Karen Mcintyre
Biographic Data
| ID | 4466540 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Karen Mcintyre |
| GIVEN NAMES | Karen |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcintyre |
| SIGNATURE | MCINTYRE K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7649-640X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 199 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Constructive or Constrained? Solutions Journalism in an Authoritarian State
Some have expressed concern that the Western concepts of constructive and solutions journalism could be used to silence critical journalists in countries with restrictions on media freedom. Using qualitative interviews, this study asked journalists in Rwanda if they believe solutions journalism is appropriate in their authoritarian media context. Findings indicate that although journalists like the idea of solutions journalism, they believe solut…
Citizen journalism revisited: A case study of Kenya’s Kibera news network
In an evolving media landscape, the prominence and influence of citizen journalism has grown markedly, challenging historical norms and providing alternative narratives. While traditional journalism has been guided by objectivity, autonomy, and ethics, its representation has been questioned, especially in marginalised communities like Kibera, a neighbourhood in Nairobi, Kenya. Scholars have shed light on the transformational role of journalism an…
Spurring or Blurring Professional Standards? The Role of Digital Technology in Implementing Journalistic Role Ideals in Contemporary Newsrooms
This study examines the perceived relevance and implementation of competing normative ideals in journalism in times of increasing use of digital technology in newsrooms. Based on survey and content analysis data from 37 countries, we found a small positive relationship between the use of digital research tools and “watchdog” performance. However, a stronger and negative relationship emerged between the use of digital audience analytics and the pe…
A geo-cultural approach to African media literacy: Introducing the geo-cultural media literacy spectrum
This paper argues that the coloniality of global knowledge has centralized the Global North to the media literacy debate, leaving some non-western countries to abandon their own experience while mimicking western theory and practice. This paper highlights three major historical events that exemplify the westernization of media literacy and calls for geo-culturalism in its conceptualization to accommodate locations like East Africa whose digital m…
How East African Journalists Make Meaning of Solutions and Constructive Journalism
Journalists’ Perceptions About Public Trust in East African Media: Comparative, Cross-Country Surveys from Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda
Scholars have increasingly turned their attention to the ways in which the public trusts an array of media content, outlets, and platforms. However, the bulk of this work has focused on audience research in Western democracies. This study uses surveys of journalists in Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya in 2019 to examine the metajournalistic discourse surrounding how press freedom levels, technological advancements, and various sociopolitical factors imp…
Comparing Journalistic Role Performance Across Thematic Beats: A 37-Country Study
Studies suggest that, at the routine level, news beats function as unique “micro-cultures.” Exploring this “particularist” approach in news content, we compare how the interventionist, watchdog, loyal, service, infotainment, and civic roles materialize across 11 thematic news beats and analyze the moderating effect of platforms, ownership, and levels of political freedom on journalistic role performance in hard and soft news. Based on the second …
Beyond the Classroom: Evaluating Solutions Journalism Education From the Perspective of University Graduates
This study examines how solutions journalism education translates to professional practice, through in-depth interviews with current media professionals who encountered solutions journalism when they were in college. Findings suggest that solutions journalism education resonates powerfully with students, and incorporating the practice in J-school curriculum may have the potential to reengage disenchanted students. Whereas there remain significant…
The societal context of professional practice: Examining the impact of politics and economics on journalistic role performance across 37 countries
The impact of socio-political variables on journalism is an ongoing concern of comparative research on media systems and professional cultures. However, they have rarely been studied systematically across diverse cases, particularly outside Western democracies, and existing studies that compare western and non-western contexts have mainly focused on journalistic role conceptions rather than actual journalistic practice. Using journalistic role pe…
A systematic review of constructive and solutions journalism research
Academic activity surrounding constructive and solutions journalism has surged in recent years; thus, it is important to pause and reflect on this growing body of work in order to understand where the field can and should go in the future. We conducted a systematic review of existing literature on solutions and constructive journalism ( N = 94), in an effort to (1) describe the state of this field by identifying the patterns and trends in the met…
Evaluating the effects of solutions and constructive journalism: A systematic review of audience-focused research
The study of constructive and solutions journalism has grown in recent years, led by claims of positive audience effects. Our systematic review of 22 effects experiments across 19 studies found that solutions and constructive news stories unequivocally affect audience emotions. Clarity is needed for other dependent variables. Consistency is needed in theoretical constructs and the independent variables used. Focus needs to continue to extend beyo…
Misinformation Literacy of Covid-19 Digital News in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda
Amid a rise of misinformation worldwide, this paper examines digital misinformation literacy as it relates to COVID-19 news in East Africa. The study is grounded in inoculation theory and contributes to the body of scholarship examining misinformation literacy beyond the Western world. Data came from a comparative, cross-national survey in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda (N = 3,203), making this the largest known empirical investigation into digital mis…
Investigating the Gap Between Journalists’ Role Conceptions and Role Performance in Rwanda and Ethiopia
This study reports select findings from the second wave of the Journalistic Role Performance cross-national project involving 37 countries (www.journalisticperformance.org). Specifically, this study combines survey (N = 83) and content analysis data (N = 4,044) to explain gaps between journalists’ role conceptions and their media organizations’ performance in two African countries, Rwanda and Ethiopia. In 2020–21, we analyzed news stories from 10…
Journalistic Role Performance in Times of Covid
This paper examines journalistic role performance in coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on a content analysis of newspaper, television, radio and online news in 37 countries. We test a set of hypotheses derived from two perspectives on the role of journalism in health crises. Mediatization theories assume that news media tend to sensationalize or to politicize health crises. A contrasting perspective holds that journalists shift toward more…
Does News Platform Matter? Comparing Online Journalistic Role Performance to Newspaper, Radio, and Television
The shifting role of journalism in a digital age has affected long-standing journalistic norms across media platforms. This has reinvigorated discussion on how work in online newsrooms compares to other platforms that differ in media affordances and forms. Still, more studies are needed on whether those differences translate into distinct practices, especially when examining cross-national studies. Based on the second wave of the Journalistic Rol…
Demographic Differences in Digital News Literacy in East Africa
Nations across Africa have seen substantial growth in technological advancements, including Internet and cell phone access. This growth has been unevenly experienced and has come with some unintended consequences, including the spread of mis- and disinformation. Previous research suggests that misinformation and disinformation are growing problems in the pockets across the region where research has been conducted, but individuals’ circumstances, …
Journalistic role orientations in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya
This study examines how journalists in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya perceive their journalistic role orientations in light of the countries’ differing political systems, Rwanda representing the nation with the most restrictive political system, Uganda sitting in the middle and Kenya illustrating the nation that is home to the least restrictive political system. Data were analyzed from a comparative, quantitative online survey completed by 424 journal…
Public Trust in State-Run News Media in Rwanda
This study examined public trust in the media through focus groups with young, educated urbanites in Rwanda. Despite the fact media in Rwanda incited violence during the 1994 genocide, results revealed that the Rwandan public highly trust their local news, especially state-run media. The findings suggest frameworks for studying media trust should consider the public’s trust in government, as the two might be linked, and also suggest scholars thin…
Tweeter-in-chief: Rwandan president Paul Kagame’s use of Twitter
Rwanda has received international praise for its rapid development and is said to be undergoing a ‘technology revolution’ at the hands of President Paul Kagame who has been described as a ‘Digital President’. This quantitative content analysis of Kagame’s official Twitter account analysed the first ten years of his tweets and found that he primarily tweets in English, with a positive sentiment about cross-government and cross-border interactions …
Transitioning to Solutions Journalism: One Newsroom's Shift to Solutions-focused Reporting
In 2018, Alabama’s largest daily newspaper, the Gannett-owned Montgomery Advertiser, set out to transform its newsroom to focus on enterprise and solutions journalism—rigorous news reporting on how people are responding to social problems, a practice that has gained attention as newsrooms have looked for innovative ways to increase audience engagement. To examine its impact, we conducted a multiple-wave survey of the newspaper’s audience before a…
Salary, Suppression, and Spies: Journalistic Challenges in Uganda
Despite enduring “some of the worst political and economic chaos anywhere in the world” (Mwesige, P. G. 2004. “Disseminators, Advocates and Watchdogs: A Profile of Ugandan Journalists in the New Millennium.” Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism 5 (1): 69–96. doi:10.1177/1464884904039556), for the last quarter century Uganda has seen significant progress under President Yoweri Museveni, who is credited with liberalizing the media and instituti…
Seeing Eye to Eye: A Comparison of Audiences’ and Journalists’ Perceptions of Professional Roles and How They Relate to Trust
The "gap" between journalist and audience expectations could be one reason why news media credibility is generally low. Journalistic expectations are often explored through analysis of the news worker's role in society. One understudied topic in roles literature is perceptions of newer contextual reporting roles that consider society's best interests: reporting in a socially responsible manner, alerting the public of threats and opportunities, ac…
Solutions Journalism: The Effects of Including Solution Information in News Stories About Social Problems
Journalists’ Perceptions of Mass Shooting Coverage and Factors Influencing Those Perceptions
I know it's my job as a journalist. But in situations like these, I’m getting sick of speaking the words ‘active shooter situation.’ I’ve been covering too many of them ... I’ve become far too famili
Local-Language Radio Stations in Kenya: Helpful or Harmful
Today, Kenya has a vibrant media landscape, one of the most sophisticated in the region. In particular, vernacular radio—radio stations that broadcast news and entertainment in indigenous languages—is thriving. Vernacular stations have grown in popularity and there are now more than 30 airing across the country. However, critics have suggested that vernacular stations played a role in the 2007 post-election violence that killed more than 1000 peo…
The contextualist function: US newspaper journalists value social responsibility
A survey ( N = 1318) evaluated US newspaper journalists’ attitudes toward c ontextual reporting – stories that go beyond the immediacy of the news and contribute to societal well-being. Results indicated that journalists highly value professional roles associated with contextual reporting. Responses revealed new journalistic role functions, including the ‘Contextualist’, who placed high value on being socially responsible and accurately portrayin…
Reconstructing Rwanda: How Rwandan reporters use constructive journalism to promote peace
In 1994 Rwanda, some journalists used their power for evil when government-run media houses perpetrated genocide through what scholars termed “hate media.” Since then, however, Rwanda’s media landscape has changed dramatically and the country has seen tremendous social and economic progress. Building on the tenets of social responsibility and framing theories and on literature regarding journalistic role functions, this study utilized qualitative…
Toward a clearer conceptualization and operationalization of solutions journalism
Solutions journalism is rigorous news reporting about how people are responding to social problems – a definition used by scholars but formulated by the Solutions Journalism Network, an independent organization that promotes the practice. The approach has a growing appeal in the professional world, but what little exists in academic research fails to offer thorough theoretical and conceptual definitions or a concrete operationalization of the pra…
The Impact of Constructive News on Affective and Behavioural Responses
The fact that the news has a negativity bias is relatively undisputed. But is this a matter for concern? In this study, two experiments explored the impact of different types of constructive news stories on readers’ affect, motivation, and behavioural intentions. Study 1 examined news stories with either a solution frame or catastrophic frame, and Study 2 examined stories that evoked either positive or negative emotions. Findings revealed that ca…
Solutions Journalism: The effects of including solution information in news stories about social problems
The media contribute to compassion fatigue—or public apathy toward human tragedy—in part by failing to present solutions to the social problems ubiquitous in today’s conflict-based news coverage. Some journalists have attempted to address this issue through a style of news labeled solutions journalism. This experiment tests the effects of this increasingly popular approach. Results revealed that discussing an effective solution to a social proble…
Visualizing the solution: An analysis of the images that accompany solutions-oriented news stories
This study adds visual analysis to the body of work on solutions journalism. Guided by visual theory focusing on the dominating nature of messages included in visual content versus text, we use content analysis to explore the use of photos in solutions-oriented news stories, specifically to see whether the photos published alongside solutions-based news stories also represent solutions or whether they portray an incongruent message. Among our res…
Journalistic Role Performance in Times of Covid
This paper examines journalistic role performance in coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on a content analysis of newspaper, television, radio and online news in 37 countries. We test a set of hypotheses derived from two perspectives on the role of journalism in health crises. Mediatization theories assume that news media tend to sensationalize or to politicize health crises. A contrasting perspective holds that journalists shift toward more…
Does News Platform Matter? Comparing Online Journalistic Role Performance to Newspaper, Radio, and Television
The shifting role of journalism in a digital age has affected long-standing journalistic norms across media platforms. This has reinvigorated discussion on how work in online newsrooms compares to other platforms that differ in media affordances and forms. Still, more studies are needed on whether those differences translate into distinct practices, especially when examining cross-national studies. Based on the second wave of the Journalistic Rol…
The societal context of professional practice: Examining the impact of politics and economics on journalistic role performance across 37 countries
The impact of socio-political variables on journalism is an ongoing concern of comparative research on media systems and professional cultures. However, they have rarely been studied systematically across diverse cases, particularly outside Western democracies, and existing studies that compare western and non-western contexts have mainly focused on journalistic role conceptions rather than actual journalistic practice. Using journalistic role pe…
Positive Psychology as a Theoretical Foundation for Constructive Journalism
This article seeks to provide a theoretical foundation and justification for the innovative and interdisciplinary field of constructive journalism. Constructive journalism involves applying positive psychology techniques to the news process in an effort to strengthen the field and facilitate productive news stories, while holding true to journalism’s core functions. It is this application of positive psychology methods that makes constructive jou…
Transitioning to Solutions Journalism: One Newsroom's Shift to Solutions-focused Reporting
In 2018, Alabama’s largest daily newspaper, the Gannett-owned Montgomery Advertiser, set out to transform its newsroom to focus on enterprise and solutions journalism—rigorous news reporting on how people are responding to social problems, a practice that has gained attention as newsrooms have looked for innovative ways to increase audience engagement. To examine its impact, we conducted a multiple-wave survey of the newspaper’s audience before a…
Seeing Eye to Eye: A Comparison of Audiences’ and Journalists’ Perceptions of Professional Roles and How They Relate to Trust
The "gap" between journalist and audience expectations could be one reason why news media credibility is generally low. Journalistic expectations are often explored through analysis of the news worker's role in society. One understudied topic in roles literature is perceptions of newer contextual reporting roles that consider society's best interests: reporting in a socially responsible manner, alerting the public of threats and opportunities, ac…
What Makes “Good” News Newsworthy
To combat the constant supply of negative news, some online news outlets focus solely on “good” news. But what is the value of “good” news? A content analysis was conducted to determine which traditional news values (timeliness, conflict, impact, etc.) appear in stories on Web sites dedicated to positive news. The researcher compared “good” news sites to the New York Times. Results indicated that the majority of “good” news stories were entertain…
Covering Mass Shootings: Journalists’ perceptions of coverage and factors influencing attitudes
Using data from a national survey of US newspaper journalists (N = 1318), this study examines attitudes toward news coverage of mass shootings. Following Shoemaker and Reese’s hierarchical model, the analysis also considers how individual characteristics, journalistic practices, and organizational factors influence these attitudes. Participants generally agreed that coverage had become routine. Journalists were largely supportive of coverage of p…
Solutions Journalism: The Effects of Including Solution Information in News Stories About Social Problems
Investigating the Gap Between Journalists’ Role Conceptions and Role Performance in Rwanda and Ethiopia
This study reports select findings from the second wave of the Journalistic Role Performance cross-national project involving 37 countries (www.journalisticperformance.org). Specifically, this study combines survey (N = 83) and content analysis data (N = 4,044) to explain gaps between journalists’ role conceptions and their media organizations’ performance in two African countries, Rwanda and Ethiopia. In 2020–21, we analyzed news stories from 10…
Journalistic role orientations in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya
This study examines how journalists in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya perceive their journalistic role orientations in light of the countries’ differing political systems, Rwanda representing the nation with the most restrictive political system, Uganda sitting in the middle and Kenya illustrating the nation that is home to the least restrictive political system. Data were analyzed from a comparative, quantitative online survey completed by 424 journal…
Salary, Suppression, and Spies: Journalistic Challenges in Uganda
Despite enduring “some of the worst political and economic chaos anywhere in the world” (Mwesige, P. G. 2004. “Disseminators, Advocates and Watchdogs: A Profile of Ugandan Journalists in the New Millennium.” Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism 5 (1): 69–96. doi:10.1177/1464884904039556), for the last quarter century Uganda has seen significant progress under President Yoweri Museveni, who is credited with liberalizing the media and instituti…
Local-Language Radio Stations in Kenya: Helpful or Harmful
Today, Kenya has a vibrant media landscape, one of the most sophisticated in the region. In particular, vernacular radio—radio stations that broadcast news and entertainment in indigenous languages—is thriving. Vernacular stations have grown in popularity and there are now more than 30 airing across the country. However, critics have suggested that vernacular stations played a role in the 2007 post-election violence that killed more than 1000 peo…
Motivating news audiences: Shock them or provide them with solutions
Despite the well-established power of the media to shape public perceptions of social problems, compassion fatigue is believed to remain prevalent. So what does it take for someone to be compelled to act after reading a story or seeing an image of a prominent issue? This study, a 3-by-2 between subjects experiment, examined the effects of two journalistic techniques — shocking audiences into action with offensive stories or inspiring them to act …
Lyrical Liberation: David Dabydeen's Slave Song and Turner
(1997). Lyrical Liberation: David Dabydeen's Slave Song and Turner. Caribbean Quarterly: Vol. 43, Conference on Caribbean Culture. In Honour of Professor Rex Nettleford. The Literature Papers, pp. 11-25
What Makes “Good” News Newsworthy
To combat the constant supply of negative news, some online news outlets focus solely on “good” news. But what is the value of “good” news? A content analysis was conducted to determine which traditional news values (timeliness, conflict, impact, etc.) appear in stories on Web sites dedicated to positive news. The researcher compared “good” news sites to the New York Times. Results indicated that the majority of “good” news stories were entertain…
The contextualist function: US newspaper journalists value social responsibility
A survey ( N = 1318) evaluated US newspaper journalists’ attitudes toward c ontextual reporting – stories that go beyond the immediacy of the news and contribute to societal well-being. Results indicated that journalists highly value professional roles associated with contextual reporting. Responses revealed new journalistic role functions, including the ‘Contextualist’, who placed high value on being socially responsible and accurately portrayin…
Constructive Journalism: An Introduction and Practical Guide for Applying Positive Psychology Techniques to News Production
We propose to expand the boundaries of the news process by introducing, defining and subsequently coining the interdisciplinary concept of constructive journalism as an emerging form of journalism that involves applying positive psychology techniques to news processes and production in an effort to create productive and engaging coverage, while holding true to journalism’s core functions. First, we review the critical issues in journalism that hi…
Motivating news audiences: Shock them or provide them with solutions?
Despite the well-established power of the media to shape public perceptions of social problems, compassion fatigue is believed to remain prevalent. So what does it take for someone to be compelled to act after reading a story or seeing an image of a prominent issue? This study, a 3-by-2 between subjects experiment, examined the effects of two journalistic techniques — shocking audiences into action with offensive stories or inspiring them to act …
Covering Mass Shootings: Journalists’ perceptions of coverage and factors influencing attitudes
Using data from a national survey of US newspaper journalists (N = 1318), this study examines attitudes toward news coverage of mass shootings. Following Shoemaker and Reese’s hierarchical model, the analysis also considers how individual characteristics, journalistic practices, and organizational factors influence these attitudes. Participants generally agreed that coverage had become routine. Journalists were largely supportive of coverage of p…
Solutions Journalism: The effects of including solution information in news stories about social problems
The media contribute to compassion fatigue—or public apathy toward human tragedy—in part by failing to present solutions to the social problems ubiquitous in today’s conflict-based news coverage. Some journalists have attempted to address this issue through a style of news labeled solutions journalism. This experiment tests the effects of this increasingly popular approach. Results revealed that discussing an effective solution to a social proble…
Reconstructing Rwanda: How Rwandan reporters use constructive journalism to promote peace
In 1994 Rwanda, some journalists used their power for evil when government-run media houses perpetrated genocide through what scholars termed “hate media.” Since then, however, Rwanda’s media landscape has changed dramatically and the country has seen tremendous social and economic progress. Building on the tenets of social responsibility and framing theories and on literature regarding journalistic role functions, this study utilized qualitative…
Journalists’ Perceptions of Human Rights Reporting in Rwanda
News media play a role in increasing public understanding of human rights issues. Yet, little scholarship has analysed human rights reporting in developing or post-conflict nations. Interviews with Rwandan journalists revealed that, in this post-genocide era of reconstruction, reporters define human rights broadly and believe reporting on abuses has a positive impact on the abuse. However, a lack of press freedom inhibits human rights reporting, …
Positive Psychology as a Theoretical Foundation for Constructive Journalism
This article seeks to provide a theoretical foundation and justification for the innovative and interdisciplinary field of constructive journalism. Constructive journalism involves applying positive psychology techniques to the news process in an effort to strengthen the field and facilitate productive news stories, while holding true to journalism’s core functions. It is this application of positive psychology methods that makes constructive jou…
The Impact of Constructive News on Affective and Behavioural Responses
The fact that the news has a negativity bias is relatively undisputed. But is this a matter for concern? In this study, two experiments explored the impact of different types of constructive news stories on readers’ affect, motivation, and behavioural intentions. Study 1 examined news stories with either a solution frame or catastrophic frame, and Study 2 examined stories that evoked either positive or negative emotions. Findings revealed that ca…
Visualizing the solution: An analysis of the images that accompany solutions-oriented news stories
This study adds visual analysis to the body of work on solutions journalism. Guided by visual theory focusing on the dominating nature of messages included in visual content versus text, we use content analysis to explore the use of photos in solutions-oriented news stories, specifically to see whether the photos published alongside solutions-based news stories also represent solutions or whether they portray an incongruent message. Among our res…
Solutions Journalism: The Effects of Including Solution Information in News Stories About Social Problems
Journalists’ Perceptions of Mass Shooting Coverage and Factors Influencing Those Perceptions
I know it's my job as a journalist. But in situations like these, I’m getting sick of speaking the words ‘active shooter situation.’ I’ve been covering too many of them ... I’ve become far too famili
Local-Language Radio Stations in Kenya: Helpful or Harmful
Today, Kenya has a vibrant media landscape, one of the most sophisticated in the region. In particular, vernacular radio—radio stations that broadcast news and entertainment in indigenous languages—is thriving. Vernacular stations have grown in popularity and there are now more than 30 airing across the country. However, critics have suggested that vernacular stations played a role in the 2007 post-election violence that killed more than 1000 peo…
Toward a clearer conceptualization and operationalization of solutions journalism
Solutions journalism is rigorous news reporting about how people are responding to social problems – a definition used by scholars but formulated by the Solutions Journalism Network, an independent organization that promotes the practice. The approach has a growing appeal in the professional world, but what little exists in academic research fails to offer thorough theoretical and conceptual definitions or a concrete operationalization of the pra…
Seeing Eye to Eye: A Comparison of Audiences’ and Journalists’ Perceptions of Professional Roles and How They Relate to Trust
The "gap" between journalist and audience expectations could be one reason why news media credibility is generally low. Journalistic expectations are often explored through analysis of the news worker's role in society. One understudied topic in roles literature is perceptions of newer contextual reporting roles that consider society's best interests: reporting in a socially responsible manner, alerting the public of threats and opportunities, ac…
Public Trust in State-Run News Media in Rwanda
This study examined public trust in the media through focus groups with young, educated urbanites in Rwanda. Despite the fact media in Rwanda incited violence during the 1994 genocide, results revealed that the Rwandan public highly trust their local news, especially state-run media. The findings suggest frameworks for studying media trust should consider the public’s trust in government, as the two might be linked, and also suggest scholars thin…
Tweeter-in-chief: Rwandan president Paul Kagame’s use of Twitter
Rwanda has received international praise for its rapid development and is said to be undergoing a ‘technology revolution’ at the hands of President Paul Kagame who has been described as a ‘Digital President’. This quantitative content analysis of Kagame’s official Twitter account analysed the first ten years of his tweets and found that he primarily tweets in English, with a positive sentiment about cross-government and cross-border interactions …
Transitioning to Solutions Journalism: One Newsroom's Shift to Solutions-focused Reporting
In 2018, Alabama’s largest daily newspaper, the Gannett-owned Montgomery Advertiser, set out to transform its newsroom to focus on enterprise and solutions journalism—rigorous news reporting on how people are responding to social problems, a practice that has gained attention as newsrooms have looked for innovative ways to increase audience engagement. To examine its impact, we conducted a multiple-wave survey of the newspaper’s audience before a…
Salary, Suppression, and Spies: Journalistic Challenges in Uganda
Despite enduring “some of the worst political and economic chaos anywhere in the world” (Mwesige, P. G. 2004. “Disseminators, Advocates and Watchdogs: A Profile of Ugandan Journalists in the New Millennium.” Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism 5 (1): 69–96. doi:10.1177/1464884904039556), for the last quarter century Uganda has seen significant progress under President Yoweri Museveni, who is credited with liberalizing the media and instituti…
Demographic Differences in Digital News Literacy in East Africa
Nations across Africa have seen substantial growth in technological advancements, including Internet and cell phone access. This growth has been unevenly experienced and has come with some unintended consequences, including the spread of mis- and disinformation. Previous research suggests that misinformation and disinformation are growing problems in the pockets across the region where research has been conducted, but individuals’ circumstances, …
Journalistic role orientations in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya
This study examines how journalists in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya perceive their journalistic role orientations in light of the countries’ differing political systems, Rwanda representing the nation with the most restrictive political system, Uganda sitting in the middle and Kenya illustrating the nation that is home to the least restrictive political system. Data were analyzed from a comparative, quantitative online survey completed by 424 journal…
A systematic review of constructive and solutions journalism research
Academic activity surrounding constructive and solutions journalism has surged in recent years; thus, it is important to pause and reflect on this growing body of work in order to understand where the field can and should go in the future. We conducted a systematic review of existing literature on solutions and constructive journalism ( N = 94), in an effort to (1) describe the state of this field by identifying the patterns and trends in the met…
Political science (34 works) · Sociology (32 works) · Media studies (26 works) · Media Studies and Communication (25 works) · Journalism (22 works) · Public relations (18 works) · Law (16 works) · Law (16 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Social Media and Politics (15 works)