The one area in which performance of Pakistani media has arguably not been too great is reporting on economic and business matters. One reason is the media’s near-total focus on political issues. Media organisations, in general, are so engaged in ‘ball-to-ball commentary’ of even the minutest of political matters that they often fail to give due importance to even major economic issues.

Then there is the issue of communicating to the masses complicated economic concepts in easy-to-understand terms. Most economic reporters have never been trained by their organisations in this area — in any area for that matter. People join the profession in a haphazard manner and on-the-job training is almost non-existent. Some journalists do manage to excel thanks to their hard work, but the quality of economic reporting has hardly improved in the last three decades or so. As a result, it’s quite comprehensible why a member of the public, who regularly watches television and/or reads newspapers, may not be fully aware of the horrors of Pakistani economy today.

One would also argue that obsession with politics and relegation of economic issues to the tier of less important subjects have sort of impaired the ability of editors to properly decide which of the economic stories to play up and which to play down. I mean what’s the wisdom in splashing reports about a protest across the front pages of newspapers whose sole aim is to thwart the government’s efforts to document the economy or avoid paying taxes!

A related issue may be the editors’ liking of certain governments........

© The Express Tribune