News activity on the radio must be subject to planning, but little research has been done on the subject aimed at deepening the knowledge of the relationships that are established between planning and the process of creating the journalistic message.
The existence of texts that deal with the subject in general allows to be supported by related paradigms, essentially from the sciences of Administration and Social Communication, to carry out studies related to the object.
This matter constitutes a current expression if one takes into account the principle that radio is called to satisfy the informational needs of listeners, starting from its cultural sphere, as an integral part of a social group, which has a system of values, concerns, tastes, preferences and expectations. The fulfillment of this purpose entails the adoption of procedures such as planning, which has the virtue of guiding the action towards the proposed objective, but with the possibility of knowing what could happen in the future.
The fact that this subject has few known investigative antecedents, means that the results of its study constitute a novelty, inasmuch as by highlighting the relationships between Planning and Social Communication in radio journalistic activity, a new knowledge is reached, which allows discovering positive and negative characteristics of these relationships, to contribute to the adoption of changes in managerial management, aimed at improving the billing process of the news message.
Development
Planning is used in almost all human activities to achieve the stated purposes; In journalism, as part of Social Communication, it is also applicable in order to foresee the future and fulfill the function of informing the public.
The work of Henry Fayol (1916, cited in Pelayo 1999), "Industrial and General Administration", represents an impulse for planning in Europe: since then, entrepreneurs have begun to use the category as a mechanism for the improvement of their businesses, with the in order to increase profits. Fayol establishes laws that govern administrative activity, which are still in full force; Its content contains five basic principles to be applied in actions related to administration: foresee, organize, direct, coordinate and control.
Those principles of administrative activity, raised by Fayol, are linked to planning as a category that contributes to the proper functioning of entities. Its application helps to organize production or service activities, and is one of the elements of the act of directing in the function of managing; It allows coordinating actions to achieve the planned goals and establishing control over the use of the means and the workforce, to verify the results and compare them with the original plan.
Communication and planning have existed since ancient times; But the studies of both categories began in recent times, however there is research that shows laws and categories of these disciplines that allow to continue deepening their knowledge.
In economic activity, planning intervenes as a tool of managerial direction as a science, but it is also applicable to the rest of the human endeavor, which includes the journalistic exercise of radio stations and other mass media.
According to Melville Branch (1997), the accumulated experience in the exercise of administration as a science corroborates that man has to consider planning as an essential element in all human activity, one of the main determinants of the current condition, as well as the future of society and the survival of the species.
The author's concepts lead to the assumption that planning must be conceived as essential in all human activity, because it is a tool capable of predicting the future, indicating the steps to be taken at the right time to achieve the desired purpose and, in addition, allows to exercise control over the process of what is executed in any action of man.
The classification of news stories demonstrates the possibility of planning journalistic activity:
“… there are two fundamental classes of news stories: predictable and unpredictable. The foreseeable ones are those announced in advance and that really are the majority. Ceremonies, speeches, decorations, strikes, protest marches, etc. They are normally foreseen, and their announcement is made to the newspapers through press officers, public relations or simply informants. (Gagurevich, 2006: 10).
According to the author, other information occurs by chance; that is, they appear at any moment with characteristics of surprise; This is what is called a dysfunctional event: deaths of notable people, natural disasters, and work and traffic accidents.
By the reasoning of Gagurevich, (2006: 10) it is inferred that journalistic activity has the possibility of being planned, because a good part of the information that is published comes from foreseeable events. The possibility of planning such predictable news, which constitutes the majority in the mass media, creates the conditions to avoid chance and improvisation in the search for data in the sources and to anticipate news events in advance.
When planning the planning, allow for any changes that arise such as unpredictable news. The plan must be flexible in nature, to allow the media to provide information coverage of any unforeseen news event, without prejudice to the other tasks contemplated in the general planning of the journalistic work.
Escrihuela (2004) expresses that there are many acts or events that the media already know are going to happen, they are planned events. Depending on the work schedule, the outlet can plan where it will send its reporters. Daily planning allows the medium to know some events that will take place the next day. Medium-term planning predicts the acts that, although the date is unknown, are known to occur.
From the reasoning of both authors it is inferred that the mass media, and among them radio in particular, constitute another field of application of plans to direct journalistic work, which contributes to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the informative message. for the benefit of the receiving public because it receives higher quality information.
It is assumed that in radio stations it would be impossible to organize the diffusion of the different programs without prior planning, which must be aimed at establishing the schedules for each program, the addressee, the type of program, the personnel in charge of preparing it. of the program and the technical means to be used.
From this it is concluded that in the planning of radio journalistic activity, not only the directors of the informational areas have to participate, but also journalists, who are called upon to establish close working relationships with the personnel in charge of conducting research on radio audiences. for your audience.
In correspondence with what has been analyzed, it is concluded that planning continues to be essentially an exercise in common sense, through which it is intended to understand, firstly, the crucial aspects of a present reality, and then project it, through the design of scenarios in which it is finally sought to obtain the greatest possible benefit, but without losing sight of certain methodological requirements:
Methodologically, planning requires that for each objective the actions to be carried out are defined, the problems to be solved are anticipated, their solutions are prioritized, resources and responsibilities are established, and follow-up measures are designed that allow not only to evaluate progress, but above all re-plan. Regularly then, the first planning activity refers to the creation of a project bank created as part of the diagnosis. This corresponds to translating the objectives into specific tactics (…) that represent concrete actions to be carried out. (Ther, 2008).
From the reasoning presented by Ther (2008) it is inferred that these principles constitute, to a certain extent, a paradigm for the preparation of plans in the informational areas of the Radio, in which it is necessary to create banks of projects, not only emanating from the personal criteria of the directors of the media and journalists, but also of scientific research, which together provide the necessary data for the preparation of the plan, which under socialism is of capital importance.
The analysis of these reasonings leads to the conclusion that in the information departments of the radio plants, planning offers a number of advantages, since it stimulates the systematic thinking of the managers, in search of new formulas to perfect the work; It makes it possible to improve the coordination of the efforts of the press organ based on the development of performance standards for control; it makes the group identify its objectives and policies and gives rise to adequate preparation to develop unforeseen tasks.
The plan is the result of planning as a directive function, the material support of this. The general plan can be conceptualized as an anticipated provision of the acts or actions necessary to achieve an end; its determination constitutes the essence of planning and the selection of resources to ensure said actions aimed at the end pursued.
Every plan has three characteristics: first, it has to refer to the future; second, it must indicate actions; third, an element of personal or organizational causality is implicit: futurism, but it must be borne in mind that planning is about building a desired future, not about “guessing” it.
In the planning of news work on the radio, empirical criteria should not prevail, because this leads to working with a mechanical approach to what is to be published.
Although topics proposed by journalists appear in the plans and with these the planning that will govern their work in the week or in the month is analyzed, it is convenient that all the factors of the information departments participate in the preparation of the plans. This procedure helps to combine ideas in the search for greater depth in this process.
In radio, it generally happens that the people in charge of preparing the plans do so without a theoretical basis, for which they are obliged to rely on their experience and criteria. The act of planning is more effective if the techniques of planning are mastered; This must be the result of meditation and analysis, which make it possible to reflect in the plans an intention and the search for purposes conceived in advance, to adequately fulfill the social mission of the radio: to inform listeners about what is happening.
It is helpful to run planning courses to prepare staff, especially news leaders and journalists. This indicates that the task concerning the creation of plans has lacked the necessary priority, which conspires against the purpose of raising the quality of radio journalistic work.
Conclusions
The planning in the Information System of radio in general is assumed to be a need for organized performance of the news work, but there is an imperative to produce changes in the strategy of the activity, in order to make journalism more scientific and near the interests of the radio audience.
The leadership staff and the journalists are not adequately prepared to carry out the change, because old conceptions, traditions and ways of doing things persist that have been transmitted from generation to generation, which is why work is required to reverse this situation.
Hence the importance of conducting studies related to the development of journalism that expose the shortcomings and thus contribute to the formation of awareness about the need to transform news activity on the radio for the benefit of radio listeners.
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