Analysing Discourse-Stylistics on Peripheral Journalism Platforms: A Context of Indigenous Language News Outlets on Facebook
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The evolving nature of journalism through digital platforms has prompted scholarly enquiry on the narratives, practices and outputs by non-traditional actors in Africa’s communication ecology. Informed by interpretative community theory and discourse-stylistics, this article analyses stylistics in Indigenous language on non-mainstream or peripheral journalism platforms. A qualitative content analysis was applied on two popular Zimbabwean non-mainstream platforms on Facebook, namely iHarare.com and Hatirare263 that publish in Shona language. Follow up in-depth interviews with the administrators of the pages were employed to extract perspective as the study answered two questions: What are the stylistic devices used by content creators in Indigenous language on non-mainstream platforms, and why do they employ such devices? The findings of the study show that iHarare.com and Hatirare263 use street lingo in summative captions, code-mixing and switching, and satire to reinforce the voice of the community, somewhat circumventing the English algorithm. The article argues that Indigenous language news outlets reflect the ever-changing lingo in peripheral journalism and the cultural flexibility of citizen discursive communities.
Source: African Journalism Studies
Author: Limukani Mathe
Institution: North-West University
Language: English
Topic: Journalism and Media Studies
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4401976339