The media malaise
The aftermath of the New of the World controversy brought an insidious nexus between politicians and media persons to light. How do the media prepare for this onerous task? In the changed global economic and political scenario, the Nepali media, too, underwent rapid changes, some desirable and quite a few undesirable. Fortunately, there is a growing realisation, especially in the print media, that market forces cannot purely dictate newspapers.
But quantity has not translated into quality given the mushrooming of media outlets. Defying conventional norms of capitalism, the intensification of competition in the media has been accompanied by a discernible lowering of ethical standards. The race to grab eyeballs has seen a simultaneous “dumbing down” of content as TV channels have become prisoners of a highly inadequate and flawed system of ascertaining audience sizes through TRPs (television rating points).
The result of concentration of media ownership in the hands of large corporate groups are the following: increasing reliance on advertising revenue leading to a frenzied quest for ever-higher ratings; an exaggerated focus on what is often dubiously defined as “breaking news”; so-called “exclusive” stories and the use of “anything goes” tactics; restricting topics to those that will interest the affluent middle class (the most profitable targets for advertisers); sexing-up of news content and catering to the “lowest common denominator”; increasingly uncomfortable closeness between marketing and editorial departments; and the transformation of news into a commodity.
Can we create a different media environment by staying away from these allegations? On the pretext of a growing consumer culture, cut-throat business and advertisement environment, growing numbers of affluent middle-class and the outreach of media and its increasing clout in the society, importing the global media culture in the domestic market could jeopardise our journey. Also, we cannot compromise professionalism of the media and journalists, who are always on the edge of financial and job insecurity.
Regulations can be the answer to this problem (particularly competition regulation to prevent cartelisation and anti-competitive behaviour) especially since the Press Council’s writ is confined to the print media and the quasi-judicial body has no punitive powers. Important persons in all governments, be it in Nepal or elsewhere, like to cultivate the media even as they have a love-hate relationship with journalists and their employers.
The Nepali media sector has been grappling with a culture of underpaying employees and lack of professionalism, while journalism is still deemed an unsecure profession. So the urgent need is also to make the occupation more secure and better paid, inviting fresh and talented people to avoid malpractice and misdeed, and indeed, set high standards.
The media landscape in Nepal has a combination of various structures, resembling a community having family setups ranging from nuclear to joint. Statistically, it has an impressive figure of over 300 licensed radios, nearly 18 TV stations, over 3,000 newspapers (dailies, weeklies and fortnightlies registered in Nepal Press Council), and over a dozen online news sites. The human force in Nepali media stands, according to FNJ, at over 7,000. In terms of management, it has a complicated mixed formation extending from single person management to sophisticated corporate system. Its ownership remains with the government, private limited companies, special interest groups, non-government organisations, village/district development committees, private individuals and politicians. They operate media for service or profit or as non-profits. The demarcation line among the three exists in theory, but in practice it appears extremely blurred.
Posted on: 2012-01-08 09:36
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