Sources in Journalism

Journalists rely on people to gain an understanding of an event or phenomenon so they can put together the story of what is happening. These people who provide information and context are what journalists call “sources.”

Sources can be experts in a particular field or area, like a biochemist or a bus mechanic. They can be a person who witnessed something first hand or who has helpful background knowledge.

Sources can be more or less helpful to a story depending on the context. For example, if a journalist is covering a bus accident during which 11 people were injured, a good source might be a bus mechanic with first-hand knowledge of the bus’ service record or a city worker with knowledge of how long is a bus driver’s typical shift.

These experts are highly relevant to the context of this story, but they would likely not be quality sources for, say, a story about a bank robbery downtown. For this story, perhaps a police officer, a back teller, or a witness who saw the robber flee might be better sources.

When we consume news stories, the information a source gives may or may not be noticeable in the reporting. Some sources give a journalist information ‘On Background’ which means the source agreed to give the journalist helpful context about the story, but not information that can be used directly in the news piece.

While journalists try to be transparent about where the information in their reporting comes from, some sources wish to give information without their identity being known. This can be problematic since news consumers need to trust the source of information and so journalists are careful about the circumstances in which they will use information from an ‘anonymous source.’ Another explainer on “anonymous sources” details when and why a journalist will use anonymous sources – and how news consumers should evaluate them.

When sources give information and agree to be quoted in a story, we can do some analysis of the quality of the source to determine how reliable is the information they provide. Questions a news consumer might ask include: Is the person in the position to give the information they gave? Would the person have an ulterior motive to give the information they gave? Who might have been a better sources for this story and why might a journalist not have spoken with them instead?

It is important to remember that when it comes to some sources, trustworthiness is in the eye of the consumer. Lived experience goes a long way to determining whether a police officer, government official, or even a scientist is considered trustworthy.

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Learning objectives

At the end of the module, learners should be able to:

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• Understand the role sources play in the collection of evidence for a news story
• Identify sources in a news story as well as what evidence they provide
• Evaluate the quality of news sources based on the information they provide

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