"As journalists begin to create stories, they need to find sources. Sources can include a variety of people. Depending on the story assigned, sources can range from officials to people on the street. When journalists decide who to talk to, they always want the best source, however, individual reporters must decide who is qualified to be the best source. My research questions asked whether race and years of experience were important in determining the choice of sources, I interviewed female television and newspaper reporters who differed in terms of race and experience. In depth interviews with these women suggests that a number of variables are important to how they chose sources. Some of the factors include socioeconomic background, years of experience in the industry and educational background. Each reporter had her own take on how comfortable she was when it came to interviewing sources. The reporters provided insight on what makes them approach sources, but many of the reasons for course choice were factors other than gender and race. In some cases gender and race did play a role because of who they felt was more approachable. The contribution of this thesis is the fact that I attempted to explore in depth how female journalists think about their own choices of sources."--Page ii.
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