“But is it Journalism?” Reflections on Online Informational Roles and Content Creation Practices of a Sample of South African Lawyers

Heather Robertson; Harry Dugmore

doi:10.1080/23743670.2020.1730923

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“But is it Journalism?” Reflections on Online Informational Roles and Content Creation Practices of a Sample of South African Lawyers

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

“But is it Journalism?” Reflections on Online Informational Roles and Content Creation Practices of a Sample of South African Lawyers

Heather Robertson and Harry Dugmore

African Journalism Studies, Vol.40(3), pp.107-122

2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2020.1730923

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Abstract

produsage

lawyers

digital media ecosystem

journalism roles

South Africa

In the era of social media, journalism is no longer the preserve of journalists. In specialised fields, such as law, the public in general and lawyers and legal academics specifically are able to "push in" and report and comment publicly on legal matters including trials, commissions, acts of law passed in parliament and other legal processes. These contributions, as this paper explores, are reshaping the contours and content of public discussions of legal matters and of legal journalism in South Africa. This paper suggests that recent theorising of journalism role theory can help understand not just the motivations of these legal interlopers in the journalism space but also how they are shaping a new informational ecosystem in which legal issues, including human rights, administrative and criminal law, and other topics, are brought into the public domain. The paper explores what some South African lawyers understand about the roles they are playing in digital public spaces and how they perceive their contributions and their relationship to the journalism profession and to journalists within that profession. The paper suggests that these lawyers' practices challenge our understanding about how digital media informational ecosystems work and explores how this is impacting journalism in South Africa.

Details

Title: “But is it Journalism?” Reflections on Online Informational Roles and Content Creation Practices of a Sample of South African Lawyers
Authors: Heather Robertson (Author) - Rhodes University, South Africa
Harry Dugmore (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Creative Industries
Publication details: African Journalism Studies, Vol.40(3), pp.107-122
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Date published: 2019
DOI: 10.1080/23743670.2020.1730923
ISSN: 2374-3670
Copyright note: Copyright © 2019 The Authors. This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in International African Journalism Studies 2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/23743670.2020.1730923
Organisation Unit: School of Business and Creative Industries; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Creative Industries - Legacy
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99451328102621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Communication