Tuesday 19 November 2013

Telling it like it is

Reporters and editors might be drawn to the tantalizing promise in the title of an editorial that ran last week in theNew York Times. Entitled, “It’s the Golden Age of News,” the op-ed by New York-based veteran journalist Bill Keller seeks to row against the tide in an attempt to rethink conventional wisdom that the news business as we know it worldwide is going down the tubes. 

As an editor overseeing a network of foreign reporters, Keller trawls through a plethora of news outlets around the world with his morning cup of coffee to see what subjects are on the boil. That, he says, gives him cause for hope, even though there are fewer experienced journalists reporting the news due to financial cuts. As he argues, the Internet has opened up a wealth of new news channels in multiple languages, which shows it is a vibrant and growing scene. He admits that the news business is a more competitive market, with efforts being made to reengineer the business models, moving away from the massive newsrooms – as exemplified by The Gray Lady, as his newspaper is dubbed – to slicker, tighter-staffed operations. And as he notes, the Internet is helping to pump out free content, providing the consumer with a wealth of choice, yet this poses its own serious challenges for those media outlets seeking to maintain quality journalism.

The New York Times editorial comes at a poignant time for Myanmar. The domestic media sector is brimming with hope at the promise of a golden age in the Golden Land as the authorities loosen restrictions and media owners look to the glint of a return on investment, or at least a heightened profile through the pages of a newspaper or magazine, through television or radio, or the national or worldwide reach of a news website.

As Keller writes in his message of hope, it is harder now for authoritarian regimes to hide or suppress news, an observation that is as valid for the government in Naypyitaw, operating under a quasi-civilian veneer, as it is for the violent regime in Syria. To be fair to President Thein Sein and his government, the walls have come down and the media does feel freer to publish “all the news fit to print” – up to a point. The shackle of pre-publication censorship is gone and the media is tackling more controversial subjects, but there is the more insidious self censorship, the result of a lingering fear of a negative reaction from government, powerful institutions and the community.

In some respects, the media scene in Myanmar resembles that of India, with printed newspapers and magazines on a diverse range of topics remaining popular and generating revenue from advertising. While the economic base is obviously far smaller in Myanmar, due to size and an economy trying to wrench itself free of half a century of sluggish mismanagement, there are still customers eager to sit down with a cup of tea and a physical product, rather than squinting to read the news on a mobile phone. At least in the shortterm, media expansion will proceed along traditional lines as Internet and mobile expansion take time to get off the ground.

The excitement over the new licenses for daily newspapers that began being issued in April was a hint at a new golden era, a chance to leave behind stodgy news from official government organs. But behind the glitter may be the dawning realization for cash-strapped businesses that the market is being saturated by products of limited quality in a challenging advertising climate. And there are the worrying human resource challenges that temper the drive for excellence.

Clearly, the key to success is quality products that provide accurate, impartial and lively news and attract readers and advertisers in a country thirsty for information and insight. We may well be looking with hope for a golden age of media in Myanmar as the country opens up, as any improvement is to be welcomed. But we also need to recognize that providing accurate, insightful and unbiased reports will need the support of financial backing and enduring business models. That will surely be a challenge.

source: Mizzima

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