Practices and Challenges of Using Social Media as Sources of News in Ethiopia Mainstream Media: Selected Mainstream Media in Focus
| dc.contributor.advisor | Chakrabarti, Debashis(Professor) | |
| dc.contributor.author | Weldehanna, Leoulseged | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-02-13T07:55:54Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-11-08T13:38:12Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-02-13T07:55:54Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-11-08T13:38:12Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2018-06 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The production and consumption of news today is not the same as in the past. Media technology evolution is one of the main engines for this change. Social media, for example, enables us to communicate freely and share whatever massage we have with friends on facebook, twitter and youtube and others in the form of text, audio and video formats. And also it is open for everyone on social media network and now becomes a powerful media landscape to interact freely anytime, anywhere. Now it is used as sources of news for many local and international mainstream media. And it is ensuring media convergence. However, it also opens up new doors for false information to be communicated as true and genuine. Today, it becomes very difficult to identify the information posted or uploaded on social media which is accurate and verified. And these situations challenge the production and dissemination of news in mainstream media since they use it as one source of news. This research, therefore, was aimed at examining the practices and challenges of using social media as sources of news in Ethiopia mainstream media. In order to achieve the objectives of this research, mixed research method was employed. Both quantitative as well as qualitative data collection tools were used to gather information needed for the research. Questionnaire was taken up as a quantitative while in-depth-interview, ethnographic newsroom observations as well as document analysis were used as qualitative data collection tools. For analysis, mean scores and percentages were used to see the perceptions and attitudes of the respondents. And also, data collected through in-depth interviews, observation and documents were analyzed in relation with the results of the questionnaires. The findings of the research revealed that most of the respondents had a positive attitude towards the uses of social media as sources of news in the mainstream media. And they responded that they mostly used the social media pages of FBC, FBC,MOFA, EBC, federal and regional government communication affairs office, embassies, and personal blogs as well locally and international media, politicians and celebrities’ social media pages. However, they also shared their fears about the spread of false news which have major impacts on the reputations of individuals, groups and community at large since social media platform is open to everyone. And they, finally, suggested that mainstream media should develop their own in-house guideline that promote the uses of social media as sources of news while minimizing the damages of false information uploaded. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/16389 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Addis Ababa University | en_US |
| dc.subject | News in Ethiopia Mainstream Media | en_US |
| dc.subject | Selected Mainstream Media in Focus | en_US |
| dc.title | Practices and Challenges of Using Social Media as Sources of News in Ethiopia Mainstream Media: Selected Mainstream Media in Focus | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |