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BOOK REVIEW |
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BOOK REVIEW |
Media Matters The fourth estate has been
central to the democratization process, but few people have examined critical issues By A CORREESSPONDENT With the upsurge in the number of media outlets in recent years, demand for trained manpower has gone up. There has been a corresponding proliferation of educational institutions and reading material. In the last two decades, the media sector has seen many changes in the dimensions of television, radio and newspapers. Following the restoration of democracy in 1990, private-sector investment in the media ended the monopoly the official media enjoyed over the previous three decades. "Media Issues in Nepal" encapsulates this transformation. Leading media experts P. Kharel, Ram Krishna Regmee, Lal Deosa Rai, Rabin Man Shakya and Chiranjibi Khanal have contributed articles on various issues faced by the sector. Kharel's article highlights the status of the print media and the difficulties it is facing in reaching across the country. Although the number of newspapers has increased by many folds over the years, they are yet to reach throughout the country. "[Few] newspapers in Nepal reach beyond urban areas and some district headquarters. National daily newspapers reach hardly 20 districts within 24 hours. One third of the country receives newspapers several days after publication. In other words, less than 20 percent of the country's 24 million people have access to newspapers," says Kharel. "Illiteracy is one of the highest in the world and the purchasing power of the people is very low, given the fact that theirs is one of the poorest of the world's poorest countries." As long as the literacy rate, road access and per capita income remain stagnant, spreading newspapers across a broader readership would be an uphill task. Despite the prospects of dissemination of information, expansion of readership requires well-organized processes. Regmee explains the history of media research in Nepal and its importance in journalism. "Research in media is a very recent phenomenon in Nepal. Although the country has a rich history of media - century-old print media, and over 50-year-old broadcasting, and nearly 15 years of television - the process of research has not yet been introduced properly," says Regmee. "The mind-set of both decision makers and users of the media is the sole factor responsible for the highly retarded growth of media research in the country," he adds. Regmee explains the subject by providing references to theoretical and other relevant aspects. Rai discusses the emerging issue of advertising and public relations. He discusses the history of curriculum of advertising and public relations in the media sector in Nepal. "Although advertisements in Nepalese media such as in books or booklets began to appear in the second half of the 19th century and in the first Nepali weekly Gorkhapatra in the first half of the 20th century, as a business it did not institutionalize till 1960 when for the first time an organization known as Nepal Advertisers was set up," Rai explains. "No authentic figure is available for the Nepalese ad agencies. Now the number of regular daily newspapers has gone up to 62 including seven broadsheet morningers from Kathmandu. The volume of advertisements has also gone up, though it is concentrated on morning broadsheet dailies," he adds. Khanal describes the weaknesses of Nepalese journalism by analyzing all the variables in the processes of news dissemination. "Though the Nepalese media have, in recent times, made tremendous endeavor, both in quality and quantity, it does not seem to have achieved the desired goal so far. The present trend in the Nepalese journalism reveals that the media have unable to meet even the basic objectives," writes Khanal. Media Issues in Nepal |
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editor: spotligh@mos.com.np |
