CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 OVERVIEW OF THE PROGRAM

The field work was conducted in a session of 8 weeks which I started on date 20 th August up to
11th October 2019. Which took place at Zanzibar Leo newspaper which is located in Unguja.

I was not alone, I had my TUDARCO’s BMC Fellow students and other students from other
Universities. We reported in the field work place on 19th August where were introduced to the
Registrar officer, Mr Abdallah whereby she was responsible to guide our presence in the
organization

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE FIELD ATTACHMENT

Internships provide an opportunity for students to link theory with practice and further serve as a
bonus work force to those organization that have committed to participate their internship
program.

The department fulfills its mission on training the student for significant professionals and
managerial positions in the real working environment at the same time benefiting from the work
done by the students. Among the objectives of internship training are as follows

i. To assist the student's development of employer-valued skills such as teamwork,

communications and attention to detail.

ii. To enable students to apply their knowledge in practice;

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 iii. To ensure that, on leaving the university, graduates have acquired some appropriate work
experience;

iv. To establish and maintain contact between prospective employers and the university in
order to ensure that the students are given the appropriate skills and knowledge for the
jobs they are likely to be called upon to perform after graduation;

v. To enable prospective employers and employees to become acquainted with one another
in the working situation.

1.3 BRIEF HISTORY OF INSTITUTION OR ORGANIZATION

Zanzibar Leo “Kwa Ukweli Na Uwazi” is a State daily newspaper printed by Zanzibar
Government Printing Press Agency (ZGPA). The ZGPA Become an Independent Modern
Organization That Fulfills Its Role and Efforts to Improve National Development though prints.

The printing press which was known as The Department of Printing Press and Chief Government
Printer (DPP & CGP), since the end of 1960s and was used to publish all official documents
which included Bill of Law, Acts, Budget Speeches, Official gazettes, and provide other services
such as binding, stitching, printing, etc for public and private sector.

In principle, corporation of government newspaper the publisher of ‘Zanzibar Leo’, ‘Zanzibar

Leo Jumapili’, and ‘Zaspoti’ started into being published public on 31 st December 2008 when his
excellency the then President of Zanzibar Dr. Amani Abeid Karume made the consent of
enactment of the law, act no 11 of 008 regarding the establishment of the corporation

The main emphasis of the corporation is to undertake printing works of the revolutionary
government of Zanzibar as well as serving into the determination of government information and

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policies to the public in a reciprocal manner, while also the corporation will facilitate the means
by which it reaches its target, goals and objectives as enshrined by law

The first governmental newspaper was known as ‘Maarifa’ which was last published in 1963,
and was replaced by ‘Kweupe’ and later ‘Kweli ikidhihiri’ which was last published in 1978,
before the introduction of another weekly newspaper ‘Nuru’ in January 1992. Later changed to
daily ‘Zanzibar Leo’ which existed to date under the corporation of government newspaper
together with ‘Zanzibar Leo’, ‘Zanzibar Leo Jumapili’, and ‘Zaspoti’ which dealt with
entertainment news

1.4. ORGANIZATION VISION

Making corporation of the government newspapers industry, self-depended which meets its
obligation and contribute effectively towards national development

1.5 ORGANIZATION MISSION

Vying for dignity and public concern with democracy, freedom of expression, and flow of
information through respect of professional conduct, truthfulness and decency with factual and
responsible journalism.

1.6 BASIC FUNCTIONS OF ZANZIBAR LEO

The primary role of Zanzibar Leo is for the provision of information, events, entertainment,
advertisement, socialization, brand awareness, but also below are some services that they provide
as more oriented.

i. Pushing forward the progress of the national development by providing various

information.

ii. To educate the public about their understanding as well as provide them with information
and knowledge about events happening in the world through the magazine. Among such

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 knowledge are sports, politics, economics, culture, international issues, burdens, health
and so on.

iii. To educate the public on the various issues concerning our two governments (the
Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar and the Government of the United Republic of
Tanzania.

iv. Taking effective steps to enhance the competitiveness of the private sector by providing
the best and most reliable information.

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 CHAPTER TWO

ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIENCE DURING FIELD WORK

2.1 DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

During my field work I did several activities that assisted me to gain experience about newsroom
and to do in practical those thing I study theoretically in class. I was like a journalist during the 8
weeks which I had same responsibilities of a common journalist.

Journalists do write and assemble together news stories that will interest their audience. By
gathering together a number of different sources and ensuring that all the arguments are
represented, they keep their audience abreast of events in their world.

The duties I did typically involve:

i. Reading press releases

A press release also known as news release, media release and press statement is an official
statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, an
official statement, or making an announcement. Press releases can be delivered to members of
the media both physically and electronically or even been submitted through press conferences.

These Press release material benefited Zanzibar Leo because they helped decreasing costs and
improve the amount of material Zanzibar Leo can output in a certain amount of time. Due to the
material being pre-packaged, press releases save journalists time, not only in writing a story, but
also the time and money it would have taken to capture the news firsthand.

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Example on the first week of 23rd august I had the opportunity to be informed on the procedures
to prepare news through press release.

ii. Researching articles

The articles can be classified as soft story news but sometimes can be hard news. Article wring is
possible when researching is conducted. In the sense I had been exposed to various fields to get
articles. I had to interview, capturing images, and writing notes for coming up with the best
articles.

Such examples of these artless was such as on the seventh week of 03 October 27, 2019 I had
story coverage on the effects of plastic bags

iii. Establishing and maintaining contacts

A professional networking is a group of people who have connected with one another for career
or business-related reasons. Members, who are called contacts or connections, can share
information which may include, but is not limited to, job leads. They may also help one another
solve work-related problems, recommend vendors and suppliers, and provide information.

Such networking helped me to gather information to various institutions such as the

governmental institutions and private institutions

iv. Interviewing sources

An interview is a conversation where questions are asked and answers are given. In common
parlance, the word "interview" refers to a one-on-one conversation between an interviewer and
an interviewee. The interviewer asks questions to which the interviewee responds, usually so

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information may be transferred from interviewee to interviewer and any other audience of the
interview. Sometimes, information can be transferred in both directions.

In the media interviewing is possible on maintaining relationship between the news reporters and
their sources. Through this, I had acquired credits on my stories at which I had evidences and
avoided using my personal contribution on the stories.

v. Writing, editing and submitting copy

In the 8 weeks field attachment I was able to write, rewrite, edit and proofread text, making sure
that house style is adhered, writing headlines, picture captions and story summaries, editing
reports and press releases story writing,

vi. Attending events

These events were prepared by the government but also private instructions based on the
calendar. At these events the main activities were gathering or stories, mainly gathering and
preparing routine information, including sports results, tourism and political.

But I had extra activities such as to liaising with journalists, reporters and editors to strengthen
my carrier and build up connections.

vii. Proofreading

A proof is a typeset version of copy or a manuscript page. Fact-checking is the act of checking
factual assertions in non-fictional text in order to determine the veracity and correctness of the
factual statements in the text. This may be done either before or after the text has been published
or otherwise disseminated. Fact-checking may be done privately, such as when a magazine editor
wants to verify the contents of a news article, either before or after publication.

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Having skills of mass communication I had been able to proofreading for errors, repetition and
other means mainly on the postmortems.

viii. Liaising with editors, sub-editors, designers and photographers.

I had to be close to the editors and designers of various stories so as to capture there concetration
on making quality news

Such duties I captured were such as verification of information and story details, designing page
layouts, ensuring that stories are the right length and correctly placed on pages, sizing
photographs and placing them within features, verifying statements and facts, staying up to date
with privacy, contempt and defamation law and also making sure that stories are accurate and do
not compromise legality

2.2 THE RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER STUFF

My relationship with other stuff was good because we cooperated each other since we started our
field work, they taught us on how to do things related in media house such as gathering and
writing news, conducting interviews, generating stories, preparing reports to keep the public
informed about daily happenings, maintaining relations with all news sources on daily basis to
develop story ideas and compile appropriate reports.

2.3 THINGS I ENJOYED MOST

i. First, the activities that I enjoyed the most is when I attend the press conferences
sessions, to capture event, story and update my carrier

ii. Experience Field-Based Excitement. I was often out in the field chasing news and
following up on tips and leads. For someone who does not want to be tied to a desk all
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 day, the excitement of traveling around and hunting for news is a great fit. Though I often
start in local news positions, career advancement may lead to opportunities to travel
nationally and even internationally to cover major news stories for large media
companies.

iii. Meet Interesting People. I got a chance to interview interesting people in the course of
preparing news stories. I did conduct background research including interviewing people
who are relevant to the story as part of the reporting process.

iv. Becoming an expert in your community. Nobody knows their community better than the
local journalist. I had to know as much of what’s going on in the area as possible. It made
me more connected to where I lived and the people around because you have that deep
knowledge of the city’s intricacies

2.4 THINGS I ENJOYED LEAST

For my side from things I enjoyed there were also things that were enjoyed least as follow;

i. First, for the newsroom that place is not enough because it too small because of
population of people who attend every day.

ii. Second, poor record keeping, the newsroom did not have a special place to keep files

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 CHAPTER THREE

SKILLS ACQURE, CHALLENGES AND STRENGTHS

3.1 SKILLS ACQUIRE

During my field work I acquired a lot of experience which gave me the chance to acquire
different skills which are as follows:

i. Leadership and management skills. The management of the place that I conduct my field
was good because they cooperate each other, they are doing work well without any
disturbance, and they help each other if one of them is not around. Actually I enjoy being
there because there is a good management.

ii. Interpersonal skills; Are the life skills we use every day when we communicate and
interact with other people, both individual and in groups, in my field work I have a good
relationship with other staff and people who surround me and gave me experience on
how to live with any person either in social skill, people skill or life skill.

iii. Advocacy skills. Simply involves speaking and acting on behalf of yourself or others, so
this skill gave me the opportunity to know how to argue and to present people who want
the assistance because I know all the proceedings are conducted. During I attend the
newsroom sessions I saw different people who could not know how to defend themselves
so as to get their rights, other they get chance to ask question but they do know how to

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 ask, so for my side I know how to stand and to help people to say truth and to get their
rights.

iv. Communication skills. Are important for everyday communication in all situations when
you are exchanging conversation with someone. During I attend the newsroom session I
know how to communicate with different peoples or person in every situation.

3.2 CHALLENGES

I faced quite a number of challenges during my internship.

i. Economically the funds were insufficient given the nature of the work. We had to move
to various places. Nevertheless I tried to manage the limited funds I had. I had to make
sacrifices to survive in newsroom.

ii. Professionally, some people were calling us reporters and needed our identification yet
we are not. There was a likelihood of holding out. I made it a point to inform people that
I was merely a student and not reports with identities. This helped me to avoid holding
out as a reporter.

iii. Poor Working Condition. There are poor working conditions at Zanzibar Leo, as in the
area where I was in my field there are shortage of stationeries goods, shortage of
furniture’s, poor building used as a newsroom whereby these problems lead to the delay
of the news.

iv. Shortage of Transport. There are shortages of transport to transporting accused persons
from where they were captivated to the newsroom.

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 v. Delay of the News. Last but not least I was able to observe that most news were too long
and were adjourned too often which led to some students not to cover the news on time.

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

4.1 CONCLUSION

The field work is a good part of the course because it enables the mass communication students
to view the application of mass communication in relation to what they study in class (theory).
On my side I would like to say that I have gained lot from this field work and I will always be
able to treasure this experience throughout my profession as a mass communication.

Under newsroom one of the fundamental objectives is that it should ensure the administration of
information. This means that the newsroom must dispense information empirically without fear
or favor. In administration of that information, newsroom ethics and procedures should be
obeyed by staffs officers and public at large. So the objective will be achieved to enhance good
governance of the country as well as avoidance of any critics from the public towards the
administration of information by the newsroom.

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4.2 RECOMMENDATION

Essentially field attachment report is aimed at providing relevant practical training (skills) in the
application of recognized mass communication and procedures that are applied. The Zanzibar
Leo should keep on taking people who are in need for practical training because the organization
has a Conducive environment to anyone who wants to learn and acquire experiences.

First, I recommend that the subjects which are part of the report like, basic report writing skills
should be taught in the first semester so as to enable students to observe practical knowledge
from theoretical knowledge which they have already acquired in their classes.

Second, the time of doing field was not enough so the university must think about other students,
to give them more time to learn practically may be at least three month in order to learn more.

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