ASIA: Media Need to Go Back to Basics - Experts

   By Lynette Lee Corporal

MACAU, May 26 (Asia Media Forum) - 'Back to basics' in times of crisis is a message that the media should not only give out to the public but learn from as well. More cooperation, adaptability, learning from past mistakes, ethical practices and gaining public trust are just some of the messages journalists and media professionals heard at the start of an international media summit here Tuesday.
  

   "Today, in the midst of grave challenges in the economy, public health, politics and law and order, the world needs to go back to the basics. So do the media," said Thoyyib Mohamed Waheed, minister of Maldives' State for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Department of Information, said during the opening session of the 6th Asia Media Summit 2009.

   Attracting more than 400 participants , the summit is organised by the Malaysia-based Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) and hosted by broadcast network TDM-Teledifusao de Macau.

   "Your gathering here today has come at a time when countries worldwide are faced with multiple challenges in the economic, as well as in the health public system," Edmund Ho Hau Wah, chief executive of the Government of Macau Special Administrative Region, said in his keynote address.

   "The global economic turndown has affected all sectors alike and the media industry has not been spared as well," he added.

   While the 'financial tsunami', as others call it, have made the media business operations more difficult, Ho said that the Fourth Estate should not forget that media are still "a part of the fabric of our daily lives" and that "hard work will help the media rise above challenges and create significant opportunities to open again in the future".

   For Antonio Lopes, secretary general of Southern African Broadcasting Association, a behaviour change by financial institutions, consumers and, yes, even by the media, is needed if the world hopes to see these opportunities again.

   "Media could play a pivotal role in this particular crisis. But they should be the first ones to straighten misconceptions about the issue," he said.

   One misperception, he continued, is that some sectors are immune from the crisis. "No one is safe from this, including media organisations. Media can help increase awareness and can help teach people about consumerism," he added.

   TDM journalist Jose Carlos Matias, in enumerating the perceived 'failures' of the media in reporting on the economic crisis, said that it was "not true" the journalists ignored the 'warning signs' that hard times were coming.

   "Journalists are not soothsayers. Some found out what was happening but they failed to bring it to the top of the agenda," he said, citing parallelisms with the 1997 Asian economic crisis when the media made similar mistakes.

   The question of bringing it down from the ‘Wall Street to Main Street’ level, he said, is also an important way of making people understand what is happening.
"Finance journalism has to have a down-to-earth approach to reach the low middle class and less favoured groups," he said.

CONNECTING THE WORLD

   In this age of connectivity, the media should also be able to reach out to their colleagues, shared China’s minister of the State Council Information Office, Wang Chen.

   "The Chinese media are willing to strengthen the cooperation with other media organisations worldwide so that together, we can overcome these crises," he said. "No country is exempt from these crises, particularly the financial crisis, and no country can win this (economic) war on their own."

   According to Wang, active media exchanges and cooperation, including regular dialogue and interactions among Chinese media with their Asian counterparts, are important in creating new opportunities and enhancing understanding.

   All these, he said, translate to practical terms including training programmes to enhance quality and quantity of news information, the popularisation of TV programmes in rural areas, and expansion of coverage that adhere to journalistic principles are all positive measures in "bringing out a voice of Asia".

   This voice, meanwhile, is getting louder in the realms of the new media, the World Wide Web in particular.

   Wang Wenbin, general manager of the CCTV.com, the web arm of state television network China Central Television, calls the new media a "soft power" that is beginning to influence the world's political situation.

   "The new media has become an inclusive platform for interaction across China and the virtual world is raising its voice in the country's political landscape. It is indeed becoming an important agent in (facilitating) changes (in society)," he said.

   For instance, it is because of the new media that the 2008 Beijing Olympics jumped from merely being a spectator sports or a games for heroes into a game for the common people, he said.

   "The CCTV network was the only new media broadcast institution in the world that locked in 3,800 hours of coverage. We captured more than 90 percent of Internet users during the Games," he added.

   Dr Chandra Muzaffar, president of the International Movement for a Just World, Malaysia Dialogue, Understanding, Tolerance, said that, to a certain extent, the new media act as a 'conscience' of traditional media.

   "It is asking questions which the old media have shied away from. The Internet and its many manifestations have raised questions, including the reasons behind the global economic and the environment crises," he said.

   He continued: "The crisis is caused, they argue, by the failure of the system, a system which encourages unlimited accumulation of wealth. They ask questions about the lifestyle of middle and upper classes and how it has contributed to the detriment of the environment."

   Chandra encourages journalists to bring back and enhance spiritual and ethical values in both mainstream and new media.

   "Honesty and integrity should be made central to our lives, which is what really these crises have revealed to us. Because we didn't make these a priority, we should have expected the crises that we're seeing and experiencing today," he said. (END/AMF/IPSAP/LLC/JS/260509)