Conflict of interest between Newspaper Writers and the Public: A study of one media house In Kenya

Abstract

The trend of conflict between media and society seems to be ideally an issue of conflict of interests between the public interests and the professional ethics, which the journalists have to uphold (Alison, 1999). Kenyans have been witnessing continued series of confrontations between mass media and various sections of the society. However, little is provided on the print media conflict and the public thus, paving way for this study to provide an insight on conflict of interest between newspaper writers and the public. The general objective of this study was to find out factors underlying ethical considerations in the production of information and how the print mass media publish the information. More specifically, the study sought to: identify areas of conflict between newspapers and the Kenyan society, find out factors that determine the content of the information that is disseminated by the newspaper and establish the extent to which ethical principles are considered in the process of production of newspapers by one media house. The study was guided by Roxborough's, (1979) principle of Ethics theory, which holds that communication should always be guided by ethical principles which he points out as the principle of truthfulness, principle of dignity of human person and principle of social responsibility. Descriptive crossectional research design was used. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the target population who are the staff of one media houses. Systematic random sampling was then used to choose respondents from five departments whereby a sample size of 160 respondents were selected. Data was collected by the use of questionnaires where drop and pick method was used. The primary data collected was analyzed with the help of an SPSS (Statistical Packages for Social Sciences) Programme. The data collected was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The study found that there are several areas of conflict between mass media and the society, but politics constitute the greater part of the conflicts. It was also found that consumers' preference constitute a significant factor in determining what is broadcasted in print media. It was recommended that both the media houses and the public in Kenya should be sensitized on the complexities surrounding the concept of ethics in journalism, and that the Media companies should improve on their remuneration scheme.