- Title
- The politics of news production within public service broadcasting: a critical analysis of Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC)
- Creator
- Mkoko, Egbert Emmanuel
- Subject
- Television broadcasting of news
- Subject
- Public broadcasting -- Tanzania
- Subject
- Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation
- Date Issued
- 2021-04
- Date
- 2021-04
- Type
- Doctorate's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/60411
- Identifier
- vital:64839
- Description
- This study examines the diversity of news items aired by Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) television and explores the focal points and decisive factors surrounding news bulletin production within this television station, which operates as a public service broadcaster. The thesis investigates not only the adherence to professionalism and newsroom policies that guide operations of TBC, but also inquires whether clear and open guidelines exist on how the broadcaster’s contents should be structured. It further examines how TBC faces political and external pressures (if any) that might influence the news bulletin production and, as a result, jeopardise the image of the public service broadcaster in the country. In this study, TBC is explored as a case study because it claims to be Tanzania’s public service broadcaster; as such, TBC is expected to serve the public interest and not to remain loyal only to the ruling party or the government of the day. The study employs news production and liberal pluralism as theoretical points of departure and uses interviews, document review, focus group discussion, and content analysis as methods of data collection sourced from professionals in the major cities of Tanzania. Meanwhile, the researcher employs ethnographic study within the TBC newsroom to trace the behaviour of journalists in their professional setting while producing news for the 8 pm news bulletins. The study revealed that TBC, from 2007-2011, passed through transformation, moving from a state-owned entity into public service broadcasting. This placed TBC among the leading stations with the largest share of audience in Tanzania. Due to a political shift in staffing in 2011, TBC has since been operating as a purely state-owned broadcaster, while ignoring the public interest mandate and the opposition parties. Thus, TBC news bulletins regularly lack objectivity, balance and impartiality, silencing people’s voices through various editorial practices. In response to this, audiences shifted from watching TBC to commercial channels offering news bulletins that serve the public interest and give space to public voices. This study proposes various remedial measures for TBC to regain the audience, which include the return to the principles of PSB proposed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). New management appointment mechanisms and funding models are proposed, which would guarantee the autonomy of the broadcaster while keeping a distance from the state.
- Description
- Thesis (DPhil) -- Faculty of Humanities, School of Language, Media and Communication, 2021
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (ix, 285 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Mkoko, E.pdf | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |