Devon DickON GOOD Friday night, Television Jamaica (TVJ) displayed a novel and creative public relations and marketing documentary, Emergency Room, in which it diagnosed the ills of persons who were suffering from bad media and then the producers of the show recommended a dosage of watching TVJ to cure many a malady.
In spite of this prescription, the country is suffering from malnutrition caused by inadequate coverage of Church news and events. Imagine watching the news on Good Friday expecting some excerpts from a Christian service about the death of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin or some road march of persons re-enacting the journey of Jesus on his way to Calvary for the salvation of mankind and being sorely disappointed. Not even a foreign clip of how Good Friday was celebrated around the world or some interview about the relevance of Good Friday to Christians and non-Christians. Neither CVM-TV nor TVJ carried anything about Good Friday; it was as if there was no Good Friday. It was a bad Friday for television coverage. Then the following day only The Gleaner had a photograph on the front page about a worship service held on Good Friday.
This pathetic treatment of religious news is amazing in a country where 90 per cent of the people identify with the Christian faith, values and symbols even when those same persons might not be committed members of churches. It is also a well-known secret that the Institute of Sports makes more money from the many Christian conventions held at the National Arena than from any other group and these conventions are better attended than political rallies. It is really incredible that so many services could be held in Jamaica on an occasion where the attendance is similar to Christmas Sunday, New Year's Sunday and Easter Sunday and the media largely ignored the festival as if nothing had happened and as if nothing of significance was said, done, sung or dramatised at these services.
This treatment of the Church is nothing personal but an indication that the electronic media in particular are suffering from some serious malady. Sometimes the private sector gets shafted when for example Jamaica National, the largest building society in the country, opened a new branch in Portmore and the only speech that was carried by TVJ was that of Dr. Peter Phillips, Minister of National Security, while nothing of what the general manager of JN said was aired.
TVJ and CVM-TV covered the press conference that launched the 90th anniversary of the founding of Calabar High School and while CVM-TV went to the high school and got some shots TVJ's coverage was confined to the room of the press conference. Similarly, in the coverage of the unveiling of the Michael Manley monument TVJ carried what the Prime Minister said but ignored the fine contribution of Dr Brian Meeks, lecturer at the UWI and chairman of the Michael Manley Foundation. Academia is also being ignored.
TVJ has some good programmes with the morning programme being tops. But what then is the solution to the bigger problem of the treatment of what is newsworthy? There needs to be emergency surgery in which what is newsworthy is dependent on the content of the message, the character of the messenger and the constituency of the messenger. There needs to be improvement in interviewing skills because interviewers ask too many loaded and leading questions that are really mini statements. Interviewers should ask open-ended questions, which give a person scope to make serious comments.
In addition, Love TV needs to improve its coverage of news. There are still too many foreign programmes on Love TV though I cannot comment on the Good Friday programming because Love TV was off the air courtesy of the follies of the arrangements with the cable company. Love TV should follow the success of Love FM and replicate it in the area of news coverage that is comprehensive and credible. Love FM 101.7 was born Valentine's Day in 1993 as the first religious radio station and has maintained a No. 3 position among the national radio stations as of 1998. When Love FM started, there was not much local gospel music and only 30 per cent of the musical fare was indigenous. However, the arrival of the gospel station has helped to popularise gospel music by the exposure given and this popularity has spilled over to the National Gospel Song Competition, which is by far larger than the National Song Competition in sponsorship and audience support. As a result, by 1999 the station was playing 50 per cent of local music. Love TV must take up the challenge - if TVJ and others won't - of broadcasting news that pays due regard to the Church, Private Sector and Academia. This would provide the country with a balanced diet of news.
The Rev. Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church, Kingston 20.
