By Of the 39 pages of one of the dailies today only 10 pages are dedicated to actual local news. If that is the type of journalism we have in this country then I would love to see alternatives. The Somare government over the holiday period made several announcements about establishing a government owned TV station and newspaper. As always the more variety of media here the better I think. It can only add to the quality of journalism in this country and give us all a choice as to who we want to go to, to get our news from. PNG’eans do not have to look far now to know what competition can do to the quality of services in an industry.
The current media leaves allot to be desired in what they report and how. (By ‘media’ I mean quite broadly, TV, newspaper and radio). Spelling and grammatical errors are always sprinkled among sensationalised half truths that do nothing for what we want to see as news. I’ll give you an example. The news of Kevin Conrad’s position on behalf of PNG at the Bali Climate Conference was a statement that shamed the US into agreeing to follow the rest of the 185 countries of the world who had gathered there. This is big news and as a friend told me, it was like Ryan Pini winning a gold medal. PNG had actively contributed to what had been a stumbling block throughout the entire Bali conference. This all occurred last weekend and Danger reported it on his blog on Monday, by Tuesday emails had been sent around about it by two other friends and then later that week it finally got on EMTV and the Newspapers. But even when it did appear in the papers it was buried somewhere in the centre of the papers. Don’t the people of PNG deserve better than that? Think of it, CNN, BBC and countless international blogs were buzzing with this news by Sunday night and PNG only found out about it around Thursday. During that week the frontpage news was about 400 pigs killed for a festival and pictures of dead rascals. Now those are the sort of frontpage headlines that are pointless. Remember that headline that appeared some weeks back about PNG’eans making money from acting in porn? Seriously what was the point of that on the frontpage? Was it a story to make me think about buying PNG porn? Where we to lock up our children and siblings in case they got into acting in them? Maybe I should have looked into it so that I could somehow make money from Porn? Sure I agree it’s news but it wasn’t front page material. The only paper I saw that covered the Bali Conference in some detail with our government’s position was the Sunday Chronicle.
Having a choice to decide what you want is, well basic really but its even more powerful when it’s an informed decision. The information we get from the media goes along way in assisting us to form opinions and ultimately how we make decisions be they for personal, community, business or political reasons. But if I’m going to be fed nothing substantial at all then I would love to see alternatives. I want thought provoking in depth articles on PNG social, cultural, political and regional issues. I want to see journalists who become stars because people are dying to read their next articles. I want to see an end to spelling and grammatical errors. I want to see an end to long feature articles that spend too much time using all sorts of ‘fancy airy fairy’ words to sound smart when they could just get to the point. I want to know what my government is doing at all levels and whether it will effect me in a good or bad way. I want to know what our businesses are doing and how it will effect our economy and their products and services. I want to see news about people and organisations building this nation. I want to read about real and imminent threats to my livelihood. I want to see more forum discussions, interviews and viewer participation. All in all I just want to be a well informed citizen who pays K1.20 for a newspaper that is more than just a colourful sales brochure.
The steady growth of the Sunday Chronicle is one perfect example of an alternative. They do suffer from allot of grammatical errors though but on the whole the type of news they have been publishing has been filling a void that has been left wide open by the existing major papers. So if Somare comes in with it’s TV station and newspaper I will certainly applaud the move for want of alternatives. Australia’s ABC and England’s BBC are shining examples of government owned media companies who have an amazing array of programs spread across radio, TV and websites. Obviously I don’t expect us to be in the same league as them but I can see the benefits of programming and content produced without the pressure of commercial interests. ABC’s Triple J radio station is one of my favourite examples of a government owned media entity that is just too cool for commercial radio.
Being government owned does raise several other issues. Quality is the first. We will certainly expect quality journalism from government owned media or else we will just ignore it and stick with who we know. Just being government owned already gives it a negative image and this is unfortunately due to the past history of how it’s existing NBC station has been treated and the failure of the NTN TV station. One thing to note is that both the ABC and BBC started off with radio before they graduated into TV and websites. I would think that the government would be better off re-investing into the existing radio infrastructure and then growing from there. PNG FM had conducted a survey about media reach and radio won hands down over other media in terms of it’s reach across PNG. Nevertheless it will be interesting to see if a government owned media company can produce quality programming.
Another issue is independent reporting. If we have more than one major media company then we should have the benefit of having more than one opinion out there on major issues. This is important when you have a government media reporting on government news because the privately owned media companies will most certainly be useful in giving an alternative and hopefully balanced opinion.
But even with more than one media company around the public must participate to ensure that reporting is unbiased, especially when it comes to the all important topic of politics. Al Gore in his book ‘The Assault on Reason‘ described this importance for public participation by saying this about his country, “When the operations of a government are open to full examination by its citizens and subjected to vigorous discussion and debate, then the corrupt misuse of public power for private gain becomes more difficult to conceal. If the rule of reason is the standard by which every use of official power is evaluated, then even the most complex schemes to violate the public’s trust can be uncovered and policed by a well informed citizenry. Moreover, when ideas rise or fall according to merit, reason tends to drive us toward decisions that reflect the best available wisdom of the group as a whole.
But reason alone is not enough. There must be a public forum accessible to all within which individuals can communicate freely to illuminate unwise as well as illegitimate uses of power…If the forum is not fully open, then those who control access become gatekeepers. If they charge money in return for access, then those with more money have a greater ability to participate. Good ideas in the minds of men and women who cannot afford the price of admission to the public forum are then no longer available for consideration. When their opinions are blocked, the meritocracy of ideas that has always been the beating heart of democratic theory begins to suffer damage. The conversation of democracy then comes untethered from the rule of reason and can be manipulated.
That is exactly was has been happening in America. The replacement of an easily accessible, print-based marketplace of ideas with a restricted-access, television based realm has lead to a radical transformation of the nature and operation for the marketplace of ideas in the United States.
When only those who have wealth can afford to enter the principal forum in which the majority of the people receive their information, then those who can pay the price of admission automatically become more influential. Their opinions become more important then the opinions of others. The nation’s priorities then change“.
Al Gore may be speaking about the US and media in their politics is certainly more dramatic, but it gives a good warning of what to look out for in an all too powerful media without public participation. Media in general is an expensive business to get into so whoever owns the media consequently holds the power. Ultimately though any new media company must firstly create quality content, secondly it must be independent from influence be it government or commercial pressures and thirdly it must technically have a reach to be able get it’s messages across to the widest possible audience. If all three facets are met then at least we can have healthy media alternatives to choose from for our news.
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December 29, 2007 at 7:16 am
Volz
Well written Manu!! I totally agree with you, there’s too much cr*p & not enough substance on the papers, on the radio & on TV. We need programmes & articles that are well researched, thought provoking & not biased/fair. May this forthcoming TV station be all of the above & much more…
December 30, 2007 at 10:13 pm
papua new guinea
I agree totally with everything you’ve highlighted about the media and the poor reporting by journalists. As for the The Bali conference, the moment PNG pluck up the courage to make a stand against the mighty USA was the moment that all Papua New Guineans should shout about,or dance and sing or do something, anything to celebrate this poignant moment. I watched the news flash and heard PNG mentioned and I could not contain my excitement that my country’s delegation made the news rooms all over world fight to air it on their TV network. I had to call a friend and tell her to watch the BBC news.
Have you considered teaching journalism and media studies at any of the Universities in PNG that run these course. I am no expert but judging from your blog material, you’d make a brilliant tutor/lecturer/mentor. Just a thought, all the way from UK
December 30, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Emmanuel
Thanks Volz and papua new guinea.
@ papua new guinea
I’m not a journalist and I have no training in the media so thank you for your kind words. My interest is from a commercial point of view I guess. I’m always looking for ways to expand my little business and in doing so you just become aware of what’s going on around you. But you have a good point about sharing knowledge like that, being a tutor could be one way.
But don’t I need some sort of certificate or paper to be a tutor or lecturer? Anyway thanks again for pointing that out.
And Happy New Years to you both!
December 31, 2007 at 2:41 am
Rex
@Manu
I think you got journalism blood in you
Now having said that… you made a very interesting posting here and I know that the Government is looking into locally owned Newspapers, TV and Radio Station.
I believe it is the perogative of Papua New Guineans to set thier own media company and the PNG Government will back them. Sunday Chronicles is receiving such backing already by the Chief and I am sure the government may engage them to be that Nationally owned newspaper company.
So c’mon Tv and Radio… get it going! Someone please!!
January 1, 2008 at 10:49 pm
kk
Happy New Year M.
I definitely agree that when I open a newspaper in PNG I am often disappointed with the most basic and obvious grammatical and spelling errors which litter those publications - my question is: what are the editors DOING? It’s really their job to make sure those mistakes don’t get made and don’t get published. In a big-picture way, it really does impact on the level of written and reading english of the PNG public - for most people the daily newspapers are their only source of reading material (let’s face it - we have like 1 public library in the entire country and it’s fairly embrarassing (thorugh no fault of its own) in the list of meager and outdated books on its shelves. So if people read that literature every day, their source of written english isn’t nearly as good as it should be.
There is also the very frightening notion that for those same people (ie the majortity of PNGns) - the newspapers are their major (and sometimes only) source of information about their country and the outside world. Our newspapers carry MASSIVE responsibility and whilst they are doing an admirable job, in many instances they also fail.
One of the things I detest reading the most are the so-called “opinion columns” where some one who supposedly went to university is allowed to write copious amounts of superfluous, often ignorant and badly written inches of pure uneducated musings (at best) and misdirected vitriol (at dangerously, worst). Whilst everyone in a democracy is entitled to an opinion and to have it published (where it does not break the law), surely our newspapers should be more careful about printing some of these “articles” which are no more than badly written, barely suported, rants that, by virtue of being published, appear to the public to be valid arguments.
Anyway less of my own rant & just a quick note about what is being discussed - I think what Al Gore is talking about is “Corporate media” - a term defined by Wikipedia as “a system of media production, distribution, ownership, and funding which is dominated by corporations, and is governed by the capitalist imperatives of maximizing profits for the investors, stockholders, and advertisers.”
It is sometimes used as a term of derision to indicate a media system which does not serve the public interest in place of the “mainstream media” or “MSM,” which tends to be used by both the left and the right as a derisive term.
Critics of Corporate media point out that, for example, the main national networks in the USA (ie NBC, CBS, and ABC) as well as most if not all of the smaller cable channels, are owned, funded, and controlled by an interconnected network of large corporate conglomerates and international banking interests, which they say manipulate and filter out news that does not fit their corporate agenda.
Its obvious that you run into potential evils with both corporate media and state-owend media. I would like to quickly say that, in the case of PNG, I do not believe that the state has any business owning and running media institutions (except , perhaps, the radio - and I can expound on that later if anyone cares to query). The business of our government, as things stand, should be to create the right environment for the media under private ownership to thrive and fulfill its role as the watchdog of the society.
Its has been the experience in many developing nations of Africa & the South Pacific that what often pass for public service obligations among state-owned media institutions are narrowly defined to mean obligations to the government in power at any particular time.
In our situation, in PNG I would be very very very careful before encouraging a Somare-led government to also have control over print media UNLESS, for the state media not to become a divisive factor the people running it have to be insulated from political interference. There should be no directions by politicians or their representatives or discussions on policy. In our current political climate - can this be done?
As pointed out by M above, the best known example of an effort to achieve this professional independence is the BBC whose charter sets up a Board of Governors to run the broadcasting service. State media can do very valuable work in the cultural and educational fields, as the BBC and PBS America have famously done.
But if they report news and editorialise on issues of the day they must be scrupulously fair to all concerned, not only to the government. In other words, they must be run in accordance with the best traditions of professional journalism.
I’m not sure our media is mature enough to handle that responsibility or that our government isn’t in a position to take full advantage of that.
January 2, 2008 at 12:00 am
Emmanuel
Yes a Traipel Hepi New Years to you Rex and KK.
From KK: “The business of our government, as things stand, should be to create the right environment for the media under private ownership to thrive and fulfill its role as the watchdog of the society.”
I think as KK stated providing incentives for PNG owned media companies to grow and flourish would be a great help. What about say specific government grants for such activities which are governed by specific guidelines? I believe that would be the better approach for the government instead of directly owning media. As a matter of priorities does the government need to put all that money and time into a TV station when hospitals and roads still need attention. The Govt. may have K8 billion to spend this year but every K1 is important considering the amount of infrastructure that needs fixing up.
Quite simply the government needs to understand that it doesn’t need to do everything, so many people and small to medium businesses can help themselves if only they are permitted and assisted part of the way through policies and laws and existing institutions such as the Small Business Development Corporation and IPA.
Imagine if the govt rewarded my company for the amount of fully completed and signed off websites we produced for PNG organisations, we’d be killing ourselves to deliver and sure enough it would prompt more competition in my industry. A simple thing like that would immediately begin to improve PNG websites for both local and international consumption. What if something similar like that was started for local newspapers in provinces and local level districts? Maybe even for freelance journalists?
January 2, 2008 at 10:11 pm
mangimosbi
To be frank journalists don’t get paid much. As a result journalism does not attract the best and brightest. Except for a few diehards most bright
students with a flair for English would rather do law or economics. As a result the talent pool from which our future journalists are drawn from is smaller.This imbalance can be corrected by encouraging freelance journalists to write articles in their respective areas of competence.
Whilst it is true that the media does play a vital role in the formation of public opinion in the way current events are portrayed I think that my taxes (however minscule my personal contribution may be) and the taxes of my fellow Papua New Guineans would be better spent in the education of teachers,the provision of facilities and LIBRARIES that will increase literacy in Papua New Guinea and therefore produce better journalists.
January 2, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Emmanuel
Very well put Mangimosbi, as a character in Sheridan’s play ‘The Rivals‘ put it ‘A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge! It blossoms through the year!’
I hear you Bro, imagine if all the money that would go into a TV station were put into developing public community libraries. They wouldn’t need to be too big to start with. I do realise that it is an expensive institution to run and it needs specific skills to be sustained.
Andrew Carnegie (businessman/industrialist/philanthropist) in the 1900’s gave more that $56 million to build more than 2,500 libraries in the US, Britain and Canada. Carnegie insisted that the local authorities would have to become responsible for the public libraries he founded, they would have to provide the land and they had to keep the libraries going.
Now if that’s not commitment then I don’t know what is. But again it just goes to show how hard it is for libraries to be setup. And I have never seen any millionaires in PNG put money into libraries so I won’t hold my breath for something like that.
Another option besides some millionaire helping us could be working through schools. So that High Schools in various provinces and towns are given the responsibility and government grants to develop libraries that can be used by the communities there besides just the students. And by libraries I don’t mean just books, they need to also collect magazines, periodicals, CD’s and Videos. PNG writers/authors could visit libraries to talk about their books. Libraries could double up as little printing operations to print school newsletters/community newspapers etc to make money.
Anyway just some random thoughts…
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