The Practice of Citizen Journalism at Kibera News Network

Abstract

Citizen journalism is the practice of an ordinary person or a group of ordinary people in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news information. These practices have been necessitated by, among other things, increased global digitization. Over the years, citizen journalism has been regarded as illegitimate, unprofessional, unconsolidated, uncoordinated and even ungoverned. This study hopes to contribute to the thin body of literature on citizen journalism in Africa. This ethnographic case research was carried out at Kibera News Network in Nairobi. The study sought to examine the extent to which their practice was consistent with the practice of journalism, how their practice supplemented and complimented the news and information ecosystem within their locality and how their practice is challenging the practice in legacy media. Key findings in this study indicate that although the citizen journalists were not trained journalists, they were aware of the expectations of journalism, their practice contributed to the news and information ecosystem in Kibera and their focus on some of their news and information production challenged the focus of news and information productions on Kibera in legacy media.