A Comparative Analysis of News Sourcing On Ebc FM 97.1 And Ahadu FM Radio 94.3 Focusing On Journalism Ethics

Abstract

This study focused on A Comparative Analysis of News Sourcing on EBC FM 97.1 and Ahadu FM Radio 94.3 focusing on journalism ethics. The main objective of the study was to make a comparative analysis of news sourcing on EBC FM 97.1 and Ahadu FM Radio 94.3 focusing on journalism ethics. The study employed case study as a quantitative research design. Two FM Radios, EBC FM 97.1, government owned medium and Ahadu FM Radio 94.3, private owned one, were selected purposefully. The two media were selected using purposive sampling technique.. The tools used to collect data in this research were news text analysis and interview. Sufficient sample news was equally collected from both EBC FM 97.1 and Ahadu FM Radio 94.3 in which 50% shared each media. Investigation focused on the cases of seventy-five evening news from each medium, maintained in the study, the total number of investigated news from both EBC FM 97.1 and Ahadu FM Radio 94.3 sources was 150. EBC FM 97.1 and Ahadu FM Radio 94.3 news were gathered from Tikimt 25, 2013 up to Hidar 19, 2013 E.C. Similarly, interviews were held with 6 interviewees, the first half participants were higher and middle managements from EBC FM 97.1 Radio and editors of the medium while the second half of the participants were higher and middle media managements from Ahadu FM Radio 94.3 and editors. Findings revealed that in terms of news category, EBC FM 97.1 predominantly entertained political genres, particularly aimed at addressing the audience about the current war between the Federal Government and the TPLF, while Ahadu FM Radio 94.3 provided a considerable attention to address the media audience all types of news including politics, economy, environment, social services and science and technology. Indeed, the critical war events were the major scope of the headlines in the state owned media. Meanwhile, a mere focus on political scenarios and a single scene /news on war politics/ of EBC FM 97.1 doesn‟t assist the media to be fair and balanced. While the government media entertained news sourced either from the government or government – supporting /non-antagonistic/ news and views sourced from any other news source, the private media gave room to equally entertain opinions and views from the government and competitive parties, including the opponent TPLF, which was related to impartiality and fairness of journalism ethics. Findings revealed that though the government and the private media used single news sources in a number of situations, the journalistic ethics maintained by the editorial policy of Ahadu FM Radio 94.3 to comply with the journalistic ethics of employing double or multiple news sources is better than that of EBC FM 97.1. Consequently, the researcher recommended the management of both the government and private medias need to reinforce their journalists to access double or multiple sources to maintain and sustain fairness and balance; and the editors of both the government and private medias require to develop efficiency and effectiveness in journalistic ethic