Development Journalism: Brief History and Meaning

In the 1990s, development journalism emerged as a critical field that relayed news about developmental issues to the grassroots and questioned those in power about policies when needed.

The defining objective of development journalism is to participate in the social, economic and cultural upliftment of the society by reporting and analysing policies, events and trends that have a bearing on the society’s development. 

Let’s hear more about development journalism from Dr Vartikka Kaul in the next video. 

In the video above, you learnt about the origin of development journalism. You also learnt how the New World Information and Communication Order was proposed and why there was a need to develop localised news infrastructure.

In the next video, you will learn about some best practices for development journalism.

This video gave you an idea of some of the best practices for development journalism, with the help of a few examples. You can read more about the reports that were mentioned in the video here:

• FIIs find developed markets more attractive as EMs lag in vaccination
• No plan to increase work days under MGNREGS beyond 100 days: Narendra Singh Tomar
• Explainer: Despite criticism, the Transgender Persons Bill was just passed. What’s next?
• The future of the Indian healthcare industry: Tech driven and agile
• Old vs. New Tax Regime? Here’s all you need to know
• In Chhattisgarh, MGNREGA Reducing Rural Distress But Payment Delay Snatches Safety Net of Workers
• UP govt was aware of severe shortcomings of mid-day meal scheme

In the next video, you will learn about grassroots journalism and its relationship to empowerment. 

In this video, you learnt that advocacy in journalism also addresses the gap in power dynamics in a community by empowering everyone with the same knowledge. You also analysed the importance of mobile journalism at the grassroots level as well as the shift of news generation and transmission from a U-shaped model to an O-shaped model. 

Now, let us delve deeper and understand reporting on developmental issues with the help of a case study in the next segment.