larger notion of using mass media s tools of national
development.
* This form of journalism is encouraged in Asia, some part
of Latin America, and Sub Saharan Africa by leaders in government and society
in general.
* Countries who have
emerged from the control of Western colonial powers in recent years are the
strongest advocates of this practice.
* Arguments over the
role of media in this process have been going on for decades
DEFINITIONS:
1. Development
Journalism is the kind of journalism that pays sustained attention to the
coverage of ideas, policies, programs, activities and events dealing with the
improvement of the life of people. (Edeani)2. Development journalism is a
notion of journalism according to which reporting events of national and
international
2. significance
should be constructive in the sense it that it contributes positively to the
development of the country concerned. (Kunczik)
HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENTAL JOURNALISM
Developmental journalism has its roots in development
communication, which goes back to the work of agricultural extension carried out
by large land-grant state universities in the United States. Eventually, it
developed into a coherent doctrine, and a 1964 seminar convened by the East
West Center in Honolulu formalized the concept (Jayaweera & Amunugama,
1987). Journalists became a part of the picture simply because of their crucial
role in communication. The term "developmental journalism" goes back
to the Philippines in the 1960s. The Thomson Foundation sponsored a course
called The Economic Writers' Training Course, Aug. 14 to Sept. 5, 1968, when
the seminar chairman Alan Chalkley coined the term "development
journalist."
Chalkley (1968) explained that a journalist’s main task was
to inform and give his or readers the facts. His or her secondary task was to
interpret, to put the facts in their framework and, where possible, to draw
conclusions. Chalkley said that these were the tasks of political journalists,
as well as of crime reporters, society-page writers, human story writers and
every other journalist. The development journalist, Chalkley said, had a third
task, a positive one that one might call "promotion": not only to
give the facts of economic life and to interpret those facts, but also to
promote them and bring them home to the readers. "You must get your
readers to realize how serious the development problem is, to think about the
problem, to open their eyes to the possible solutions -- to punch that hole in
the vicious circle," Chalkley said giving his initial definition of
developmental journalism. No concrete definition of the concept has emerged
since then although scholars and practitioners have presented their different
visions.
Chalkley (1968) also pointed out at the outset that
developmental journalism was not for the elite but for the ordinary people.
Therefore, the task of a development journalist was to use simple terms and to
avoid jargon.
Gunaratne (1978) described developmental journalism as an
integral part of a new journalism that involved "analytical
interpretation, subtle investigation, constructive criticism and sincere
association with the grass-roots (rather than with the elite)." He argued
that developmental journalism was not compatible with either the libertarian
concept, which defined the function of the mass media as providing information and
entertainment, or the authoritarian concept, which stifled "criticism of
political machinery and the officials in power" and imposed a
"top-down approach to problem solving."
Aggarwal (1978) also noted that Western critics had
erroneously equated development-oriented news with government-controlled news.
He argued that the development news beat involved reporting on the relevance of
a development project of national and local needs; the difference between a
planned scheme and its actual implementation; and the difference between its
impact on people as claimed by government officials and its actual impact. Ogan
(1982: 10) identified developmental journalism as the critical examination,
evaluation and reporting of the relevance, enactment and impact of development
programs by a mass media independent of the government. Fair (1988)
conceptualized developmental journalism as news that related to the primary,
secondary or tertiary needs of a country’s population; news that satisfied the
needs of a country’s population and contributed to self-reliance; and news that
related to development or to social, economic or political problems.
Despite such analyses of the concept early on, contemporary
conservative scholars (e.g., Stevenson 1994) have gone out of their way to
debunk developmental journalism as an adjunct to authoritarian and communist
concepts of the press in their eagerness to prove the victory of the so-called
Western concept in the ‘90s. They have ignored the thrust of developmental
journalism embodied in scholarly analyses or as practiced by alternative news
services such as Inter Press Service, Depth news, Gemini and South-North News.
As Ali (1996: 30) points out: "The concept of development journalism is
good, and always was, so it is a pity it became embroiled in the acrimonious
debate surrounding the New World Information Order."
Because of the negative connotations associated with the
term developmental journalism, Shah (1996: 144-146) has suggested its
replacement with the term emancipatory journalism to facilitate recognizing
"a role for journalists as participants in a process of progressive social
change." He makes this point in the context that "communication can
contribute to participatory democracy, security, peace, and other humanistic
principles that are at the core of the discourse on modernity." Emancipatory
journalism "requires not only
provision of socially relevant information but also journalistic activism in
challenging and changing oppressive structures"; gives individuals in
communities marginalized by modernization "a means of voicing critique and
articulating alternative visions of society"; and encourages "journalists to abandon the role of
neutral observer while reporting in a manner that is thorough, deeply
researched, and historically and culturally grounded, and that promotes social
change in favor of the
dispossessed."
If one were to conceptualize a contemporary framework for
developmental journalism, taking into consideration the discussion that has
gone on for well over a quarter century, one might take into consideration the
10 proposals for a development-oriented news media put forth by Galtung and
Vincent (1992). The task of the journalist, they argue, is to unravel the
threads of the development drama that takes place both in the Center and the
Periphery, pick them out of the
intricate web of relationships, "hold them up in the sunlight, and
demonstrate the connections to readers, listeners and viewers" as IPS
attempts to do at present (p. 146). They point out the inherent drama in
development, democracy and participation, all of which are interconnected.
"The problem,
however, is that when
this drama is written out, the underlying text tends to be about the same in
all cases: imperialism, exploitation and other ‘leftist’ themes" (p. 150).
Is it any wonder, then, that Anglo-American conservative scholars tend to
debunk developmental journalism?
Galtung and Vincent (1992) outline their 10 proposals as
follows:
1. Whenever
there is a reference to development, try to make it concrete in terms
2. of
concrete human beings. Thus they urge journalists to relate development to
"people." Journalists can discuss the human needs for survival, well
being, identity and
3. freedom
in terms of age, gender, race, class and nation. They should report
4. people
as subjects, actors and agents rather than as objects or victims with
5. "needs
deficits." They should define problems and solutions as clearly
6. as
possible taking into consideration ecological balance as well.
2. A development-oriented mass media should focus not only
on the
Economics of
development, but also on military,
political and cultural aspects.
Thus developmental journalism has to focus on more than
economics because all
of them – military power, political power, cultural power,
etc. -- have to do with
development in one
way or another. Journalists should get people to reveal their
inner agenda because
that constitutes drama that would make journalism more
similar to literature .
3. Mere economic growth data will never do without
accompanying dispersion data. Journalists must look at the income of the bottom
50 percent or 10 percent, as well as of the top 10 percent or 1 percent
4. Focus on
relations, not only differences; and do so not only within countries,
but also between countries. Thus the journalists must cover both differences
and relations. They must substantiate the relational aspect between the rich
and the poor: how, for instance, wages may be frozen but not prices so that
those who live from moveable prices for their goods and services benefit
whereas people on constant wages do not.
5. A development-oriented press would do well to focus on
the totality of concrete life situations. This means focusing on concrete life
situations as when British television took up the development problematic by
selecting a family unit from each of five world regions to represent the
well-to-do, the middle class, the working class, the poor and the dirt poor.
6. A development-oriented journalism would never forget the
dimension of democracy. "The task of the media is to report what the system
is doing. Democracy can only function when there is a free flow of information
between people, the system and the media. Using the media to make the people
visible, both as objects and as subjects, becomes one task. Using them to
expose the system through investigative reporting is the second. Using the
media to expose the media that fail to do their job is the third." The
development journalist may have to do investigative reporting more subtly where
such reporting may antagonize government sources: the report can contrast
government statements with development reality without necessarily implying
that there is a link between the two.
7. There is always the possibility of reporting about
development, not critically in terms of problems, but constructively in terms
of positive programs. Success stories may contribute to a general sense of
optimism that can generate more momentum for democracy and development. People
in similar situations elsewhere can benefit from such success stories if the
report is adequately concrete.
8. Allow the "people" to talk. This means giving a
voice to the people. A useful approach is for journalists to sit down with
people from high to low discussing the meaning of development thereby
generating "an enormous range of visions" as well as
"how-to" insights. Thus people get a voice as experts in line with
the seven preceding ideas. Community cable channels in the United States enable
this to happen to some extent.
9. Go one step further, and let the people to some extent
run the media. This means giving people some media control. Letters to the
editor and the op-ed pages have space constraints. The next stage is to let
people write and produce much of the newspaper or broadcast/television program
thus enabling them to provide their own knowledge, experience and expertise.
The extent to which this happens can become a criterion of mass media quality
in a country.
10. Let people run more of society, and then report on what
happens. This is what ought to happen in a democracy. People’s movements and
organizations do precisely this. Development-oriented media should report more
on what popular movements are doing – not only their successes but their
failures too.
While no definition of developmental journalism may satisfy
everyone, it is hard to disagree that Galtung and Vincent’s 10 proposals, as
well as Shah’s thinking on emancipatory journalism, provide a reasonable
framework to understand the essentials of the concept.
OBJECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENTAL JOURNALISM
If one were to put together the ideas emerging from the
foregoing review, developmental journalism also appears as a pluralistic
journalism based on the triangular interaction of news, communication and
community that emphasizes the following:
1. Developmental journalism must go beyond the traditional
news values that, Galtung and Vincent (1992: 13-17) say, are based on
"occidental cosmology." News values must encompass the
"promotion" of developmental issues and possible solutions. News
should focus on the primary, secondary and tertiary needs of ordinary people
rather than the elite. Relevance of development to national and local needs is
newsworthy. News includes the critical examination, evaluation and reporting of
the relevance, enactment and impact of development. This boils down to
unraveling the threads of the development drama. Success stories are also
newsworthy.
2. The model of communication relating to developmental
communication ought to be the bottom-up type that allows the "people"
at the grassroots to talk. Journalism must give individuals a voice to
articulate "alternative visions of society." The linear model of
communication is less relevant to promote development.
3. The community is what matters in development. Let the
"people" run more of society and even, to some extent, the media
because the dimension of democracy is so important. The journalist should be an
active community participant in social change. He or she cannot be a neutral
observer who adheres to objectivity. The journalist must relate development to
people and focus on relations and the totality of concrete life situations. He
or she must go well beyond economics and bring out the inherent drama in
development, democracy and participation.
ROLE OF DEVELOPMENTAL JOURNALISM
We are all aware of the fact that media plays a very
important role in transforming and developing civil society. To inculcate
tolerance, positive thinking and a sense of responsibility amongst masses,
journalists and journalism play an important role. However, it is sad to note
that media has not yet been able to communicate well enough with citizens to
help them understand the true meaning and sense of the word
"development". What is worse is that most journalists in Pakistan do
not themselves know what development or development journalism really is or
whether what they are writing can be categorized as developmental writing or
not
Development journalism as a concept, a framework for news
gathering and interpretation is an impressive idea. It is about highlighting
what people are doing to transform their lives and the opportunities and
assistance available to them. Unfortunately this is exactly where our system
collapses, the common person in our country is unaware of the opportunities
available to him/her. As a result, the vicious cycle of poverty and illiteracy
is continuing. The responsibility mainly rests with the media to provide this
information and create awareness.
Compared to other fields of journalism like politics and
entertainment, development journalism is less attractive, less glamorous and
has less opportunity for travel and training. This is one of the reasons that
even though development journalism is a specialized field there are not enough
suitably qualified journalists available.
As media systems evolve and develop to meet the changing
needs of societies, new press theories emerged, including developmental
journalism, revolutionary media (Hachten, 1999) and democratic-participant
media (Downing, 2002). Developmental journalism is the better-known theoretical
concept of the three even though it is still a controversial concept and “an
amorphous and curious mixture of ideas, rhetoric, influences, and grievances.”
Wilbur Schramm and Daniel Lerner argued for the role of communication in the
achievement of national integration and economic development. And developmental
journalism is mostly popular in developing countries, where higher living
standards and an end to poverty, disease and illiteracy are considered the most
urgent goal. Under the developmental journalism concept, media are primarily
used for the purpose of nation building. The most controversial part about the
theory is the government control of the media in the name of nation building.
In the concept of developmental journalism, there is no
clear description of the rights and freedom of the press, and no clear
description of the ties between the government and media. The term
"developmental journalism" refers to a movement advocating the use of
journalism to promote social change and development rather than expose
wrongdoing.
AN EXAMPLE OF DEVELOPMENTAL JOURNALISM
Significance of Dairy India
The latest edition of Dairy India is an elegant crystal ball
into India's dairy future. Fifth in the series, the 926-page volume presents an
in-depth profile of the emerging dairy scenario, supported by over 250
statistical tables, graphs and charts. A wide range of articles and comments by
industry leaders and foreign experts sum up the situation. The compendium also
highlights new avenues of marketing opportunities and investment prospects.
A new genre in extension literature, the dairy compendium
demonstrates the value of information as an input for faster modernization and
growth of integrated rural development. In essence, the DAIRY INDIA
book_dairy_india.htmlbook_dairy_india.htmlsets out to answer one key question:
Who is doing what and where?
The
appeal of 'Dairy India' (5th edition) can be summed up in five points:
*It serves as a handy training manual of management
practices, a databook of facts and figures, a buyer's guide to products and
services, a compendium of trends and achievements, a directory of organizations
and agencies in all sectors, and a Who's Who of specialists.
*It means, different things to different users. Thus, to the
extension workers/Project Managers, it is
a ready reckoner of a large number of facts and figures on almost all
conceivable aspects of s significance
need by dairymen to make themselves more effective; to the entrepreneur, it
opens new prospects and markets by
tapping the listings in the Directory Section of the DAIRY INDIA
book_dairy_india.htmlbook_dairy_india.html telling him where to buy and where to sell.
*It documents what India has achieved and is endeavoring to
achieve in dairying. The modernization of India's dairying is a rare success
story from the developing world on the international agriculture scene.
*The latest edition provides hard-to-get information that
has been culled from thousands of scattered sources and after tens of thousands
of man-hours of back breaking research. It has 926 pages replete with ideas,
information and analyses.
*It also enables better utilization of the growing
infrastructure by: pinpointing new investment opportunities and facilitating
transfer of technology, appropriate to the resources and abilities of farmers
and self-employed entrepreneurs in rural areas.
All
in all, the DAIRY INDIA book_dairy_india.htmlbook_dairy_india.htmlhas emerged
as a desktop factbook of the dairy industry. It is essential reading for any
one wishing to get a balanced picture of India's dairy scenario. Furthermore,
it sums up India's experience in this vital area which is of relevance to other
developing countries.
RECENT DEVRLOPMENTS:
AFGHAN JOURNALISTS URGED TO HELP SPEED UP DEVELOPMENT OF
AFGHANISTAN
The Information & Broadcasting Minister, Shri Ravi
Shankar Prasad has called upon Afghan journalists to use the skills of
information dissemination for speeding up the reconstruction and development of
their country. He said, the urge for development must be ignited among the
people so that they are fully involved and participate in development.
Shri Prasad was presiding over the valedictory function of
the Foundation Course in Journalism for the second batch of Afghan journalists
organized by the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. Fourteen journalists
including three women journalists were awarded diplomas on the occasion.
Shri Prasad said that the biggest beneficiary of the
democracy is the media and journalism. Since media has the biggest stake in
democracy, the journalists have to have a commitment to their profession, to
their nation of which they are citizens and democracy. He said, newspapers must
not be considered as a commodity. It has to be a vehicle of learning, change
and development. The world is changing at a phenomenal pace and the
developmental news has been the biggest causality in the fast changing
technologies and commercialization of the media.
Referring to Afghanistan, Shri Prasad said that Taliban
crushed the spirit of the Afghan people, sheer enterprise of Afghan women,
their profound creativity, beauty and openness. The spirit of the Afghan people
has now been restored but their creativity has to be fully vitalized and
conveyed effectively. It is here that the journalists have the greatest role to
play to involve the people.
The Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting,
Shri Pawan Chopra said that in a democracy there are power frictions among
different players. But it is the media, which moderates the hard attitudes in a
multi-ethnic society in big countries like India and Afghanistan. It helps to
bring harmony among different groups. The Ambassador of Afghanistan, Shri
Masood Khalili thanked the Government of India for not only organizing training
for journalists but also assistance in re-construction and development of the
strife torn country.
IN INDIA:
Democracy, Panchayati
Raj and Sustainable Development : Challenges and Opportunities
Comprehensive sustainable social development (CSSD) is the
current objective of nation states. "Thiruvonam" of Kerala, India is
the supreme visualization on the oldest form of Social Development, found in
the India literature. The ideals and culture enshrined in Thiruvonam are the
foundations for the most transparent form of social administration. The current
sustainable social development is modeled in the United Nations and specialized
agencies of U.N. with the starting of U.N. Development decades. Only digital
democracy can lead to sustainable form of social development in all countries
of the world. When we think of a happy life for the future generations, these
processes are extremely essential. In a digital democracy reinventing
decentralized administration by electronic governance through speedy, correct
and truthful Information Technology applications is the main process. The
Present renaissance in Information Technology has brought the following
features. (1)The world has narrowed into a neighborhood in a global village,
(2) Universalization of trade and commerce, (3) Breaking away of geographical
and cultural barriers to social development, (4) Technology up-gradation, (5)
Cost reduction in Information technology applications, (6) Increase in the
processing of data for governmental administration, (7) A vision and mission
for universal brotherhood for mankind, (8)
Increase in social work and journalism interventions for Technology
transfer and technology utilization, (9) Increase in social work and counseling
services in health and human development, (10) Development of multi
professional, multi-sectoral and multi disciplinary team work in policy
analysis, planning, administration and in the delivery of services. Further
up-gradation of the above factors is a challenge but opportunities are there
for transparency in governance and speedy dissemination of information to all
citizens. When Information Technology application is higher there is the
likelihood of more and more social and economic integration or inclusion of
social factors in the economy. Development of agriculture, industry and
services should give enough space for balancing the environment at different
levels and for
environment protection as well as environmental
beautification. There should be enough scope for enhancement of social
functioning of individuals, groups, families and communities for which social
work practice has to be developed along with information technology
applications. This is enshrined in HUSITA - Human Service Information
Technology Applications. In other words information technologists and social
workers should work together imbibing skills from one another. We should be
very particular to provide computer literacy to all so as to progressively
cover all the public/beneficiaries under the umbrella of information technology
and e-governance. In India the Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) as well
as state departments or ministries of information technology are taking
progressive measures aimed at development of e-governance. It is better to have
Information Technology Ministries in all states in India. In many of the states
training programmes on Information Technology applications and e-governance are
going on. The yardsticks are revenue maximization and public convenience. The
Mantralay Office Information System (MOIS) of Maharashtra Government provide
information to the public through PC at Home or through one of the Cyber Koisks
and needed information on his application for a house loan or a disability
grant in aid. E-mail, web publications and internet development should become
accessible to the common public. Here there is a problem of haves and havenots in
InformationTechnology. There should be local level field work by competent
social workers to cover the havenots of IT to provide them access to
information technology applications. High lighting the need for the Information
Technology Bill in the parliament the, Hon'ble Minister for Information
Technology, Shri. Pramod Mahajan said, "The basic ethos of the Bill was to
provide legal sanction to e-governance so that the country can move on to
fourth generation digital communication. With the advent of electronic
governance the various social processes become more and more development,
directed to achieve the objective of comprehensive sustainable social
development. In journalism the new branch of Development support communication,
in social work the Developmental social work practice, in administration the
Development administration, in health care the Developmental Health care, in
Family Planning the Developmental Family Welfare,in Economics, Social and
Development Economics, in Politics Social Politics, in data collection,
processing and dissemination the Development Statistics, in Banking.
Development Banking, in advertising the Development advertising etc. will
incorporate e-governance and information technology applications. When
considering major social interventions for e-governance, the following three
interventions viz., Developmental Social Work Practice, Development
Administration and Development Support Communication have a co-ordinating
role.The following is a model of social intervention. When considering major
social interventions for e-governance, the following three interventions viz.,
Developmental Social Work Practice, Development Administration and Development
Support
PEOPLE AWARDED
Three FAO awards for journalists, institutions and field
work
Recognition for their contribution to a world free from
hunger
29 November 2003, Rome -- The 2003 A. H. Boerma Award for
journalism was presented to Brazilian documentary film maker Marcelo Canellas
and Reuters correspondent David Brough in recognition of their achievements in
raising public awareness of global hunger, the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) announced today.
Since 1979, in recognition of the media's important role in
the fight against hunger, FAO has presented the A.H. Boerma Award to
journalists or groups of journalists from around the world who have helped
focus public attention on food security and rural development in developing
countries.
Boerma Award
Marcelo Canellas, one of Brazil's most well-respected
documentary film makers and journalists, is famous for having brought tough and
often sensitive issues to primetime television.
His reports and films have had a powerful impact - both in
politics and among ordinary viewers.
In 2001 he made a series of five documentaries on the causes
and effects of hunger in Brazil.
The series was viewed by some 35 million people and
subsequently has helped to influence future political choices.
David Brough, a British journalist with international news
agency Reuters for 18 years, is the Rome bureau commodities correspondent.
Brough reports on commodity markets in Italy and on the work
of the three Rome-based food agencies - FAO, the World Food Programme (WFP),
and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
His articles have increased understanding of complex food
and agriculture issues, highlighting how the U.N. agencies battle world hunger.
Through his reporting he has not only brought major developmental
issues to the fore but has also increased the understanding of the general
public of the work of FAO.
Saouma Award
The biennial Edouard Saouma Award, given to local or
national institutions which have implemented projects funded by FAO's Technical
Cooperation Programme with particular efficiency, has been jointly presented to
the Sichuan Provincial Plant Protection Station of China and the Nicaraguan
Institute of Women.
Operating in China's Sichuan Province, the Provincial Plant
Protection Station has managed to resolve a problem that the local rural
community had been struggling with for some time.
Each year, some 1.5 million tonnes of wheat, rice and corn
were lost in the fields, eaten by rodents.
A further million tonnes were lost in storage. Farmers,
trained as part of the FAO project, adopted new techniques which cut the number
of rodents by 93 percent as well as significantly reducing the number of
rat-transmitted human diseases.
The Nicaraguan Institute of Women is a co-winner of the
prize in recognition of its work to help rural women and its success in
achieving gender awareness in government projects.
Thanks to their work, the number of projects with a specific
women's component has increased from eight percent to 27 percent and
participation in project-related training among women has risen from 31 percent
to 40 percent.
Sen Award
The 2002 B.R. Sen Award for a field officer who has made an
outstanding contribution to rural development, sustainable agriculture or food
security, was given to Narendra Singh Tunwar of India.
Working in challenging conditions in Afghanistan, Tunwar set
up the Improved Seed Enterprise, created to produce outstanding local varieties
of wheat seed.
In over a decade, aided by locally-trained national staff,
Tunwar produced 27 improved seed varieties, including 15 for wheat.
The 2003 Sen Award has gone to James William Everts, of the
Netherlands. Everts broke new ground in Senegal by establishing a research and
training centre for the environmental toxicology of pesticides.
The centre has trained a group of Senegalese experts in
environmental ecotoxicology and evaluated the side-effects of all pesticides
recommended by FAO for use against the Desert Locust. All three awards were
presented during FAO's biennial Conference today.
They were established in recognition of former
Director-Generals: Addeke Hendrik Boerma of the Netherlands, Binay Ranjan Sen
of India and Edouard Saouma of Lebanon.
The Margarita Lizárraga Medal, given to a person or
organization that has served with distinction in the application of the Code of
Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, was awarded to a non-governmental
organization, the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) of
Chennai (India) for its initiatives in promoting and disseminating the Code.
DEVELOPMENT JOURNALISM VS. ‘ENVELOPMENT’ JOURNALISM’
It is some what ironical and unfortunate to talk about the
need and the possibilities of development communication in an era that is being
characterized as the era of communication revolution. And we are precisely
doing that. During last several decades means of communication have really been
revolutionized and the process still continues, but at the same time the gap
between communication media and human aspects of information that relates to
common people has also widened in a similar proportion.
It might pain us but the truth is that our communication
media have never assumed the crucial responsibility of defining, reviewing and
its role with regard to social concerns and people’s problems. It simply means
that those who claim to assess and examine everyone and everything are
oblivious to assessing and examining their own selves. And this is happening at
a juncture when these media are in an extremely capable position for collecting
and disseminating information in the society owing to technological and communication
revolution. Despite their vast economic resources, the frequency of allegations
on them of being insensitive to people’s feelings and needs are increasing
considerably. The chasm between what is being told by the mainstream newspapers
and what is being felt by people across the country, particularly by indigenous
populations is increasingly widening everyday.
Power has been decentralized and has even reached to the
Panchayats and yet democracy has weakened in the country. It is common
knowledge that for a strong democracy, we must have a legislature, an executive
and a judiciary that is sensitive and committed to the people. Unfortunately,
our legislative bodies and executive have become rampantly corrupt and decayed.
The legislature and the executive are in the grip of crime, nepotism, financial
scams and there all kinds of allegations against them. Unfortunately, the
Fourth Estate responsible for strengthening democracy has also not played its
role adequately. Its main focus is on the legislature and the executive. Most
of the space in the mainstream media is occupied by news related to the
legislature, the executive, social failures, crimes, statements of political
leaders and maligning propaganda. Media has no positive thinking and makes no efforts
to give the society a new direction. Nor does it underline the successes of the
society. If we cherish the dream of an India where there is social justice for
all, there is amity and mutual trust among people, there is equal distribution
of resources; we need to take the society in to a particular direction. Then,
in place of statements that divide people, we’ll have to publish and highlight
things that create sense of unity among them. We’ll have to identify and
publish about efforts that promote small initiatives of the people. If media
doesn’t define and perform its role and social responsibility, it’ll have to
face people’s questions and ire in the future. It’ll loose its credibility as
the Fourth Estate, the vigilant eye of society.
We must remember that when we talk about communication, we
are not talking only about transfer of information only; we also include in it
the participation of the society, the community we are communicating about. In
a society, social institutions can come into existence and survive only when
people participating in them are interlinked through communication. Man is the
only creature who needs communication the most for all aspects of his life; and
it is for this reason that he is called “Homo Communicator”. What he is today
and will be tomorrow is because of his ability to communicate with others. It
is obvious that culture is communication and communication is culture.
Today, there are unceasing developments in the area of
communication; newer kinds of communication medium are coming in to existence
and that is really obliterating distinctions between mass and individual
communication. It is evident that the trend of communicating the same
information or material to diverse communities scattered over the globe is just
a passing phase. The change is indicated by the current trend of local editions
being brought out by newspapers in India. Hopefully, in the coming days
communication on demand will become crucial.
We should also keep in mind that Information Society is
evolving at a fast pace. In such a situation, it might be very difficult to
demarcate precisely between mass communication and interpersonal communication.
It can only happen if we delimit mass communication process only to publishing
or broadcasting or telecasting a chosen material or information ignoring the
receptors. But in developing countries like India, apart from interpersonal
communication, mass communication is also of considerable interest. It is true
not only about carrying health campaigns like the one against aids and
disseminating information about new discoveries and inventions, but also for
communicating information that is important for the civil society. We’ll have
to accept the simple fact that a modern society characterized by democracy, social
and economic justice, national integration, social discipline and economic
progress can’t be possible without the active and oriented help of mass media;
for in a country as vast as India only mass media can communicate information
to the inhabitants of the rural regions. A communication system only can ensure
that rural populations are consistently kept informed about latest and relevant
information and can have a forum for articulating their views. Only it can
ensure that the division of country into information rich and information poor
regions is gradually eliminated.
Apart from technological progress and economic development,
modernization of a society also includes development of democratic institutions
by replacing pre-modern and feudal setups. It can only be done by making the
poor, the marginalized sections of the society participate in the decision
making processes. Development also includes the values of human dignity,
equality, social justice and security. Any development that doesn’t bring these
values in its orbit; that doesn’t provide all people equal opportunities is
suspect. Mass media can play a very crucial role in it for any transitional
period requires new attitudes, a new mind set and a value system in society.
Media by its reach, scope and potential can do it very effectively.
For media to play its role as a watch dog, a vehicle of
social change needs to be free of the control and interference of the state. It
should also not be controlled by either powerful people or companies for that
will make it the mouth piece of only these forces. Freedom of press means that
it should not be obstructed it in its above mentioned roles. Flow of
information shouldn’t be controlled. The roles of media enunciated above can be
summarized in a succinct term called ‘Development Journalism’. It focuses on
the needs of the poor, the deprived, the marginalized and emphasizes their
effective participation in developmental planning. Or to say it slightly
elaborately, this kind of journalism motivates the active participation of the
affected people and advocating for their interests, in place of the views of
the policy makers and the planners i.e. the government. For last 10 years
Charkha has been functioning with this concept of journalism as its model. It
has to extent succeeded in generating an interest among a section of media
persons towards people’s issues. But on the whole, the scene still persists
where the mainstream media is not sufficiently focusing grassroots people’s
initiatives and movements. It is for this reason; activists of mass movements
and organizations have initiated efforts for making an interface possible
between mass media and such organizations. One illustrious example and fruit of
such interface is the Narmada Bachao Andolan. This movement has assumed a
nation wide interest not for the reason that it symbolizes people’s fight
against mega dams, but because it could and is still using mass media in a
better and effective way for highlighting itself in the public eye.
There was a time when media would reach to movements for
reporting it. But unfortunately now, activists have to do two things
simultaneously- carry on with their movements and write news reports about them
and also take those reports to newspaper offices for favor of publication. The
sorcerers of the mainstream media don’t make any efforts on their own to lend
their ears to the stirrings and upsurges at the grassroots level. Consequently,
in situations where activists are yet to learn to find a place for their
issues, failures and successes in the mainstream media, these remain confined
only to their immediate local surroundings and don’t reach to a wider audience
or readership. In place of our journalism becoming development journalism in
the sense defined above; it has become ‘envelopment’ journalism based on
envelopes with press releases reaching newspaper offices. Charkha is a modest
initiative in making an interface possible between action at the grassroots
level and the mainstream media; an effort for ‘spinning action into words’.
We don’t make a case against media; we just try to making
bridges between people’s issues and the media. If they are left with no time to
reach down to the issues; we can take these to them. To put it more clearly, we
want media’s centralized power to be decentralized. The word decentralization
is in vogue now a day. Power has been decentralized to the Panchayat level; but
the watch dog who keeps vigil on this power is increasing getting
decentralized. Why has it not been decentralized? If power could be handed over
to an illiterate rural woman; why can’t a literate Youngman or woman of a
village be imparted media training? From the center to the panchayat level,
power wants media with and around it and those who are in media want are with
and around those who yield power and in this holy or unholy alliance it is
finally people who suffer and are marginalized.
Charkha is precisely working for this kind of
decentralization of media and is trying to do it at various levels. We start
from the Panchayat level. In Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, U.P., Jharkhand,
Uttranchal and Bihar, we conduct Writing Workshops at the tehsil and state
levels in which social activists related to Panchayat Raj & Self-
governance are given information about media. For evolving panchayat level
media we train these activists in preparing wall newspapers and also in writing
reports etc. for newspapers panchayat related issues. Local editors and
journalists are also invited to these workshops so that they could familiarize
themselves with the ground realities of a village and in future are willing to
include these issues in their papers. We also conduct Media Workshops for
journalists and free lancers in which the roles of media and people’s issues
are the focal point of discussion. Social activists are given information about
the internal constitution of the media, its way of functioning, pressures on it
and its responsibilities; while media persons get an opportunity for developing
a deeper understanding of people’s issues. In the light of the experiences we
have gained in last ten years reveal that though successes on this path are
very difficult to achieve, but not impossible.
DEVELOPMENTAL JOURNALISM AND PUBLIC JOURNALISM
A basic comparison
The summaries at the end of the two preceding sections
clearly show the close relationship between public journalism and developmental
journalism. That relationship becomes further apparent when one examines
specific points relating to public journalism.. Black (1996) points out that
public journalism is designed to:
1. "Invite ordinary citizens back into public life by
making their concerns the starting point of the debate." Developmental
journalism tries to achieve a similar objective by making known the concerns of
the large majority of underprivileged people in the backwoods of developing
nations to their national leaders and the world.
2. "Overcome journalistic cynicism and acknowledge the
possibility that citizens working together might be able to solve some of
society's problems." This happens to be the crux of developmental
journalism as well. The mass media can and should play an active role in
encouraging citizens to work together to solve their rural or urban problems.
3. "Modify the rules of detachment by accepting that
journalists have an interest in and responsibility for raising the level of
public discourse and helping society find solutions to its problems."
Again, this looks like the model development journalist. Detachment cannot
achieve the objectives of developmental journalism. The journalists have to
play a catalytic role to stir up people into being active participants in
nation building.
Merritt (1995a: pp. 113-114)) says that public journalism
involves at least five mental shifts on the part of the conventional
journalist:
1. Moving "beyond the limited mission of telling the
news to a broader mission of helping public life to go well, and acts out that
imperative." This is exactly true of the development journalist.
2. Moving "from detachment to being a fair-minded
participant in public life." As already mentioned, the development
journalist cannot be detached..
3. Moving "from worrying about proper separations to
concerns with proper connections." The development journalist cannot
afford the luxury of worrying about the separation of the "Fourth
Estate" from the three arms of the government or from the community in his
or her attempt to connect with the public and project their concerns into
national, or even international, attention.
4. Moving "beyond only describing what is 'going wrong'
to also imagining what 'going right' would be like." Similarly, the
development journalist has the commitment to report civic successes.
5. Moving "from people as consumers ... to seeing them
as a public, as potential actors in arriving at democratic solutions to public
problems." The development journalist also goes well beyond looking at
news as a commodity that enables the generation of maximum profit. Rather, he
or she is more concerned with engaging the public in finding solutions to a variety
of social problems.
Lambeth (1994: p. 51) summarizes that the new forms of civic
journalism" constitute some combination of the following:
1. Careful, timely and sensitive listening to public needs.
2. Systematic consultation of the public by means of polls
and focus groups..
3. Journalist-organized dialogue with panels of resource
specialists chosen for their differing expertise and perspectives.
4. Media-sponsored public fora designed to deliberate on key
issues.
5. Continuity of in-depth reporting on issues chosen
independently by journalists for their fidelity to citizen concerns.
6. Occasional cooperative projects by newspapers, radio
and/or television newsrooms.
While some of these techniques pertain to the practices in
an advanced society, the development journalist may as well use them depending
on the degree of sophistication a particular society has reached.
Questioning the traditional occidental news values has been
the basis for the emergence of "new journalism." Public journalism,
which shuns the term "new," seems to profess that the prevalent news
values merely replaced older news values in the last century. If one were to
accept such an interpretation, neither public journalism nor developmental
journalism is "new." Dykers (1995) says that public journalism’s
rhetorical roots are sunk into 300 years of Western intellectual history.
Galtung and Vincent (1992: 50-51) have argued that the prevalent news values --
which emphasize elite nations, elite persons, personalization and negativity --
have resulted in very little coverage of "how structures are operating to
produce ... unhappy circumstances for poor people." Both public journalism
and developmental journalism aspire to solve this aspect of One Journalism.
Moreover, just as much as public journalism is concerned
with community building within the framework of democratic ideals,
developmental journalism is concerned with public participation in nation
building within the same framework. Developmental journalism also envisioned a
rational self-interest of doing well in political environments that ranged from
authoritarianism to varying degrees of democracy.
Public journalism has encountered much skepticism with
reactions such as: it endangers the credibility of newspapers because it
repudiates the principles of objectivity and fairness that have been a lodestar
of American journalism for half a century; it compromises enterprising,
sustained, independent reporting; it gets reader committees to decide what goes
into the paper thereby replacing objectivity with advocacy (Zang 1995). One may
recall similar accusations against developmental journalism, particularly
associating it with the manipulations of authoritarian or communist governments.
Discussion and Conclusion
Having examined the overlooked connections between public
journalism and developmental journalism, our next task is to show their
relationship to the work of Hutchins and MacBride commissions. One can well
argue that the framework that supports both concepts is the social
responsibility theory, which accepts the six functions that the libertarian
theory ascribes to the press but, as Theodore Peterson explains, expresses
"dissatisfaction with the interpretation of those functions by some media
owners and operators and with the way the press has carried them out"
(Siebert, Peterson and Schramm 1956: 74). The theory has this major premise:
Freedom carries concomitant obligations; and the press, which enjoys a
privileged position …, is obliged to be responsible to society for carrying out
certain essential functions of mass communication in contemporary society. The
six functions are:
1. Servicing the political system by providing information,
discussion and debate on public affairs.
2. Enlightening the public so as to make it capable of
self-government.
3. Safeguarding the rights of the individual by serving as a
watchdog against government.
4. Servicing the economic system primarily by bringing
together the buyers and sellers of goods and services through the medium of
advertising.
5. Providing entertainment.
6. Maintaining its own financial self sufficiency so as to
be free from the pressures of special interests.
The social responsibility theory asserts that the press has
been deficient in performing the first three tasks. It also says that the
fourth task should not take "precedence over such other functions as
promoting the democratic processes or enlightening the public" – something
that both developmental journalism and public journalism would agree on. It
asserts that the fifth function should relate to "good"
entertainment. With regard to the sixth function, it "would exempt certain
individual media from having to earn their way in the market place"
(Siebert, Peterson and Schramm 1956: 74).
The Commission on Freedom of the Press, which is associated
with the social responsibility theory, called on the media to:
1. Provide "a truthful, comprehensive and intelligent
account of the day’s events in a context which gives them meaning."
2. Serve as a forum for the exchange of comment and
criticism."
3. Project "a representative picture of the constituent
groups in society."
4. Be responsible for "the presentation and
clarification of the goals and values of the society."
5. Provide "full access to the day’s
intelligence."
The second, third and fourth of these demands are also
central to the philosophy driving both developmental journalism and public
journalism.
Parisi (1996) points out that the Hutchins Commission anticipated
public journalism in its call for news reporting that projects "the
opinions and attitudes of the groups in society to one another" and offers
"a method of presenting and clarifying the goals and values of the
society." The commission called for news to become "a truthful,
comprehensive and intelligent account of the day’s events in a context which
gives them meaning," a matter of reporting not just "the fact
truthfully" but "the truth about the fact." The commission’s
idea of news also focused on "the public good and on broad-based reporting
about significant issues of the day."
Moreover, the social responsibility theory rests on a
concept of positive liberty unlike the libertarian theory that was born of a
concept of negative liberty (Siebert, Peterson and Schramm 1956: 93). Both
developmental journalism and public journalism clearly condone positive
liberty.
The libertarian theory, which was born at a time when the
state was regarded as the chief foe of liberty, and the social responsibility
theory differ on the view they take of the nature and functions of government:
The latter holds that the government should help society to obtain the services
it requires from the mass media if a self-regulated press and self-righting
features of community life are insufficient to provide them (p. 95). On this
matter, developmental journalism seems to be more in agreement with the social
responsibility theory than public journalism.
The social responsibility theory differs from the
libertarian theory on the nature of freedom of expression as well: the latter
considers this a natural right while the other considers it a moral right
rather than an absolute right (p. 96). Both developmental journalism and public
journalism would tend to agree on freedom of expression as a moral right. The
social responsibility theory and the libertarian theory differ fundamentally in
their view of the nature of man. The latter regards man as primarily a moral
and rational being who will hunt for and be guided by the truth. The social
responsibility theory views man not so much as irrational as lethargic.
Therefore, the more alert elements of the community must goad him into the
exercise of his reason (pp. 99-100). Both developmental journalism and public
journalism assigns to the journalists the role of those "alert
elements."
Finally, the social responsibility theory puts far less
faith than the libertarian theory in the efficacy of the self-righting process
(p. 102). Both developmental journalism and public journalism would agree with
that view.
Shah (1996: 145), on the other hand, points out that even
though the social responsibility theory calls for the provision of socially
relevant information, it does not call for "journalistic activism in
challenging and changing oppressive structures," a task he associates with
his new conceptualization of developmental journalism. However, one may as well
argue that the "watchdog" function associated with the theory does
not preclude the journalist’s active participation in the community.
Several recommendations of the MacBride Commission (ICSCP
1980) also pertain extremely well to both public journalism and development
journalism. While the Hutchins Commission addressed the U.S. media, the
MacBride Commission addressed the international media. One cannot, however,
doubt the impact of the one on the other. Gunaratne (1996) points out that the
right to communicate that the MacBride Commission espoused has a remarkable
resemblance to the philosophy of both public journalism and developmental
journalism. Recommendation 54 says:
• "Communication needs in a democratic society should
be met by the extension of specific rights such as the right to be informed,
the right to inform, the right to privacy, the right to participate in public
communication -- all elements of a new concept, the right to communicate."
This right equates with the espousal of a
"conversational commons." In fact, this stands out as the major
difference between developmental/public journalism and traditional journalism
that heavily relies on elite sources. Participatory democracy is meaningless
without the right to communicate. The social responsibility theory implicitly
condones it when it calls on the mass media to project "a representative
picture of the constituent groups in society."
Among the other most pertinent MacBride Commission
recommendations that relate to public/developmental journalism are the
following:
• Recommendation 22, which seeks the "promotion of
dialogue for development as a central component of both communication and
development policies."
• Recommendation 23, which calls on the media to adapt
prevailing news values and practices "to be more receptive to development
needs and problems."
These two denote the importance the MacBride Commission
attached to integrating communication in development. It considered
communication to be a "a major development resource, a vehicle to ensure
real political participation in decision making, a central information base for
defining policy options, and an instrument for creating awareness of national
policies." They are compatible with the underlying assumptions of the
social responsibility theory, as well as with the emphasis on "conversation"
in public journalism to promote community problem solving. Just as Chalkley
(1968) urged the development journalist to use simple language, the MacBride
Commission also points out the need for "the use of non-technical language
and comprehensible symbols, images and forms to ensure popular
understanding."
• Recommendation 31, which calls for non-commercial forms of
mass communication that is in conformity with "the traditions, culture,
development objectives and sociopolitical system of each country."
This too is in conformity with the social responsibility
theory, which also recognized the need to "exempt certain individual media
from having to earn their way in the market place." Developmental
journalism accommodates this view while the concept of public journalism,
insofar as its present proponents are concerned, seems content with
accomplishing its goals within the prevailing market-place set-up in the United
States.
• Recommendation 45, which says that "conventional
standards of news selection and reporting, and many accepted news values, need
to be re-assessed if readers and listeners around the world are to receive a
more faithful and comprehensive account of events, movements and trends in both
developing and developed countries."
Both developmental journalism and public journalism point
out the need to go well beyond the traditional occidental news values to make
the mass media more relevant to readers, viewers and listeners in a democracy
that promotes participation. The Hutchins Commission implicitly attacks these
news values when it says that "the press has often paid more attention to
the superficial and sensational than to the significant in its coverage of
current happenings" (Siebert, Peterson and Schramm 1956: 78).
• Recommendation 63, which says that "those in charge
of media should encourage their audiences to play a more active role in
communication by allocating more newspaper space, or broadcasting time, for the
views of individual members of the public or organized social groups."
The MacBride Commission has criticized the mass media for
treating their audience as "passive receivers of information." Both
developmental journalism and public journalism have a major aim: to make the
"people" play an active role in communication. This is compatible
with the social responsibility theory, which recognizes freedom of expression
as a moral right of individuals.
The foregoing analysis confirms that public journalism is
clearly a younger cousin of developmental journalism. The two seems to have
separate identities because the term developmental journalism doesn’t fit the
cultural terminology applicable to advanced countries. However, both concepts
aim to accomplish similar goals in dissimilar socio-cultural environments.
Despite pretenses, both have much to do with the ideas that were part of the
erstwhile NWICO debate as exemplified in the MacBride recommendations.
Stevenson (1994) has taken the view that "like the
communist theory, the development concept lost legitimacy in the 1980s"
(p. 231) resulting in the victory of Western (Anglo-American?) journalism. His
opposition to developmental journalism or development news is based on the
grounds that "it became more blatantly identified with the regime"
thereby excluding "criticism and negative information" (p. 239). The
examples of "development journalism" he gives are from China Daily
and Pyongyang Times. Thus he implies that developmental journalism and
communist journalism are identical.
Stevenson is able to engage in this condemnation because
there is no concrete definition of developmental journalism, which is much more
grounded in the social responsibility theory of the press that he no longer
seems to accept. If Western journalism (in the sense of a "free and
independent press" of the libertarian type) has won, why has the public
journalism movement arisen in the 1990s? Both developmental journalism and
public journalism aim at achieving similar goals of social responsibility.
NEED FOR DEVELOPMENTAL JOURNALISM
Development theory became popular in the Third World for
fairly obvious reasons – but there are some problems with the idea.
The terms Third World, undeveloped nations and developing
nations all imply inferiority and something less than the best.
I.e. seem to rate the Third World’s industry, commerce and
political life against that of the world’s great nations.
Some academics thus prefer the term “advancing journalism”.
This theory sees the press as an instrument of social
justice and a tool for achieving beneficial social change.
In other words, the media should carry out positive
development tasks in line with nationally established policy.
However, in reality things have not worked out in line with
this theory. In Africa generally there has been pressure on journalists to ally
themselves with the political forces, but in doing so they have lost their
independence.
The most problematical part of this theory is the principle
that the state can interfere with the media and use methods like censorship,
state subsidies or direct control and restriction if it does so in order to
advance development.
In this way journalists can be severely hampered from
reporting fully, fairly and independently. Also, we cannot be certain that
development DOES get advanced in such situations.
Obviously, a new government in a developing country may well
wish to adopt the development model. It leaves control of the media in the
hands of government if required and yet the media must still take
responsibility. If the government decides that the media are not meeting its
wishes or that they are challenging the state, it can intervene and apply
whatever censure or control it deems necessary.
Zimbabwe is a good example of a government seeking to use
the press with some degree of compulsion to advance government policies,
especially on economic and racial/ethnic issues.
Editors who accept this approach must give up some editorial
autonomy to government officials and in doing so, they give up their
constitutional right to freedom of the press. Journalists in South Africa have
had a very unhappy experience with government authoritarianism in the past.
Therefore, they will not easily trust any government uncritically or risk their
autonomy in the way that the developmental approach requires.
Their fears about doing so are based on what they may have
seen elsewhere.
Thus while the developmental system may offer benefits,
journalists feel that it extracts too high a price.
Finally, developmental journalism promotes mass rights over
those of the individual.
It is rooted in the notion of doing what is right for the
common good.
South Africans have fought hard for their new constitution
that protects the rights of the individual and therefore it will be hard for
the government to promote the virtues of developmental journalism.
However, that does not of course prevent the government of
the day doing its best to get the press to report in a developmental way.
Advantages of developmental journalism
Development journalism has a lot of attraction for
developing countries. First, in countries where poverty is the norm, the
government of the day wants and needs as much support as it can get. A press
that reports government inefficiencies is therefore not welcome.
Also the government will probably have to take decisions
which are based on the common good but which harm individual liberties. These
decisions may be highly unpopular but they have to be taken, and a hostile
press can hold back government’s progress while a supportive press can help the
government push these policies ahead.
One definition of the duty of a journalist reporting on
development is to:
“critically examine, evaluate and report the relevance of a
development project to national and local needs, the difference between a
planned scheme and its actual implementation, and the difference between its
impact on people as claimed by government officials, and as it actually is.”
The most important function of development journalism is its
ability to nation build.
However, many political leaders see journalists who do not follow
this approach as traitors – and as for example in Kenya, they are charged.
Disadvantages of Development Journalism
The pitfalls of the development approach are many.
First, the press becomes far less critical and eventually is
forced to give up its “watchdog” role in society.
As it continually panders to the government, the media loses
its critical edge and becomes nothing more than another government mouthpiece.
When this happens, it paves the way for a virulent underground or alternative
press whith a strong anti-government approach.
The most dangerous pitfall is the fact that the press gives
up its right to question and demand accountability from the government of the
day. As the press tries to promote the government and the common good, it can
start to lose sight of the individual and the individual’s human rights.
In other words, a developmental press has come to be equated
with one in which the government exercises tight control and prevents freedom
of expression, all in the name of noble ends.
Government censorship does only happen in Africa and South
America. In 1975 Gandhi imposed strict censorship in India. But despite this
censorship, many Indian journalists sneaked into their news columns words,
phrases and even sentences and paragraphs that escaped the attention of the
censors and that conveyed concealed meanings to knowledgeable readers.
Overall, the message for any government is that it will have
to struggle to keep up control of the media for very long and will need huge
resources to police the system. What starts out as a good idea to promote
development may end up a nightmare.
CONCLUSION:
Developmental media, development journalism or development
communication,
no matter what one
calls it, there is a common theme that runs through them all.
"It is the
belief that communications, mass media and especially telecommunication,
can stimulate
economic growth and political stability."
According to Edeani, "Development Journalism is the
kind of journalism that
pays sustained attention to the coverage of ideas, policies,
programs, activities
and events dealing with the improvement of the life of
people. Kunczik says that
"Development
journalism is a notion of journalism according to which reporting
events of national
and international significance should be constructive in the
sense it that it contributes positively to the development
of the country concerned.
" Along with these there is Cees Hamelik's notion of a
"People's Media"
whose aspiration is development through self-empowerment.
Yet even with all these idealistic visions of purpose, there
is no escaping the fact
that there is a blurry line separating Development media
from Authoritarian
media, and sometimes the line is invisible. In most of the
countries that practice
some form of
Development media,
there is a strong government control over journalism.
Development is rarely the
only aim of the media system at work and it could be
classified as Authoritarian.
According to Stevenson, Development media concept came about
as an offshoot
of the problems facing the recently independent nations of
Asia and Africa could
be fought with
the same techniques
used in the United States. Along with this existing program,
three scholars, Rostow, Lerner and Scharamm helped to
solidify and really create
the ideals and ideas
behind Development media.
W. Walt Rostow argued in his book, The Stages of Economic
Growth, that developing
nations could repeat
the economic success of Western countries on a much more
rapid scale through the use of mass media. Not long after
Rostow's book,
Daniel Lerner introduced his semi-theory known as the
"Dominant Paradigm." In it a theoretical model was laid out on how
mass communication and mass media could stimulate social change. Several years
later
Wilbur Schramm released his book that expressed the thoughts
that though mass media and mass communication can be used to speed development
toward economical and political stability, it will not change traditional
values or a culture overnight .
Not everyone agrees with Stevenson's outlook on Development
media.
In his essay
"Books on Global Communication Become a Philosophical Tussle between the
Right and the Left," Shelton Gunaratne criticizes Stevenson's arguments
saying, "It appears that Stevenson is arguing based on equivocation or
false analogy to claim victory for Western journalism." As far as the
failure of Development journalism, Gunaratne points out, "that the social
responsibility theory provides the most fertile ground for reaping the full
potential of development journalism."
No comments:
Post a Comment