JOURNALISM AND DEVELOPMENT
JANARDHAN. J

EMERGENCE
 Development is a complex phenomenon
 Each society should identify its development goals
 Development Communication- The systematic use of
communication for national development (Lent, 1979)
 It is oriented towards development
 Journalistic concept dealing with development through
communication is termed as ‘Development Journalism'

IMPORTANCE
 Comm. act as a tool to motivate and persuade the people
 Development programmes took shape in the early 1960s
 Thus the origin of development journalism
 It has been widely used in Third-World nations
 Juan Mercado & Alan chalkleys’ efforts coined the term
Development Journalism (DJ)
 DJ was equated with economic reporting

CREDIBILITY OF MEDIA
 DJ is more than just presenting facts
 it gives a critical analysis of various development projects
 It should connect to the people and open reader's eyes
 In essence, DJ endorses the principle of participatory
development approach
 By ensuring people's participation can shape the development
projects
 We assumed that journalism is able to influence the
development process

OBJECTIVE OF MEDIA
 To critically examine the development projects
 Evaluate the relevance of development projects
 To differentiate between a planned scheme and its actual
implementation

ORIGIN AND GROWTH
 During the second half of 20th Century, Third world
countries are striving for development
 These nations’ per capita income fall below of developed
countries
 Many academicians and policy makers were engaged in
developing the third world
 All those communication research and practices geared

THE DOMINANT PARADIGM
 During 1950 & 1960s the researchers formed the basis of
Development Communication discourse
 Daniel Lemer and Wilbur Schramm were instrumental in
assessing the influence of mass media
 They suggested that the urbanization would raise literacy rate
 It increase the mass media exposure
 That will lead to wider economic and political participation
 Accessibility of mass media facilitates development of a nation

INDIAN PRESS AND
DEVELOPMENT JOURNALLISM
 The concept was practiced by the Indian Press even before its
existence
 Hicky’s Gazette was dealing social, economic and cultural
activities in 1780s
 Raja Rammohan Roy efforts made the abolition of the practice
of sati
 During1860 and 1899, both the Anglo-Indian and language
newspapers started to inculcate nationalism among people

INDIAN PRESS AND
DEVELOPMENT JOURNALLISM
 During this period, prominent freedom fighters
Surendranath Bannerjee, Bipin Chandra Pal,
G. Subramania Aiyer, Motilal Ghosh,
Narendranath Sen, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and
Naoroji were actively engaged with journalism
 Mahatma Gandhi served people with help of Journalism
 He believed that a newspaper is a social institution

DEVELOPMENT REPORTING
BY INDIAN NEWSPAPERS
 The press has a vital role to play in development
 By informing people on important development issues
confronting the society
 The Hindustan Times feature "Our Village Chhatera" was
brought out in February in 1969
 It was one of the best documented rural feature series in the
Indian press
 They covered extensively the rural scene in depth and in all its
versatility

DEVELOPMENT REPORTING
BY INDIAN NEWSPAPERS
 Malayalam Manorama and Mathrubhumi, were started
farm features, allotting one page every week exclusively
 The Hindu initiated rural reporting by appointing a
special correspondent
 It reported imported news about project also the attitude of
government officials, farmers and businessmen
 "For the Farmers Note-Book", was started reporting latest
research findings

DEVELOPMENT REPORTING
BY INDIAN NEWSPAPERS
 P. Sainath reported on rural India
 He visited ten poorest districts of five states
 He highlighted issues of extreme poverty in 84 reports in
18 months in Times of India
 Health, rural education, forced displacement, survival
strategies of the poor, usury and debt, water problem, etc.,
 Later, his articles were reprinted as book, “Everybody
Loves A Good Drought”

DEVELOPMENT REPORTING
BY INDIAN NEWSPAPERS
 Punjabi Kheti and Haryana Kheti are have a committed
group of readers such as farmers
 Krishak Jagat, rural magazine from Bhopal since 1946
 'Grassroots' is a monthly journal published by the PTI in
Hindi, Tamil and English language
 It give wide range of coverage on unemployment,
agricultural, job schemes, success stories, etc

PROBLEMS OF DEVELOPMENT REPORTING
 1. Inadequate information and poor understanding
 2. Absence of training in presentation of facts in an
attractive format
 3. Poor interest shown by newspapers
 4. Lack of funds and support from the newspaper
establishments.

THANK YOU