Today is World Press Freedom Day:

Importance of Development Journalism

Lionel WIJESIRI

Most people would agree that the conventional definition of journalism is the reporting of news though there is much debate and controversy over how the reporting should be conducted and what is news. But only few of them know that there is a special type of journalism that goes beyond conventional journalism that does more than just tell the news. It is known as 'development journalism' and is practiced mostly in developing countries. This article attempts to offer a brief analysis of it in both theory and practice.

During the 1960s, in Asia, a group of journalists began to promote the concept of development journalism - in a bid to reach rural areas with information which was relevant, clear and competent; and to steer journalism towards informed discussion of the economic and social problem central to developing countries' situations.

Jo Ellen Fair, Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, conceptualises 'development journalism' as reporting that relates to the primary, secondary and tertiary needs of a country’s population. She describes it as news that satisfies the needs of a country’s population and enhances self-reliance, i.e. news that relates to development or to social, economic or political problems.

More contemporary educators like Johan Galtung and Richard Vincent provide a refined concept of development journalism. According to them the journalist’s task is to unravel the threads of the development drama that take place both in the centre and on 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.

In essence, therefore, development journalism must give individuals a voice to articulate alternative visions of society.

Mission to fulfil

From the above description we can see that development journalism arose from dissatisfaction with conventional journalism. Development journalists believe that conventional journalism is ineffective in helping a nation, especially rural areas, develop.

They are convinced that conventional journalism is not reaching the rural areas with 'relevant' and 'clear' information. The background of development journalism clearly demonstrates that unlike conventional journalism which only aims at reporting the news, while development journalism has a mission to fulfil.

The call from Third World countries for a New World Information and Communication Order, which reached its height in 1970s, gave further impetus to the promotion of development journalism. The call for the New Order is the result of serious criticism by the Third World countries of Western conventional journalism, especially international news by wire services, which focus on spot news, negative events while providing little information relevant and helpful to the national development of Third World countries.

To redress this negative news and spot news bias, Third World countries began to promote development journalism, which aimed to report more news concerning the development process. They believed that it is no longer enough to get people informed. To get people involved and act on information has become the goal. Reporting the news becomes a tool, rather than an end in itself. Thus, journalists become organizers, mobilizers and players rather than merely observers. Tired of negativism, journalists opt for activism.

New ways

To achieve the objectives of development journalism, new ways of practicing journalism have to be created and new values of news have to be defined.

Rather than highlighting spot news or events, development journalists spend more time and efforts on covering process news.

This is only natural because both national development and community revitalization and reintegration are processes. To cover process news, journalists have to collect information over more extended period of time and do some research. They are engaged in, what is known as 'enterprise journalism'.

Knowledge expansion

To do a good job, development journalists have to expand their horizon. They have to understand the development process, provide information or knowledge helpful to the development, and look at the process critically and find out the problems. They have to raise the consciousness of the people about national development and mobilize people to participate in the development process.

Instead of focusing on events, development journalists talk with the people in the communities, find out their concerns and report them.

They invite or even force politicians to address these concerns if necessary. The journalists are promoters of a healthy community life. They mobilize people in a community to participate in solving their own problems.

To be a development journalist is really a challenge because places on him very high demands. Besides traditional journalistic training, they have to expand their knowledge base to be competent and well-informed enough to cover the complicated processes of national development or of community reintegration. Development journalists have to understand complex economic, technical, scientific and sociological information and translate and interpret it to their generally lay audiences (readers, listeners or viewers, depending on the media).

Re-orientation

To some members of the audience, however, development news may not be as interesting or exciting as breaking news or spot news.

Extra effort and talent are needed to make development news become relevant to the people and interesting to the readers. Further studies are needed on how to achieve this goal. Prof. Johan Galtung, the Norwegian sociologist proposes that development journalism requires a re-orientation of conventional journalistic principles on following lines:

*Whenever there is a reference to development, try to make it concrete in terms of human experience. Journalists should write about people as subjects, actors and agents rather than as objects or victims with 'needs deficits'.

*A development-oriented journalist 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 people visible, both as objects and as subjects, becomes one task. Using it to expose the system through investigative reporting is the second and using the media to expose media that fail to do their job, is the third.

*Consider the possibility of reporting about development, not critically in terms of problems, but constructively in terms of positive programmes. 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.

*Allow the 'people' to talk. This means giving them a voice. A useful approach is for journalists to sit down with a range of people to discuss the meaning of development to generate 'an enormous range of visions' as well as 'how-to' insights.

Sri Lankan context

For development journalism to catch on in Sri Lanka, I believe there needs a fundamental change in the newsrooms. News Editors should start promoting the development journalism philosophy, at least adopting some, if not all of its operative principles.

I think to some degree, there is a growing appreciation for development journalism although many newsrooms still feel that it would entail a lot of effort and resources to rethink journalism in the face of day-to-day editorial realities.

Our newsroom editors should examine how the community dialogues can be organized, and process of producing the stories - that sets it apart from 'conventional' journalism.

Finally, as a tool for social justice, development journalism can be very valuable. By speaking for those who cannot, a development journalist can inform the rest of the country about important national issues confronted by the nation. Looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the country may also help identify ways in which the nation can be helped. Thus, this style of journalism is a tool for empowerment of the ordinary people to improve their own lives.