Oluwaseun, O. Dokunmu & Maria, K. Obun-andy

As much as the target of every journalists is to get information on events and happenings and present it to their audience while at the same time, a journalist cannot be everywhere all the time in order to witness events and incidents especially the unplanned ones and because of this, journalists need other ways of getting information on all those hundreds and even millions of those events that he cannot witness personally. The person who provides information in this regard to journalists is called a source. This paper studied the importance of non-disclosure of sources of information to journalists and media stations because it is the sources that are the oil in the wheels of success and smooth gathering and dissemination of news or information. Case study and Key Informant Interviews were used to elicit information from chosen practising journalists from a media station and Gate keeping theory was reviewed to explain the process of gathering information that makes use of gate keepers rights from sources of information to journalists that report certain events over others. The research study was able to discover that sources of information are important to successes recorded by journalists and media stations and that contributions of source(s) who can also be audiences of media stations are active participants in news gathering and dissemination of news. KEYWORDS: Journalists, Source, Information, News, Media Organisation, Audience 0150