REPORTERS AND THEIR SOURCES BY SHUMMY SITAWA SAKRI 12-0982 TO JOY KIBARABARA In partial fullfiment of the course Com419T

SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGES NAD PERFORMING ARTS OF DAYSTAR UNIVERSITY

NAIROBI, KENYA March 2, 2014

Reporters and their Sources: 1)Shoemaker & Reese (1996) Checkbook journalism is practice of paying for a news story or an interview, or for exclusive broadcasting or publishing rights. -Personally, I think checkbook journalism is a double-edged sword. They are various reasons for and against it. Against a) Paid sources may not tell a journalist the truth; instead they will tell him what he wants tom hear because of money. b) The source might talk to you not because its the right thing to do, but because the journalist has paid them. c) Can create conflict of interest, For a) Particular settings have different practices and cultures, for instance, In Egypt they have a culture of giving tips to anyone who has offered service or is about to. Commonly known as baksheesh. If a journalist wanted info from a source based there he/she might ask for baksheesh not because its corrupt or unethical-its simply a culture. 2)The news media has the role of running the government. Back in the days, Kenyas renowned TV station Voice Of Kenya (VOK) is a good example of how media has the role of running the government. Showing illustrations of how the government runs, and always explaining about what the president has in store. This kept the citizens abreast with what is happening.

Media have a role of educating the public about the governments undertakings. For instance, during elections the media offers training in form of adverts on how people should go abut in the process of voting. The government should give considerable amount of information to the media this is because the citizens have to be aware of what is happening around. Despite this, there should also be sensitization about the kind of info they release. Info that may lead to violence, incitement, and other vices should be minimized. 3.Reporters should be warm and friendly when approaching there sources owing to the fact that they are the only ones who have the information. For instance rape or FGM victims. The reporters should only have some degree of closeness with their sources, they should not get too cosy and comfortable or be too harsh, instead strike a balance between the two.The police are any other form of source and should be treated the same regardless of their occupation. 4)The Open Government Guide is a complete compendium of information on every state's open records and open meetings laws. Each state's section is arranged according to a standard outline, making it easy to compare laws in various states whereas an open meeting is a forum held by the state where people have a chance to hear their implementations and undertakings and can in turn give their feed back. Public records and open meetings are all meant for the citizens and the public , the journalist is no less of a citizen and should therefore have direct access to the open meetings and public records like every other citizens. 5) Embedded reporters have the challenge of mentioning news statistics to detail for instance, 35 people were killed from the Somali group in Afmadow. Reason being it may cause incitement,

violence and lead to more killing but at the same time they want to give info to the public as it is. Objectivity in the journalism field is key, all journalists should adhere to it regardless of what may occur. This is particularly because they owe loyalty to the public. 6) According to McQuail( 1994) the identity of anonymous sources is revealed to senior editors or a new organization lawyer who will be considered bound by the same confidentiality. A reporter may be justified to use anonymous sources only if the source contends to it, and he/she justifies reasons as to why he did not attribute his work. When a journalist gives work without attributing it , it may lead to loss of credibility amongst his audiences, every time they may right a story the public looses confidence in them cause of lack of naming the sources. It is only professional, to give information to the public that is well attributed. Ethically, one is caught between giving the info to the public and try to maintain objectivity.a great case example is Ole Lenku who was in charge of security during the west-gate siege , not only did he give false information to the public, but also did not attribute as to where he was getting his information from.

REFERENCES McQuail. D. (1994) mass communication theory . (3rd edition) London .sage Shoemaker,P. & Reese S.D ( 1996) Mediating the message . London Longman http://www.rcfp.org/open-government-guide#sthash.UmQsJWeL.dpuf https://www.google.com/search?q=checkbook+journalism&ie=utf-8&oe=utf8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb