STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA
STATE OF THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA

On Media professionalism, on 15th August 2019, The Mast Newspaper carried a Headline “avoid one source
stories, the US embassy urges Zambian Journalists”
The paper reported that:
The US embassy has urged Zambian journalists to have their audience in mind when writing
stories. The embassy says journalists should avoid one source stories. Closing a two-day news
editors training in newsroom management in Chipata on Monday, US embassy public affairs
officer Sean McIntosh said journalists should ensure their audience understood what they
were writing about.
McIntosh said Journalists should keep in mind whether an average person understood what
they write or talk about. He urged journalists to ensure they practice what they had learnt at
the training.
He urged journalists to contact him whenever they wanted to get stories regarding US
activities in Zambia.
McIntosh also reminded journalists to avoid single sourced stories.
���One big issue that was discussed was the issue of doing one source stories. One source stories
only have one source in the body of the story instead of multiple sources. So let’s put that in
mind when we are doing stories. Let’s think about the other side so that you can complete
[your article],” said McIntosh.
A participant, Onicious Maamba, said the training would impact positively on the lives of the
journalists who attended it.
The Feel Free FM news editor said the knowledge that the journalists gained would help them
further their skills in their work.
He praised Linda Hervieux, who was the main trainer. The training was organised by Alliance
for Community Action in conjunction with the US Embassy.

30

Select target paragraph3