Universities are based on the idea of giving fresh concepts to the societies that constitute them. Educating the students through granting degrees is one visible output. But this is not the core function. The modern market driven function of supporting the market falls too short of the very essence of having a university at all. Universities are not there to stuff the markets with whatever the market demands. It is not a supply system for a demand driven elite. Universities have a higher human function. Market might not be human. It, in fact, never is. A university exists for the very purpose of making things right and not simply "make things run". The question of what a university discipline should offer differs from discipline to discipline and from one time and space to another. Journalism, mass communication, media studies, and similar mushrooming nomenclatures are testament to the existence of a rapidly changing discipline, possibly a discipline that yet has to coin its very definition. One thing is but for sure: journalism exists because there is media! What should it do then? Serve the media, fulfill the market demand? This seems an obvious answer. But here we are confronted with another question: why does media exist? Because of the audience? Again, a simple and straightforward answer. But this makes things complicated for media education. The role of media educating institutions is not to serve the media market. It is, in fact, to serve the society that is constituted of human interactions and not institutional elitism. University education in the discipline of journalism, the business of reporting in all forms, is to make sure that this function is performed properly by the media (or whatever form of mass communication exists in a given society). Thus, the watchdog function over the very watchdog (the media). KP and FATA are one of the biggest sources of news in our modern world. The occasional rise of other centers never diminished the importance of this part of the world. The biggest problem with all this fame is just notoriety, not popularity in any positive sense. The world has known this part of the planet through the Afghan War, beginning in the late 1970s. The war never left this part of the world. 9/11, terrorism, drones, the war within Pakistan, and all that could go wrong here as well as its "consequences for the world", remains a topic of global interest. The local in Pakistan is also shaped by the global. So is the power of hegemony!
Since the world media attention became the reason for the very introduction of this part of the world in news, it, naturally, gave the global interest ascendency over the local. There were no skill sets for the local or national in this part of the globe at that time, and this remained the case for years to come. War sells best. It's true for any news media. It sold the best here too. Young or experienced, all journalists aspired to cover war and conflict. The coverage was, however, never controlled by the local journalist. The local journalists are almost always at the supply end of the news material needed by the international (sometimes the national) journalists that the local journalists cater to. This stringer function has not allowed the local media or system of journalism to develop its own shape. There is a rising sense of loss among the journalist community in KP and FATA that their contributions to the media networks around the globe is not helping their own life cycles as professionals. Unfortunately, it is adding to the notoriety perpetuated through the global media complex, highlighting a moneymaking cobweb to exploit the weak local media structure and a feeble capacity base of journalism professionals. The way out of the routine is not easy to find and the measures resorted to by individuals and institutions, remain "desperate" at their best and pathetic at their worst!
This is the point where academic responsibility comes into play – the urgency to offer something that could solve the social conundrum. We face a problem whose manifest results are known, along with the root cause, but there is no indication of the way out! The way out, the alternative, is a different skill set that could be used to work a new narrative that is positive, but newsworthy at the same time. Offering a positive alternative in the midst of sea of negativity is not an easy task to accomplish. Market shows its real colors by resisting any effort to change the status quo. Any remote effort to make a dent in the moneymaking process is not welcome. Surely, developing a positive alternative in our case is destined to change the very status quo and affect vested interests within the global media complex. It will also affect the global image factory that runs on the very idea of keeping the bad boys bad and the good ones good.
For the media complex, it is not easy to adjust to newer positive images, after trading negativity and selling it profitably for almost four decades. The national and global political interests are also closely tied to the media hegemony and imperialism. The development of new themes thus becomes the responsibility of an institution that is not part of the media routine, but it is still too close to understand the dynamics, the needs, the problems, and the potential of the media. This is what an academic institution is about. It is not giving daily laborers for the routines, but innovative ideas and spaces that could help media perform the social service it might be failing to render.
The need of the hour seems to be giving this faceless part of the earth a face: a Human Face. We need the Human Face of KP and FATA in the media. The routine only keeps the negative one for its daily consumption, both at the national and global level. The space for development journalism is limited, if at all. It doesn't even exist for the whole of the country, let alone for a part of it that is viewed by many as wretched. Trading misery has become the trend in Pakistan. Most of our so-called development content is about oddities or miseries. Emphasis, workload, agenda, routines, and many other reasons deter the individual journalist as well as the institutions from doing anything innovative. In desperate efforts to make a difference, journalists and their respective media institutions resort to different stories. Even senior practitioners are not able to differentiate between investigative journalism and development. Many take infotainment, entertainment, and other soft themes as development. Some go the length of taking the pain of doing documentary content with a touch of misery or novelty to satisfy their urge to do a different job beyond routine. All this points to the simple need to develop an independent space where the themes are not simply developed, but also practiced. Such a space where high-quality and creative content is presented for sharing. Free of cost, no strings attached! Such a space can be offered only by a university whose primary purpose of being is the pursuit and propagation of knowledge.
JMC, UoP is ready to develop and share this space through its website for development journalism. The very local concept of development journalism has been devised according to the local needs. But these needs have been measured through a global lens, glocalised over the past five years. It is time to present the product that fit into this frame in keeping with the market needs. The development of a good concept is not difficult. Every academic could do it. It is the marketability of the concept of development that is the challenge. A product based in a definite concept of social service but complying to the needs of the market is the task. The website exactly aims at doing this. Development is an inclusive concept. Here, we have an aim. Development journalism is doing journalism with a sense of purpose. At present the underlying concept is to give the Human Face of People of this part of the globe. This is an ever-evolving paradigm. It is a process of social change with a dual function: transforming the narrative within the media as an institution on the one hand and serving the society that provides the base for both the media and the educational institutions, on the other. None could predict the time frame for change, but at the same time, no one could argue the fact that it is high time to make a sincere, full-blooded effort, here and now!
Since the world media attention became the reason for the very introduction of this part of the world in news, it, naturally, gave the global interest ascendency over the local. There were no skill sets for the local or national in this part of the globe at that time, and this remained the case for years to come. War sells best. It's true for any news media. It sold the best here too. Young or experienced, all journalists aspired to cover war and conflict. The coverage was, however, never controlled by the local journalist. The local journalists are almost always at the supply end of the news material needed by the international (sometimes the national) journalists that the local journalists cater to. This stringer function has not allowed the local media or system of journalism to develop its own shape. There is a rising sense of loss among the journalist community in KP and FATA that their contributions to the media networks around the globe is not helping their own life cycles as professionals. Unfortunately, it is adding to the notoriety perpetuated through the global media complex, highlighting a moneymaking cobweb to exploit the weak local media structure and a feeble capacity base of journalism professionals. The way out of the routine is not easy to find and the measures resorted to by individuals and institutions, remain "desperate" at their best and pathetic at their worst!
This is the point where academic responsibility comes into play – the urgency to offer something that could solve the social conundrum. We face a problem whose manifest results are known, along with the root cause, but there is no indication of the way out! The way out, the alternative, is a different skill set that could be used to work a new narrative that is positive, but newsworthy at the same time. Offering a positive alternative in the midst of sea of negativity is not an easy task to accomplish. Market shows its real colors by resisting any effort to change the status quo. Any remote effort to make a dent in the moneymaking process is not welcome. Surely, developing a positive alternative in our case is destined to change the very status quo and affect vested interests within the global media complex. It will also affect the global image factory that runs on the very idea of keeping the bad boys bad and the good ones good.
For the media complex, it is not easy to adjust to newer positive images, after trading negativity and selling it profitably for almost four decades. The national and global political interests are also closely tied to the media hegemony and imperialism. The development of new themes thus becomes the responsibility of an institution that is not part of the media routine, but it is still too close to understand the dynamics, the needs, the problems, and the potential of the media. This is what an academic institution is about. It is not giving daily laborers for the routines, but innovative ideas and spaces that could help media perform the social service it might be failing to render.
The need of the hour seems to be giving this faceless part of the earth a face: a Human Face. We need the Human Face of KP and FATA in the media. The routine only keeps the negative one for its daily consumption, both at the national and global level. The space for development journalism is limited, if at all. It doesn't even exist for the whole of the country, let alone for a part of it that is viewed by many as wretched. Trading misery has become the trend in Pakistan. Most of our so-called development content is about oddities or miseries. Emphasis, workload, agenda, routines, and many other reasons deter the individual journalist as well as the institutions from doing anything innovative. In desperate efforts to make a difference, journalists and their respective media institutions resort to different stories. Even senior practitioners are not able to differentiate between investigative journalism and development. Many take infotainment, entertainment, and other soft themes as development. Some go the length of taking the pain of doing documentary content with a touch of misery or novelty to satisfy their urge to do a different job beyond routine. All this points to the simple need to develop an independent space where the themes are not simply developed, but also practiced. Such a space where high-quality and creative content is presented for sharing. Free of cost, no strings attached! Such a space can be offered only by a university whose primary purpose of being is the pursuit and propagation of knowledge.
JMC, UoP is ready to develop and share this space through its website for development journalism. The very local concept of development journalism has been devised according to the local needs. But these needs have been measured through a global lens, glocalised over the past five years. It is time to present the product that fit into this frame in keeping with the market needs. The development of a good concept is not difficult. Every academic could do it. It is the marketability of the concept of development that is the challenge. A product based in a definite concept of social service but complying to the needs of the market is the task. The website exactly aims at doing this. Development is an inclusive concept. Here, we have an aim. Development journalism is doing journalism with a sense of purpose. At present the underlying concept is to give the Human Face of People of this part of the globe. This is an ever-evolving paradigm. It is a process of social change with a dual function: transforming the narrative within the media as an institution on the one hand and serving the society that provides the base for both the media and the educational institutions, on the other. None could predict the time frame for change, but at the same time, no one could argue the fact that it is high time to make a sincere, full-blooded effort, here and now!
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