ABSTRACT
This study examined journalists’ perceptions on the transition from traditional newspapers to digital reporting in Tanzania. The purpose is to investigate how the transition is shaping journalism practice as it relates to market models, audience engagement and ethics. Interviews with 47 newspaper journalists reveal that the shift to digital reporting result in increased readership, audience engagement, advertising revenue and ethical practices. Furthermore, the transition minimises the risk of corruption among journalists, particularly brown envelope journalism. Such findings have implications in terms of the need for media scholars to broaden their scope to fundamentally understand how newspapers in Africa need to engage audiences ethically.
Acknowledgements
We thank California State University San Bernardino and Harvard's Institute for Rebooting Social Media for their invaluable support during this research. Their contributions greatly aided the completion of this project.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).