The business of business journalists

Business and economy is the lifeline of any country, and so the lifeline of its media, print or electronic. But for Pakistani media, unfortunately, the mainstay is either politics, or crime or disasters and all kinds of sensation built around them.
Even if, and when, Pakistani media covers business or economic stories, most revolve around the populist rhetoric of how he masses are bearing the brunt of one thing or another.
Many times objectivity is found wanting as financial journalists (reporters or editors) of many non-financial news organisations often lack the requisite knowledge of the intricate world of business and finance, full of complex jargons and theories.
Thankfully, the trend has begun to change since the last few years, with many business graduates, from reputed local and foreign business schools, joining the mainstream financial and economic journalism.
But there is little the changing of this trend can do in the face of
o-news and same-old news syndrome faced by the financial journalists community. For those unaware of these disorders, here is a quick explanation.
The
o-news syndrome, as the name suggests, refers to the notion that there is simply no news. For instance, take the present times of near economic stagnation; the businesses are not expanding, the consumers are hesitant, the markets are jittery and what not.
The same-old news condition is also plain obvious i.e. same old news; the crowding out of private borrowers, the circular debt issues and its ancillary issues such as PSOs and OMCs cry-wolf story at nearly every fortnight, the need for tax reforms amidst lack of political will and corruption, falling FDI inflows in the face of telecom and banking sector saturation....and the list could go on.
Simply put, as long as Pakistan suffers from same-old structural problems, the business of business journalists will remain damp squib; producing the same or similar run of the mill stories nearly every day.
Expanding coverage to detailed reporting and analysis of the countrys various traditional markets spread in cities big and small is as difficult as perhaps covering individual government projects or finding out the extent of grey telephony, or the exact number of tax evaders in the country.
One common thread in covering such stories is the lack of sheer documentation of facts and figures and other elementary information. Yes, the same-old structural problem faced by the economy at large.
So there is little financial journalists can do, unless media moguls join hands with the government in documenting the economy in their experiment with new business ventures of data collection and dissemination.
Another aspect where financial journalists can explore is detailed corporate sector reporting, of both publicly listed and private firms.
But for that, corporate sector would have to open itself to media furthermore so that mere corporate propaganda through press releases is replaced by cutting edge reporting and analysis.
Then again, many corporations, even some listed ones, aren media friendly - often for fear that their hidden vices would also come out in the open as that of the governments. Here again, there is little the media can do, for these private and public companies are often the hands that feeds it.