Factors influencing journalistic roles during COVID-19 pandemic: A study of African diaspora journalists and their media in the United Kingdom and Germany

Abstract

The challenges of covering COVID-19 have been the focus of scholarly attention since the pandemic was announced by the World Health Organization in 2020. However, we have little understanding of how external and internal factors influenced journalistic role conception from the perspectives of African diaspora journalists. Using journalistic role conception and perceived influence frameworks, this study examines whether what African diaspora journalists in the United Kingdom and Germany say about the factors that influenced their journalistic role conception matches with what they actually do through focus group discussions (FGDs) and content analysis of news stories in two media for and by African diasporas between March 2020 and August 2021. The findings show that five external factors (lockdown restrictions, fake news, effects of COVID-19 in the Black communities, economic model and official/non-official sources) and two internal factors (dominant framing of Africa and reorganization) mostly influenced journalistic role conception during the pandemic and that there was evidence to suggest that what they say they experienced (narrated role) matched with what they actually do (practised role).