Pramod Kumar Tandan

Hey, you... Why do you write wildlife news? Do animals, birds, the living and non-living beings read it? They don't,  so don't waste your time on it."

This above statement from a media owner to his environmental reporter is quite popular in the Nepali media sector.

Though media persons have taken this incident as a joke, if one observes seriously to  this, he/she will find the media industrialist's search for the outcome, legitimacy and impact of environmental news.

Beat Reporting

From the media owners' perspective, it is fair to ask what the impact of environmental reporting will have on readers. Environmental Journalism emerged as a separate beat in the print media of Nepal about 15 years ago. The pattern followed by the beat reporters is still the same as it was in 2000. 

News or feature headlines are found positive and glorious, such as 'Nepal set to become the first country to double wild tiger population' or 'Tiger population increases in Nepal'.  But, if you go through every line of the news you will find nothing important in most of the news items that carry the above-mentioned catchy headlines.

Nepal has been successful in increasing the tiger population, from 198 to 235 within just 10 years. It sounds good and makes every Nepalese proud, but so what? Does it change the lifestyle of common people? Does it help eradicate poverty?  Does it demark the line of development?

As per the general perception of a common reader, environmental news pieces fail to touch his/her soul because it only explains the development but not the impact from the result of the increment of any flora and fauna.

Common people rush to the Kalimati vegetable market to buy cauliflower after reading or listening or viewing the news of vegetable prices getting down by two rupees per kilogram. But the doubling of the tiger or rhino population does not leave any impact on the daily life of the common man.

In the context of Nepalese environmental journalism, audiences or readers of environmental news items are made to see or count animals, birds, lakes, mountains, hot days, cold days, rainy days, dry days and so on.

If a piece of news doesn't make any difference or doesn't have any impact on its readers or audiences, then it becomes a filler item, appropriate only for inclusion to fill the spaces. This situation also lessens the role of environmental journalists. They should not boast of being a beat journalist of stories that are utilised only for filling spaces.

Most of the reporters involved in environmental reporting crave recognition as environmental journalists. However, they accuse their news desk, senior colleagues, chief reporter, desk chief, editor and even the whole hierarchy of not granting environmental news items on priority lists.

At the same time, they forget the fact that news gets priority not due to its beat but for its values and importance. Content, diversity, interesting writing style, new and different information, and the anticipation of multiple impacts among other things play key roles in a piece of news getting priority in publication or broadcasting.

Nose For News

Media is an industry and it produces and sells news. These news items or contents fetch the industry selling price and advertisements. Without advertisements, no media houses can survive. This industry produces hundreds of products daily and publishes or broadcasts them as per the nature of the respective media houses.

If the news product is unique and draws the attention of the audience, it gets big markets.

Why does political news get priority on the first page? Because its market is huge because people having an interest in political issues, political parties and their cadres, bureaucrats, academicians, economic sectors, international sectors etc all want to know the political events or activities. Even a single decision of the Prime minister or a minister or government affects the nation and the common people.

It doesn't mean that every piece of environmental news can have multiple effects as political activities and decisions but it should be unique, interesting and effect-oriented to get the priority amid the piles of dozens of non-political news. Otherwise, a journalist can't compete in the news market realm. Good products don't need marketing.

Advanced Reporting Dearth

Jeff Hodson and Graham Watts wrote in their book Beyond Basics - An Advanced Journalism Manual-  It often takes great effort to get accurate and timely information to the public, and it isn’t easy to gather the essential facts of a news event – the “who, what, where, when, why and how.”

But today’s journalists need to do even more because the basic facts alone are not enough to help readers understand the news. Many readers also want to know: Has this happened before? Could it happen again? How will it affect me? What, if anything, can I do about it?

Journalists can brighten their stories by adding background, context and meaning to them. They can also produce more compelling stories by including a variety of voices, especially those of everyday people most affected by the news.

 Finally, journalists can help their readers better understand issues and events by offering more convincing evidence of what is happening and how. However, many Nepali environmental journalists appear to be answering the 5Ws and 1H. For example, in the news item with the headline, 'Tiger population near double in Nepal'  the concerned reporter wrote a 600-word story focusing on numbers, comparisons, quotations and figures. He included one picture of the tiger to brighten his story!

If a common reader reads the news, he/she thinks what would happen if the number of tigers increased?  Why does the newspaper give it space on the front page with a big headline? If a common person thinks this way, is it wrong to raise a question on the significance of news by a media owner?

This is the misfortune of environmental journalism in Nepal that no self-proclaimed environmental reporters expose the impact of the content of news like tiger number increase. The concerned editors do not ask their reporters what difference does it make if the number of tiger increases. One can say that the increase in the tiger population has one benefit- the more the number of tigers in national parks or forests, the more the chances of their sighting. It will help boost the number of tourists as well as the economy of the nation.

Study And Update

The bitter fact of the Nepali journalism sector is that most journalists give up the habit of self-study once they become popular with few bylines. Desk and proofreaders are the witnesses of the no betterment in the writing and reporting of reporters for 5, 10 years or for 20 years. They get more benefits such as increments in salaries, perks and other facilities, but most of them are found writing no better stories.

In the field of environmental journalism, reporters should be aware of international issues, go through national and international reports, and update them on environmental issues like climate change. To gain maximum output, they must also acquire good expertise in the English language too.

(The author is a lecturer of Journalism and Mass Communication. tandannews@gmail.com)