PRCA Country Rep urges media industry stakeholders to address key issues

Sri Lanka needs to take into consideration and adopt relevant measures and policies to save the media industry from a severe talent shortage, stressed Thanzyl Thajudeen, the Country Representative of the Public Relations & Communications Association (PRCA), the world’s largest and influential PR body.

We are seeing various challenges across the industry, such as lack of skills and attitudes among newcomers, complete disregard for ethics and confidentiality, shortage of staff and talent, tremendous burnout among existing staff, drop in the quality of journalism and reporting, stagnated and outdated salary scales and business revenue models, over-sensationalizing news and events, surging levels of misinformation and propagandas, among others. 
There are many misconceptions among graduates and newcomers to the industry, and we need to bridge these gaps by mobilizing some of the brilliant minds from both the professional and academic sectors and facilitating knowledge transfer including the integration of other disciplines such as law, social sciences, and psychology for example. Being an all-rounder is crucial to journalism, to have that multidisciplinary perspective. And most importantly, to have the level of maturity, integrity and resilience the discipline deserves. 

Based on our recent interactions, we found that there is a growing burnout among editors, especially those in print media outlets that are facing talent turnover. Media owners need to be advised that this poses a threat, if not now, in time to come, eventually leading to losing some of the most competent individuals left in the field out there. The burnout also extends to the PR industry, and we are deeply concerned about the skills and attitudes of the newcomers in this sector too.  

The unprecedented pandemic put everyone to the test, and just like other domains, we saw the media industry especially print coming to a halt. But that is water under the bridge. Today, the industry is not having a paper shortage problem like it used to, nor does it have any revenue problem or a significant decrease in readership or viewership, these are quite universal. What it has is a people problem, the media release highlighted. The intentions and expectations of those entering the industry today are far away from reality on the grounds. 

The media industry, especially print, has a diverse and multigenerational workforce however though this should bring in more vibrancy, it’s quite the opposite in Sri Lanka as there is a lack of bond and knowledge transfer between the two generations. Further, employing those on a freelance basis has also seen unfortunate incidents of mistrust and espionage. 

The quality of journalism and reporting has eroded quite drastically in the recent few years, and the industry has done little or nothing to sustain it. We notice various upskilling being done by many organizations including the involvement of the development sector however the root cause is not addressed. And if this continues to be overlooked, the industry will face a crisis in time to come. ‘The industry needs to invest in education, advocacy and diversity.’