Media Ethics and News Media Financing in a Fledgling Economy- A Case of the Gambia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47604/ijcpr.2372Keywords:
Public Participation, Media, Budget Making ProcessAbstract
Purpose: This paper examines how media ethics and news media financing interact in the setting of a nascent economy. The study focuses on the significance of ethical standards in journalism and how obstacles to funding might have a detrimental effect on them. Issues interrogated include how media ethics are violated, how financial hardships have contributed to the phenomena, the causes of the paucity of funding, and how the news media can navigate the daunting terrain of shrinking financial resources.
Methodology: The study collected data from both primary and secondary sources. While interviews with 15 seasoned media professionals provided the primary data, recent literature provided the secondary data.
Findings: The results of this study reveal that many media organisations are underpaying their employees, failing to facilitate skills acquisition training for staff, lacking editorial guidelines, hiring underqualified staff to cut costs, and failing to adequately provide the staff with the logistics needed for news gathering, all of which compromise professionalism and drive the phenomena of sensational reporting, partisanship (especially during elections), one-sided reporting, inadequate source attribution, language decorum, inaccurate reporting, lack of skills for covering highly sensitive topics like those relating to children, domestic violence, court proceedings, etc., invasion of people's privacy, and acceptance of freebies by journalists are all examples of how ethical standards are broken.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Innovative advertising campaigns aimed at small businesses, grants for the promotion of current development issues, the creation of content that would draw viewers from outside of Gambia, increased media organization collaboration to cut production costs, the creation of high-quality content, being more inventive to create content that various populations can relate to, and the Media Council's advocacy for government subvention to news media organization's were suggested as solutions to funding challenges faced by the media.
Downloads
References
Addo, M. (2023) Ethical challenges in Journalism https://www.academia.edu/11566377/Ethical_Challenges_in_Journalism
AFP editorial standards and best practices (2016) https://www.afp.com/communication/chartes/12_april_2016_afp_ethic_final.pdf
Banda, F. (2013) Media ethics and the financing of journalism in Africa. Journalism Studies, Volume 14, Issue 5, 2013 DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2012.714928
Barrett- Maitland, N & Lynch, J. (2020) Social media ethics and the privacy paradox. https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/70973
Chari, T. (2009). Ethical challenges facing Zimbabwean media in the context of the Internet, Global Media Journal African Edition 2009 Vol 3 (1).
Couldry, N. (2008) Media Ethics: Towards a Framework for Media Producers and Media Consumers in Stephen J.A Ward& Herman Wasserman (eds) Media Ethics Beyond Borders: A Global Perspective.
Deuze,Y & Daphna, M. (December 2001). "Online Journalists Face New Ethical Dilemmas: Lessons From The Netherlands". Journal of Mass Media Ethics. 16 (4): 273-292. doi:10.1207/S15327728JMME1604_03, Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists https://www.ifj.org/who/rules-and-policy/global-charter-of-ethics-for-journalists
EJN (2017) Ethics in the news: EJN reports on challenges for journalism in the post-truth era.
Henshall, P & Ingram, D. (1999) The news manual: A professional resource for journalists and the media. https://www.thenewsmanual.net/about.htm
Humphrey, C.S. (1992). This popular engine: New England newspapers during the American Revolution, 1775-1789
Hulnick, G. (2022). Defining the line between the public's right to know and the individual's right to privacy; https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/33446986/defining_the_line-libre.pdf?1397240097=&response-content-
International Federations of Journalists (2019). "˜IFJ Global Charter of Ethics for Journalists'; https://www.ifj.org/who/rules-and-policy/global-charter-of-ethics-for-journalists
Jennings, M. (1999). The evolution"”and devolution"”of Journalistic Ethics, Arizona State University JULY 1999 | Vol 28, Issue 7, https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/the-evolutionand-devolutionof-journalistic-ethics/.
Johnson, R & Cureton, A. (2022) "Kant's Moral Philosophy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2022 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2022/entries/kant-moral/>.
Feng, Y. (2022). Media ethics in the digital world: Emerging technology concerns and Covid-19 lessons, Published online: 21 Dec 2022, https://doi.org/10.1080/23736992.2023.215910
Jones, J.C. (1980). Mass media codes of ethics and councils: a comparative international study on professional standards. UNESCO's Reports and Papers on Mass Communication, ISBN :92-3-101715-2
Karikari, K. (2007) Media Ethics and Accountability Systems in Fledgling Democracies: The Case of Ghana. African Studies Quarterly, Volume 9, Issue 1, 2007 DOI: 10.5555/2152-2448.9.1.155
Lee, K.S & Wei, H. (2022) Design factors of ethics and responsibility in social media: A systematic review of literature and expert review of guiding principles, Journal of Media Ethics, 37:3, 156-178, DOI: 10.1080/23736992.2022.2107524
MacLaren, M (2011) Feminist Ethics. in Encyclopedia of Global Justice pp 345-347.
Mendes, M. (2013) Overview of corruption in the media in developing countries. Transparency International
Nielsen, Kai (1966). Ethical relativism and the facts of Cultural Relativity. Social Research Vol. 33, No. 4 (WINTER 1966), pp. 531-551;The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Ogunsola, F. (2014) Media Ethics and Financial Challenges: A Study of Nigerian Newspapers Author: Folarin Ogunsola. International Journal of Communication, Volume 8, 2014 DOI: 10.1093/ijc/ijv010
Olukotun, A. (2017) Media Ethics and the Crisis of Journalism in Nigeria. African Journalism Studies, Volume 38, Issue 1, 2017 DOI: 10.1080/23743670.2017.1294830
Plaisance, P.L. (2021), Media Ethics: Key Principles for Responsible Practice (Third Edition). Cognella Direct Ebook.
Puddephatt, A. A. (2006) Voices of war: Conflict and the role of the media. International Media Support (ed). https://www.mediasupport.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ims-voices-of-war-2006.pdf.
The Gambia Public Utilities and Regulatory Authority https://pura.gm/ict/sub-sectors/broadcasting/
Reta, M.C. (2015) The role of media ethics in developing democracies: reflections from Ethiopia. The Journal of Pan African Studies, Volume 8, Issue 4, 2015.
Kaplan R.L. (2002), Politics and the American press: The rise of objectivity, 1865-1920 (Cambridge University Press, 2002) p. 78
SPJ Code of Ethics. Retrieved from https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
Sing, D. (2016) A Review of erspectives on Frameworks for Ethical Theories in Public Service Life. Africa's Public Service Delivery and Performance Review 4(2):248; DOI:10.4102/apsdpr.v4i2.112
Tilak Geetali (2020) The Study and Importance of Media Ethics. International Journal of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Vol.11, No. 1 (2020), pp. 448-466.
Townsend L & Claire Wallace. (2023). Social Media Research: A Guide to Ethics. The University of Aberdeen https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_487729_smxx.pdf
Wilkins, L. (2018) A History of Media Ethics: From application to theory and back again. In "˜Communication and Media Ethics. pp.15-30' https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327597815_2_A_History_of_Media_Ethics_From_Application_to_Theory_and_Back_Again
Ward, S.J. A. (March 2005). "Philosophical Foundations for Global Journalism Ethics". Journal of Mass Media Ethics. 20 (1): 3-21.
Ward, S.J.A (2006). The Invention of Journalistic Ethics: The path to objectivity and beyond. Gill-Queen's University Press.
Ward, S.J.A. (2010). Journalism Ethics. https://www.supportuw.org/wp-content/uploads/wwa_2010_ward_journalism.pdf
Ward, S.J.A (2014) Radical Media Ethics: Responding to a Revolution. Nordicom Review 35 (2014) Special Issue, pp. 45-52
Wards, JSA (2020). In Ethics and the Media: An Introduction (Cambridge Applied Ethics, p. iv). Cambridge University Press. 978-0-521-88964-3
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Morolake O. Adekunle, Femi Onifade , Abdul Rashid Gbambu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
