TITLE:
Advertising Ethics and Professionalism of ZNBC Radio 4 and Radio Phoenix in Zambia—A Content Analysis Study
AUTHORS:
Fidelis Muzyamba, Musonda Lemba
KEYWORDS:
Professionalism, Ethics, Advertising
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Journalism and Communication,
Vol.8 No.3,
August
28,
2020
ABSTRACT: This
study of ethics and professionalism in the content of Radio Phoenix and ZNBC
Radio 4 was inspired by, among other things, occasional public controversies in
Zambia over the content of advertising. It sought to examine the advertisements
gathered over a period of one week after being aired during prime-time, before,
during, and after the “Shopping basket” programme for radio Phoenix, and the
18:00 hrs. News summary for ZNBC Radio 4, to determine extent to which
unethical and unprofessional advertising occurred. The sample is from 2012. The
main research question was: To what extent does unethical and, or
unprofessional advertising feature in radio broadcast advertising in the two
stations? The alternative hypothesis being tested was: There was more unethical content in
the private station than in the quasi-government/public radio station. To effectively deal
with the question and hypothesis, some sub-hypotheses were also tested to help
arrive at a conclusion. The study found that, with respect to “ethical” and
“unethical” conduct, there was a mixture of both, as well as incidence of both “professional” and “unprofessional” outputs.