katie c h lin

It's World Press Freedom Day and the United Nations has teamed up with designer, Ben Stanford, to create this impressive infographic:

There was a (small) storm a'brewin' outside of the National Congress in Buenos Aires today, as lawmakers and political high-ups seek to address concerns for judicial reform in Argentina. I took the usual shots, but these ones stood out for obvious reasons. 

A congressman is swamped by the press outside of the National Congress in Buenos Aires. 

The unflailing determination of Porteño protestors outside of the National Congress sees them a pie ('on foot') all day. While eager to protest against the government, they're also happy to do it sporting Nike. 

Protesters stop to document their actions.   

Somewhere between collecting last minute interviews, filming stock footage, and organizing my exit from India last winter, I stumbled upon a book by the very apt title of "Handbook for Third World Journalists" in the library of the Central Tibetan Administration. I was intrigued by this odd - if not slightly antiquated - concept, so I tagged a few chapters and had them photocopied for the plane ride back to Canada.

Since the book's publication in 1987, the journalism industry has obviously been revolutionized, mostly by the advent of various technologies that were unknown to the cassette-playing, DOS-dealing society of author Albert L. Hester's time (a time when the internet was inter-naught). That, and we, as a global society, have realized that "Third World" countries can't be approached formulaically - and nor can their journalists, who are more global now than ever.

Of course, Hester knew we were going to ask.

"Is there any reason to write a book specifically aimed at reporters or writers in the 'Third World'? Or is there even a 'Third World' or is it one of those convenient categories we use to throw things into for the sake of classification?" he poses, in the first chapter.

"It is this writer's feeling, backed by much time spent with Third World journalists that there IS a definite need for a book which tries to deal with specific situations and problems faced by many of these reporters and other journalists [..] Third World journalists themselves have said that they have special needs.

"And this writer believes, too, that there is utility in grouping together certain countries of the world under the heading of the Third World."

[SIDENOTE: before the politically correct hairs on your neck stand on end, consider this interesting little snippet of history from Christie Thompson.

Third World was coined in 1952 by French sociologist Alfred Sauvy, as a way to classify alignment during the Cold War. As non-aligned nations were mainly new, post-colonial countries struggling to find economic stability, the term became an oft-used synonym for 'poor'.

And so, while "Third World" has grown to refer to those countries with a low UN Human Development Index (HDI), it has its roots in geopolitics.

In the case of his book, however, Hester uses the term to refer to countries with low HDIs and supports its use by citing former Egyptian Minister of Planning, Ismail-Sabri Abdalla: "It simply designates all nations that did not become, during the historical process of the establishment of the present World Order, industrialized and wealthy."]

Here's how he compares the Third World reporter to that of the "developed world":

The reporter from the developed world makes some automatic assumptions which are sometimes wrong, but often correct: that his or her readers will have enough education to understand what is written in the newspaper - or that the reader will have enough money to subscribe to a newspaper.

VERSUS

The Third World reporter deals every day with a world in flux. He or she cannot automatically assume, for example, that there will be consistency in the outlook of political leaders, that his or her pay check will buy about the same amount of food each week (because of inflation), or that the power will always be on to run the presses in the newspaper or for transmission from the broadcasting station.

But aside from the uncertainty, instability, and general logistical challenges faced by reporters living in developing countries, what exactly are "The Problems of Third World Reporting"?

1. The need for preparation

"[...] one of the greatest problems facing Third World reporters is a lack of much realistic training in school before they go on the job. But added to the basic inexperience of the new Third World reporter are even more difficult problems which affect his work every day. A journalist doesn't do his or her work in isolation - it's done as a part of what goes on in the community or nation. New nations often have few resources, in training, communication, health care, education or instability in which orderly work can be done."

2. A lack of money

"Tight budgets force wages to be so low that they frequently cannot keep up with inflation, a frequent problem in Third World countries. This lack of an adequate reporting salary gives rise to another problem - one of taking bribes or 'retainers' from powerful persons to ensure that they get favorable press treatment when a reporter writes a story. It is all very easy for adequately paid persons to condemn the endemic bribe-taking in many portions of the globe. But what may be abhorrent to the reporter becomes a necessity if he or she is to put food on the table for the family, or to buy a new pair of shoes when the old ones have holes in them."

3. A lack of credibility

"Even if they are ethical journalists, hoping to write accurate accounts of what goes on, public officials and citizens may see the reporter as lacking in education and experience, prone to taking bribes or 'selling out to the highest bidder'. The problem of media credibility becomes a problem of personal credibility for the individual reporter. If no one has faith in the truthfulness or balance of the publication, then no one will have trust in the reporter who works for that medium."

4. Problems of over-development

"Journalists must constantly deal with difficulties in communication because of sparse telephone and telegraph service, as well as a lack of good roads, frequent rail or air service within their countries. Another inherited characteristic is the 'over-development' of only the capital city, or a handful of metropolitan areas within a typical Third World country. The communications media are frequently fairly well developed in the few cities and woefully underdeveloped outside these centers."

5. The difficulty of simplicity

"All journalists are told to keep their writing easy to understand. But the Third World reporter must be even more conscious that many readers will have difficulty with anything other than the simplest prose."

I was initially cynical about Hester's work - and indeed, his observations are general and not case-specific. But I was surprised to notice that even though times, terminology, and journalism may have changed over the past 25 years, it seems that what were problems for reporters living in developing countries then, are the same ones that plague them today. 

Just a little food for thought.