Source Usage and News Credibility in Two Malaysian Crime Cases

Sharon Wilson (Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, sharon@mail.utar.edu.my)

Abstract


The use of credible or trustworthy sources has been controversial and editors have also constantly been distressed over the use of sources, fearing that they were depending on them too heavily and damaging the press credibility. Nevertheless, news without sources are not news. Before journalists publish stories, editors and journalists strongly favour checking the story with sources to ensure accuracy. However, because of deadline pressure, journalists are prevented from waiting for sources to review the whole story and use anonymous sources instead. Here is when conflict arises as some critique anonymous sources as unreliable and effecting news credibility and yet newsmen consider them essential, vital especially in breaking news items. A research was conducted to uncover the use and roles of sources in two particular crime cases in Malaysia. Besides textual analysis, intensive interviews were employed to explore the impact that sources bring towards news credibility especially where crime news is concerned. At the same time there researcher puts forth questions fro the reader to ponder such as what determines news source credibility? Are they that unreliable that they should never be used? Based on the preliminary findings and secondary findings from a research done previously, this article discusses the general assumptions of using sources, the types of sources used and the impact of using anonymous sources especially in crime reporting in the Malaysian news context.

Keywords: Anonymous source, news credibility, crime reporter

ABSTRAK

Penggunaan sumber yang boleh dipercayai sering menjadi kontroversi dan para editor sering cemas dengan penggunaan sumber. Mereka bimbang sekiranya para wartawan terlalu bergantung pada sumber sehingga semakin meruntuhkan kredibiliti akhbar. Namun, berita tanpa sumber bukanlah berita. Sebelum pihak wartawan menerbitkan berita, editor dan wartawan harus merujuk berita dengan sumber untuk menentukan ketepatan. Walau bagaimanapun disebabkan tekanan ‘deadline’ wartawan dihalang daripada menunggu sumber rasmi untuk mengesahkan berita dan terus menggunakan sumber yang tidak dinamai. Di sinilah konflik wujud terutamanya apabila sesetengah pihak mengkritik penggunaan sumber yang tidak dinamai sebagai tidak boleh dipercayai dan menggugat kredibiliti berita. Namun begitu, para wartawan menganggap sumber sedemikian sebagai penting, terutamanya dalam mengemukakan berita terkini. Kajian telah dijalankan untuk mengenalpasti tanggungjawab dan penggunaan sumber dalam dua kes jenayah di Malaysia. Selain daripada analisis tekstual, pengkaji juga menggunakan temuramah terperinci untuk mengenalpasti impak sumber terhadap kredibiliti berita, terutamanya yang berkaitan dengan berita jenayah. Soalannya adalah apakah yang menentukan kredibiliti sumber berita? Adakah sumber berita begitu tidak dipercayai malah tidak boleh digunakan sama sekali? Berdasarkan penemuan awal dan hasil pencarian sumber sekunder daripada kajian sebelumnya makalah ini membincangkan andaian am tentang penggunaan sumber, jenis sumber yang digunakan dan impak penggunaan sumber tanpa nama terutamanya dalam berita jenayah dalam konteks Malaysia.

Kata Kunci: Sumber tidak dinamai, kredibiliti berita, wartawan meja jenayah


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