Extant studies show that the advent of social media is reconfiguring news production processes globally. Social media platforms such as X, Facebook, and Tik Tok, are bringing audiences into news production processes in ways that promote participatory journalism. However, although considerable research has examined how social media is being integrated into news production processes in journalism, most studies have focused on commercial media and social media platforms such as X, Facebook and Instagram and overlooked WhatsApp, a social media platform that is more popular in under resourced communities. In light of this background, this study adopts a conceptual framework consisting of participatory journalism and technological appropriation to examine how WhatsApp is being integrated in news production processes in two community radio stations, MADIAZ Radio and Nkqubela FM in South Africa. The findings of the study show that WhatsApp is the main social media platform being used in news production processes in the two under-resourced community radio stations in South Africa. WhatsApp is being harnessed for news sourcing, production, and dissemination due to its pervasiveness and low cost. The findings further show that WhatsApp is re-configuring the relationship between journalists and audiences in the two radio stations by allowing previously passive audiences to shape the news production process.

Authors:
Mfundo Telson Radebe, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa
Blesssing Makwambeni, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa

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Posted by James Alexander Gordon

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00

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