Authoritarian Journalism
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Journalists working in authoritarian countries contend with competing institutional logics. This is particularly the case in post-conflict countries, where journalistic practice is simultaneously shaped by historical antagonisms, global development initiatives, and the authoritarian state. While journalism schools and professional organizations speak a Western logic of objectivity and independence, political history instills a logic of subordination, and organizational business models instill a logic of financially motivated censorship. As more countries move away from democratic models, more and more journalists will face these seemingly irreconcilable pressures.
Building on months of ethnographic work, Ruth Moon looks at journalistic practice in Rwanda, a country where journalism has developed into a stable field in the two and a half decades since the nation's 1994 genocide. At the same time, its journalists, facing pressure to please the State, have lost confidence in themselves, and readers have lost faith in local media. Can the nation's news media reinvigorate itself, either from within or with assistance from global journalism actors? This book examines journalism practice in Rwanda to draw conclusions applicable to journalism fields everywhere. Moon argues that not only is the force of globalization inadequate to shift local practice, but it in fact serves to reinforce local practices and boundaries.
Ruth Moon (PhD, University of Washington) is an assistant professor of media and public affairs at Louisiana State University. She studies journalists and the constraints and incentives that shape their work with a focus on practice in the Global South. She has published research in Digital Journalism, Journalism Studies, Journalism, Information, Communication & Society, and International Journal of Communication. Her research is informed by more than 10 years' professional experience working as a reporter and editor for several magazines and newspapers in the U.S.