Every country has news consumers—and news avoiders—who are media illiterate. OJ-UGANDA’s media literacy section exists to change that. Follow along.

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It is a common refrain. Many people in many countries these days say they do not trust the media—or journalists for that matter. But many people who say this are not even news consumers. They are news avoiders and are ignorant about how the media operates.

Anyone who has worked in journalism for a reputable news organisation will tell you that it is rare for journalists to just make up stories.

The lies, misinformation and disinformation we see on social media are not and cannot be the work of journalists. The way journalists operate makes it hard to engage in misinformation and disinformation.

There are exceptions, of course. In Uganda, the Red Pepper and its sister publications used to make up stories. In the US, one of the best-known newspapers, The New York Times, employed a reporter named Jayson Blair who reported many stories that turned out to be fake. The Times fired the reporter and apologised to its readers.

And in 2018, Germany’s news magazine Der Spiegel discovered that its award-winning journalist, Claas Relotius, had committed journalistic fraud “on a grand scale” over a number of years. Mr Relotius resigned after admitting some of his articles included made-up material from interviews that never happened.

Journalists work in newsrooms, and newsrooms are manned by people who have been trained to (ethically) gather, verify, interpret and present news and information to the public through various media platforms, including newspapers, magazines, television radio and digital outlets.

When you understand how journalists work, you start to realise that media distrust is exaggerated. That is why it is imperative that media literacy is promoted.

Understanding the basics

While many people can use the internet and pretend to be journalists to pursue certain agendas, professional journalists are governed by ethics and often identify themselves. Let us look at this in detail.

Imagine you are reading a news article and come across this word: byline. The article says: “The story didn’t have a byline.” You pause and wonder: “Byline? What’s that?”

In journalism—especially in newspapers and magazines—a byline is the name of the journalist reporting the story. It usually looks something like this: By Alice Magna. In broadcast journalism, reporters sign off by saying something like: Mark Okello, Tomia Media, Gulu district headquarters. The name of the place where they are reporting from comes last.

In newspapers, news magazines and on websites, a byline gives credit to the journalist who did the reporting. It also identifies the person behind the story being told. Readers need to know who did the reporting as this enhances credibility and openness.

Some stories are the work of multiple reporters. In such cases, a newspaper may list their names or add a tagline at the bottom of the article, stating that certain journalists contributed to the story.

For major events, a news outlet might assign a large team—sometimes more than 15 reporters—to cover different angles of the same story. The New York Times, for example, does this frequently.

What about datelines?

When a bylined story also has a dateline, it means the reporter has gathered most of the information firsthand from that location, as the screenshot below shows. If a journalist was not physically present at the scene of the event, the story should not carry a dateline.

Datelines matter because they add credibility. They assure readers that the journalist has done on-the-ground reporting, rather than relying solely on second-hand sources.

From the screenshot, we can tell that the journalist wrote the story for Al Jazeera from Kampala, Uganda. It is worth mentioning that individuals behind fake news and misinformation do not even know what a dateline means. They are not journalists.

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🔴 If you care about truth, credibility and understanding how journalism really works, media literacy is essential. Follow OJ-UGANDA’s media literacy section to sharpen your news sense and separate fact from fiction. Media literacy is your weapon against misinformation, manipulation and media distrust.