Hybridizing journalism: clash of two “journalisms” in Africa

Abstract

This article examines the influence of Chinese media on the journalistic orientation of African journalists who have been socialized in Chinese media organizations based in Africa. It employs the ideological level of Shoemaker and Reese’s hierarchy of influences model, and is based on interviews with African journalists working in CCTV (later rebranded China Global Television Network [CGTN]), Xinhua News Agency, and China Daily newspaper. The article contributes to the ideologization debate on Chinese media expansion into Africa. While this debate has been predominantly framed through the Manichean prism of positive or negative, this article proposes a hybridization between a Chinese and Western journalism orientation on the African continent. This will result in a hybrid form of journalism professionalization in which Western and Chinese journalistic traditions coexist.

Keywords:

• Hybrid journalism
• Chinese media
• African journalists
• Western journalism orientation
• journalism professionalization
• ideological debate

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my doctoral supervisor, Dr Iginio Gagliardone, whose support and expertise made this research possible. I am also grateful to the two reviewers whose comments were very helpful