Children --Happiness first
There is an instance from a few years back that I have not been able to forget. It was outside the principal’s office at an elite private school. A boy of Grade 9 was sitting with his parents, head down, fidgeting with his hands. The father was trying to shame him for his bad grades.
In a few minutes, the coordinator came to see the boy and repeated what the father had been saying. He was constantly being compared to his elder brother who was "doing so well".
Cornered and ashamed, the child sank further into the sofa, his head lowered even more. I have not been able to forget the boy’s face.
That’s children for us in this country, with everyone around telling them how incapable they are, and how unworthy of being given a choice of any kind or trusted. On top of that, the children here are vulnerable on so many other counts.
Does the media cover children the way it should? You could argue the media is only a reflection of a society, and if the society does not think much about its children, what can the media do. Actually it can -- a lot.
The instance above is about a class of people who ought to know better -- both the educators and the consumers of education. One wonders about the millions who are giving and receiving education at the lower rungs. And then the 2.5 million out-of-school children in this country -- read the sentence again and let it sink. This fact alone could be the headline of the national dailies every day till it starts getting better.
The media, by and large, picks children when it comes to news that is bad, preferably sensational. Shocking news like the rape of a five year old in Lahore or the sexual abuse and video taping of children in Kasur capture headlines and airtime for a few days and then… back to ‘normal’.
It is an interesting juxtaposition how exposed the children are to sexual abuse and how keen are we to protect our people from knowing about it or being educated about it.
Children need to be happy first before they are asked to do anything at all. All those stories that are making them less happy and hence less confident, in and out of school, are not being told. Children are hugely under-reported.
-- Farah Zia
Education --Learning about outcomes
Education is covered in the media more as a sector than as a subject. A big percentage of media coverage is about educational institutions and their activities, both public and private. There is little focus on policies, curriculum and quality of education. Media outlets pick press releases on education related issues, such as disciplinary and administrative matters. After the attack on Army Public School in December 2014, the focus has tilted towards security. There is no serious debate in the media -- both print and electronic -- about the content, quality of education, and modes of teaching.
After the APS attack, some reports suggest education has become a part of the larger national debate. According to a combined study by Alif Ailaan, a non-government organisation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s media lab, the average number of stories in 13 newspapers -- seven English and six Urdu -- on education per week were 29 before 2013. By the end of 2013, the number had increased to 41 while by the end of 2014 there was a four-fold increase with the number of stories rising to 117.
The increase is attributed to the coverage of security matters. The report also highlights that education coverage is different at the regional and national level. The study finds that the coverage was largely carried out in English newspapers with 54 per cent stories, followed by Urdu press with 28 per cent and then the Sindhi press with 18 per cent. However, the study says that priority for education-related topics varied from language to language and region to region.
-- Waqar Gillani
Positive stories -- Good news isno news
No news is good news, they used to say. That doesn’t seem to be the case today. The new dictum is "good news is no news."
The definition of what makes a negative or positive news seems to have changed over a period of time.
What is a positive story then? Is it a story that compels the government to take positive action or a story that allows the government to relax and boast about their ‘work’? Depends on how one sees it. Today in Pakistan, when a viewer or a reader is bombarded with depressing and heart-wrenching news items on TV channels every other minute, he or she is justified to long for or demand what we may call a positive story, something which affirms that good is also possible in this part of the world.
It is also worth looking at why is there so much focus on the bad side? Is that for high ratings only? Is it just plain reporting of what is happening around us?
A bomb blast at a public park will surely make headlines, wouldn’t it be appropriate for the media to also turn to a story which tells about how another public park in some other corner of the city has been restored to its earlier life and opened for the public? Or, that a public hospital treats its patients efficiently with limited staff, or that an ambulance service has been started at a far-off place, etc?
Feel-good news stories also have their place. Here, we’re not talking about the ‘positive’ stories which every government wants the media to highlight to increase its vote bank but stories which also portray the natural pace of life; or as life should be.
-- Ather Naqvi
Elderly --Old age matters
Very few of us would know that the annual day for the elderly, or senior citizens, falls on October 1. Every year, this day passes without catching the attention of many. The mass media does give some coverage to the issues that the elderly people face but these are mainly about the lack of old homes in the country, the breaking up of the joint family system, and the desperation of old parents living alone while their children have left for greener pastures.
There are far more pressing issues that go unnoticed by the media. One reason is that the elderly live isolated lives. Most of the times they are not in public view, primarily due to their mobility issues aggravated by unfriendly transport system and urban planning that is done without keeping their needs in mind. How hard it is for a person using a wheelchair to commute in our cities.
The elderly are not in small numbers even then their voices are not heard in our media. There are only 15 countries in the world where the population of people aged 60 years and above is more than 10 million, and Pakistan is one of them. It is estimated that this figure will rise to 16 per cent (43.3 million) of the country’s total population by 2050.
One of the issues that need to be highlighted by the media is the lack of geriatrics or geriatric medicine facility that focuses on healthcare of the elderly people. It aims to prevent and treat diseases and disabilities in the elderly, avoiding medication that may have adverse impact on their health.
The media can highlight the lack of transport and urban planning for the elderly who cannot climb stairs of an overhead bridge. The media can also highlight problems faced by persons suffering from Alzheimer and dementia.
Many elderly suffer due to financial constraints. This calls for the media to pressurise the government to bring them in safety nets and manage regular stipends for them. Very few of them get pensions and most people who are above 60 years old are not eligible to get loans from banks or any reasonable jobs.
-- Shahzada Irfan Ahmed