ABSTRACT This study examined the threats to the safety and security of journalists following the 2018 political reform in Ethiopia. The primary threats to journalists’ safety, and the coping mechanisms developed to mitigate these threats, are explored. Employing a qualitative research approach, the study used in-depth interviews for data collection. A snowball sampling technique was employed to recruit 24 journalists with firsthand experience of attacks, harassment, and threats. The findings indicated that journalists encounter a range of physical, psychological, digital, health-related, and economic threats, influenced by factors at the macro, meso, and micro levels. Furthermore, despite the absence of explicitly formulated safety and security guidelines endorsed by media institutions, shaping professional identity and role perception, establishing and maintaining social connections, strengthening religious attachments, normalising harassment and violence, resorting to silence, and, in severe cases, abandoning the profession are the identified mitigation approaches.

ABSTRACT Cet article examine la couverture médiatique du conflit armé à l'Est de la République démocratique du Congo par Radio Maendeleo, une radio communautaire de la province du Sud-Kivu. À partir d’un corpus de 46 reportages et d’entretiens avec cinq journalistes de la radio, la recherche met en lumière les contraintes sécuritaires, financières et déontologiques qui façonnent la production de l’information en contexte de guerre. Les résultats montrent que l'attention médiatique porte principalement sur les victimes, notamment les déplacés internes, et les sources principales des journalistes sont les organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) et la société civile. Les acteurs du conflit font en revanche l'objet d'une moindre attention et ne sont que rarement sollicités en tant que sources. Ces pratiques journalistiques donnent forme à un « journalisme humanitaire », qui privilégie le plaidoyer et la sensibilisation. Ce journalisme humanitaire soulève des questions relatives à l’idéal de neutralité et d’équilibre des sources habituellement prônées par la déontologie journalistique. L’article interroge ainsi la frontière entre information et engagement, ainsi que la capacité des médias locaux à concilier responsabilité sociale et exigences professionnelles dans un environnement marqué par la censure et la précarité.

Research on digital journalism often assumes that online-native newsrooms expand discursive diversity and challenge legacy media’s dominance. Yet, growing evidence suggests that digital platforms may reproduce rather than transform established framing norms. Contributing to this debate, this study examines how news organizations with different institutional profiles frame political crises, assessing whether digital-native outlets meaningfully diverge from legacy-affiliated journalism. Focusing on coverage of Kenya’s 2024 anti-Finance Bill protests, the analysis compares Citizen Digital, a legacy-affiliated outlet, and Kenyans.co.ke, a digital-native platform. Using qualitative content analysis of 100 news articles from each platform, this study identifies three dominant frames—law-and-order, victimization, and political critique—with the law-and-order frame appearing most frequently (Citizen Digital, 32.6%; Kenyans.co.ke, 30.0%). Despite their organizational differences, both outlets exhibited similar framing patterns, challenging assumptions that digital-native platforms inherently diversify political discourse and instead raising questions about the macro-level conditions shaping editorial practices across media fields. The findings suggest that shared structural constraints within the media environment may sustain framing norms typically associated with legacy journalism.

ABSTRACT This study investigates the discursive representation of Chinese enterprises in African newspapers by analyzing 330 articles published in English, French, and Arabic from 2011 to 2023. Using a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative frame analysis and qualitative examination, the research reveals the dualistic nature of media portrayals, with frames highlighting both positive economic contributions and negative aspects such as labor rights violations and legal disputes. The findings indicate significant variations in representation based on linguistic context and media ownership. State-owned and Arabic-language media predominantly emphasize economic benefits, aligning with governmental priorities to attract foreign investments. In contrast, private and French-/English-language outlets adopt a more critical stance, frequently using frames that stress legal and social challenges. Non-government organization-affiliated media, although limited in overall coverage, focus heavily on corporate malpractices. These patterns reflect the complex interplay between regional political dynamics, media ownership, and cultural perspectives, ultimately shaping diverse narratives around Chinese enterprises in Africa. This study provides valuable insights into Sino-African media relations, highlighting how media dynamics reflect and shape the complex terrain upon which Chinese enterprises must manage their corporate image and stakeholder engagement across the continent.

ABSTRACT The promise of investigative reporting – and watchdog journalism more broadly – to hold power to account and promote democratic governance by exposing corruption in high places remains strong among journalists, scholars and other observers in developing democracies like Nigeria where “corruption” is a dominant issue in politics and media coverage. But how, and to what extent, is investigative reporting situated within overall coverage of corruption in Nigerian media? To answer this question, this study examines scandal reporting (n = 615) in four Nigerian newspapers during the first dozen or so years of democratization in the country. Findings show that just about one in ten reports of corruption in the sample were investigative by demonstrating elements of investigative journalism, while about 90 percent of the reports were non-investigative, as they are generated from investigations by anti-corruption agencies, probe panels, parliament, etc. Equally significant, investigative reports reflect low-scale wrongdoing that are commonplace and readily observable by citizens and journalists alike, as against the more clandestine and large-scale corruption in high places exposed in non-investigative reports. The implications of these findings for understanding investigative reporting in the Nigerian press are then highlighted and discussed.

RÉSUMÉ Cet article propose une analyse comparative des récits médiatiques produits par Top Congo FM (Top Congo) et Radio France Internationale (RFI) autour de la résurgence du Mouvement du 23 mars (M23) en 2022 dans l’Est de la RDC. À partir d’un corpus constitué d’articles issus des deux rédactions, l’étude met en lumière deux logiques médiatiques contrastées : un journalisme d’adhésion fortement aligné sur les discours gouvernementaux congolais chez Top Congo, et un journalisme d’observation fondé sur la distanciation et la pluralité des sources chez RFI. L’analyse mobilise les concepts de cadrage épisodique et thématique, de focalisation narrative, et de posture énonciative. Elle montre comment chaque radio reconstruit le conflit selon des logiques idéologiques, professionnelles et structurelles différentes. Si Top Congo participe à une dynamique de mobilisation patriotique, RFI s’inscrit dans une posture de témoin neutre, non sans reproduire certains schèmes narratifs globalisés.

ABSTRACT Radio remains the dominant source of news and entertainment in Monrovia and Montserrado County, Liberia, despite the rapid growth of digital media. Based on a survey of over 600 residents, this study examines media consumption patterns, the convergence of traditional and digital platforms, and public perceptions of news credibility. Findings show that 81.3% of respondents identify radio as their primary source of information, confirming its continued centrality in daily life. Mobile phones have significantly reshaped listening habits, with more than three-quarters of respondents accessing radio through their devices. Although social media-especially Facebook-has become an important space for information sharing and political engagement, it is widely regarded as less credible than traditional media. Radio was rated the most trusted (67.1%) and most accurate (68.8%) news source, while social media ranked lowest on both measures. More than 60% of respondents expressed skepticism about the fairness and accuracy of social media content. The persistence of radio is strongly linked to its accessibility, affordability, and deep cultural integration across Liberian society. At the same time, digital convergence has expanded audience engagement by integrating mobile technology with traditional broadcasting. However, the rapid spread of unverified online content poses serious challenges related to misinformation and declining trust. The findings highlight the ongoing strength of radio within Liberia's evolving media environment while underscoring the urgent need for stronger media literacy initiatives. Understanding how traditional and digital platforms interact is essential for protecting public trust and ensuring credible information flows in a transitional media system.

ABSTRACT Utilizing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, this study examined journalists’ encounters with the behavior of transactional journalism in Nigerian media through an unstructured interview with nine participants. Findings revealed the normalization of brown envelope transactions and journalists’ entrepreneurial conduct, leading to the term “reportreneurship”. Institutional factors and sociocultural norms were perceived to have contributed to ethical ambiguity about transactional journalism. The study emphasized the detrimental impact on journalistic integrity, institutional governance, and societal values. The study also showed that perception played a crucial role in normalizing bribery. Redefining professional ethics, enforcing strict guidelines, and implementing economic reforms within the media industry were encouraged. It was concluded that ethical education and anti-corruption legislation are essential to combat transactional journalism.

ABSTRACT This study interrogates how selected business newspapers in South Africa and Zimbabwe covered the onset of the COVID-19-induced economic shutdowns. South Africa and Zimbabwe had been going through economic crises of varying nature, degree and longevity. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the crises to new levels as both economies went into lockdown. South Africa’s credit rating was downgraded to junk status by Moody’s, the only rating agency that still had an investment-grade rating for the country, just as the country went into lockdown. Zimbabwe seemed to be well on course to re-enter hyperinflation of a magnitude last experienced before the economy dollarised in 2009. Through framing analysis, the study interrogates the frames employed by the selected newspapers in the two countries to report the onset of economic shutdowns. It establishes that frames such as benevolent capitalism, government ineptitude and unreasonable labour unions were used as an exercise in asserting and preserving the capitalist system’s hegemony. It further finds that financial and business news in competitive authoritarian states like Zimbabwe is influenced by both political and economic interests.

ABSTRACT The perceived marginalisation of the Igbo ethnic group of South East Nigeria and the failure of the Nigerian government to pursue peace-building initiatives 50 years after the end of the Nigerian and Biafran civil war are the root causes of the current agitation for the restoration of Biafra by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Thus, the present study analysed 120 news stories from The Daily Sun and The Punch newspapers in Nigeria, from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2022, regarding their coverage of the recent agitation for the restoration of Biafra. Our research examined how these newspapers framed the renewed agitation, what agenda they set in framing the agitation, and the implications of news framing and agenda setting for the audience regarding the ways they view the agitation for the restoration of Biafra by IPOB. The findings revealed that the placement of most news stories about IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, and other Biafran agitators on the front page of newspapers, especially The Daily Sun, was part of the media's framing and agenda for the restoration of Biafra. The positive framing of Nnamdi Kanu and other Biafran actors, especially in The Daily Sun, may have been the reason for the support the agitation is receiving from Biafrans at home and in the diaspora. In contrast, the Punch newspaper dwelt more on the negative framing of Nnamdi Kanu and other Biafran actors, thus showing resentment from Nigerians who do not want Biafrans to exit from Nigeria.