How New Media Technologies are Impacting Ethical Practices: Perception of Zimbabwean Journalists

Abstract

The study of new media technologies has been
dominated by technological deterministic theories which
accentuate the capacity of technology to shape and transform
society while downplaying human agency. The major pitfall of
this approach is that it ignores contextual factors that have
telling consequences on the manner in which new media
technologies are deployed. This article examines perceptions of
Zimbabwean journalists of the ethical challenges and dilemmas
linked with the use of email, Internet and cellular phones in their
newsgathering activities. The idea is to enrich the body of
knowledge on the ethical practices of African journalists in the
era of new media technology. The study combines a survey
questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to elicit data on
ethical challenges and dilemmas faced journalism practitioners
in Zimbabwe. Results reveal a dialectical impact of new media
technologies on journalism and suggest the salience of the
interpretive flexibility model whereby the design and deployment
of technology produces different outcomes depending on the
social context in which the technology is used. The study
concludes that ethical practices of Zimbabwean journalists are
circumscribed by a complex web of structural, institutional and
socio-economic factors, both internal and external to the
environment in which journalism is practiced.