NEW ACTORS IN JOURNALISTIC PRACTICE: THE CASE OF A KENYAN RADIO STATION

Abstract

Abstract

This study interrogates changes that have developed with the incorporation of digital technologies in journalistic practice at a commercial radio station in Kenya. Prior research on journalism in Kenya had focused on print or multi-platform news organizations leading to a paucity of scholarship on exclusively broadcast outlets. Past studies of the usage of digital tools in newsrooms had also tended towards techno-deterministic or socio-constructivist theoretical approaches. The socio-technical approach used in this study considered human and material actors as having equal agency, thus extending the theoretical understanding of African journalistic practice. In the findings, the study established the entry of new actors and shifts in role centrality in contemporary journalistic practice.

Key words: digital technologies, journalism, online journalism, journalism online, journalism practice, news, news content, newsroom, African newsroom