News Source Usage in the Addis Ababa Based English Newspapers
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Date
2013-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In order to write news the presence of a news source that can tell to the reporters is vital. The fundamental thing that the reporter must do is that to broaden the knowledge about sources. To make the news trustworthy and accurate, knowing and understanding the type of source and where to get the information is a key job of any journalist. This paper assesses the source usage in the Addis Ababa based English Newspapers with the main objective of identifying the source used in the news and analayze the weakness and strength on their attributions. To come with a sound and valid conclusion, content analysis, interviews and questioners have been used as the major method of data analysis. A consecutive three months, January to March 2012, newspapers issues have been taken as a sample, besides, a questioner has been distributed to the newspapers staffs and other media practitioners including Ethiopian News Agency journalists. Subsequently, the assessment has discovered that reported issues are very much influenced by attribution problems which make most of the news not objective and trustworthy. The findings of this research indicate that most news in Addis Ababa Based English newspapers mainly focuses on Addis Ababa; and especially focus on agendas related to social, political and economy sectors. These newspapers also used anonymous sources mainly in their news stories. In contrast to the newspapers editorial policy, it has been found that Governmental sources are mainly used in the Addis Ababa based English news papers more than other sources. The type of sources that appeared frequently in the news stories that are reviewed in this research shows inbalance and unfairness clearly. Although the policy states that the newspapers backs each story with a source and usage of anonymous sources is prohibited, the data gathered on the stories of the newspaper indicates the opposite, that the most quoted source are either used unnamed source or partial attributions.
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Addis Ababa Based English Newspapers