Electronic Media and Journalism as a Career
By Syed Kamran Hashmi
Westfield, IN
Genuinely, my heart goes out to traditional journalists in Pakistan. Notwithstanding the presence of some powerful news editors, the young graduates, unfortunately, choose one of the most neglected professions in the country, a profession that is regarded as an important pillar of democracy and the ‘fourth estate’. As Pakistan is repeatedly ranked on top of the list of the most dangerous countries for journalists, their job situation, to be honest, is extremely precarious, besides being discomfiting and demoralizing for most of them.
For journalists, the salary structure, healthcare facilities, retirement benefits, life and disability insurance programs, job environment and on the ground protection arrangements can be found at the bottom of the priority list of both their employers and their powerful professional unions. Additionally, any remains of self-confidence that manage to survive in this discouraging environment is further crushed when the young professionals realize they are a ‘nobody’ in their field, and would remain that way for a very long foreseeable future. All alone, ill-prepared and impecunious, they are released to swim against the tide in the deep sea of cruel realities after graduation from college or university.
I believe their professional journey would not have been as difficult had they been trained properly and gone through tough exercises in their schools. I realize, like our medical schools or any other professional institution, training in the schools of journalism is inept and faulty and cannot be compared with international standards at all. So, once the graduates start looking for a job after school, they learn that they would earn a meager salary (a little more than the minimum wage) for years to come and would also have to work day in and day out under hazardous conditions to make both ends meet. Under-appreciated, overworked and hardly making any money, they would give the best years of their life to the profession, mastering the art of writing, improving their communication skills and looking for an opportunity to finally be able to earn a respectable living. They know that they would never be rich and famous, which usually is the prerogative of a few fortunate and powerful people; instead, in the best of circumstances, they would be just another run-of-the-mill analyst.
This is a typical story of most journalists before the surge in the electronic news channels under the reign of General Musharraf when the situation changed abruptly. When the general’s regime introduced its new and relaxed media policy, many young professionals jumped ship from traditional print media to capture the tide in the electronic division. They realized it could be a gold mine, an opportunity in which the whole exercise of starting from field reporting and getting promoted one step at a time on the ladder to become an editor could be bypassed easily. If they failed, they could always revert to newspaper editing and reporting, a job they were already accustomed to performing. There was no requirement for any professional broadcasting training, nor were there any schools available in Pakistan where such training could be obtained. The field was open for anybody and everybody. Moreover, it was much better compensated than the print media and, of course, it brought overnight fame as a token of success. Keeping that in mind, not only journalists, but people from all backgrounds — physicians, lawyers, singers, actors, educationists, teachers, spiritual leaders and engineers — rushed to find their place in the arena. Some of them were good, others were better and many of them were so bad that they had to leave as soon as they got in.
Not many senior journalists joined this echelon in the first few years, and electronic media was flooded with mostly immature, under-trained, semi-educated, and yet surprisingly talented people who took on the daunting task of inviting politicians on their shows and asking them difficult questions without hesitation. It was a kind of media-driven accountability of the people in power that had never happened before in the history of Pakistan media so openly. Ordinary Pakistanis started taking interest in talk shows as it provided them a place where the ‘untouchables’ were made answerable to people; the number of their audience began to go up and their ratings surged. Ultimately, it changed the culture of watching a drama serial every night with the family to listening to the rulers being grilled by relatively common men and women who the population could easily relate to and identify with.
In those days, perhaps, the senior journalists were thinking about a doomsday scenario for the electronic media. They probably thought it would all roll back to business as usual in a matter of a few months. They doubted the competence of the young generation in front of the camera to keep the interest of the people for a long time. Seniors were, somehow, confident that their dominance and authority would remain undisturbed, without realizing the power of their pen was slowly being transferred to the camera and flashlights. Experience had taught them how the state machinery worked in Pakistan and there was no way ‘insanity’ on talk shows could prevail. But they were wrong; they underestimated the resilience of the young generation who had turned out to be far more innovative and aggressive to keep the ball rolling.
For years, the talk show hosts experimented with a variety of issues and did not limit their discussions to current events. They talked about politics, religion, social issues, philosophy, crime, international relations, poverty, education and, sometimes, even performing arts. However, just when they might have lost their ground, General Musharraf unconstitutionally suspended the Chief Justice of Pakistan in March 2007. And on that day, electronic media entered into a new era of making the history of Pakistan in favor of the rule of law, along with making a lot of money for themselves.
While the democratic history is still in progress, media has started to show early signs of maturity. Senior analysts and columnists have finally become increasingly interested to choose electronic media to share their views. Both English and Urdu newspaper editors have joined various news channels to conduct their shows; most of them are serious, mature and are obviously rated very high. Their programs also bring a certain level of responsibility back to the mainstream media and the political temperature is being set to a new low instead of being boiling hot all the time.
In this atmosphere when we have got two established mediums of professional growth, we just have to find a way to bring more opportunities for professional excellence and financial security for our younger reporters and the supporting staff.
(The writer is a freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com )
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