Media sources: You cannot not communicate

Media sources: You cannot not communicate

By MUSYOKA NGUI

One cannot not communicate. This quotation is attributed to Paul Watzlawick (July 25,1921-March 31,2007) an Austrian-American family therapist , psychologist, communication theorist and a philosopher.

My post today is anchored on the above notable idea.

When covering news stories, media persons encounter sources that are reached but do not answer calls. This could be because they know the story and don’t want to be quoted. Which is good. And bad.

When secrecy shrouds a bad news, authorities bluetick the media. For the sake of balancing the story, media personalities get all angles to the story. All efforts humanly possible are pursued. When a source refuses to grant an interview to the media, it is important to report that the source shut the door in the face of the reporter. The audience have enough IQ to judge.

There are few terms I’d like to point out that the audience encounter and deserve to understand the meaning-albeit-“in my view”…..

It was not immediately clear-this shows that the source didn’t confirm the news happened by the time of going to press.

I can neither confirm nor deny-this is the situation where the authorized officer of the institution in the news leave the judgment to the reporter and the public to decipher what to believe or not.

According to sources privy to the (news) –this is usually the anonymous sources that don’t want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the story. But in this case, the journalist is best advised to keep the script supporting documents in case the story boomerangs.

Multiple sources confirm that….-this shows that the reporter has done their homework and compared the narrative cited by authorities and most of the sources hold the reported mainstream narrative.

Sources close to…-this shows that there are friends or colleagues or family related to the person in the bad news that spoke to the media and are believed to know the truth about what is in the news. In this case, it’s important to avoid naming the sources close to the person in the news to avoid retributions.

PS: When covering news it’s important to respect the privacy of people in the public interest stories in the bad pieces. Description of narratives should avoid leads that covertly or overtly identifies a confidential or a classified source. Careless description such as the pronoun she or he is enough lead to tell curious readers who you are hiding behind the mask. It’s time for media scholars to consider using gender neutral names such as “they” or “their” or “them”. Also consider unpinning the titles and specific designations that could sell out sources that trust you to cover the public interest news.