Syed M. Mursalin

Professor Niaz mentions that this seminar is dedicated to students who are academics and journalism students. He begins by explaining how we should write economics for the media so that ordinary people with zero economic literacy can understand it. He starts with a question to the audience; 1. Who wants to be a journalist? 2. What do we read? Maybe not regularly, but every once a week. Papers/articles published by The Financial Times, Daily Star, The Economist, etc. 3. Why do we write? ( He later answers himself by mentioning that some people write for fun or maybe for money or they are passionate about writing. ) He also states, “Popular writing is more about opinions and less about facts.” Professor Niaz Asadullah quotes, “Popular writing is a lot about flare, but also substance.” Then he talks about his outline/advice on how we should write and where. 1. Why do we write? (For the media) 2. Academic writing & Popular writing. 3. Choices of outlets, for instance, which media should we pick? 4. He talks about his ten stories about his published works, collaborations, and interviews. 5. His role model (almost famous) 6. Tips on quality writing. Another quote from Professor Niaz Asadullah, “Literature is the key. When we write, we have to read and research. We have to summarise and also synthesize when we think about writing.” He spoke from his own experience that when he wrote? Sometimes, he wrote in plain English to test out his idea and how the readers would react to his paper, or sometimes, he wrote “to cause a fire” when he had a hypothesis that he wanted to come back to. Professor Niaz Asadullah quotes, “Beyond the traditional reasons why I write for the media is that I want to stay relevant “socially” and not die as an armchair academic.” – how? “We want to be opinion builder.” He provided an example of when we write and when we’re researching. What if economic papers are written in a different language, such as Arabic? So it’s our job, the writers' job (not the journalist), to bring coherence to the paper in a language ordinary people can understand. Another advice Professor Niaz Asadullah mentioned was “Sensitization.” Complex topics must be communicated when the economy or society is going through a crisis. That’s when writers in economics come in. “Responsible communication is crucial.” These are not the only reasons Professor Niaz Asadullah and Professor Bayes write. There is a broader motivation that drives him to write. Professor Niaz Asadullah says, “As an economist who works on education, my motivation oftentimes comes from the fact that the credit system that we use to empower you is broken in many ways.” “Education is no longer a system of enlightenment and empowerment. It is imposing.” Professor Niaz then quotes Edward Herman, who said, “Education is a system of imposed ignorance.” Professor Niaz also said, “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity of pure wind.” which was quoted by George Orwell. Professor Niaz Asadullah also writes that he wants to be “Academically and socially responsible and have a wider presence on things that people need to be aware of.” Then he moves on to talking about the Science of writing. “Storytelling is a very important aspect when it comes to communication. But don't forget your economics when you tell your story.” Quote from Professor Niaz Asadullah. “Shop for ideas. Don’t steal, but borrow or brainstorm for ideas.” Then, he talks about a student from his “Ten Stories.” Mishkat Rahman. He was a graduate student from Malaysia who is now doing his PhD in Australia. He was a student at North South University. Mishkat approached the professor regarding a topic he wanted to work on with Professor Niaz Microfinancing. Then together, they published a paper which was titled “The Benefits of Bottom-up Entrepreneurship. (2021)” Professor Niaz also interviewed Iqbal Quader, the founder of Bkash for the purpose of the paper he wrote with Mishkat.