Södertörns university | School of social sciences Bachelor thesis 15 hp | Journalism | Spring semester 2014 (Frivilligt: Programmet för xxx) Between professional ideals and harsh reality – A case study of health journalism and reporting in three Tanzanian daily newspapers By: Henrik Lindstedt Supervisor in Sweden: Jöran Hök Supervisor in Tanzania: Michael Andindilile Examiner: Christian Andersson 4 In Tanzania development has been on the agenda for a long time and one of the steps that has been taken to try to affect change is through communication and information. Under the first president of Tanzania, Julius Nyere, the media was monopolized and utilized as a tool for the government to push its agenda for development. Today, however, the media looks a bit differ- ent from the time of Nyerere, with a majority of privately owned media. Despite the focus on development the situation in public health is still poor, with both communicable diseases (i.e. HIV/AIDS and malaria) and non-communicable diseases (i.e. cancer and diabetes) claiming a lot of premature deaths. This thesis is a minor field study, financed by a scholarship from the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). Its purpose is to examine the professional ideals of Tanzanian journalism today when it comes to health reporting and the development in public health. To fulfil this purpose interviews were conducted with journalists at three Anglophone daily newspapers (Daily News, The Citizen and The Guardian) in the economic capital, Dar es Salaam. Initially a quantitative content analysis was conducted. How the journalists feel that they can live up to their ideals and what obstacles they see in doing so was also examined. The study showed that the journalists want to contribute to the development, but that their ideals in how to do so differ. The most prevalent ideal was that the media should work to in- form and to educate the public. At the government owned newspaper, Daily News, the united front of the media and the government lived on. They felt responsible to stick to the govern- ment agenda. However, they also expressed that they felt responsible towards the ordinary people. The journalists felt that they could not live up to their ideals, especially the ideal of being the voice of the voiceless, because of the economic situation of the newspaper. The economic situation also affected the privately owned newspapers. The more active role of watchdog was more prevalent at these newspapers but was rarely practiced due to lack of resources. Keywords: Dar es Salaam, development journalism, health reporting, journalism studies, minor field study, professional role Hello, hello Tanzania! Three words that are forever stuck in my head after the crowded dala dala (bus) trips through the streets of Dar es Salaam. In the dala dalas the radio was always on, playing local and international hits. The three words are from the jingle of one of the big radio stations and for me the song works as a reminder of the warmth and familiarity of the people that helped me to find my way in this exciting Tanzanian metropole. The initial confu- sion that I and my travel companion Anna Nilsson felt when we first got to the city was quickly transformed into excitement when we got to the University of Dar es Salaam and met are soon-to-be good friends. Thank you for your friendship and valuable help, you know who you are. I would also like to thank the Swedish International Development Agency, Sida, which gave me this opportunity through a Minor Field Study scholarship. The choice to go to Tanzania was initially not made by me. I had heard about this scholarship and I was interested to get the opportunity to write my bachelor thesis in another country. But it was not until I got a message from my classmate Anna Nilsson, asking if I wanted to come with her to Dar es Salaam, that I was convinced. I was flattered that she had asked me and that was when I started to build a commitment to this project. Anna, thank you for all the support and good times! As a journalist student this trip was invaluable. I interviewed a lot of very interesting journal- ists at the three daily newspapers Daily News, The Guardian and The Citizen. They did not only give me their time and thoughts, they also gave me different perspectives on how to look at journalism as a profession. Except my respondents I also met other people that in different ways deals with the field of journalism. I got a lot of help at the Media Council of Tanzania, where especially Kelvin Tiba was of great assistance. I would like to thank all of these people for their help and inspiration. Last but not least I must thank my two supervisors, Michael Andindilile at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (UDSM) and Jöran Hök at Södertörn University in Stockholm. You both challenged me intellectually and made me see the faults that my brain refused to detect. Thank you Tanzania, I will be back! 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Purpose ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Research questions ........................................................................................................... 2 2. Background ........................................................................................................................... 3 2.1 The Tanzanian situation ................................................................................................... 3 2.1.1 Demography .............................................................................................................. 3 2.1.2 Health and development ............................................................................................ 3 2.2 Tanzanian history – A media perspective ........................................................................ 4 2.3 The media today ............................................................................................................... 6 2.3.1 Media ownership ....................................................................................................... 9 3. Theoretical framework and earlier research ................................................................... 10 3.1 Development journalism ................................................................................................ 10 3.1.1 Earlier research ........................................................................................................ 12 3.2 Perspectives on the role of the media in society and the journalist's professional roles 13 3.2.1 Earlier research ........................................................................................................ 14 4. Method ................................................................................................................................. 16 4.1 Quantitative content analysis ......................................................................................... 16 4.2 Semi-structured interviews ............................................................................................. 17 4.3 Methodological problems, reliability and validity ......................................................... 19 5. Results ................................................................................................................................. 21 5.1 Content analysis ............................................................................................................. 21 5.1.1 Prevalence of health news ....................................................................................... 21 5.1.2 Prevalence of development news ............................................................................ 22 5.1.3 The articles’ point of view ...................................................................................... 22 5.1.4 Main sources of information ................................................................................... 23 5.1.5 Different health topics ............................................................................................. 24 5.2 Interviews ....................................................................................................................... 24 5.2.1 The journalist’s role in development in health ........................................................ 25 5.2.2 Obstacles and the reality of Tanzanian media ......................................................... 29 6. Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 33 6.1 The ideals of health reporting ......................................................................................... 33 6.2 Obstacles and opportunities ........................................................................................... 35 7. Conclusions and discussion ............................................................................................... 39 References ............................................................................................................................... 42 Printed material .................................................................................................................... 42 Electronic material ..............................................................................................................