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SESSION B.2 (c) : HANDOUT.

WRITING FOR SOCIAL ACTION BROADCASTING

What is news? Many media analysts suggest that media news is the main source of most peoples evolving worldview. If this is so, can we restructure news reporting so that different mindsets emerge?

People cluttering their thoughts with snippets of information about events from all over the planet, inhibit their ability to discern the information that might somehow concern them about some local event over which they could exercise a measure of control.

The inability of either public service or commercial media to contribute through news and current affairs to either a growing local democracy or a stronger personal awareness should concern us, as this potential is inherent in these media, but is blocked by their ownership structures and programming policies.

A democracy based on an ill informed or misinformed citizenry is an illusion. If people do not fully understand the issues they are asked to act on, or if they are presented with either limited or wrong information, they cannot perform in accord with democratic theory.

Mainstream journalists generally assume in their work, the existence of a consensus within democratic societies about the legitimacy of existing political and economic arrangements. They also believe themselves to be largely unbiased and claim that they seek only to inform by selecting the most 'newsworthy' items.

But the system of selecting they use controls, amongst other things, which sources are used, how much weight and credibility they are given and how this information is presented. To be a Social Action Reporter on community media is not to be a disinterested observer, but to be an involved activist, who also reports on the issues.

With the convergence of the various media platforms, you may find yourself mixing written, visual and audio messages, but the imperative will remain; make the listener/viewer care enough to act.

The purpose of community media news and current affairs is to ask
the participants, 'well what are you going to do with this information
and these emotions?

We do this in the knowledge that most people, due to media conditioning, will not want to get involved, but your report should leave them unsettled, aware that they should do something about this issue. And perhaps the next bulletin on this issue will move them to action.

You are offering more than the usual journalism of information, you are providing a journalism of explanation.

Community radio news and current affairs programmes should consider what and who get represented, or left out of mainstream reporting, and how things, people, events and relationships are represented in general.

What the citizens know about their society depends on how things are presented to them by their media. And this knowledge in turn informs what they accept or reject in public policies or alternative ideas being presented by marginalized groups.

A Journalism of Explanation.

Most serious media will try to counter these defects by offering a 'journalism of information'. But this is not the way to resolve this issue,
as much of the material that finds it's way into such programming emanates from the spin factories of commercial or political operations.

The democratic need for informed debate, and collective decisions,
can best be served through a 'journalism of explanation'. We could differentiate between these two forms of journalism thus;

A 'journalism of information' encourages people to mistake knowing something about a topic for doing something about it. Whereas, a 'journalism of explanation' would assist people to understand the issue and assist them organise to act to deal with it.

It is a different tool for a different task.

An active community media project, committed to growing local democracy will need to think long and hard on these issues.

 

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