Development News Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Development News - Essay Example However, in the arena of development news there exists a deep North-South schism. Hence, the concept of development news needs to be understood and defined in a historical context. Since years, it has been evinced by the editorial authorities governing the Western media that they do not have any model editorial policies and per se they do not issue any policy directives to their correspondents (Aggarwala 180). However, any type of media is eventually aimed at a particular reader pool, and the Western media being primarily consumed by the Western readers, it would not be wrong to believe that the Western scribe cover and shape a news story, even if it originates from the underdeveloped or developing world, keeping the Western readers in mind (Aggarwala 180). Hence, any discussion or attempt aimed at understanding the concept of development news must subscribe to the ambit of the incumbent North-South divide. Ideally speaking, development news is the news that tends to cover developmen t issues affiliated to macro or macro origins, which reports, assesses and examines the impact of varied development activities and programs with regards to domestic and national development objectives and needs, the parities that exist as to how a development program is envisaged and its pragmatic outcomes, and the variance between its net impact on human welfare and what a government claims to be its achievements (Cottle 107). Yet, going by the fact that in its conceptualization and treatment, the development news does not much differ from the regular news, hence, it is open to accruing different interpretations at local and international level (Cottle 107). As already said that development news in its treatment and conceptualization does not differ much from the mainstream news, hence as is practically evident from the mainstream news, the development news can certainly evince a marked ideological and political tilt, depending on the geo-political origins of the scribes and publi shing institutions covering a development news story. Also, a natural premise flowing out from such credentials of the concept of development news is that it is always subject to a normatively influenced interpretation and criticism (Cottle 108). Generally speaking, in the past, and particularly in the contemporary age open to new media, there exist wide imbalances between the flows of information in varied parts of the world. So development news by its very nature will always stand to be a controversial concept in journalism, going by the shifting academic and political stances pertaining to the notions of ‘development’ (Cottle 108). Hence, the local and global biases that the journalists associated with the coverage of mainstream new, could also infiltrate and seep in into the coverage of development news. Once this fact is accepted that the mainstream scribes and the journalists that cover the development news are almost open to very similar biases, opinions, temptat ions and tilts, it will be apt to agree that there exist varied types of development news journalism. In journalistic context, development news pertains to investigative reporting with its focus on the international and national projects and programs initiated in the developing nations and their influence on the quality of life and socio-economic well being of the masses (Aggarwala 181). Hence, like mainstream journalism, development journalism is subject to very similar ethical and professional ideals and constraints. Development journalists like mainstream journalists need to be unbiased, factual and rational in the coverage of development news. However, this pertains to an ideal scenario. In a practical context, quite like mainstream journalism, many development journ