The Role of Media in Promoting Tourism: Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation in Focus
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Date
2018-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study aims to assess the role of EBC in promoting Ethiopia’s tourism resources on its Amharic and English programs entitled “Tourism Lelemat” and “Explore Ethiopia”. To find out the available data, two qualitative data instruments: in depth interview and document analysis, were employed. Seventeen individuals were selected purposively for the sake of in depth interview and eight stratified randomly selected programs, which were broadcasted from 2014-2017 were employed for document analysis. Document analysis for one program lasted for a length of two hour and each in depth interview conquered thirty to forty minutes.
Results obtained from document analysis and in depth interview confirmed that though Ethiopia has a huge potential of tourism resources as the national media of the country, EBC’s effort was not enough in giving coverage and promoting the tourism sector of the country. In addition, the tourism programs, which are produced in Amharic and English languages, have shown gaps in terms of content, language usage, presentation, production quality and other elements of production. Particularly, in the English department because of lack of attention by the top managements of EBC, its small number of staff and limited resources, most of the tourism programs are dependent on translation from Amharic tourism programs.
Based on the findings, key actions were recommended. As the national media of the country EBC should take initiative to boost the income gained from the tourism sector and build the good image of the country.
EBC should also fulfill skilled professionals, not only journalists but also cameramen and video editors to minimize the gap in terms of content, way of presentation and quality production. Producers also should be responsible to improve their capacity in language skills, presentation styles as well as research conducting and other skills to produce attractive tourism programs for local and foreign audiences, thereby benefiting the people and the country at large from the sector.
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role of EBC in promoting Ethiopia’s