The government media are event oriented. They lack professional integrity for the public interest by ensuring transparency and accountability by exposing corruption and investigating crimes that hinder the national development process through ethical participation in the development activity in a process oriented manner and are not finding solutions for development problems through participating in the grassroots.
Structural censorship, self-censorship of journalists, unethical conduct of journalists, professional limitations, law commitment of media leaders to enforce the policy, lower level of public culture of information exchange, trespassing of editorial policy and government official’s perception of DJ as a development success only reporting are challenging the practice.
In contrast, privately-owned media in Ethiopia covers less development issues than the government media, gives very little time and space for the development issues of Ethiopia compared to the government media. But, in that little amount of coverage, they focus on government development actor’s failure and dissimulate non-state actor’s failure.
Paradoxically, the private media in Ethiopia similar to government media are not applying investigative journalism and watchdog the public property. They have no role in exposing corruptions and crimes committed on public properties. Practically, they are also event oriented and Addis Ababa-based, one-sided story tellers more than the government media.
Resource limitation (human, material and financial), wrong perception of government PR officers and officials towards private media and prohibition of information, government tax and null incentive for private media, lower level of public culture for information exchange and freedom of expression are the top line challenges which affected their coverage of development issues of the private media.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
1.2 Statement of the problem
1.3 The objectives of the study
1.3.1 General Objective
1.3.2 Specific Objectives
1.4 Research questions
1.5 Theoretical frame work
1.6 Significance of the study
1.7 Scope of the study
1.8 Limitation of the study
1.9 Organization of the Study
1.10 Operational definition
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Development
2.2.1 Development in Global Context
2.2.2 Development in Ethiopian Context
2.3 The Three classic Development approaches and role of media in national development
2.3.1 Modernization Paradigm (1945-1960’s)
2.3.2 Dependency Paradigm (Late 1960s to 1980s)
2.3.3 Multiplicity Paradigm (Since 1980s)
2.4 Development Journalism
2.4.1 Origin of Development Journalism
2.4.2 Definition of DJ
2.4.3 Purpose of Development journalism
2.5 A Free Press for Development
2.6 Contents of News stories in Development Journalism
2.7 The Ethiopian media and Development journalism
2.7.1 The Ethiopian news media landscape
2.7.2 The Ethiopian development journalism policy
2.8 Theoretical framework
2.8.1 Public service development journalism model of Banda
2.8.2 Social responsibility theory
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Quantitative Content Analysis
3.1.1 Universe of content analysis
3.1.2 Content analysis Sample
3.1.3 Unit of analysis
3.1.4 Categories of content analysis
3.2 Qualitative method
3.2.1 In depth Interview
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.2 The Coverage of Development Issues by Ownership Difference
4.3.1 Coverage Difference by General Actor
4.3.2 Coverage Difference by Specific Actors
4.4 Government and Private media difference in development issues coverage by general and Specific Nature of the development
4.4.1 Coverage difference by general nature
4.5. Coverage by General Actor and General Nature
4.6 Development News coverage by General Sector and Specific sector
4.6.1 Development News Coverage by General Sector
4.6.2 Development News coverage by Specific sector (percentage)
4.7 Aim of the Development news coverage
4.9 The aim of the news versus the source of the news
4.10 Trend of development news coverage by month
4.11 Qualitative data analysis
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMERY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5. 1 Summery of the Analysis
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Recommendations
Research Objectives & Core Themes
This study examines the practice of development journalism in the Ethiopian media landscape by comparing how government-owned and privately-owned media outlets cover development issues, identifying the underlying challenges and biases in their reporting strategies.
- Comparison of development news coverage between government and private media.
- Influence of media ownership on the framing of success and failure stories.
- Identification of structural and self-censorship as barriers to critical reporting.
- Analysis of media dependence on events and official sources rather than process-oriented journalism.
- Assessment of the role of economic and political factors in shaping the development agenda in media.
Excerpt from the Book
1.1 Background
Different literature of Development Journalism notes, a development journalist unlike liberal or authoritarian and totalitarian journalists is expected to participate in reporting and promote the success stories in order to help the change and wellbeing of the society.
The function of all journalism is to furnish the people ultimately responsible for that policy with the facts-the shocking as well as the flaccid, The ominous as well as the reassuring, The dissenting as well as the agreeing.(Simon and schuster,1966,p.291)
Likewise, Melkote and Murthy further assured that development journalism is very committed for the public interest.
In the contemporary world, to a greater extent than ever before, the mass communication media have increasingly become central to every aspect of human lives. With the immense power of the electronic media, enhanced by The advanced computer and satellite technologies, media have assumed key position in the political, economic and socio-cultural activities of a society, making media indispensable to governments and the public, principally in a democratic political setting where government power emanates from the people. Most importantly, in developing world, where majority of the citizenry suffer from undesirable socioeconomic and political conditions, the media have long been recognized as engines of development (Melkote, 2001 and Murthy, 2006).
So, Media whoever its owner is expected to work for the development of the developing nation for best interest of the public. But the Ethiopian media seems working against this Principle of DJ. Different scholars agree with the siding nature of media in Ethiopia. There is polarization of media where the private media often negates the development efforts of the government and the government media mostly cover favorable news about its activities (Nigussie, 2011).
Summary of Chapters
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: Outlines the research background, statement of the problem, study objectives, and the significance of investigating development journalism in Ethiopia.
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE: Explores theoretical paradigms of development communication and established definitions of development journalism, alongside the Ethiopian media policy context.
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Details the mixed-methods approach, including quantitative content analysis of four media outlets and in-depth interviews with media professionals.
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS: Presents findings regarding how media ownership, actor types, and nature of development stories influence news coverage in Ethiopia.
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMERY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: Provides a comprehensive synthesis of the analysis and offers strategic recommendations to improve journalistic practices in the country.
Keywords
Development Journalism, Ethiopian Media, Government Owned Media, Privately Owned Media, Content Analysis, Investigative Reporting, Media Censorship, Public Interest, Economic Development, Socio-Political Change, Development News Coverage, Journalistic Ethics, Editorial Policy, Media Accountability, Growth and Transformation Plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this research?
This research investigates the practice of development journalism in Ethiopia, specifically analyzing how media ownership affects the coverage of development success and failure stories.
What are the core thematic areas?
The research focuses on ownership structures, the attribution of responsibility for development outcomes, the nature of stories (success vs. failure), sector-specific coverage, and the overall objectives of development news.
What is the central research question?
The study asks how government and private media in Ethiopia differ in their reporting of development issues and why they adopt specific framing strategies.
Which scientific methods are employed?
The author uses a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative content analysis of news items from four major Ethiopian media outlets with in-depth interviews of reporters, editors, and managers.
What does the main body of the work cover?
The main sections evaluate empirical data on how news is generated, the influence of public relations events on coverage, and the systematic challenges that prevent both government and private media from providing critical, process-oriented reporting.
Which keywords characterize this work?
Key terms include Development Journalism, Ethiopian Media, Censorship, Media Accountability, and Development News Coverage.
How does structural censorship affect the government media?
Government officials often intervene in media operations to maintain the status quo, and the leadership of these media houses often consists of political appointees who prioritize positive promotion over critical investigation.
What role do public relations (PR) events play in media reporting?
Both government and private media are highly event-oriented; journalists often rely on PR-organized events to generate stories, which limits their scope to positive achievements and often traps them in "one-sided" storytelling.
- Quote paper
- Abayneh Mihret (Author), 2017, The practice of development journalism in the Ethiopian media landscape, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/374369
