Journalism Practice in a Changing Newsroom: Exploring Journalistic Convergence Practices in Ghana

Media convergence practice has gained the attention of scholars in the past two decades. Several scholars have examined how media convergence is practiced within different contexts. This study, through the lens of the Media Convergence Theory, draws on observation and interview data to explore how journalistic convergence is practiced within the media landscape in Ghana, since this phenomenon is fairly new within the Ghanaian context. The findings of the study show that the selected media organisations practice journalistic convergence with different features. Thus, in terms of newsroom convergence, these organisations employ a hybrid approach to the various newsroom convergence models identified in the literature. The findings also indicate that journalists working for the two media organisations are required to multitask by employing a multiskilling strategy in their newsrooms, although they do not receive any additional compensation. Furthermore, multimedia content production is at the heart of journalistic convergence in these two media organisations. They make a conscious effort to integrate multimedia elements into the content they produce to serve multiple platforms. The findings of the study highlight the importance of journalistic convergence in the practice of journalism in Ghana and add to the existing argument in the literature that different media organisations practice the phenomenon to suit their operational needs and specific organisational requirements.