The Value of News: A Lesson from Nepal

The Big Question in American media circles these days is: How will we pay for quality journalism. It’s become clear that the old models for viability have collapsed: Advertisers have dispersed to myriad, more effective opportunities, and most news organizations have, for various reasons, failed to convince their audience to foot the remaining bill.

If you believe that journalism is central to democracy, this is a big problem. So increasingly, there’s been urgent discussion of various solutions that would bypass the whole, ugly commercial reality thing — solutions that rely mostly on government and philanthropic support.

Let me suggest, first, that this is not the right path. Journalism is central to democracy only to the extent that citizens value the information that results — that the news they get is urgent, relevant, and … valuable, that it helps them more effectively navigate and participate in their world. What’s going on in the news business today suggests that that value proposition has broken down. People resist paying what it costs to produce and distribute news, because the value isn’t clear.

Let me further propose that restoring that value proposition is perfectly thinkable. People will pay for news. They’re doing so right now, in the foothills of central Nepal.

Som Nath Aryal is a radio journalist in Madanpokhara, in Nepal’s Palpa districtl. He has built Radio Madanpokhara, a station that serves 37 rural communities. Here’s how it works, and why it strikes me as so powerful.

Som Nath travels constantly from village to village in his region. At first, he was pitching the idea of a community radio station, a source for non-commercial news, entertainment, public-service information tailored to the area. Soon, his sell evolved: This station, he told villagers, is yours. Communities were encouraged to elect representatives who would serve as their radio reporters, accountable to their local development committees. Later, Som Nath recruited “radio sanghi samuha,” youth listener clubs that formed the foundation of Radio Madanpokhara’s social network: They acted as Som Nath’s eyes and ears, collecting news, scouting out wrongdoing, doing what amounts to education outreach, and, not least, raising money.

Which they do. Most farming families contribute a handful of rice a year to the radio station; forest dwellers contribute bundles of tree branches. Som Nath also sells cassettes of certain programs and hawks badges, stickers, and t-shirts.

Why is this working? Because Radio Madanpokhara is, in fact, creating value for its listeners.”This is possible only when community people consider the radio as a part of their life,” Som Nath writes. “People support the community radio because … it speaks the speeches of porters carrying heavy loads on their back, the sorrows and miseries of women and the farmers who play in dust or clay everyday. The community radio speaks the stories of cobblers sewing shoes and tailors stitching textiles and iron mongers in the hearth. There is always a deep understanding between the radio and the community. Every programme focuses on local issues. Thus, if the community radio speaks for people, why they not support them?”

It isn’t just about airing the news, though that has always been central; it’s about programming that provides social tissue to connect geographically isolated villages, and that helps people make better decisions about farming, education, and health care. Teachers broadcast classes on the radio so that poor students can learn to read without paying school fees; doctors produce a weekly health segment; farmers self-organize to create programs on modern technologies and organic methods.

There’s no data that gets at the impact of this sort of information. But Som Nath says student enrollment in schools is up since Radio Madanpokhara began broadcasting. Domestic violence is down. Streets are cleaner. Women participate in more community decisions.

And Radio Madanpokhara ably serves the watchdog role, keeping decision-makers accountable. It ran one story about a politician who didn’t deliver on his promise to provide electrical service to a community. The radio report prompted villagers to march on the regional electricity office and demand service — which they soon got. In another village, the radio listeners club revealed that a local politician had stolen 80 thousand rupees. Confronted, he returned the money — and the club used it to pay for a water tank.

Which is to say that, in many ways, some tangible and others less so, life for people in Madanpokhara is better. Farmers are more productive. Incomes are improving. More to the point, more people are engaged in actual citizenship — in speaking out to defend their rights, in connecting and collaborating with each other constructively.

And that, it turns out, is worth paying for.