Individual, Organisational, and Contextual Factors Influencing Journalists’ Verification Practices when Sourcing News from Social Media at Tanzania Standards Newspapers and Mwananchi Communications Limited in Tanzania

This research examined factors influencing journalists’ verification practices when sourcing news from social media at Tanzania Standards Newspapers and Mwananchi Communications Limited. The study was guided by the Gatekeeping Theory. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach was employed, combining qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. Two target populations were used, namely newsroom staff from the two media houses and journalists identified through professional networks in Tanzania. Purposive sampling was used to select 25 participants for the qualitative phase, while 137 participants responded to a survey in the quantitative phase. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews, structured survey questionnaires, and document review. Findings revealed that, overall, 51.8% of all surveyed journalists across the sample reported possessing no technical verification skills. However, qualitative data presented findings that one journalist was sponsored for a training by the media house on digital tools for data visualization and verification of statistics and the news room in the same organization had established a fact-check desk. The study concludes that the integrity of verification practices is shaped by intersecting structural pressures at the individual, organisational, and contextual levels. The internal newsroom constraints such as tight deadlines and limited technological capacity tend to weaken verification depth. The study recommends that media organisations in Tanzania establish clear verification protocols for social media content used in news reporting, ensuring that verification practices go beyond basic accuracy checks to produce report that is accurate, reliable and trusted by the public. Key Words: Individual Factors; Organisational Factors; Contextual Factors Journalist Verification Practices; Social Media