Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. (René Descartes, mathematician and philosopher,1599-1650)

Friday 1 August 2014

Lack of Expertise

The http://www.fijisun.com.fj/?p=222486  AG blames  the media for the lack of analysis in the media on economic issues related to the forthcoming election. 

He is right in saying that there's a limited analysis but  wrong in blaming the journalists. Few are sufficiently qualified to be able to  analyse economic issues, and until the media pays better and attracts more suitably qualified people to journalism, the situation is unlikely to change.

Meanwhile, the media will have to rely on expertise from outside, particularly from the universities. It is hoped that academics will be sufficiently dispassionate to analyse these issues objectively  and not be carried away with political spleen.  

4 comments:

Marc Edge said...

For once, I agree wholeheartedly with the junta. There is a frightful lack of expertise in the Fiji media because most of its best and most experienced journalists have been driven off by the press repression of the past eight years. There is also a frightening media bias. The regime has subjugated most of the news media, but have only put the Fiji Times and Fiji TV on their heels and not out of commission. Until that is done there will continue to be media bias against the junta, which of course is not allowed, by decree.

Anonymous said...

The entire junta, and all it stands for, is nothing but a cancer on the nation of Fiji. This illegal human rights abusing regime, and its hangers on with their hands out, are nothing but thugs and parasites. Let them win the sham elections - then the real fun will begin.

Marc Edge said...

the regime must control perceptions to win . . . if the perception gets out that people are rising up against them, eg. symbolically defacing FF taxis, it could actually get quite ugly

Anonymous said...

Dispassionate academic analysis may well be possible, however it'll not seen to be so by the political parties. And therein lies the rub. A balanced analysis of the Fijian economy would undoubtedly throw up some (perhaps many) positives and some (perhaps many) negatives, both of which will be pounced on by politicians of all stripes to show the analysts' 'bias'. Why would any credible academic bother to involve themselves in such an exercise in futility? But if they do - good luck to them