Strategies for Internet Technology and Digital Rights Reporting https://zimbabwe.misa.org disincentivised from reporting on it. Specialised journalism tends to get 44allocated comparatively little space and often used as space/time fillers, rarely as leading news items, and occasionally left out to give the space for last-minute paid advertisements. Studies have found that 45convincing editors to do a story has been cited as the most formidable daily challenge to specialist journalists in the South, in addition to poor working conditions, such as low pay and excessive work pressures. Hence to win editors’ favour, specialist reporters often have to focus heavily on ‘newsworthy’ topics or ‘selling’ aspects of events or issues – those which either involve a high level of novelty, drama and controversy or are at the heart of daily concerns. This suggests that newsroom managers’ attitude and willingness are a great determining factor with regard to prioritising or marginalising media reporting on internet and technology issues. Similar concerns were noted by respondents in ranking the challenges faced in internet and technology reporting: Lack of issue-oriented news reporting Researchers on specialised journalism beats such as health and climate change reporting have remarked on the lack of issue-oriented reporting, that is reporting which can sustain the public interest as it connects with issues that those publics care about. 44 Paraphrasing Nguyen, A., & Tran, M. (2019). Science journalism for development in the Global South: A systematic literature review of issues and challenges. Public Understanding of Science, 28(8), 973-990. 45 Ibid.,2019 18