It’s fortunate of me, I think, to be working now in mass communication, an area presently considered to be emerging and to get into vogue someday. The sector itself is divided into publishing and journalism. Journalism, in its turn, is composed of broadcasting, printed media, and multimedia, so on… well, it’s not my intention to categorize different branches of journalism. Among these, broadcasting, or more specifically, television, is apparently emerging as a “hot job” of the globalized economy.
And, if you ever look at the program listings of big televion channels in Vietnam like VTV or VTC, you will probably notice a lack of TV shows on economics. No wonder practical economics in use – in the simple form of market and business knowledge – are of interest to many TV producers, and the number of economics-related TV shows will be on the increase, I guess.
Along with economics, entertainment is another aspect of media industry that will attract a high proportion of TV viewers. Yet unlike the above-mentioned case of economics, there have already been tens of TV shows focused on entertainment. For certainty you can watch an entertaining show on any TV screen at any household at the night time.
So when we talked about hot jobs in the new-era economy, I once joked, “Well, there will be a boom in TV shows about practical economics and business, while the need for relax and leasure is an eternal need. So if we are, or if we can learn to be, humourous economists working in media area, it is likely that we will never suffer from unemployment.” 
That was certainly a joke, but there was some truth in it. I really meant practical economics, business, and management, are now of concern to many Vietnamese these days, and will still take much attention from us in the long terms. (I would like to highlight the term “practical economics”, or applied economics, possibly referred to as “microeconomics” sometimes, because as layman we need more of what we can apply to life rather than something only leaders of an economy can deal with.)
Thus I will be pleased to learn more about business, to gain more market knowledge, and to upgrade a poor skill of mine: management. And because I consider myself to be a typical Vietnamese, I am sure I am not alone in being bad at this skill. If any of you, readers of this blog, has anything to share involved economics, business, and management, please don’t hesitate to give me a lecture for free. 
On my part, I would be incredibly arrogant if I told you the very little and unsystematic knowledge that I have gathered for the past few working years. Forgive me; I don’t mean to practice a policy of obscurantism, I just have too little to share. Anyway, I’ll try… in the next post.
Next post: Lessons of Business
