Challenges Congolese Broadcast Stations Face in Adopting and Integrating ICT in Their News Processing and Dissemination Practices

This research assesses the difficulties that Congolese broadcast stations experience in the adoption and integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in news processing and dissemination in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Data was collected from 300 respondents working as journalists, editors, technical staff, and management to assess the use of ICT, its adoption barriers, and its perceived importance using a cross-sectional survey design. There is some adoption of ICT tools in the stations, especially computers, the internet, and mobile applications, but 74.3% of the stations reported having less than 50% operational dependence on ICT. Therefore, there is limited integration of the systems. The main barriers were high costs, poor infrastructure, lack of training, and political or regulatory obstacles, with the respondents revealing that 51% of them faced such challenges. The political economy of the DRC is, thus, unfriendly to the media. There were polarized perceptions of the importance of ICT, as 56% assessed its importance as high (4 or 5 on a 1 - 5 scale), while 37% rated it low because of barriers they face to adopting ICT. Statistical analyses verified the existence of significant variance in the use of ICT tools, operational dependence, and barriers to the integration of ICT, while the demographic distributions were found to deviate from the expectation of no change. The research highlights ICT’s transformative role in audience engagement and reporting vis-a-vis mobile penetration, but calls for necessary ad hoc measures to remedy economic, infrastructural, and regulatory challenges. Suggestions comprise provision of allowances, education, construction, and policy modification for the use of ICT technology in Congolese broadcasting.