Perils of Powerpoint

1
Why is policy important for media leaders?
2
Well address

• What is policy?
• What makes for good policy?
• What makes for bad policy?
• Assess one of your policies
• Design a hot new policy

3
Testing the water

• Itemise two policies you have in your workplace.
• Score their effectiveness out of 10
• Share the info with the house.

4
Typical newsroom policies

• Promotion, corrective action, harassment
• Coverage (eg. religion, sponsors, rivals)
• Editorial independence
• Newsgathering methods
• Topics HIV, suicide, rape
• Freebies
• Plagiarism
• Paying sources

5
Other newsroom policy areas

• Email internet use
• Source diversity
• Advance sight requests
• Corrections apologies
• Fairness and balance
• Testifying
• Digital manipulation
• Archiving and legal issues

6
Typical no policy areas

• Training
• Covering poverty / development
• Covering children
• Covering environment
• Covering human rights
• BEE

7
Coming up

• Defining policy.
• Analysing it through questions.
• Donning paradigm specs.
• Four key issues to think about.
• Exercise evaluate a policy

8
1. DEFINITIONS
9
What is policy in general?

• Write down your broad definition.
• Discuss it in pairs.
• Is it different to yours? Nuances?
• In what way?
• Could yours be enriched?
• Amend it if you wish.

10
Check your definition

• How does policy differ from regulation, codes,
  laws?
• Key assumptions distinctions
• a framework, or a plan, or a law?
• to guide, or direct, or govern?
• informal or semiformal, or formal?
• based on principles, norms or standards?
• Is yr take weak or medium or strong?
• Can/should you allow for all options?

11
Think points

• Your definition sheds light on the question
  Whats the point of policy?
• In turn, this helps us understand the importance
  of policy for leaders.
• Take-away questions
• What is the interrelationship between external
  internal policy?
• Whats our impact on the external?
• First, lets go deeper into Policy

12
2. ANALYSIS BY QUESTIONS
13
Classic journalists qtns

• Who is involved in policy-making?
• Where are they?
• When are they involved?
• How are they involved?
• Why policy?
• So what?

14
Analysis by questions

• Who is involved?
• govt, business, civil soc, IMF, Icasa, judges,
  editors, staff. ..
• Where are they?
• parliament, govt, civil service, courts, media,
  Geneva, NY, etc.

15
Analysis by questions

• When are they involved?
• law-making, crises, social and technological
  changes, political pressures, court cases.
• How are they involved?
• role of values and interests,
• role of info and research,
• public and/or private processes.

16
Analysis by questions

• Why policy?
• to solve problems, to pre-empt problems. (Note
  problems for who?)
• to enable and empower
• So what? Ans to engineer
• relates to law, regulation, conduct.
• implementation gap issues of budgets,
  resources, capacity.

17
Summing up

• It helps to analyse policy by applying the gamut
  of classic journalism questions.
• Question does your definition deal with who,
  when, where, how, why, and so what?
• Amend it!

18
3. PARADIGMS
19
Paradigm spectacles
Functionalist Liberal
Marxist Radical
20
Paradigms 1 Functionalism

• Policy systems to harmonise for the
  reproduction of the whole entity.
• Relevance to media
• Plays integrative role re society internally.
• Gives predictability, avoids ad hoc decisions.
• Underpins agreed rules of the game.

21
Paradigms 2 Lib pluralism

• Policy reflects interests competition and
  contest. Highlights politics of policy
• Media relevance
• Free press allows for informed choices and debate
  amongst policy-makers
• Watchdog on implementation
• Internally object of contesting forces

22
Paradigms 3 Marxism

• Policy reflects the rulers .
• Highlights power of policy
• Media relevance
• Media legitimises dominant policies (eg. Nepad)
• Internally Owners advertisers call policy
  shots.

23
Paradigm 4 Rad. democrat

• Should be consultative and empowering of
  powerless.
• Media relevance
• Media allows mass participation in elite
  policy-making,
• Community media needed to give grassroots voices
• Internally Media workers sources should help
  shape in-house policies.

24
Exercise

• Take your paradigm insight
• policy as integrative
• policy as politically contested
• policy as power of the dominant
• policy as empowering
• Rewrite your definition of policy to encompass
  your preferred emphasis or emphases!

25
4. KEY ISSUES
26
Key issues
A. Role of state (who) B. Philosophies (why how)
C. Scope of policy (on whom what) D. Impact (so what?)
27
A Role of state

• The most NB site of policy?
• Role of independent regulators?
• Role of foreign influences?
• Role of international orgs?
• Role of business owners?
• Role of market?
• Interaction between this context and the media?

28
B Philosophies values

• Libertarian/commercial values
• Light touch - abstentionist
• Democratic values
• Consultative, self-regulatory
• Social democratic values
• Directive
• Statist/control-freak values
• Heavy touch

29
C Scope of policy

• Policing policy, or regulate the regulatable
• Satellites? Internet?
• Selection of gender sources?
• Defining field
• Telephony? Broadcasting? Media?
• Training? Freebies? Plagiarism?
• Also Capacity, monitoring, review.

30
Key issue 4 Impact issues

• Formal vs informal policies.
• Living vs dead-letter policies
• why? Lets discuss.
• No policy can be a policy position
• de facto, it is status quo friendly.
• Write down one example of a no-policy that is a
  policy.
• Discuss in pairs.

31
Key issue 4 Impact issues

• Assessing policy success
• Measurable indicators needed
• Evaluation must be done
• When policy fails
• Impractical unrealistic
• Inflexible re changing conditions
• Policy vs practice
• Where does fault lie?

32
4. SUMMING UP
33
Re-cap

• External internal,macro micro.
• Who, what, where, when, how, why, so what?
• 4 paradigms functionalist, liberal, marxist,
  radical democratic
• Key issues state, philosophy, scope, impact

34
Exercise use yr definition assess a real
policy of yours

• Is it formal or informal?
• Summarise what it is in a few sentences,
  including its scope.
• What is the philosophy of impact (light touch,
  consultative, directive, heavy)
• What values inform it?
• Note down external macro factors, including
  role of state.

35
Exercise cntd

• Is the policy alive or dead?
• Is it effective? How can you tell?
• Are there flaws in the policy or the
  implementation?
• Re its genesis, character, impact, what insights
  arise thru specs of
• functionalist, liberal, marxist, radical
  democratic paradigms?

36
Exercise cntd

• What recommendations have you go to improve this
  policy?
• What is the most significant thing that this
  exercise tells you about policy?

37
Conclusion to part 1

• Commonalities macro, micro
• Complexities rich policy practice
• I hope you have insight into
• what policy can do,
• and what policy does do

38
5. POLICY DESIGN
39
Bad policy paradigms .

• What makes for bad policy?.
• Write down three points.
• What is bad policy according to
• functionalism
• liberal pluralism
• marxism
• radical democracy?
• Share info with the house.

40
What defines good policy in general

• It shd address all qtns. For eg
• Why the policy? What is it about?
• Who makes it, for whom?
• Where is it made, where does it apply?
• How is it made, how is it applied?
• Good policy shd be comprehensive.
• It should achieve its objectives.

41
Good policy ten-point checklist
42
Ingredients of good policy

• It should be relevant and clear
• Why this policy, whats the purpose?
• (eg. predictability, enabling, empowering)
• Whose problem/possibility is addressed? Thus
  Donts and dos.
• Who the policy is for? Whose interests?
• Who should implement it.
• Clear objectives are spelled out.

43
What makes for good policy?

• Clear definition of what it covers (scope)
• eg. What exactly is a confidential briefing if
  you wanted a policy on this?

44
Good policy

• Specifies its own genesis -
• Who makes/made the policy
• Stakeholders? (Ownership)?
• What interests politics?
• Where? How? Why (legitimacy)?
• Who makes/made the final decision? (power?)

45
Good policy also

• Recognises inputs
• External policy determinants context
• Underlying values made explicit
• Research that is conducted
• Consultative contributions.
• Has suitable philosophy of implementation as
  regards objectives.
• 6. Is practical (esp. budget time issues)

46
Good policy further

1. Is assess-able (yields indicators)
2. Specifies who communicates it and how.
3. Tells who monitors assesses.
4. Sets out who must take corrective action or
   initiate policy review.

47
Exercise part A

• Write a draft policy on how your medium should
  relate to confidential briefings or another
  matter
• Use the ten-point checklist.

48
Checklist Cover all points

1. Relevance, purpose, interests, objectives.
2. Definition of what it covers.
3. Who will make the policy, who adopt it?
4. List of inputs external, values, research,
   consultation
5. What philosophy of intervention?

49
Checklist Cover all points

1. Practical implications (budget, time)
2. Assessment what indicators are there? How gauge
   degrees of success or failure?
3. Who will communicate the policy?
4. Who will monitor and assess?
5. Who will action change?

50
Exercise Part B

• Now you have a draft policy.
• Write a brief strategy for where you take this
  once back in the newsroom. Specify
• Your aim in 6 weeks time.
• Your means Who, When, How
• Your performance measurement
• Your reward.

51
Conclusion

• Policy is a management aid. To use it well, you
  should
• identify priorities for policy development.
• devise implement a strategy for these.
• Roll out a communications strategy.
• Set up systems to evaluate your policy
  effectiveness.

52
Thank you

• Understand policy
• and be a
• super-editor/manager