B.R.P.Bhaskar
India is going through a media boom. According to
the annual report of the Press Registrar, which does not give a full and
reliable picture as it is based on voluntary disclosure, last year there were
more than 82,000 newspapers in the country, about 10% of them dailies, and their
total circulation was around 330 million. The big story, however, is the vast expansion
of the electronic media. In two decades, more than 800 television channels have
come up. They include about 100 round-the-clock news channels, which have made
breaking news and live television a continuous experience. More channels are on
the way. Television now reaches about 150 million homes. Thanks to the spread
of computers and smart phones, the new media is also expanding rapidly.
The last two decades also witnessed expansion of
facilities for training of journalists. However, media institutions have been proliferating
faster than training facilities, leading to a steady growth in the shortage of trained
media professionals. Since the bulk of the journalism schools are substandard,
the quality of available professionals leaves much to be desired. It is not,
therefore, surprising that complaints about low standards of the media are
widespread. Often long-time readers are heard bemoaning fall in the standards
of their favourite newspaper. The ills attributed to the media are myriad. Almost
every malaise that afflicts it can be traced to lack of professionalism, even though
it is not always identified as such. Take, for instance, the evil of paid news
which has been widely debated in recent times. Those who took up the issue vigorously
viewed it primarily as a problem concerning politics, but it cannot be divorced
from the problem of lack of professionalism in the media.
With literacy rate and purchasing power on the rise,
India’s media and entertainment industry, valued at Rs 652 billion in 2010, is
expected to grow at more or less at the present rate for at least two decades
more. The print media’s overall growth rate is pitched at 10% a year, with the regional
press registering a higher rate of 12%. Last year the Economist reported that India’s newspaper market, the fastest
growing in the world, had outstripped China’s, with 110 million paid-for
copies. The electronic media market is set to grow at an even faster rate, with
the radio forging ahead at 20%. If journalism education does not grow at a
comparable rate the gap between the demand for media personnel and their supply
is bound to widen, leading to further deterioration in standards.
Fall in media standards is not just an Indian
problem. Complaints in this regard are common even in the West, whose media we
habitually ape. The rot in Murdoch’s empire, revealed by the recent UK inquiry,
is but the tip of the iceberg. It is, of course, a natural consequence of the greed
for profit. The journalists who were accomplices in the misdeeds, too, bear as
much responsibility for them as the owners. While there may be differences on
the cause of the malaise, there can be no two opinions on the need to
strengthen the professional foundations of the media and to reinforce
professional values to find a lasting solution to the problem. That calls for quality
journalism education.
Early Indian newspaper practices followed the
British tradition. New recruits picked up the rudiments of journalism during
in-house training under experienced editors or senior members of the staff. After
World War II, American influence spread and institutions to impart journalism
education appeared. Some universities began journalism courses and a college of
journalism was established at Nagpur. Later a Hindi-medium journalism
university came up in Madhya Pradesh. Newspaper owners evinced little interest
in these institutions, and editors, believing that journalism, like swimming,
has to be learnt by doing, did not attach much value to their degrees and
diplomas. There was also a proliferation of diploma courses, which, though of
an elementary nature, helped identify young people who aspired for a career in
journalism. Lately new generation journalism schools which provide
short-duration courses with emphasis on new technology have come up in
different parts of the country. They charge hefty fees which generally limit
access to the institutions to youngsters belonging to the affluent sections of
the society. On passing out these students can look forward to a good start as
their campuses attract corporate recruiters. They can surely be expected to make
good media honchos but can they be relied upon to keep in mind the larger
interests of the society with the limited exposure that they get to the
problems of the oppressed and the marginalized through occasional lectures and
short field trips?
While educational reform is a hot topic in India
today there has been no serious discussion on journalism education. However, the
subject has been discussed keenly elsewhere in the world in the past few
decades. In a 2006 paper, evaluating the ideas thrown up in the process, Indiana
University professor Mark Deuze, drew pointed attention to a major weakness: they
tend to reify and essentialize existing ideas, values and practices within the
constructed sequence ignoring the ongoing hybridization and convergence of
genres, media types and domains. He noted that most if not all of the media
across the world are developing along different but related lines of
fragmentation and generalization. Clearly, the media landscape is undergoing
complex changes and journalism education needs to be reordered to meet the new
needs.
Both the apprenticeship scheme and the
short-duration course evolved when print dominated the media. Essentially, they
prepare a newcomer to the profession to meet current needs. Most editors are
quite content with these systems which prepare the newcomer to internalize what
the seniors do and fall in line. With technology transforming the media at a
pace unknown in all its history, the time has come to think of a new mode of
journalism education to produce media personnel to meet not just today’s needs
but tomorrow’s as well. The fast pace of television and the new media does not
permit slow induction of the newcomer as in the print media. He (or she) must come
in well equipped, ready to go full steam ahead straightaway. Since the boss may
well be a product of the old school and not quite familiar with new technology,
the new entrant may have to be an innovator and not a mere imitator. In the circumstances,
we need a well-rounded programme of media education to produce personnel with a
range of skills to handle complex tasks. It must take into account the social,
economic, political and technological environment in which the media
functions.
While academic studies relating to journalism have been scarce in India, we
can benefit from the prodigious labour of Western scholars. However, we must
recognize that adoption of Western models has its pitfalls. The current state
of the economic and communication models of Western origin does not commend
them as good examples to follow. We may take from the Western experience what
is appropriate for our conditions but we must explore the possibility of
developing a new model of journalism education which will best serve our
interests as well as those of other countries with comparable political and
economic conditions.
When a journalism school is oriented towards a specific
medium, it is likely to turn out products with the kind of skills needed to
succeed in that particular area. In recent years, around the world, there has
been an increasing tendency among journalists to move not only from one
institution to another but also from one medium to another and from one country
to another. We, therefore, need a pattern of education that prepares the
individual to work in different environments. The emergence of a converging
media landscape further reinforces this requirement.
The media is linked with the society in a way no
other industry or profession is. This unique relationship enables journalism to
play a role as an agent of social transformation. Journalism education must
give entrants to the profession a clear understanding of what they can do, how
they can do it and why they should do it. Contrary forces are at work in modern society,
some driving towards globalization and some towards regionalization. Some
Western academics have identified corporate colonization of the newsroom as an
issue that demands attention and suggested that journalism curriculum should cover
commodification of news and matters that come under the label of infotainment.
Whether generalist or specialist, the journalist
must have a broad knowledge base. This can only come through exposure to a wide
range of subjects. A multi-disciplinary university environment offers the best
chance for providing such exposure. In
the age of technology-driven media convergence, qualified journalists alone
cannot ensure quality. Trained personnel are needed in the technical and
managerial departments as well. Setting up of facilities to train the personnel
required for every kind of activity in the media industry in one location will
make it possible to develop adequate infrastructure to impart practical
training. All this suggests the time has come to think in terms of a Media
University.
A full-fledged university is an ambitious project
which has to be planned carefully after assessing the current requirements as
well as the needs of the immediate future in consultation with representatives
of the industry and competent professionals with practical knowledge of the
working of various sections of the media. While this may take time to materialize,
Kerala, which is teeming with jobseekers, has to devote urgent attention to expansion
and modernization of the existing journalism training facilities so that it can
benefit from the burgeoning national media market. -- Media, bilingual monthly journal of the Kerala Press Academy, September 2012.
