Reporting Health Emergency Outbreaks: African Journalists on the Frontlines of Ebola Coverage
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: The minute the 26 th Ebola Virus Disease broke out in parts of West Africa in 2014, journalists and media practitioners in the region went straight to work in keeping their citizens informed about the strange and deadly disease.Armed with nothing but their pens, papers, voices and computers, West African journalists in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, countries most affected by the pandemic, struggled to communicate the noxious pandemic to their citizens who were at the mercy of the virus and were dying in droves by the day .In spite of the numerous challenges they faced, West African journalists in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and other countries in the sub-region kicked their 'interventionism' role into overdrive and braved the frontlines of the deadly disease just to get the information for their citizens.While reporting on the outbreak, some journalists got infected and died, others had their human rights to free speech infringed upon and faced harassment from their governments based on what they had said or written.Some employed innovative methods in reporting the disease while others were branded as alarmist and rumor peddlers.The African approach to reporting health emergency was evident.iv In Sierra Leone, journalists there said they agreed to partner with the government and practiced development journalism with the goal of helping the government to end the pandemic.Various templates used in reporting normal stories were experimented until journalists found the best way to communicate the disease to their citizens.With Ebola declared over in Sierra Leone, journalists believed they played a major role to take Sierra Leone out of the Ebola nightmare.This study took a comparative approach to inquire from West African journalists in Sierra Leone and Ghana who reported on the 2014 Ebola outbreak about their lived experiences in covering the disease.The purpose was to find out the differences and similarities in the approach used by West African journalists in both affected and nonaffected countries as they responded to health emergency outbreaks like the 2014 Ebola pandemic.Interviews, qualitative content analysis and participant observation were the qualitative methods used in collecting data for this study.Findings revealed that West African journalists responded to the 2014 Ebola outbreak based on the prevailing circumstances in their respective countries.Majority of the journalists in affected Sierra Leone said they adopted preventive journalism with the aim of ending the outbreak while those in non-affected Ghana, a nearby country said they were concerned with arming Ghanaians with the right preventive information aimed at protecting Ghana from an Ebola outbreak v DEDICATION To the victims of Ebola and the journalists who reported on the outbreak in West Africa.To my dear mother, Janet Yaa Kyeraa for her immense love and guidance.To His Royal Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and His Excellency Ambassador Isaac Osei for their leadership roles in my life. .vi
Author: Kingsley Antwi-Boasiako
Institution: Ohio University
Language: English
Topic: Journalism and Media Studies
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2626297904