Development journalism

This paper analyses the level of competence of Tanzanian journalists to handle developmental issues. It proceeds from the thesis that development journalism is not reporting about events but processes, and not reporting about personalities but issues. The study finds evidence from a survey of 136 practising Tanzanian journalists to support the hypothesis that Tanzanian journalists are ill-prepared to meet the challenge of development journalism. It recommends that media institutions should hire better academically qualified persons and then give them professional journalism training as well as continuing training in their areas of specialization. This will equip the journalists for more coherent and comprehensive reporting and analysis of processes and issues for a developing society.