Protests have attracted considerable attention within the fields of mass communication, media studies and journalism, as they provide critical insight into how marginalised voices are represented in public discourse. Despite their significance, scholarly engagement with the framing of protests, the radicalisation of protest and forms of citizen activism remains relatively limited. Addressing this gap, the present study investigates how the South African weekly newspaper City Press constructed frames in its reporting of service delivery protests between 2005 and 2015, with particular attention to whether the tone and intensity of these frames shifted over time. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of 292 City Press news articles, the study identifies three dominant frames: governance breakdown and service delivery crisis; grassroots agency and transformative change; and protest as empowered civic action. The findings indicate that media frames and narratives in City Press remained largely stable across the dataset, with diagnostic, prognostic and motivational frames consistently reproduced during the presidencies of Thabo Mbeki (2005-2008) and Jacob Zuma (2009-2015). A key insight emerging from the analysis is the presence of a framing paradox within a single media outlet. On the one hand, protest is normalised, legitimised and embedded as a feature of democratic practice; on the other, it is simultaneously portrayed as a potential threat to social and political stability. These findings point to a dual role of media framing in the broader dynamics of democracy in unequal societies, where dissent is both enabled and regulated within the public sphere.
Community radio remains central to local public communication in South Africa, yet its entanglement with platformised media environments is poorly understood. This study examines how content from two community radio stations in Limpopo Province circulates on social media and how this circulation reconfigures local publics. Drawing on an integrated framework of circulation, community media and platformisation, the analysis combines a three-month sample of broadcast programmes, cross-platform trace data from Facebook and WhatsApp, and interviews with producers and youth listeners. Results show that only a small subset of broadcast content travels into social media, that circulation is patterned by genre and issue, and that listener-initiated clips and screenshots increasingly rival station posts as focal points for public talk. The study advances theory through the concept of mode as filter, which captures how infrastructural arrangements and everyday sharing practices jointly shape the visibility and authority of community radio in networked communication.
This study uses a nationally representative survey of Kenyan journalists (N = 1,022) to examine (a) the nature of online harassment, (b) the intersectional influence of gender and geography (rural vs. urban), and (c) its impact on professional role conception. Findings reveal that although overall reported online harassment is moderate, the abuse is severe, marked by reputation-based attacks and psychological intimidation. Notably, male journalists reported higher frequencies of certain forms of online harassment, while rural journalists exhibited unique vulnerabilities, suggesting that infrastructural isolation compounds digital risk. Self-censorship emerged as the primary coping mechanism. Crucially, regression analysis shows that frequent exposure to online harassment triggers a fundamental shift in professional identity: it is negatively associated with the "information-provider" role and positively associated with the "critical-advocate" role. These results suggest that online harassment structurally reconfigures journalists' normative function, potentially pushing African journalism toward a more defensive or adversarial posture in the digital public sphere.
This study examines how Ghanaian broadcast journalists engage with generative artificial intelligence in their newsroom practice. Drawing on Shoemaker and Reese's sociology of journalism framework, the study conceptualizes generative AI as a sociologically mediated tool whose use is shaped by professional norms, newsroom routines, and organizational constraints rather than by technical affordances alone. Using an exploratory approach, the study analyzes data from a qualitative survey (n = 38) and semi-structured interviews (n = 4) conducted between January and April 2024. The findings show that while awareness and use of generative AI are widespread, journalists integrate these tools selectively into specific stages of news production, such as background research, story structuring, and proofreading. Journalists reported that their core editorial functions-including verification, authorship, and final publication decisions-remain under human control.This pattern reflects journalists' efforts to preserve normative boundaries around editorial authority and professional judgment. However, the absence of formal newsroom training and AI governance structures provided by news organizations limits journalists' preparedness, leaving many to rely on informal or externally sourced knowledge. This research presents both the opportunities and risks of generative AI use in Ghanaian broadcast journalism and underscores the need for newsroom-level training and policy development to support responsible and contextually grounded AI integration in the Global South.By foregrounding journalistic practice within news organizations, the study contributes to sociological understandings of AI integration, showing how journalists negotiate technological possibilities alongside professional expectations, newsroom routines, organizational conditions, and the expectations of actors within the broader social structure production.
This article examines how playlist software reshapes music diversity and audience experience on rural community radio stations in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Focusing on algorithmic music rotations, the study combines interviews with station staff, playlist log analysis, and audience focus groups. Drawing on an integrated theoretical approach that links algorithmic gatekeeping, cultural proximity, and media localisation, it introduces the concept of "playlist code as cultural filter" to explain how software logics narrow or expand local genre representation. Findings show uneven support for local music and mixed audience trust, with implications for programming policy and theories of mediated cultural diversity.
