Ethiopian Print Media Practices in News Source Selection and Verification: The Reporter, Addis Zemen and Addis Admas Newspapers in Focus
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Date
2016-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study aimed at investigating the practice of source selection and verification in news
reporting at one state owned and two privately owned print media institutions, namely Addis
Zemen, The Reporter Amharic and Addis Admas newspapers, respectively. Practical theory of
truth, story selection theory and Gate Keeping theory have been employed as theoretical
framework. Qualitative data gathering techniques of qualitative content analyses of news and in
depth interview were employed to undertake the study. 24 news items 8 from each newspaper
published within two consecutive months, from November 11/2015 to January 9/2016 were
analyzed qualitatively. Using purposive sampling, 11 journalists from the three newspapers were
selected for in depth interview. Qualitative content analysis was used to get rich data that can
enable the researcher to examine the state of source selection and verification of information
obtained from sourccs on news reporting. The data were organized based on the basic research
questions formulated to guide the study and analyzed thematically. The study revealed that there
is limited practice of verification in Reporter Amharic, Addis Zemen and Addis Admas
Newspapers. With regard source selection, Reporter Amharic and Addis Admas newspapers
heavily relied on anonymous, government, opposition political parties, specified and unspecified
sources. Sometimes they left information including the headline without mentioning source.
Addis Zemen Newspaper highly relied on government and specified sources. In addition it
entertained one sided news story. The study also found out that news reporting practice at the
three newspapers investigated entertained limitation regarding to verification. The gap to practice
the discipline of verification in both Reporter Amharic and Addis Admas newspapers was
mainly influenced by unwillingness of sources and lack of access to information. Addis Zemen
Newspaper mostly entertained one sided news story or stick to the government perspectives that
influenced the paper to come up with event based news that has not given a space to verify
information from different sides. Since the newspaper is daily, time constraint and shortage of
news espaliers contributed to the gaps in practicing the discipline of verification. The study
concluded that the three newspapers have limitations in practicing source selection and information verification in line with the accepted j ournali stic professional principle and this may
affect the quality of the news and information communicated to the public via these media.
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Keywords
Ethiopian Print Media Practices, News Source Selection, Addis Zemen Addis Admas Newspaper