Influence of Editors on Food Security Coverage in The Ethiopian Private Newspapers: Focus on the Reporter, Capital and Fortune Newspapers
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2010-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Ethiopia had been facing the challenges of ensuring food security for decades. The
challenge is still with us. As a result, programs aimed at poverty alleviation, poverty
reduction and food security have been prepared and implemented by successive regimes.
The significance of the efforts is such that they deserve the best media coverage they
could get – for, the successful implementation of the programs as well as the overall
efforts requires that they should be brought to the attention of stakeholders, especially the
public. And this is the prerogative of the editors, who determine the content of
newspapers. The importance of editors in the press is hard to overemphasize. It is the
editors that decide the content of the newspapers and the stories that get published and
read by the public. Behind the important roles that the media plays – from informing the
public to agenda-setting – there are the editors that do the decisions on what to inform
and what kind of agenda to set for the public. The decisions of the editors, in their turn,
are shaped by several factors, including beliefs, ideologies and values – personal as well
as social. These are among the host of variables that influence the overall perspective of
analysis and content of the whole newspaper and individual stories. This study attempts
to investigate the factors that promote or hinder the editor form offering the necessary
coverage that food security issues deserve. It specifically tried to look into the attitude
and knowledge of private newspapers editors.
Description
Keywords
Capital and Fortune Newspapers