Challenges affecting the practice of development journalsim in state and private media in Ethiopia

The use of development journalism in Ethiopia media leaves a wide gap between its knowledge and practice. This paper analysis thechallenges which affect the practice of development journalism in the Ethiopian state and privately-owned media. It proceeds from the thesis that investigating the prospects and challenges of developmental journalism in state and privately owned newspapers in Ethiopia. The researcher employed a descriptive design in which both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered from relevant sources. The Ethiopian Herald and The Reporter newspapers from the state and the private media respectively are themost prominent and readable newspapers in Ethiopia. The researcher purposively selected the newspapersbased on media ownership and readability. The researcher also used an interview and a focus group discussion with the journalists whom were chosen purposively the journalists. As the findings of the study, having variousinterests between the media houses in developing news storiesnon-institutionalization of development journalism in the private media house, commercial imperative in making the newspaper as a business entity, urbanized nature of development journalism, lack of specialized training to the journalists, journalists’ lack of commitments wereconsidered as the main challenges of development journalism which are prevailed in both state and private media in Ethiopia.