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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
Paper panel 17 – New interpretations of classical concepts of journalism
Tuesday, July 5th 10.30 - 12.00 (Room 1)
Investigating at the grassroots: An analysis of the Slumlords investigation
storytelling strategies
Lunga, Carolyne
Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
The Daily Dispatch, a small daily commercial newspaper serving the eastern half of
the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa, has shown a strong historical commitment
to investigative and grassroots driven journalism. The Slumlords investigation won the
CNN Africa Award for digital journalism in 2009. Through the Slumlords investigation
which this paper is based, an investigation that shows housing problems in South
Africa and the mushrooming of slums, I argue that the Daily Dispatch has been able
to create a platform for a broader public discussion about issues in the public domain
and to bring readers into that discussion particularly sub-altern civil society. Through
qualitative content analysis and in depth interviews, I establish that the newspaper’s
employment of grassroots driven journalism shown when the paper goes to research
at the level of ordinary people resulted in the production of a diverse investigation.
This diversity is seen in the online platform where the story is told in the voices of the
marginalised groups and employs creative internet tools that enriches the
investigation. The map of Southernwood in which the investigation is based is
included. One can explore the slum houses and look at the living conditions that slum
dwellers are subjected to including overcrowding and other elements of ‘moral decay’.
One can listen to the interview clips of the people who live in the slums. One can also
click on positive and negative to zoom in and out of the area. There is a ‘tip us off if
there are slums in your area’ section which allows readers to share their own
experiences and help inform the paper’s news agenda by stating areas where there
are other slums. I also argue that a comparison of the offline and online investigation
of Slumlords shows that it is through these capacities of online media that the moral
argument has value added to it.
Personal communication freedom as a research project
Korkonosenko, Sergey G.
Faculty of Journalism, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
The report is based on the project completed at present time, which full name looks
so: “The personal freedom in a mass communication”. This chain of words includes
some concepts, each of which separately is a theme forever, though they were
extremely sharpened in a changing media landscape. But special subject of analysis
is concluded in a combination of concepts because a personal communication
freedom (our short terminological version), literally, does not belong to a traditional
set of research themes.
Some general hypotheses were proposed and proved in the project. Firstly, personal
freedom and media exist in inseparable phenomenological unity. This unity has the
same significance both for person and for communication processes as their integral
property. Thus, there are bases to study an indivisibility of freedom, personality and
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