Calling South African Journalists: Share Your Voice on Standards for News Reporting
Stellenbosch University’s Department of Journalism is inviting South African journalists to take part in a short survey exploring what standards of practice reporters agree on when it comes to gathering and sharing the news.
The anonymous survey takes just 5–10 minutes and could help could make it easier for people to distinguish journalists’ work from more questionable news sources.
Take the survey: https://forms.office.com/r/
Researcher: Dr Meli M Ncube, Department of Journalism, Stellenbosch University
mncube@sun.ac.za | 060 936 1117
Participation is voluntary and responses are completely anonymous. Approved by the SU Humanities Research Ethics Committee (Project #34879).
Why it matters now: A new global evidence review from UNESCO, produced with the International Fund for Public Interest Media and DW Akademie, makes the case that a free and independent media has a profound and positive impact on societies worldwide.
Titled The Value of Journalism, the report draws on data showing that independent journalism contributes to economic growth, national security, and stronger resilience against disinformation and crises. Among its findings, research across 97 countries links declining press freedom to a 1–2% drop in real GDP growth, a hit that takes years to recover from, while every dollar invested in journalism was found to generate more than $100 in public benefit.
This backdrop makes surveys like Dr Ncube’s especially timely – strengthening shared professional standards is one way journalism can shore up the public trust the report shows is economically and socially valuable.
