Development Journalism

Development journalism is a part of development communication. It is relatively a new concept emerged in Third world countries. In the post colonial era, after World War II, when a number or countries became independent, they observed that western media were not interested in the development activities launched massively by developing countries. Instead, developing countries realized that the powerful media based on west always presented the darker side of life-such as corruption, assassination, coups, disaster, war etc.-in their news coverage as if nothing good occurs in these countries. This type of western-media-behavior seriously troubled communication experts and media practitioners of the Third World countries and enforced them to derive an alternative communication model. As a result,   development journalism emerged in the 1960s. The concept of development journalism was presented by Hong Kong residential British media scholar Yalan Chaley.   

Development journalism is a particular branch of journalism that insists on the speedy transformation of a country from poverty to a dynamic state of economic growth, and makes possible greater economic and social equality, and the larger fulfillment of human potential. The purpose of developments journalism is to create a sense that development can be nobody's gift but the result of one's own labor.

Development is not only the passage from the poor to rich or from a traditional economy to a sophisticated urban one. Economic growth is just a part of development, not the whole. Development, in the real sense, is not only the idea of economic betterment, but also a great human dignity, security, justice, and equality. Development is measured in the overall improvement of the lives of the people. Development journalism basically focuses on:

-         What is the reason behind underdevelopment?

-         Why do development efforts fail?

-         How to do development?

Since development is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, the development journalism has to cover the whole complex and interlocking web of socio-economic activities. It should also work for political and cultural change as per the need of the society. Development journalism requires honest collections, intelligent processing, and interesting presentation of news, views or any other information. Reporters need to work more seriously to get information and skillfully so as to convince the targeted audience.

Development journalism does not follow the traditional concept of bad news is good news. But it does not mean that development reporting should be one-side or propagandist. Development mainstream should also follow the basic norms and values of superficial. Attending only press conferences and writing some paragraphs about a development is project or a speech of a minister on development is not enough to represent the overall notion of development journalism. A development journalist must seek causes and effects of activities related to developmental aspects.

Public Journalism: Public journalism, comparatively a new concept, emerged in the United States following the 1988 presidential elections, insists on journalist ' responsibility to promote civic commitment and citizens' participation in a democratic process. Public journalism believes that journalists should try to improve the quality of public life. It provides a public forum for ordinary citizens to be helped. It contributes on identifying and resolving public problems. Scholars say that public journalists should write and speak from the perspective of ordinary people rather than articulating the viewpoints of political leaders.