We analyse laws that were gazetted in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and South Africa to combat/ address COVID-19, and evaluate their impact on the practice of journalism in the region through the lens of securitisation theory.
While these laws were implemented to avert the virus, we argue in this chapter that some regimes used the pandemic to muzzle the media. gathering and dissemination of news, during the pandemic. These measures limited the conduct of journalism, i.e. African governments with the help of World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines crafted laws and policies which prohibited gatherings. The chapter examines the regulatory frameworks that were put in place by governments in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to combat the outbreak of COVID-19 and the impact it had on journalism practices in the region. Howbeit, the dangers of such unprofessional practice are admitted. Relevant literature was systematically reviewed, and it shows that access to pandemic messages no longer follows the conventional process of news making and consumption as many people now actively albeit, unprofessionally, participate in these processes. Underpinned by the Health Belief Model and Theory of Reasoned Action, the chapter offers an insight into how citizen journalism could be effectively employed to communicate the prevention and control of pandemics.
This chapter, therefore, examines the impact of citizen journalism and health communication in pandemics’ prevention and control. Thus, news about the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic is readily available on the Internet and social media. Citizen journalism has unlocked the information gateway and made pandemic reporting more viral and instantaneous, although with some shortcomings. The disruption in the communication landscape means that more people are now more conversant with the use of social media to create or access news. Thus, communicating health crisis no longer depends on the use of conventional media. It has further created a shift in technology that enabled individuals to create and access more news faster than before. Respondents also expressed high degrees of fear of exposing family members to the virus.Ĭitizen journalism has introduced new ways of communicating and engaging the public. The study found that despite high degrees of fear and anxiety among respondents about on-assignments and workplace infections, respondents still maintained ‘emotional detachment’ to attain objectivity in news reporting. The study conducted in-depth unstructured interviews with five journalists who had recovered from the COVID-19infections. The study set two main objectives (1) what workplace safety policies and protocol guidelines were established in newsrooms to mitigate the spread of the virus and (2) to what extent did journalists fear for the safety and well-being of close family members because of their journalism work. This study used affective-emotive theoretical perspective to examine how the possibility of contracting COVID-19 could affect or trigger emotions of fear and anxiety among Ghanaian journalists. News reporters and journalists felt the impact of these disruptions with many Ghanaian journalists losing their jobs. Ghanaian media houses also faced similar challenges and disruptions. Media houses have had to make drastic adjustments to the impact of challenges wrought by the pandemic on their operations. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected journalists around the world. The book cover and contents can be accessed here: This is a timely resource for academics, advocacy groups, media practitioners and policymakers working on crises and media reporting, not just in Africa but anywhere in the global South. They explore, among other issues, the politics of public health communication infodemics existential threats to media viability draconian legislations threats to journalists/journalism COVID-related entrepreneurship, marginalization, and more. The chapters fill knowledge gaps, highlight innovations, and unpack the complexities surrounding the media ecosystem in times of health crises. The volume extensively discusses COVID-19 but it also covers other epidemics, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS as well as "silent" health crises such as mental health-simmering across the subcontinent.
This is an open-access book that brings together leading scholars and critical discourses on political, economic, legal, technological, socio-cultural and systemic changes and continuities intersecting media and health crises in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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