I recently asked a reporter why she applied to study for a Master of Journalism program at Wollongong University where I teach. She said it’d help her move into ‘fashion and lifestyle journalism’ because it paid better in the Indian media.

“How is fashion and lifestyle journalism relevant in Mumbai where poverty is so pervasive?” I asked. She demurred. Understandable for a ‘Brahmin’ who knows no one from other social class except her own nor knows where the dalits live in decrepit hovels.

As a journalism teacher, I sometimes wonder about the disservice we do when we bank on teaching students the skills that will get them jobs while losing sight of what Mahatma Gandhi termed as the goals of ‘mission and service’ in journalism.

This perceived value is implicit in the struggle by Malaysian media watch NGOs for media reforms, abolishment of the press laws, press freedom, and so forth. That’s good. But, we need more than a ‘press freedom walk’ to inspire our journalism students or jog Malaysian journalists to improve their act.

We need media monitoring NGOs to show-and-tell readers exactly how some stories have fallen short of ‘best practice’ benchmarks. So far, the benchmarks of ‘best practices’ in Malaysian journalism, and how mainstream journalists’ narrative could have been constructed, are not as well demonstrated by media watch NGOs.

Common referents

To help gauge these benchmarks, I list below the common referents of ‘best practices’ that non-Malaysian journalists alluded to in a survey I did in 2006 for a book on ‘best practices of journalism in Asia’.

The referents range from quixotic views of crusading journalism, one that represents the plights of the disenfranchised, to the realities of investigative journalism that exposes public corruption and social injustices. ‘Best practices’ in journalism evolve when certain attributes, albeit non-exhaustive, work together, such as:

  • In-depth research and keen eye for statistical analyses.
  • Dogged determination for field interviews.
  • Penchant for the big picture ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘what’ context of issues.
  • Healthy skepticism balanced by optimism with the good in people.
  • Understanding from experiencing the life of people in the stories.
  • Acknowledged obligations as a citizen first, journalist second.
  • Deep conviction that truthful stories can make a difference to society.
  • Acute sense of right and wrong.

None of the trace elements allude to journalists’ writing style, language or composition of journalistic texts – all granted as fundamental to professional journalism. Instead, the journalists’ perceptions of best practices focused on the functional aspects of what they write, the impact they hope their stories will achieve, their conviction and sense of right and wrong that they bring to their stories.

Frontline correspondent, Dionne Bunsha, whom I spoke to in Mumbai in April 2006, said of her approach to writing about the social injustices in India as 'anything that I am passionate about and which I have a strong background knowledge on turns out well. Anything that doesn’t make me feel strongly shows in the story'.

Or as Glenda Gloria, editor of investigative magazine in Manila, Newsbreak, said to me, "It's usually the romance that sustains us when the going gets tough. We became journalists not because we wanted to be famous but because we felt that this profession could somehow make the Philippines a better place to live in."

Prizes for journalism

For decades, the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism has awarded journalists for their work according to its “meritorious public service” values, and editorial writing that shows a “clearness of style, moral purpose, sound reasoning, and power to influence public opinion in what the writer conceives to be the right direction”.

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism , which sees the media as a catalyst for social debate and scrutineer of public institutions so that democracy will be strengthened, awards journalists for their work that “provide citizens with the bases for arriving at informed opinions and decisions”.

The Walkley Awards in Australia recognises work that show “courageous journalism, as well as writing excellence, accuracy, storytelling, newsworthiness, ethics, research, impact and public benefit”.

The Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards from India “honours journalists who have shown extraordinary strength of character and integrity while reporting under dangerous, challenging or difficult circumstances.

Ideally, the story or series should have exposed issues or problems such as improprieties or injustice, mismanagement, and/or corruption. It should have raised public awareness on the issue or involve taking extraordinary risks to reach a story that would not have been accessible easily.”

These awards are all directed at the journalist's internal attributes and commitments to the ideals of journalism – mission and service – and secondarily, the narrative appeal of their stories.

As the last hope in producing a ‘new breed’ of mission and service-oriented journalists lies in education, how can journalism teachers imbue in students the higher values that are clearly absent in mainstream media, which tend to serve the interests of its proprietor and advertisers more than the welfare of the people? I posed this question to Palagummi Sainath (rural affairs editor of The Hindu, and recipient of the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism), when I visited his home in Mumbai in April 2006. This is what he said:

Not homogenous group

“There have always been journalists who did not and do not believe in the service of power - those who cut through the hypocrisy of pomp and stated the uncomfortable. I’ve always thought that the boy who said: ‘The Emperor has no clothes!’ and who pointed to a pathetic but powerful moron who was simply starkers was one of the fine early journalists. He dragged into the public domain what others knew but would not say. Once he put it there, it made life simpler for everyone except the Emperor.

“Journalism teachers are not a homogenous group either, as I can attest, having been one myself for over 20 years in schools in this country and elsewhere. There are those who squawk from textbooks (mainly establishment American books), rattling off principles that were never followed or applied to the powerful. There are those with a total emphasis on craft, teaching unburdened by moral responsibility. There are those who have taught their students to think and reason and question, who emphasise the ‘why’ of it. And, some who also teach their students by personal example. So there are different kinds of teachers.

“Journalism teachers have to decide who they wish to make their students responsible to - readers and people, or bosses and balance sheets. All this happens in a context. As corporate power tightens its grip on the profession, I’d like to see us make the students more and more subversive, undermining of the established order."

Indeed, traditional university journalism programmes have leaned towards landing a job with media organisations and reporting within the ambits of 'the established order'. Students are conditioned to see journalism as a means of earning a salary rather than a profession where they can make a difference to Malaysian society.

As Gandhi wrote in 'Young India' of 2 July 1925: "I have taken up journalism not for its sake but merely as an aid to what I have conceived to be my mission in life. My mission is to teach by example and present under severe restraint the use of the matchless weapon of satyagraha which is a direct corollary of nonviolence."

Here lies the significance of journalism teachers and media watch NGOs in taking the lead to show us - by the power of alternative narratives - where the Malaysian media have fallen short, and what the younger generation of journalists can do to make it right.