I am sure there is no one among you who don’t read newspapers. Different people read them for different reasons. May be to catch up on news or for cartoons or to read cricket match reports or may be to check the latest share values. Newspapers are so much a part of our daily lives that we all feel very odd if we miss them in the morning. Even if we have heard the news on TV the previous day, we do want to read the same news on paper, don’t we?

How many of you, listeners, have called up a newspaper office to report something that has happened in your neighbourhood? When you see a place overflowing with garbage for a few days and the authorities haven’t cleared it up, how often have you alerted a newspaper? On reading an article about avoiding accidents by careful driving, how often have you thought, “O, that’s precisely what I have felt”? I am many of you have, because, we in the newspaper office, receive a number of telephone calls and letters from readers drawing our attention to a number of issues that affect the society. When you interact with a newspaper in this manner, you are making use of the media in a constructive way for the development of the society. The participation of the citizens in such ways help newspapers to contribute to the development of the community. This is called civic journalism or community journalism. How it does we shall see now.

Well, journalism is a social science. The media in general and newspapers in particular play a great social role in shaping a society. They are in constant interaction with the people providing news and other information that is of use to them. The people also contribute to the society through newspapers by writing articles and letters to the editor.

It is usually said the three functions of the media are to inform, educate and to entertain. But is that all? Does the job of the media end with merely passing on information, or can it do something more than that? Newspapers being so much a part of the society, do they have a more participatory role?

Here we have to re-examine the entire definition of news and its method of presentation.

News has always been considered negative. Suppose the members of the corporation meet to discuss the construction of a flyover in the city. If all of them agreed on everything, the reporter who went to cover the meeting would come back to the office saying nothing happened. On the other hand, if there were serious disagreements on many points, a reporter will see news in it.

If a school is functioning properly with good performance by its students, no journalist considers it news. He will say, what is so great about it. There are lots of schools that are doing very well. But, if you point to him a school that is on the verge of collapse, then it becomes news. You may even see the picture of the dilapidated school in the paper.

So, basically, news is still all about chaos, discord, violence, loss of lives, destruction of property etc. It is about conflict and not about consensus.

News reporting is about true and accurate presentation of facts. It is said, “facts are sacred comment is free”. This means one should not take liberties with facts. Present them as they are. But you have the liberty to make your own interpretation, analysis and comments about it. Take the above example of a meeting regarding a flyover. Suppose there were disagreements among corporation members, the reporter is expected to present them without making any comments as to who may be right and who may be wrong.

What we need to ask ourselves at this point is: Does news always have to be negative, can’t it be also positive? Why should news be only about conflicts, can’t it also about consensus?

Let us digress a little to a take a peek into how newspapers have evolved over the years. 200 odd years ago when newspapers first began to appear they merely had information mostly in the form of today’s classified advertisements. They contained news about rulers, business and trade, and even family messages like visits of relatives and friends. Soon, people realised the power of the press. And, we began having news critical of the rulers. With people getting mobilised against the administration, censorship came into being. But today, censorship is associated only with dictatorships. Just as good newspapers need democracy, democracy also needs good newspapers. Media is looked upon as a watchdog, which will scream if things go wrong.

Let us come back to the question, can’t news be also positive? Well, during the last 10 years, many journalists and researchers have begun to feel that yes, good news is also news. Not just conflict but consensus is also worth reporting. This has come about because a number of readers have felt that news should not only be true and accurate, but also useful. As the media is very much a part of the society, it has a participatory role to play.

Here we come to civic journalism or community journalism as I mentioned a while ago. How does this work?

At the outset it must be made clear that newspapers, which pursue civic journalism, are not doing so at the cost of being a watchdog. Newspapers will not stop reporting about garbage not being cleared. The new role is only a complementary one, wherein apart from keeping an eye on the local administration, the media also guide the local community and civic agencies in strengthening their role and activities in the development of the society. Which means, newspapers not only report garbage not being cleared, but it will also report whatever good work the civic agencies are doing.

For effective role of newspapers in community development, both the media and the civic organisations have to work in coordination, because this is all about synergy, about consensus and not about conflict.

Research in western countries has shown that local civic administrations and community developers have derived encouragement from the positive reporting in local newspapers. Studies show that constant negative coverage lead to a state of inertia and these organisations become impervious to criticism and thereby a reluctance to set things right.

This trend of civic journalism is new. It made a beginning in the United States in early nineties, with local newspapers devoting much more of space to issues concerning community development. Organisations like the Pew Centre came up. (The word Pew is spelt as P E W). They took upon the task of interacting with the local media in a more constructive manner so as to facilitate more positive coverage.

If you may have noticed in India too over last few years there has been an increased coverage of community reporting. Newspapers, radio and television do not confine to just political reporting or incidents in foreign countries. The focus is more on city coverage.

Five or six years back some newspapers took the unusual step of separating the city pages from the main paper. The idea behind the initiative was to give a better focus and coverage to the local news.

Even the type of news reporting began to undergo a change. While retaining investigative, analytical and interpretative reporting, newspapers began to also publish news items that will be of use to the public. I shall illustrate this by way of a few examples.

Suppose a renowned doctor, who has an innovate cure for a particular type of ailment, let us say diabetes or sinusitis, is visiting the city. In earlier days, any coverage of that doctor’s visit would have amounted to breach of journalistic ethics. That is because the news would have given publicity for the doctor who charges professional fees for diagnosis. In effect, the newspaper would be promoting the business of the doctor. But today we look upon the doctor’s visit to the city as an event that will help the community and its citizens. Now, many newspapers even go to the extent of giving the phone number of the doctor, an unimaginable practice some time back.

Newspapers now cover community festivals, though there is nothing very news worthy about them. They report not only how the local community are celebrating the festival, but also the legend behind them. Needless to say, such reports have a feel-good factor about them.

The media also now have interactive forums. Every week a topic that concerns the local population is proposed and readers are invited to write in or call up with the comments and views. Select responses are published. Such efforts provide the authorities ideas and views on how local issues can be better tackled.

Many papers give publicity through news columns to community-based activities like career guidance, psychological counselling, alternative education methods etc. Also people from the community who have achieved commendable levels of recognition are featured in city supplements.

To conclude, let me tell you, civic journalism is catching up and having its impact in the local community. But definitely much more can be done. For this, newspapers and civic bodies have to cooperate in a more constructive manner. There has to be also more awareness of the power of the media, and how it can be used to make our society a better place to live in.