Do you pay your sources?
If (and how) to compensate communities that help produce our news
Compensating sources was once very much taboo in news-making—but that’s changing.
Of course, outright payment for information—or “chequebook journalism”—is still unethical. But compensating co-producers of news is not so simple.
Some of this complexity comes from journalism’s reckoning with an extractive past, where marginalized groups and those affected by trauma are left worse off after interactions with the media. Related, is the decline of trust in the media; an area that news organizations attempt to heal by community engagement work like listening sessions, focus groups, and other events.
At an individual level, whether someone is being interviewed for print, radio, or film, they likely have given something of themselves to make it happen. It may be paying for childcare, taking time out of work, or sharing knowledge gained from years of a unique lived experience (maybe in precarious situations). Compensation for time and knowledge can show respect, help establish rapport, and increase community trust.
But what does this compensation look like? How does a journalist negotiate this with their sources? With their editors?
It’s these practical elements of reciprocity that anthropologists have paradigms and applied tactics for tackling.
Over the last few years, I have often been surprised to hear about compensation becoming more common in newsgathering work; but, there are still a lot of questions.
For example, two years ago, a presentation by Los Angeles Times reporters at SRCCON showcased how the paper employed listening sessions with Mandarin-speaking communities to help shape the direction of coverage. Participants of the sessions received a $15 gift card for their time.
The audience had questions on a number of practical topics: How did they decide on a gift card? Gift card to where? Why $15? Where did the money come from to purchase the cards? How did the journalists get editors and publishers on board with this? And more…
Listening to this flurry of questions, I couldn’t help but think that ethnographers would have answers.
And so, the Centre for Anthropology and Journalism next Think-Tank Session is dedicated to how anthropology’s paradigm of reciprocity could help journalists compensate communities ethically.
Anthropologists, editors and journalists: please join us February 25, 2026 for a collaborative and conversational brainstorm on this topic of compensation.