Abstract

This article reports on a study that was situated at the intersection of fake news and the daily news production practices of mainstream journalists during the November 2017 “soft coup” in Zimbabwe. There is a paucity of research on journalists’ responses to fake news, during military coups, despite increasing research on the influence of fake news on traditional news production practices. Conceptualised on social organisation of news work, the study deployed qualitative interviews with purposively selected political reporters from mainstream press newsrooms in Zimbabwe, to explore how they responded to fake news during the coup. The study found that faced with an avalanche of fake news, the journalists responded by re-evaluating their news sourcing routines and engaged in collective efforts to identify sources and pressure points of fake news that interfered with their work. Yet, overt reliance on unreliable websites and social media sources to produce news still persisted. Based on this and other related findings, the authors recommend that journalists should evolve their own platforms and mechanisms to verify and challenge fake news prevalent on social media and websites. They further recommend a “triangular approach” that can, in the long term, reduce the influence of fake news.

摘要

本文报道了一项研究，该研究位于津巴布韦2017年11月“软政变”期间主流新闻记者的虚假新闻与日常新闻制作交汇处。尽管在假政变对传统新闻制作实践的影响方面进行了越来越多的研究，但在军事政变期间，关于新闻工作者对假新闻的反应的研究很少。该研究从新闻工作的社会组织概念出发，对来自津巴布韦主流新闻编辑室的有目的的政治记者进行了定性采访，以探讨他们在政变中如何应对假新闻。研究发现，面对大量假新闻，记者的回应是，重新评估了他们的新闻来源例行工作，并共同努力找出干扰他们工作的虚假新闻的来源和压力点。然而，仍然依赖于不可靠的网站和社交媒体资源来制作新闻。基于此以及其他相关发现，作者建议记者应发展自己的平台和机制，以验证和挑战社交媒体和网站上普遍存在的虚假新闻。他们进一步建议采用“三角方法”，从长远来看，可以减少假新闻的影响。作者建议记者应该发展自己的平台和机制，以验证和挑战社交媒体和网站上普遍存在的虚假新闻。他们进一步建议采用“三角方法”，从长远来看，可以减少假新闻的影响。作者建议记者应该发展自己的平台和机制，以验证和挑战社交媒体和网站上普遍存在的虚假新闻。他们进一步建议采用“三角方法”，从长远来看，可以减少假新闻的影响。