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

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