EFFECTIVE REPORTAGE OF THE PENSION INDUSTRY
By
Tony Ede
Introduction
“In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man, product or company, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial detraction. When a man’s or organization’s work becomes a standard, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work be merely mediocre, he will be severely left alone. If he achieves a masterpiece, he will set a million tongues a-wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a common place painting………………………………….. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as human passions - envy, greed, fear, ambition and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains – the leader.”
1915 The Penalty Of Leadership – Cadillac Image ad.
The opening quotation in every sense speaks for today’s pension industry, particularly the National Pension Commission (PenCom). Whether we recognize it or not, it is safe to say that the new pension scheme is the Cadillac equivalent of all the reform programmes by the Federal Government since 1999. The 2004 Pension Reform is not about the trillions of naira that has been accumulated as it is often reported. Effective reportage of the new pension scheme is raising the public discourse: On the rationale for the reform; Objectives of the reform; Key features of the scheme; The impact of the pension reform on the economy; Pension fund investments; Policy implications; The social impact of the reform and the Challenges the reform is facing after eight years of implementation, what is to be done and its developmental role in providing long term funds in an era of short term funds. Availability of pension fund is expected to provide the magic wand for the financing of the nation’s industrial take-off or development as it did in other jurisdictions. The media should lead the discussion on areas of deficit, areas in need of attention apart of the general talk of infrastructure, power, human capacity, unemployment, production, services and food security. The new Pension Scheme should elicit debate on life after work. How do we control our individual destiny? Should one lose one’s pension because he or she was dismissed?
Characteristics of Pension Scheme
Indeed, Pension Fund plays an important role in boosting economic growth and accelerating domestic savings in many countries. Pension is a contract for a fixed sum to be paid regularly to a person, typically following retirement from service. Pension should not be confused with severance pay. Severance pay is paid in one lump sum, while pension is paid in regular installments. The first pension scheme started in 1670s, when the United Kingdom organized pension scheme for its Royal Navy Officers. All over the world, pension scheme has many variants which typically include a fixed retirement age coupled with a guarantee of a regular, often very modest monthly or periodic income thereafter. The trend now is the move from a Defined Benefit Pension to a Defined Contribution based pension system. The scheme, apart from making funds available for a wide gamut of investment options, reduces government’s pension liabilities.
The Role of the Media in the Pension Industry
On our part as reporters, we must recognize that the issue of pensions remains a serious concern for savers and businesses in the country. Since nothing goes for nothing we all need to put money away in order to enjoy a prosperous retirement. Workers on their part want to know that their savings are being protected and well invested by able regulators, custodians and administrators. We must also note that that the shift from the hitherto unsustainable, disappointing and corrupt laden defined benefit pension to the defined contribution scheme has changed the landscape of the Nigerian pension industry, making the role of the administrators more important than ever.
The change should be reflected in the way the media report the industry. There is no doubt that the media – television, radio, press and websites are the best tools to get pension messages across and the journalists must themselves create the environment for the industry to thrive because their future, the economy and workers lives after retirement and survival depend on the growth of the pension industry. The industry experts themselves should never underestimate the value they can add to a story or feature.
Understanding The Media
Relating to Journalists can be difficult, complex, demanding, fun and fulfilling. They are the most misunderstood, abused, denigrated, yet every civilized society needs them. Journalism as a craft, a profession and even as a trade or business is over two centuries old. The invention of the printing press and the railway facilitated the growth of the press. As a craft Journalism involves specialization in one area (editorial, design and printing). Although, the division of labour amongst the three are becoming blur. As a profession, it is remarkably “open”. There is no bar to anyone entering the profession, no matter what one’s educational background or professional experience is. This is the reason why it is sometimes very difficult to understand the psychology of the Journalist. It has its own specific approach to reality.
Journalism mystics stem from the fact that it has no body of knowledge that defines the profession and marks its relationship with its clients and other professions. There is no universally accepted Code of Conduct or Code of Ethics and where it exists, it is rarely enforced. Further, opinions vary on whether journalism is a “calling”, a public service, an entertainment, a cultural industry motivated by profit or a tool for propaganda, public relations and advertising. Indeed, Journalism can be a combination of all these or each of these separately.
For all we know, there are variants of journalism. Journalists work for the “broadsheet” (“Quality” or “serious”) press and the “tabloid”(“popular” or “sensational”) press. According to various mass communications publications, the terms “broadsheet” and “tabloid” usually describe the two main formats of newspapers, but the labels also connote two kinds of news stories selected and more importantly the presentation, treatment and style.
“Tabloid Journalism” is frequently termed “yellow journalism” primarily because of its tendency to sensationalize and trivialize events, issues and people. The journalistic practices raise several ethical questions about the privacy of individuals and the public’s rights to information. However, in journalism irrespective of how it is described, the motivating factor in coverage, investigation, writing and publishing is dictated by “Public Interest and Convenience” (PICON).
The nature of journalism and one’s approach to what journalism is depends on one’s perspective of news and news values. News is the account of an event not something intrinsic in the event itself. The event is not the news. The news is the write-up or the audio or the visual of the event.
Effective Reportage of Pension Industry
To be an effective Journalist in Nigeria who covers the Pension Industry, one must subscribe to what Shelton Guarantees describes as developmental journalism that involves analytical interpretation, subtle investigation, constructive criticism and sincere relation with the targeted public. The Journalist will need to be guided by one of the principles of the four theories of the press – the Social Responsibility Theory. The theory advocates that the media should be responsive to the wishes, yearning and feelings of the people to create a better society. It postulates that the basic tasks of the media include: (1) servicing the system and the people by providing adequate information, (2) enlightening the public for them to realize their innate potentials, (3) safeguarding the rights of the individual by serving as a Watchdog, (4) providing entertainment, and (5) maintaining its own self-sufficiency in order to be free from the pressures of social interest groups.
In spite of the enormous expectations of the media in Nigeria as the Fourth Estate of the Realm. Jossy Nkwocha in his book, Effective Media Relations, Issue, Strategies and Dynamics says that his experience and study reveal 15 negative criticisms against the mass media in Nigeria which have prevented them from playing their role effectively. They include:
1. Undue Invasion of the privacy of individuals;
2. Sensationalism or exaggeration;
3. Publishing of outright falsehood, deliberate misquotation of interviews and distortion of facts;
4. Blackmail using threat of going ahead with a damaging story to extort money from people;
5. Spreading rumor by publishing unsubstantiated stories;
6. Publishing or televising pornographic materials;
7. Propagation of the political and economic interests of their proprietors at the expense of opposing views;
8. Subservience to big businesses, as in letting advertisers control policies and editorial content;
9. Serving tribal or sectional interests and fueling ethnic sentiments thereby causing disunity and socio-political strife;
10. Being unpatriotic, not showing love and loyalty to the country, especially through unguarded publication of governments secret, war plans and scandalous activities;
11. Unwarranted criticisms and attacks on individuals, organizations, projects and programmes;
12. Lack of proper understanding and appreciation of important issues and events;
13. Espionage, using media men as spies and operatives of intelligence agencies;
14. Mischief, deliberate harm, injury, malice or conduct displayed in a playful manner as in the publication of some stories, pictures or comments, and
15. Refusal to publish rejoinders or refutals or effect correction of wrong information earlier published.
As gloomy as it seems, one can confidently say that the Nigerian media have performed well at all times. They are one of the pillars that have sustained the nation’s democracy and kept the country together, however more is expected of the media if Nigeria must reach industrial take-off, be a coercive, vibrant, pluralistic and united country.
Given the trillions of naira of pension fund, its safety and the millions of lives involved in the pension industry, the media cannot afford to have just a passing interest in the system. It is expected, as it has happened in some other parts of the world that the most widely read newspapers would employ dedicated pension reporters. As a matter of fact, we do not expect PenCom to invite non specific pension reporters to this seminar next year. Pension Business is too serious to be left in the hands of “generalists”.
Pensions have in recent years made the transition from being an underlying issue to one of the most pressing topics today. The day to day running of pension funds and the work the administrators do, should be of interest to the media. The administrators should be able to explain complex pension issues clearly and concisely.
On the whole, one recognizes that pensions have traditionally not been a “media friendly” subject. The major news stories featuring pensions tended to focus on disasters and as a result pension matters preferred to remain below the radar. However, as the media’s interest in the pension industry intensifies and the issues are slowly becoming better understood, the media should be exploring the wider issues which affect their audience at large such as the shift from defined benefit to contributory system, the best way to address corporate governance, best practice and personal savings.
Characteristics of an Effective Communication
Given the sensitivity of the new pension system, its effective communication should have certain characteristics:
Provide Practical Information. Reports should usually describe how to do some things, explain why a procedure was changed, highlight the cause of a problem or a possible solution, discuss the status of a project or policy and how the targeted audience can buy into the policy.
Give Facts Rather Impression. Reports must use concrete language and specific details. Information must be clear, accurate, convincing and ethical. You must present hard evidence (not just opinion) and present all sides of an argument before you commit to a conclusion.
Clarify and Condense Information. Reports should frequently use tables, charts, photos or diagrams to clarify or condense information, to explain a process or to emphasize important information.
State Responsibilities. When you write reports, they should be directed to a specific audience. You should clearly state what is expected of or what you can do for that particular audience.
Persuade Others and Offer recommendations. To be effective, be persuasive and show readers just how a product, service or idea will benefit them specifically.
The Pension Industry and the Media
Indeed, the pension industry has been quite slow to recognize the potential benefits from active engagement with the media. This has unarguably led to lost opportunities, especially when the industry was trying to cope with the debilitating negative reports of the malfeasance of the operators of the old system of the defined benefit pension scheme.
The contributory pension scheme on the other hand, puts the destiny of the Nigerian worker on retirement in its own hands. It is fully funded. Individuals have their Retirement Savings Accounts. They are privately managed. A third party is in custody of pension assets. The funds are ring fenced. Above all it is well regulated and supervised. It also provides a life insurance policy for the worker.
But to be effective, media interaction must be handled correctly and there are rules of engagement to follow. The objective is to help the Journalists as much as possible with their stories. The rules for the pension industry are:
} Be available to respond within their time frames, even if it is inconvenient to you, they are up against a publication deadline. If you don’t help, they will go elsewhere.
} Pension is complicated, the journalist is not the expert, they want you to explain things in simple and straightforward way that they can pass on to their readers.
} You must be prepared to respond to every request, if you pick and chose, you will never be reliable a source.
} If you help them they will remember you and return. One day that could make the difference between a balanced story and a misleading and potentially damaging one.
Conclusion
The media offers the pension industry an active platform on which stakeholders can publicly demonstrate that they are fulfilling their assigned duties. It also provides an opportunity to highlight success stories, issues surrounding performance, risk profile and exposure to different asset classes.
The pension industry must recognize that the media are the channels to reach large, heterogeneous and faceless audience. The media are endowed with awesome powers which they use to mobilize public opinion on issues, programmes, projects, organizations and individuals; to influence policy and direction in government, business and non-business organizations; to enhance social interaction and excesses of government and corporate organizations. Unfortunately, in Nigeria as elsewhere, the only check to the enormous powers of the media is the court through the laws of libel and slander. However, over the years many organizations through their Chief Executive Officers, Public Relations Managers, Consultants and others have learnt and mastered how to work with the media in a symbiotic way and with mutual respect.
The media too cannot work in isolation. They need information and advertisement for their sustainability and must therefore curry favours from government, businesses and non-business organizations. There is consequently nothing to be gained by the media antagonizing their clients.
THANK YOU
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