including the media themselves. In particular, it aimed to assess how ICT projects – non-institutional and institutional – have shaped the practice of citizen journalism. More specifically, the study sought to:

• Analyse the context of the practice of citizen journalism in Africa, taking into account the legal and constitutional, economic as well as social-organisational factors that drive its adoption and growth;
• Assess the technological basis of citizen journalism, including understanding how new information and communication technologies (ICTs) shape, and become shaped by, human attempts at citizen journalism;
• Ascertain the level of uptake of citizen journalism by conventional media, as a way of establishing how citizen journalism becomes institutionalised in the process of adoption. Also important here is the process of technological convergence and the extent to which it seems to condition the manner in which media houses adopt newer forms of online communication; and
• Evaluate the democratic value of citizen journalism, as a way of appreciating the extent to which the initiators of various kinds of citizen journalism projects perceive them as agents of democratic change or transformation.

Of particular concern in understanding the democratic value of citizen journalism are the enduring and common understandings that different respondents attach to the concept of democracy, and how these understandings become linked to the project of citizen journalism. For example, it was important to assess how respondents saw citizen journalism advancing the following aspects of democratic citizenship: (a) ownership of communication channels; (b) civic participation; (c) power to hold public officials to transparency and accountability; (d) access and accessibility (e.g. women do not have as much access to the internet as men); (e) deliberation or thoughtful debate among citizens; (f) decision-making or action by citizens (e.g. voting as a result of debate); and (g) interactivity.

The study is structured as follows. Chapter 2 presents the methodology of the study. The techniques used to collect data primarily included personal interviews, document review, and personal observations, with interpretation facilitated by pre-determined and emerging themes.

Chapter 3 sets out the contextual framework within which citizen journalism occurs. Of particular relevance here are the implications for citizen journalism of the following processes: the globalisation of democratisation; the deregulation of the media landscape; the commercialisation of state media; the move towards privatisation; the communitarian agenda for the democratisation of journalistic communication; and the emergence of new communication and information technologies (ICTs).

Chapter 4 sets forth a conceptual framework for citizen journalism, outlining how normative media theory views shifts in institutional analysis. As such, the chapter analyses the institutional basis of journalism, and how citizen journalism emerges to transgress the institutionality of journalistic practice. Here, an attempt is made to define citizen journalism in terms of its types, participation, empowerment, and the place of technology in its enunciation and practice.

Chapter 5 presents case studies of the practice of citizen journalism in East Africa, the Maghreb, Southern Africa and West Africa, taking care to analyse its contextual moorings, technological basis, and democratic value.

Chapter 6 is a general discussion of the findings, namely the case studies, in view of the conceptual framework of citizen journalism. It draws out key trends in the nature and uptake of the phenomenon of citizen journalism.

Chapter 7 concludes the study by highlighting the need for more research into how citizen journalism can become more democratic and democratising, especially in an age when media institutions would seem keen on institutionalising the practice of citizen journalism."