Professors teach economics in classrooms. Economic reporters explain economic issues, problems and prospects to the rest of society. Therefore, the quality of economic reporting is not less important than the quality of teaching economics, if not more. Economic issues and the policy imperative change with development, perhaps faster than the pace at which new concepts and knowledge emerge within economics as a subject. It implies that the economic reporters have to keep themselves abreast of the knowledge in the field of economics, probably more than the economics professors.
When Bangladesh emerged as an independent country in 1971, it did not have an entrepreneur class to take responsibility of the industrial units abandoned by Pakistani owners. At the same time, Bangladesh did not have adequate administrative capacity even to match that of a provincial government, let alone a central government. Yet, the government of the newly-born country had to nationalise these industrial units. The issue of management of nationalised industries and the loss incurred by them due to the inadequate managerial capacity of the government at that time, dominated the media.
Bangladesh did not have a robust agriculture sector at the time of its birth. It could not even meet the minimum requirement of food for its citizens. The country was hit by the worst-ever famine in 1974, severity of which was intensified due to global politics. The delivery of food aid was suspended at the last minute amidst the famine leaving thousands of people to starve and die eventually. The famine of 1974 dominated our domestic politics for quite some time but it also left behind a long-lasting influence in the sphere of our economy. Availability of food at an affordable price became the central issue for media to dwell on since that famine.
But Bangladesh did not get stuck in the 1970s. With the help of consistent policy support, the country has already achieved near self-sufficiency in food production. With the budding entrepreneurship in the country, the government started denationalisation in the 1980s giving the private sector a scope to develop. The controlled regime of economic management was replaced by outward orientation by mid-1990s, and it has been consistently pursued since then. By taking advantage of this paradigm shift in policy, Bangladesh has made notable progress to the surprise of many pundits who once identified the country as a basket case.
Bangladesh is currently positioned at a crossroads of development process. The country today stands tall as a role model of development. Bangladesh is mentioned as an example of development for other countries to follow in any book written from a global perspective on economic development during the last one decade or so. It is one of the Next 11 emerging economies of the world, named as N-11 (Next 11) by Goldman Sachs. At the same time, with growing integration with the world economy, the country is also exposed to the global competition as well as politics more than ever.
At such a time, economic reporters of Bangladesh have two interrelated roles to play to foster the country's economic development further. One is to contribute to the country's evolving image and branding in the international arena. This is important in the current globalised world. Exports as well as foreign investments depend on how successfully we can project the potential of the country to the rest of the world.
The second role is related to the creation of a favourable domestic environment, in which business can easily thrive. Although the country has won its independence 43 years ago, the attitude towards business has not always been very favourable. This problem is not unique to Bangladesh. Every country faces this problem in the early stage of their development. In many cases economic reporters are guided by popular rhetoric disregarding the ground reality, which often becomes synonymous with that collective paranoia that harms the business and economic development of the country.
If the reporters lack competence in understanding economic issues and their interrelationship, this may sometimes create a problem. Economic reporters, working both in the electronic and print media, should have economics background. In developing countries like Bangladesh where people are unhappy with their government for lack of good economic governance and widespread corruption, criticisms of public policy, left and right, make one popular. If an economic reporter is not equipped with good understanding and analytical ability, he is tempted to go for popular reporting. Even in seeking experts' opinions on an issue, he may prefer one who speaks well rather than who knows well. Although economics is a very wide field requiring area-specific knowledge, most of the time the media depends on one person for knowledge on all areas of the subject. If such professional deficiencies persist, economic reporting will fail to contribute more to the country's development process.
Inadequate on-job training for economic reporters is a reality in Bangladesh. Most reporters are still overly dependent on official handouts and figures as they are neither trained nor given the resources to carry out their own investigations.
Interrelated with lack of competence, is the issue of remuneration. Inadequate remuneration fails to draw qualified economics graduates into the media. As already mentioned, with the ever-changing nature of the global economic order, one has to remain updated on the complexities of the evolving economic system. In most cases, an economic reporter is not adequately paid for this hard work. Bangladesh's job market for the economics graduates has become diversified and will become even more diversified with the growth of the private sector. Media has to match the salary of an economics graduate to what is paid in other sectors to make economic journalism attractive to him or her. Otherwise, the quality of economic reporting and the media's role in development will suffer.
To play an effective developmental role, economic reporting has to be responsible, disciplined and committed to the cause of development of the country.
Abul Basher, PhD, a researcher at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), is a former economist, World Bank, and former faculty at Willa-mette University, USA.
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