Press, film, television, radio today
Press, film, television, radio today
This issue presents the major findings of a series of surveys I just completed by Unesco of the four great channels of JL communication press, radio, films and television which bring to us the news and information of events occurring everywhere on the globe. The surveys show the phenomenal strides made in the course of the past five years in all of these media, and particularly in radio and television. But they also reveal that millions of people in vast segments of the world still have little or no modern means of communication.
Unesco is permanently committed to "promote the free flow of information by word and image", and it has taken action to help the less favoured nations of the world in developing their communication services and thereby reduce the great gaps that separate them from the more favoured countries.
But there is another important problem that goes hand-in-hand with the rapid expansion of press, radio and television. It is the growing need for more trained journalists. The opinions that people have, the decisions they arrive at, are based not only on the amount of information they get but also on its quality on how accurately and completely the facts and events are made known to them. Because the press (the word is here used to include all the information media) is one of the most potent instruments for influencing the minds of men towards peace or war, the competence and sense of responsibility of those who write the news today, of those who select it and present it to the public, are matters of vital importance to everyone.
In all important countries today journalism is accorded a high status among the professions, and it is now generally recognized that for a journalist to be worthy of his calling he should be professional in the full sense of the word: professional in his training, and professional in his ethics and in his social responsibility.
In April of this year, Unesco convened the first international gathering devoted exclusively to journalism education. The editors, broadcasters, newsreelmen and journalism school directors who attended from 23 countries stressed that each country must have full freedom to establish its own system of training, since systems differ so widely. In the Americas, schools of journalism in universities play an important role; in Britain there is on-the-job training under the National Council for the Training of Journalists; in other countries there are other methods. But, the experts' meeting agreed, whatever the system chosen as best suited to local circumstances, it should include both technical training in the craft and general education so that the journalist has the necessary background for accurate interpretation of news and events around the world.
This conference also emphasized the need for regional and international centres which would train journalism teachers, organize refresher or "booster" courses for active journalists, undertake special research into mass communication problems in their particular areas, and suggest ways to improve present teaching methods.
A plan for action on a broad international scale was elaborated which calls for the exchange of journalism teachers and journalists between different countries, special attention to the needs of technically under-developed countries, more emphasis in courses on the culture and history of other peoples, and more foreign language teaching. Unesco has been asked to pioneer the production of prototype textbooks for prospective journalists and to increase its aid to governments wishing to set up or develop their training facilities for press, radio, film and TV staff. It is hoped that as a result of the attention now drawn to the problem, and with the co-operation of all the information media and the universities, training for journalism will be extended and improved with resulting benefits to those who gather, present and interpret the news, and the general public they serve.