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Developing media for economic development

While plenty of media development work has been done, its scope has been rather limited. At one end, media schools at different universities across Pakistan have focused on the vocational side of journalism and media, the quality of which is yet to boast about. At the other end, NGOs, donors and foreign fellowship programmes have mainly focused their trainings on journalists covering politics or social issues – almost to the neglect of sports, science or economic journalism.

There have been very few training workshops for business or economic journalists held by for-profit and non-profit organisations. But they have mostly been too elementary to be effective. Besides, the workshops held by companies have almost always had more than their fair share of corporate propaganda.

In retrospect, Pakistan’s political and social problems demanded a strong media, well-versed in political and social matters. With the country having undergone democratic transition, however, the growing need for economic transition (read: reforms) entails a media that is well-versed in economic affairs. No longer can we afford to have ‘Ogra drops a petrol bomb’ mindsets. Nor should economic media be limited to exposing financial embezzlement and other forms of corruption.

There are a whole lot of ways and reasons why strengthening of economic journalism is needed for development in Pakistan.

Globally, the Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen was probably the first one to have highlighted the importance of media in economic development. It was in the mid-80s when Sen pointed out how famines have never occurred in a country that has democracy and a free press. The argument goes that famines or other socio-economic problems will not happen if the press is free to criticise policy decisions. However, there is another reason why focus on economic journalism is important for a country undergoing economic transition.

The economic reform process is usually fraught with conflicts between political agents, especially in a scenario like Pakistan where different political parties have come to govern different provinces amid a growing process of devolution in the country. To this end, economic media is needed to increase transparency and awareness about reforms and increase the political payoffs for co-ordination and co-operation amongst the parties.

Just as their peers elsewhere in the media, economic journalists also liaise between the government and the governed as well as among the private citizenry. But this link would work better when economic journalists are up to the mark not just in terms of modern communication channels andequipment but also in terms of their understanding of issues. If understanding of economic issues is undeveloped or undeveloped in the media, it will be hard to gather public consensus on the necessary economic reforms.

You can have utmost freedom and independence of the press. But if economic reporters and editors are not adequately trained to accurately analyse information, the freedom of economic press will only be half the measure, as poor analysis will misguide readers or even create a sense of agitation – as does the ‘Ogra drops petrol bomb’ mindset.

Yet despite the need to have a strong economic press, it doesn’t make sense for a financial or economic wizard to land up in a journalism job. The remuneration structure is skewed in favour of the financial or economics industry, which means that only a handful of financial and economic wizards would join economic media. The remuneration is more skewed in the case of developing economies, like Pakistan, than anywhere else. Most economic journalists, therefore, would continue to be non-experts or generalists, who are unlikely to posses the relevant academic understanding of economics and finance, whereas economic and financial policies can be complicated by their very nature.

This, therefore, calls for a change in system. At the one end, universities ought to integrate their business/economic programmes with their media schools. Ideally, there should a degree programme in economic journalism, but at the very least, the universities could offer electives to train those who are eager to join the field. At the other end, the stakeholders should offer a series of training programmes for economic journalists – instead of conducting one-off CSR-styled workshops for photo-ops.

The spill-over from these trainings will be beneficial for stakeholders as well as for the society at large. Donors and multilateral agencies would find better results in their push for the much-needed economic reforms. Policy researchers and academics could find someone who can give voice to their ideas by understanding their often complex and nuanced academic arguments. Training economic journalists would also be in the benefit of the government.

Consider the case of Uganda where, in 1996, small traders launched a strike against the rolling out of VAT and threatened to derail the reforms process. Not only did the Ugandan president make radio and television broadcasts to put weight behind the reforms process but he also conducted sensitisation sessions for representatives of the trading community to allay their fears, emphasising the advantages of the news tax on businesses.

Moreover, special VAT education sessions were held for the staff of media organisations. The strike was eventually called off and a smooth transition followed. Similarly, when China suffered from peak hour power shortage between 2003-2007, all tiers of the Chinese government educated the media about demand-side energy management, and thereby efficiently managed the power deficit.

In short, instead of criticising the media, the country’s economic community should work with it. Meanwhile economic journalists would do well to keep Gabriel Garcia’s dictum in mind. Garcia, the famed Columbian journalist and the winner of 1982 Nobel for Literature, once said that ‘all journalism must be research oriented’. For economic journalists, little else could be the guiding principle.

(The writer is a member of staff. His views do not necessarily represent that of the newspaper. He can be reached at srjamali@gmail.com)

Sohaib Jamali, "Developing media for economic development," Business recorder. 2014-01-06.
Keywords: Social sciences , Social issues , Social media , Social systems , Economic issues , Media production , Journalists , Journalism , Pakistan