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The latest edition of Hope magazine features a write-up by Bharat Dutta Koirala, chair of Media Foundation. In the article, Koirala traces the evolution of  development journalism and reflects on the future.

By Bharat Dutta Koirala
In the late 1970s, I had the opportunity to spend a week in King Birendra’s camp in Surkhet. It was customary to invite journalists to share King’s experience at the end of his month-and-a half long visit to a development region. During the week, I also visited various communities in the vicinity of the camp and wrote about the activities of the people, describing their work-a-day life, their hopes and aspirations, the impact of the royal visit on their lives and the attitudinal changes that their growing interactions with the rest of the country had brought about. I wrote a series of articles on what I experienced during that week. These articles, published simultaneously in the Gorkhapatra and the Rising Nepal were intended not only to highlight the changing face of Surkhet but also to inspire further development of the Valley and the rest of the country. In my one-to-one interview with the King on the final day of his stay in the camp, we discussed the impact of the King’s visit and the concept of development journalism. The King liked all of the articles and wanted to do something about making his administration more communication-oriented and the National News Agency to cover more development news than just report details of the royal movements or the speeches of his ministers.

In the late 1970s, I had the opportunity to spend a week in King Birendra’s camp in Surkhet. It was customary to invite journalists to share King’s experience at the end of his month-and-a half long visit to a development region. During the week, I also visited various communities in the vicinity of the camp and wrote about the activities of the people, describing their work-a-day life, their hopes and aspirations, the impact of the royal visit on their lives and the attitudinal changes that their growing interactions with the rest of the country had brought about. I wrote a series of articles on what I experienced during that week. These articles, published simultaneously in the Gorkhapatra and the Rising Nepal were intended not only to highlight the changing face of Surkhet but also to inspire further development of the Valley and the rest of the country. In my one-to-one interview with the King on the final day of his stay in the camp, we discussed the impact of the King’s visit and the concept of development journalism. The King liked all of the articles and wanted to do something about making his administration more communication-oriented and the National News Agency to cover more development news than just report details of the royal movements or the speeches of his ministers.

Consequently, there was a sudden spurt in the news coverage about development in the bulletins of the news agency though they were not the finest examples of development writing. Writing about development was a skill that was still being developed everywhere and an attempt to find a suitable definition of what development journalism meant was still a subject of avid discussions. Incidentally, my articles in the Rising Nepal were used as course material on development journalism in the journalism training program of the Radio Nederland Training Centre in Hilversum. And, in the subsequent months and years several other journalists and I tried various approaches to make development journalism more popular in Nepal and elsewhere.

1970s and 1980s, the Golden Years of Development Journalism witnessed many development-conscious journalists writing about social and economic development while fine-tuning the concept of development journalism. It was also during this period that many countries in Africa and Asia were experiencing the challenges of governing their countries after centuries of colonial domination. The leaderships, in whatever form, in these newly independent nations were trying to fulfill the aspirations of the people for a better life. And, the media had to play the twin role of informing and educating the masses; it had to motivate the people for speedy change from a life of deprivation to a life with adequate means of existence. The media had to keep alive the hopes and aspirations of the people and it had to keep the governments alert both about the aspirations of the people and the need for honesty and accountability. This implied a dramatic change in the way journalism was considered up to that time. It was generally accepted that journalism could play an important role in creating a climate for change. For instance, Dr. Wilbur Schramm, a prominent journalist and educator of that period pointed out that the media could not by itself develop a country but it could play a significant role in the process. This implied the need to redefine the concept of news. That news coverage should not merely be of events of sensational nature but that it should speak of the process of development. The development journalist had to find “stories” within the stories to discuss the “process” within the “events”. It was not easy. It called for the education and training of journalists who were progressive, committed and who desired to prove positive change through mass media in society.

It was also during this period that many institutions supporting the cause of development journalism were established both at national and regional levels. And, from the very beginning UNESCO provided both material and moral support to use development journalism to help support countries that had embarked on ambitious development plans and programs. I remember many of the early eminent journalists that wrote extensively on development issues to bring them to the focus of both the policy-makers in the North and South and tried to inform and motivate opinion leaders and the general public in the developing world. These journalists have been recognized as pioneers of development journalism. I remember meeting some of these luminaries of development journalism and even working with them in designing programs, writing books and manuals and organizing training programs. I remember meeting Alan Chalkely, described as the founder or father of development journalism and Juan Mercado during my visit to the Press Foundation of Asia in Manila and from time to time during seminars and workshop, I was able to meet and discuss development journalism with journalists like Varindra Tarzie Vittachi whom I met many times and was inspired by his ideals and became totally mesmerized by his absorbing talks on development themes; Wimal Dessanayeke, Georrge Verghese, Chanchal Sarkar, S.M. Ali, Narinder Aggarwal, Neville Jayweeera, and Mahjid Teheranian, and others who continued to keep the tradition set by these journalists.  One of the first regional media organizations to take up the challenge of development journalism was the Press Foundation of Asia based in Manila. The Asian Mass Communication Research Centre (AMIC) based in Singapore is another organization that we worked with on many useful and creative conferences, seminar and workshops that kept alive the concept of development journalism.  Others that come to mind are the Inter Press Service in Rome, Panos first in Colombo and Manila and then with the establishment of Panos South Asia based in Kathmandu, the Women Feature Service in Delhi and others that took up the challenge of using development information to inspire speedy social and economic development.

A question often asked is how development journalism differs from the traditional role of journalism: to inform, educate and entertain. At the time that he coined the term “Development Journalism” in the late 1960s, Alan Chalkley explained that a journalist’s main task was to give his or her readers the facts. But the secondary task of the journalist was to interpret, to put the facts in their framework and, where possible, to draw conclusions. He said the development journalist had the added task “to promote them and bring home to the readers”. The development journalist brings news of the majority of the underprivileged people to the attention of the national leaders, encourages citizens to work together to solve their problems, attempts to bring about unity and integration in the community to achieve common goals, works to modify the rules of detachment by accepting that journalists have an interest in and responsibility for raising the level of public discourse and help society find solutions to its problems. While traditional journalism continues to concentrate on sensational events as their main fodder, the development-minded journalists concentrate their efforts on finding local solutions to fight poverty and other issues. Using simple language and inspiring stories of small successes, they write about social justice, improving health care, education and the need to promote community interest. They write about the environment and the need to protect it, the need for good governance, the local and national economies and culture as against quick-fire reportage. They develop the habit of telling the story in simple, inspiring language. They create a positive environment for change, help people to develop new attitudes and learn new skills to improve their lives. They excavate living examples of people in other places that. Thus, the work of the development journalist demands for more time and cost requiring due support of enlightened publishing houses or broadcast stations.

Though disappointment in the performances of the media prevails both in the East and the West, certain change in the attitudes of the journalists and the media owners is visible. I see more development-oriented writing in the newspapers and the broadcast media in the West. Even the large prominent newspapers and broadcast stations are focusing more on the root causes of poverty and covering the lives of people in the more deprived parts of their own countries. In the developing countries, too we see fine, committed journalists writing more about the rural areas, pointing out their problems and aspirations and indicating to the governments what could be the solutions. More of such writing and definitely less focus on fruitless political debates would be instrumental in shifting people’s focus on positivity and development.

I feel that development journalism is not only relevant but absolutely imperative for human development and survival. Both in the rich, industrialized countries and much of the developing world people are fed up with the media which are concentrated in the hands of a few individuals or powerful corporations. With so much of society polarized, the media has almost ceased to be objective and accurate, two almost sacrosanct principles of good journalism. I have witnessed that a lot in the United States where most newspapers and broadcast channels are controlled by a few monolithic corporations and news coverage is based on sensational events, whether local, national or international. There is little relevance to the lives of the ordinary people. There is not much to help bridge the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Closer home I find the same situation. The principal newspapers, radio and television channels devote so much space and air time to cover political events that only cause dismay and frustration rather than generate hopes and aspirations for a better future. Hence, reorienting journalism to play a more meaningful role in improving the condition of the people makes a lot of sense.

We can be optimistic for a desirable change ahead. Once, we used to speak about giving voice to the voiceless. Now, with over 400 radio stations, many of them owned and operated by communities with their own meager resources, there is ample room for giving voice to those that have hitherto been denied a voice in expressing their concerns. These stations are run mostly by young people with a lot of zeal and enthusiasm but they need more training and become exposed to better techniques of writing development stories and making them more relevant to local conditions. With mobile phones in the hands of so many Nepalese, even in rural areas, media must take the lead in using these devices for more instant communication. People with access to the Internet and mobile services must have more access to the news outlets. Stories that people will share will reflect the voices of those who must have a say in their own governance.

The link to the article in Hope magazine.

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