The Professional Orientation of Journalists in Ethiopia: Survey of their Self-Perception
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Date
2006-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Scholars addressed the career environment in which journalists worked, delineating how
journalists perceived their identities through values, ethics, roles and socialization patterns.
The main aim of this study was to survey the socio-demographic background of journalists
and the professional orientation of Ethiopian journalists who work in news media of
general interest based in Addis Ababa. Data were collected through questionnaires that
were designed, translated into Amharic, tested and distributed to 100 journalists working
in private as well as government media. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted
with 10 key informants who were purposely selected as representing the population.
Analysis of data was made by SPSS using descriptive, mean procedure with eta and eta
squared measure of association. The descriptive and mean procedure showed that
Ethiopian journalists valued the multi-role of the media, showed respect for ethical values
of journalism. Ethiopian journalists more valued the professional aspects of their job than
the material aspects and the image toward their audience hung around a favorable image,
unlike the assumptions by some scholars that journalists perceived their audience as
‘narrow–minded’. The mean procedure depicted, while government journalists gave more
value for development role, private journalists gave more value to the adversarial role of the
mass media. Unlike their counterparts in the west journalists in Ethiopia gave greater value
for journalism education and they had deep interest for the importance of accrediting
journalism courses and licensing the career and the professionals. The typical Ethiopian
journalist in mid 2006 was male, educated, married and worked for government media.
Based on these findings, the researcher prefers to inspire other studies hoping this
document give a benchmark for later studies.
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Keywords
Journalists in Ethiopia