Community Journalism in Zambia: The Case of Chikuni Radio

Community journalism is steadily gaining prominence in most African nations. It is a conduit through which different communities develop social interaction. It is also a platform through which the public create connections among themselves to identify and resolve local and national problems that affect citizens. The goal of this study was to examine how community journalists at Chikuni Radio practiced their craft in an effort to build a sense of community in southern Zambia. The study presents a qualitative thematic content analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews with three Chikuni Radio editors and six journalists. The journalists’ community journalism experience ranged from three to fourteen years. The findings of this study indicate that journalists helped build community by participating in and enabling problem-solving in the community, engaging community radio audiences as active collaborators in reporting, and explicitly advocating for the community. These findings suggest that community reporters at Chikuni Radio are invested in the success of the community they cover and see community engagement as part of their professional journalism practice. Examining journalism practices in community media is, then, significant for it contributes to the understanding of the characteristics and role of journalism in understudied geopolitical environments