Katherine Wright
Who is reporting Africa now?
The changing relationship between International NGOs and Mainstream Broadcast Journalism in the Twenty-first Century.
As a former Broadcast Journalist for the BBC, I'm interested in the way in which International NGOs have shifted from being potential sources for journalists to being providers of audiovisual material to journalists either directly or via wire agencies. I'm particularly interested in the way in which this is affecting the production of broadcast news about Africa in the UK, as the vast areas which news bureaux have to cover, the lack of infrastructure, the multiplicity of languages spoken, and sheer costs involved make this a key area for the growth of this phenomena.
I will be researching 3 case studies of different kinds of African 'media events' in order to trace:
what is happening - the frequency with which this kind of material is appearing; the flow from NGO to journalistic outlet; and the type of material being used etc.
why it is happening - the different 'sense-making narratives used by INGOs, wire agencies and journalist about what they are doing, including conflictual or problematic narratives (such as how to cope with the issue of professional identity and how to negotiate boundaries between different roles)
the consequences of what is happening:
- are the broadcast texts on 'African news' changing?
- the lack of ethical or editorial policy to guide all parties when gathering, distributing and/or attributing NGO-generated material.