Abstract
This chapter analyses responses to news coverage of the 2014 Ebola virus by African media, a subject that has so far not been adequately discussed. It examines cases from “citizen media responses” in Zimbabwe and South Africa to determine the uniqueness of the African response to an African crisis. It investigates the attitudes and interpretations that were put forward by digital news media and responses from the news users. Our analysis of the news media responses highlights the importance of voice and agency, as it illustrates what happens when disenfranchised groups become the agents of their own stories. While there was, to some extent, significant overlaps between responses from within and outside of the continent, most interesting was perhaps the ways in which the stories revealed African citizen journalists as people with agency and power to define and shape the world around them.
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© 2016 Winston Mano and viola c. milton
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Mano, W., Milton, V.C. (2016). Citizen Journalism and the Ebola Outbreak in Africa. In: Mutsvairo, B. (eds) Participatory Politics and Citizen Journalism in a Networked Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137554505_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137554505_16
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-56835-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-55450-5
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