Dr. Kundan Aryal

Recently, an official of Press Council Nepal shared an incident to reveal the psyche of the young Nepali journalists working in an online media. An online media journalist once told the Council that when he worked by abiding by all the ethical values for about two years, he failed to get any response from the readers. “As I started to breach the professional values, then only my media outlet began to be noticed. Consequently, my earnings started to increase,” he said.

When the society gives importance to the media that flout the basic norms, it would be essential to look into it. If a young professional says professional standards hinder the growth of profession, then what would be the role of journalism in society? Likewise, it questions the process of socialisation of Nepali journalists. When newspapers in the developed world transformed into mass newspapers with wider circulation and consequently greater impact in society, there was grudge against the media on the ground. One of the assumptions in the period was that the media are a malignant and cancerous force within society, and must be purged or restructured.

Media accountability
It has been analysed that such reaction back in the mid-19th century viewed the development of the media pessimistically and as a threat mainly to the integrity of elite cultural values. However, the media people showed a sense of responsibility and accountability towards society, overcoming such a fearful reaction to the rise of newspapers. Thus, the wining of press freedom is largely attributed to a heroic struggle of journalists against the state. This is true in Nepal’s context as well.

Over time, liberal-pluralist schools of thought prevailed to protect freedom of expression and media freedom. According to this thought, the media, functioning as the fourth estate, play an important part in the democratic process in cultivating sources of information independently. It also views that the discursive power of the media would prevent a disproportionate concentration of the power in a limited circle or the government. However, the question of using power with a sense of responsibility has been raised continuously over the centuries.

In 1981, British scholar duo James Curran and Jean Seaton expressed such concern in their research work ‘Power Without Responsibility: The Press and Broadcasting in Britain.” According to them, although the press has become more independent of political parties and government, it still operates within an economic framework that limits the range of opinions that could be heard. The young journalist of Nepal, who declares of switching the way of doing journalism, reminds us of the conclusions of Curran and Seaton.

Although the social responsibility theory is a society-centric liberal media concept, it has prevailed over the centuries. Without knowing that the media have obligations to society or media ownership is assumed to be a public trust, a communicator tends to follow an unethical path. Until and unless a communicator is aware of the fact that news media should be truthful, accurate, fair, objective and relevant, the trend will continue. It is a professional norm that while exercising freedom, the media need to be self-regulated. However, without knowing the proper meaning of self-regulation, how can a journalist abide by the professional standards? Then how can a novice journalist follow agreed codes of ethics and professional conduct?

Here, it is pertinent to look into the aspect of the media-society relationship. In a social atmosphere where the media users are passive and unable to appreciate good journalism, it will spread misleading information. The young journalists, who want to attract more audience and be more noticed, should explore the audience. It is true that without having a sizable audience, there is no meaning of communication. However, catering the inappropriate content to the people is not right way to expand the sphere of the audience. Rather, the essence of the origination of the audience impacts the supply of contents that are useful or gratify them.

Technology is one that attracts people. In every phase of history, newer technology has been attracting the general public. For instance, it is said that in the mid-1980 the urban people, especially in Kathmandu, who have a television set in their home, used to watch the entire transmission of Nepal Television every day. But, later technology alone cannot retain the audience. The content of the medium proved to be important. Thus, the young journalists, who have greater expertise in online journalism, need to know that if the contents are in favour of public interest, their media will be noticed sooner or later.

Continuous efforts
A relentless effort needs patience and good journalism again requires continuous efforts. The earlier clichés such as ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ or everybody loves a good drought has proved wrong by the energetic and hardworking journalists. The trend which is called duality of the audience also suggests that the audience can be originated by the appealing and useful content or programmes.

It is a notion that the media functions only as a mirror of society. There is another notion that argues that it should use its influence to combat all sorts of anomalies in society. But every school of thought in journalism agrees that media need to uphold the principle of public interest in any circumstances. Moreover, media cannot win the public trust without being accurate and fair. As the concluding the last sentence of the seminal work of Curran and Seaton suggests, indeed, because the world of media politics is increasingly complex and shifting, it is possible to hope that we can build a better media system- one that combines power with the responsibility to the people.

(Dr. Aryal is associated with the Central Department of Journalism and Mass Communication of Tribhuvan University.)