Digital Journalism Practice and the Transformation of News Gathering in West Africa: Evidence from Nigeria and Ghana

This study examines the transformation of news gathering practices through digital tools and platforms in Nigerian and Ghanaian journalism, providing a comparative analysis of digital adoption patterns, practice innovation, and journalistic culture change in two West African news environments. Digital journalism tools including social media monitoring, data journalism, drone journalism, and mobile newsgathering have transformed what is newsworthy, how stories are sourced, and the speed and format of reporting. This study uses a qualitative comparative methodology, conducting 42 in-depth interviews with working journalists, digital editors, and journalism educators across Lagos, Abuja, Accra, and Kumasi. Interviews cover tool adoption, source relationship changes, editorial workflow transformation, and perceptions of digital journalism quality. A professional practice vignette exercise supplements interviews to elicit concrete decision-making data. Findings reveal that social media has become the primary newsgathering tool for breaking news in both countries, displacing traditional source contact as the first step in story development for most journalists under 40. Data journalism adoption is higher in Nigeria due to a larger community of data journalists and better civil society data infrastructure, but skills remain concentrated in a small minority. Drone journalism is nascent in both countries, limited by regulatory uncertainty and equipment cost. Verification practice standards have declined with speed pressure despite stronger awareness of misinformation risks. The study contributes an original West African comparative digital journalism practice study and recommends regional journalism training networks and data journalism infrastructure investment.

Keywords: digital journalism, news gathering, West Africa, Nigeria, Ghana comparison.