Promoting A Vibrant Media that is Professional
and Accountable to the Public
Balancing Competing Interests in the Media:
The Case of Commercial Interests Vs Editorial
Independence
By Baldwin Chiyamwaka
 The
various competing interests in the
media
 The various interests as regulators,
the most powerful interest determines
what goes in the news
 Commercial interests: the Case of PSB
 Harmonising the various interests:
Case of Zodiak Radio Station in Malawi
 Journalists
must be free of obligation to any
interest other than the public’s right to know
(The Society of Professional Journalists)
 Freedom from all obligations except that of
fidelity to the public interest is vital (The
American Society of Newspaper Editors)
 For many years now, globally, the media has
assumed and reinforced its important role as
a legitimate reflection of public interest and
opinion (Media Council of Malawi)
 Governmental-National
 Political
Interest
Interest
 Audience-Consumers
 Owners-Board
 Media-Gatekeepers
 Journalists self - interest
 Public Interest-Editorial Independence
 Advertisers-commercial Interest
 such
as democracy leads to explicit policy
formulation such as legal restrictions and
certain expectations in terms of how the
media should function in society.
 These expectations could lead to implicit
policy formulation. Codes of conduct are
good examples of implicit policy formulation.
 In democracies these codes are indicative of
the fact that the media are prepared to
regulate themselves – in line with societal
expectations.
 The
most decisive source of policy
formulation, at national level, is the state.
 Within the jurisdiction of the state political
parties in multiparty systems can formulate
their policies on information and the
communication media.
 When a party comes to power, its policy
becomes the official policy of the country and
may be embodied in legislation.
 The
nature of the relationship between a national
government and the media is decisive for what
the media are allowed to publish.
 The main reason for this is that the media are
legally, normatively and structurally subject to
the control of political.
 The key relationship that links the media to
society, is that between the media organizations
and the government.
 The media of a nation, more than any other kind
of institution, are shaped by the prevailing type
of political power.
 Pressure
groups can also influence the
content of newspapers.
 Hiebert et al (1991:107) point out that the
voice of an individual fades as the media
become larger. As a result, people organize
themselves into groups in order to be heard.
 Groups usually apply pressure to force
journalists to change the news or to omit a
story, which constitutes censorship, or they
apply pressure to induce journalists to use
self-censorship (cf. Oosthuizen et al 1991).
 Media
workers or journalists do not differ much
from other professional people such as doctors
and attorneys.
 They have to make complicated decisions in their
daily work, and they use ethical codes to guide
them in making these decisions.
 These codes and the journalistic conventions or
professional standards of the media workers are
important determinants of newspaper content.
 Nevertheless, journalism differs from other
professions in that journalists do not lose their
jobs if they fail to observe these codes.
 In
the West, where capitalism forms the basis
of the economy, the consumer (or reader) and
the advertiser are probably the main
regulator of the press.
 The operative principle here is supply and
demand and this principle, together with the
audience characteristics, determines the
content of the newspaper.
Directorates,
Board and Group
Managers
Editor
Director General
Administrative-hierarchical
Gatekeeping: journalistic and
professional practices.
Commercialisation
In
the communication industry
this has meant greater emphasis
on market position and
profitability other than public
interest, public service and related
standards, such as universality.
 Public
broadcasting is in growing competition
with private and commercial broadcasters. It
is now ruled by corporate philosophy in
which the emphasis is on:
 competition and beating the competitor
 cuts in production costs in order to produce
content at the lowest cost
 exploitation of new markets for what is
bound to be an increasingly fragmented
market
 co-productions and facility sharing
It
is argued that economic trends
particularly, commercialisation,
privatisation have contributed to
the decline of PSB.
It has transformed broadcasting
in general to mediocrity, market
centeredness and predictability.





PSB is in growing competition with private
and commercial broadcasters. It is now ruled
by corporate philosophy in which the
emphasis is on:
competition and beating the competitor
cuts in production costs in order to produce
content at the lowest cost
exploitation of new markets for what is
bound to be an increasingly fragmented
market
co-productions and facility sharing
“Public broadcasters view their audiences as
citizens in a democracy to be informed,
engaged and challenged through innovative,
high-quality and comprehensive
programming, not as consumers to be
delivered up to advertisers”. Quentin
Dempster, journalist, author and ABC
broadcaster
 John
Field participating in the
Australian debate on
commercialisation of PBS argues that a
growing academic literature holds that
any influence of market forces will
detrimentally affect public service
broadcasters.
 Democracy, it is argued, can only be
effective if its citizenry is informed
and educated.
The perceived “commercialisation” of
public broadcasters is therefore seen
as a “downgrading” of democracy,
with funding from advertising
purportedly leading to an increase in
“mind-numbing” sit-coms and
Hollywood movies and a decrease in
news, current affairs, documentaries
and educational programming.


In the same debate but earlier, Nuovo Paese
argued that SBS was “TV for the people, not
the market”.
When, in November 1991, it became clear
that advertising would soon be a reality, the
front page of La Fiamma theatrically declared
that “SBS is dead”.
 It
is said that advertisers in the West insist on
a particular type of news presentation and
will withdraw their advertising should the
newspaper fail to comply. True or False?
 Allegations of such flagrant manipulation are
probably somewhat exaggerated.
Nevertheless, it is true that advertisers are
guilty of subtle or indirect manipulation or
influencing of news content.
 In
view of present economic demands, a
newspaper will, however think twice before
publishing a story that will annoy its largest
advertiser.
 However, the advertiser’s power of regulation
depends on the degree to which the medium
is dependent on income from advertisements.
 Newspapers are greatly dependent on
advertisements for their survival.
 Since
early eighties there has been a
worldwide tendency to follow a
marketing approach in the newspaper
business.
 This means that newspapers have
primarily become vehicles between
readers and advertisers.
 As a result of this approach, one could
argue that the potential influence of
advertisers has increased.
 In
the media business two products
are sold:
media products and
media audiences
 The
key to media profits is to access
the largest possible audience(s).
 The question is: are audiences for sale
or service in the media industryparadox
Media owners can gain access to
audiences in a number of ways, or we
could say they sell their products
through a combination of ways:
direct sales
subscriptions
licence fees
subsidies
 advertisers
 The
production of media products is
expensive. The above means of selling media
products are not sufficient to finance
production costs.
 For example, in 2000 it cost R18 to produce a
single copy of one of South Africa’s largest
newspapers, Beeld (largest in terms of
readership figures).
 However, the price paid for a copy of Beeld at
a newsstand was only R2,30.

Let the media be managed, run and practised
by the passionate media professionals who
professionally manage the interest that be.



They have been able to harmonise the key
competing interest by developing an editorial
policy that focuses on the public especially
the marginalized rural masses.
The editorial policy was publicly launched at a
colourful ceremony.
They are able to be heard throughout the
country
 Zodiak
is the leading private radio stations in
the country with a growing potential influence
that is steadily surpassing that of public
broadcasters focusing largely on the
marginalised populations on development
issues
 The founding Managing Director, former
producer at Malawi’s public broadcaster
Malawi Broadcasting Corporation received a
Life Achiever award at the MISA Malawi 2007
Awards when the ZBS was only 2 years old.
 It
is the only private commercial radio station
that has officially been accredited to cover
the 2009 Presidential and Parliamentary
Elections.
 It was the only privately owned radio station
that Parliament particularly on the opposition
benches accepted to cover Parliamentary
proceedings live (not implemented)
 Key
Presidential candidates from the main
opposition parties and the ruling party in the
run up to 2009 PP Elections mentioned the
name of ZBS Managing Director, Gospel
Kazako to be the moderator at Media Council
of Malawi’s Presidential Debate.
 ZBS has probably the biggest advertising
share on the market now
 Under the slogan “Zikacitika mumvera kwa
ife” the radio station has become the most
popular and trusted radio station in Malawi.

(There
was a similar decent number of political
parties registering air time. In these three weeks,
on balance, UDF and MCP fared considerably better
than DPP. However, Zodiak’s internal elections
guidelines and their published statement of
editorial policy suggest that they have every
intention of delivering balanced output. Addressing
primarily a rural population via a good network of
transmitters, Zodiak has a strong part to play in
sensitising the 80% of people who live in the
countryside to the issues and policies being
debated by parties and candidates.

Zodiak’s total political output may be much
smaller than, say, that of MBC1 or Joy Radio
but is it fairly well balanced which is a
creditable achievement for a station moving
towards its first election period (MEC).

This station has increased its amount of political
news and still been able to give the major parties a
share of positive coverage. Its inclusion of negative
news and comment is pitched at a reasonable one
third of its political output. As far as the major
parties are concerned, this is distributed on an
equitable basis (MEC).