Gig Labour and the Future of Freelance Journalism in South Africa and Zimbabwe

This chapter calls into question the meaning and essence of journalism under rapidly digitising and financially strained contexts. Drawing on interviews with practising freelance journalists, and conceptualised on the gig labour concept, it offers a critical examination of the implications of digital transformation on freelance journalism in South Africa and Zimbabwe, focusing on the resultant gig labour practices in the sector. The chapter addresses two related questions. Firstly, in what ways has the journalism profession been affected by the gig work culture in southern Africa? Secondly, how do journalists envisage the future of the profession in this gig era in terms of opportunities and challenges that the new environment presents? We argue that digital labour has effectively altered the ‘infrastructures’ and practices of journalism labour and has added uncertainties to the future of journalism by altering its hiring and operational models. Because of the precarity resulting from the emergent ‘journalism nomadism’, opportunities for investigative, public interest journalism content that advances democracy may be passed up as freelancers chase content that is financially beneficial. The chapter advances an understanding of the effects of digital technologies on journalistic labour in the so-called new world of work, focusing on less-researched contexts of Zimbabwe and South Africa.