Understanding the Fate of Journalism Practice Without the Brown Envelope: Views from Practicing Journalists in Anambra State

Restoring the long-damaged image of journalism practice is a concern for virtually all communication scholars and professionally minded journalists. This need has triggered research on how to eradicate some of the unethical and unprofessional practices that undermine the profession’s integrity. Understanding the fate of journalism practice without the brown envelope is among the research inquiries targeted at ensuring credible and integrity-laden journalism practices capable of serving public interests. Specifically, this study examined how respondents perceive the practice of journalism without brown envelopes; the dominant factor responsible for the flourishing of brown envelopes; respondents suspected major consequences of the absence of brown envelopes on journalism quality and welfare; the institutional and professional supports needed to sustain ethical journalism in Nigeria and respondents’ suggested strategies that could be helpful in total eradication of brown envelope journalism in Nigeria. The study was based on the postulation of the social responsibility theory, with the focus group discussion as the method. The thematic result from the three focus group sessions, which lasted for 50 minutes each, with 10 discussants, revealed that although the respondents shared some views that journalism can survive a brown envelope, a poor salary structure was generally agreed to serve as the major factor for the flourishing of a brown envelope in the Nigerian media landscape. It was recommended that a journalism welfare fund should be established with transport and hazard allowances enforced by media organisations to improve the welfare of journalists among others.

Ethical Journalism, Brown Envelope, Journalism practice, Professionalism