Date of Award

2-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Digital Journalism (MADJ)

First Supervisor/Advisor

Emilly Comfort Maractho

Second Supervisor/Advisor

Lydia Ouma Radoli

Department

Graduate School of Media and Communications

Abstract

As the world increasingly digitizes, the media industry has not been spared, and one such manifestation has been through media convergence. With the advent of convergence, the operations of media organisations have been disrupted with various ramifications on the media industry. One of the areas which has been affected by media convergence is journalists’ productivity. Drawing from various scholarly texts, media publications, observations and interviews this study explored the impact of convergence on journalists’ productivity at Nation Media Group Uganda, which fully converged its operations in 2017. The study is hinged on two theories; Media convergence theory and disruptive innovation theory. The study used a qualitative approach and a descriptive case study design to establish the linkage between newsroom convergence and journalists’ productivity and examine NMG-U as a single unit. The researcher observed NMG-U’s structures and processes, including the physical arrangement of the newsrooms and desks, the early morning and afternoon editorial meetings, and the generation of story ideas and workflow in the newsrooms. The researcher also interviewed 14 journalists purposively drawn from the six entities of NMG-U. The following came out clearly from the observation and interviews; there has been merging of desks and realignment of managerial positions, increased story count, acquisition of new skills, improved work relations among journalists, production of poor quality of stories, limited specialization, and increased workload. The study also identified remuneration, passion of journalists, experience in the profession, relationship with sources, relationship with the editors, political environment, competition, and skill-set as factors that influence the productivity of journalists’ at NMG- U converged newsroom. The study recommends that the issue of remuneration is urgently addressed, stringent measures are put in place to vet the quality of work published, journalists are trained to acquire the requisite skills to work in a converged newsroom, rethink the distribution of workload and streamline the physical arrangement of the newsroom.

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