“DJs are becoming as important as journalists in bringing development issues to public attention.”
Communication for development organizations and practitioners are beginning to adjust to the new environment. DJs are becoming as important as journalists in bringing development issues to public attention. Journalists who themselves want to explore and investigate development stories – particularly those from outside the capital, are finding it more and more difficult to get either resources or attention from their editors. Journalists the world over continue to risk their lives in the pursuit of truth, in the interests of the public. Very often they lose their lives in such an interest. But in an environment which is not only politically hostile, but economically hostile too, how long and to what extent can journalists be expected to play this role, let alone do so routinely and as the core of their job description? Such courage and such reporting may continue to survive in pursuit of stories that matter in conventional journalistic terms, but can it be expected to survive, let alone increase, for stories which in traditional journalistic terms, are often treated as non starters? Poverty and development related stories have traditionally fallen within this category. Journalism training is also under pressure, particularly with a public interest remit, and journalism schools in some developing countries are finding that graduates are as often snapped up by the public relations and advertising industries as they are by news organizations.
MEDIA MATTERS SECTION 1: Why Media Matters: Global Perspectives
The former state monopoly broadcasters and media organizations – particularly radio - which retain the greatest capacity to reach rural and marginalized populations, are facing intense competition from commercial organizations as governments reduce budgets. As a consequence some are in crisis, and feel forced to compete with their brash commercial competitors by offering more commercial and consumer oriented content. As they do so they often cut back on less public oriented services, including (particularly minority or marginalised languages), technical extension services (for example in agriculture) and of transmitter capacity (meaning that some people cannot receive a signal at all). In this sense, the digital divide is being reflected in a much broader, deeper and perhaps more fundamental information divide between urban and rural, rich and poor.
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Many development agencies are responding to the new commercialized media market by actively entering it, and some of the most consistent customers for some radio stations are development organizations and donors. Income - in the form of payment for spots or sponsorship of programs - from development organizations is becoming an increasingly critical component of some broadcast organization’s income, but fears are growing that an artificial market is being created and that public are receiving information determined by whatever organization - development or otherwise - that has the most money, rather than through any journalistic or public interest criteria. The above represents, perhaps, a confused and contradictory critique of the current media in relation to current development practice and strategy. This is because most current media trends, and development trends in relation to the media, are also confused and contradictory, and this is amplified by our lack of understanding of whether and how media matters to people living in poverty. In essence, when assessing how the extraordinary changes in the media have affected people living in poverty over the last years, the answer is we don’t really know. We don’t know because we have extremely limited data and research in this area. Unless development organisations begin to ask more and better questions on citizen’s access to information and capacity and opportunity to communicate in the public domain - including as part of their standard country assessments of development needs - these issues will continue to be marginal to development action. And we will continue not to know.