Mobile-first journalism and the new gatekeepers: Participatory news production in informal economies in South Africa

This study investigates how mobile-first journalism is reconfiguring participatory news production and gatekeeping in informal economies, with a focus on urban South Africa. Addressing the problem of whose voices gain visibility and legitimacy in the digital age, the research integrates digital ethnography and semi-structured interviews with journalists, citizen reporters, and platform users in Johannesburg and Durban. In this study, voice refers to who can speak, contribute, and be recognised as a legitimate news participant, while visibility refers to whose contributions become searchable, shareable, and publicly legible within mobile-first news flows. The study is grounded in a theoretical framework combining digital public sphere theory, networked gatekeeping, and participatory culture, and introduces the concept of “mobile-mediated gatekeeping” to capture novel forms of editorial power and community agency. Results show that mobile-first platforms foster inclusive practices and amplify vernacular knowledge but also produce new exclusions through algorithmic bias and shifting infrastructural constraints. The findings contribute original theoretical insights by advancing “mobile-mediated gatekeeping” as a distinct analytic tool, showing how practice-based innovation within informal economies challenges conventional models of media power. Implications include recommendations for platform design, media policy, and scholarly approaches to digital voice and participation in the global South.