Grassroot Journalist ~ Talks & Tools ~ Creative Commons’ Exchange ●
Aug-Oct 2015 ● Vol. 1 ● Issue 1
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The Job of Journalist Is Finished Why else did a Gandhi or an Ambedkar establish four or five newspapers? For fun?
..So believe it is the only intelligent newspaper
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Editor’s Block IMPACT to be noted Times is first paper forced by Ipso to highlight correction on front page Press regulator orders newspaper which had published apology for Labour tax story, to refer to inaccuracy in a more prominent position. The Times has become the first newspaper to be forced to publish a reference to a correction on its front page by press regulator Ipso. The regulator found that the Times article from 24 April "Labour's £1,000 tax on families" had a misleading headline and first sentence: "Ed Miliband would saddle every working family with extra taxes equivalent to more than £1,000." The Times admitted the accuracies in its corrections and clarification section on 2 May, but the person who took the complaint to Ipso was not happy with its prominence. Ipso said that the paper had acted in good faith by publishing the correction before the general election, but ruled it deserved greater prominence. The Ipso ruling is referred to at the bottom of the front page, with the full correction on page 28. Ipso chief executive Matt Tee said: "Today's decision is the first time Ipso has invoked its new rules to compel a national publication to reference a correction on its front page. In assessing the requirement for "due prominence," the committee took into account both the prominence of the original article and the seriousness of the breach, and ruled that prominence of the correction was not sufficient." IPSO ( Independent Press Standards Organisation)is the independent regulator for the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK. It is committed to working with the newspaper and magazine industry to maintain and enhance the freedom and authority of the press through effective, independent regulation.
Research published following the election suggested that newspaper lines on the election were reflected in the voting patterns of their readers. Among Times readers, 55% voted for the Conservatives, compared to 20% who voted Labour. The Guardian reported on 19 June 2015
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Aug-Oct 2015
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Grassroot Journalist ~ Talks & Tools ~ Creative Commons’ Exchange Quarterly / Vol. 01 Issue 01 / Aug-Oct 2015 / Monsoon Number GRASSROOT JOURNALIST is a not-for-profit publication. It is a JOURNAL published for the purpose of research, study, interaction & communication, and to share 'talks and tools' related to journalism, to promote excellence and awareness among media professionals, students, researchers, experts and individuals. Copyright remains with the source, Knowledge sharing is at the core. Membership & Subscriptions : Rs. 500.00 (For 1 year Community Membership inclusive all charges. Member Card Holders entitled for special offers) *Make payment in Name of GRASSROOT JOURNALIST *Please provide complete details ie. name, age, qulification, occupation, organization, postal address, email, website, contact no. etc. for office record.
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* All posts are honorary
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The Job of Journalist Is Finished
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Why else did a Gandhi or an Ambedkar establish four or five newspapers? For fun?
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Is this sports journalism, SI ?
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Authentic Journalism that Challenges Empire and Its Centers of Power
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In Arabic, The Huffington Post has different set of principles…
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Kim Kardashian or Syrian conflict ?
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•ÊflÊ⁄UÊ ¬Í¢¡Ë ∑§Ë ∑˝§Ê¢ÁÃ∑§Ê⁄UË „U«U‹Êߟ
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Pulitzer Winners quit Journalism , PR industry is the winner
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How not to use ‘anonymous sources’
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..So believe it is the only intelligent newspaper
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’«∏Ë ’˝Á∑§¥ª ãÿÍ¡∏ ∑‘§ ¬ÒŒ‹ ‚ÒÁŸ∑§
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Journalism degrees are killing Journalism
Cover pic : Creative commons
Yashwant Vyas
● Grassroot Journalist Edited, Printed and Published by YASHWANT VYAS, 204 Paradise Garden, A-25 Vidyalaya Marg, Tilak Nagar, Jaipur-302004. * All posts are honorary Printed at Cosmos Printers, Madhyam marg, Mansarovar, Jaipur. A not-for-profit publication.
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Monday MARCH 2015
The Job of Journalist Is Finished POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
BY : MICHAEL ROSENBLUM SOURCE : HUFFINGTONPOST.COM
Today, the world’s biggest taxi company, UBER, (with a valuation of $30B), does not own a single taxi.The world’s biggest hotelier, Airbnb does not own a single HOTEL ROOM.In the not too distant future, the world’s biggest and most powerful news and media company will not employ a single journalist.
Yesterday, I was a speaker at MojoCon, a conference on Mobile Journalism, held in Dublin, Ireland.The topic was, obviously, mobile journalism — that is, using iPhones and such to work as a reporter.Which is fine and valid.But live by the technology, die by the technology.And journalism is about to die by the technology. Which is too bad, but… unavoidable. As journalists, we can stand by and watch as job after job, career after career is obviated by the exponentially growing power of tech. This process starts small: Elevator operators (or lift drivers, as we say in the UK) are replaced by do-it-yourself push buttons. Factory workers are replaced by robots. Bank tellers are replaced by ATM machines. (We all like ATM machines. Who wants to stand on line to cash a check (or cheque)? Amazonwipes out store clerks and small shops. Every time we make an online purchase of music, we wipe out another record store (records??). The list rolls on and on. It is the inevitable consequence of technology and the tyranny of Moore’s Law – the tech just keeps getting faster, better and cheaper. Soon lawyers will be replaced by software that gins up all that boilerplate, – much faster and far less expensively. The FT today reports that both Google and Johnson & Johnson are gearing up for ‘cutting edge healthcare with robotic surgeons’. And now comes journalism. There are 3 billion people around the world with iPhones or smart phones in their pockets. Those phones are not just phones (clearly), but, among other things, remarkably powerful platforms for journalism. You can write on them, shoot photos, record and edit video and even live stream – and upload it all up to the Internet and a waiting world of a few billion viewers, and all for free. At MojoCon, 600 or so reporters are learning how to use smart phones and their remarkable power to report on events around the world simply, easily and efficiently. But if those journalists can use those tools, so can anyone else. And so WILL everyone else. There is no barrier to being a journalist. Anyone can do 5 May-2015
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it. And they do. This is the content that fills Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Meerkat and so on. All news and information — all filled by a billion people reporting all the time for free. So the job of the professional journalist is as dead as the elevator operator. Sorry. That’s technology for you. We all like the idea of the driverless car. Except it is the end of the careers of truck drivers, taxi drivers, bus drivers and so on. So too with the smart phone. Today, the world’s biggest taxi company, UBER, (with a valuation of $30B), does not own a single taxi. The world’s biggest hotelier, Airbnb does not own a single HOTEL ROOM. In the not too distant future, the world’s biggest and most powerful news and media company will not EMPLOY a single journalist. The model is already here. All that is needed is someone who can put this all together. How hard could that be? Follow Michael Rosenblum on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Rosenblumtv
Share talks ... Why Should Students Still Study Journalism Given the Sorry State of the News Industry? Talk by Sree Sreenivasan , the chief digital officer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and former longtime faculty member at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Video : https://youtu.be/3Y9f3RIwH8
Battling online misinformation and debunking viral lies
The slow journalism revolution Editor Rob Orchard of Delayed Gratification magazine uses seven headlines to trace the corrosive effect of disinvestment and hyperspeedy digital news dissemination and to call for a Slow Journalism revolution.
Video : https://youtu.be/UGtFXtnWME4
Breaking News: The Collision of Journalism and Consumerism in a Democracy
Fake news websites, government propaganda, Photoshopped images, fake social media accounts and unethical scientific journal publishers are just some of the people and entities who contribute to the burgeoning hoax economy. This panel at International Journalism Festival (Perugia, Italy 15-19 April 2015) features some of the leaders in the field.
Media experts such as Walter Cronkite, Diane Rehm, Brent Bozell III, Yevhen Fedchenko, Tetyana Ledebeva, Terry Anderson, John Boland and Jeffrey Dvorkin debate whether capitalism impedes the development of public media within a democracy.
Video : https://youtu.be/L3uh3uvSMCw
Video : https://youtu.be/xVux_pMp3D8
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YOU have to choose, THEY don’t care Speech by Martin Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post
Video : http://wapo.st/1GQJp7o
Journalism attracts ruthless people The former BBC broadcaster and independent MP Martin Bell talks about phone hacking, journalistic ethics and the need for reform in television news
Video : https://youtu.be/ZSeY_XWVG1s
Share Talks & Tools within community. Send us your recommendations to Grassroot Journalist, the Creative Commons Exchange. www.grassrootjournalist.org grassrootjournalist@gmail.com
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Tuesday MARCH 2015
Why else did a Gandhi or an Ambedkar establish four or five newspapers? For fun? POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
BY CHRIS HEDGES, SOURCE : TRUTHDIG.COM
There were 512 accredited journalists covering fashion week in Mumbai and six journalists covering farm suicides, the world’s worst farm suicides ever…..Read this post , originally titled-‘Journalism as Subversion’ to understand the idea of P Sainth .
The assault of global capitalism is not only asainathn economic and political assault. It is a cultural and historical assault. Global capitalism seeks to erase our stories and our histories. Its systems of mass communication, which peddle a fake intimacy with manufactured celebrities and a false sense of belonging within a mercenary consumer culture, shut out our voices, hopes and dreams. Salacious gossip about the elites and entertainers, lurid tales of violence and inane trivia replace in national discourse the actual and the real. The goal is a vast historical amnesia. The traditions, rituals and struggles of the poor and workingmen and workingwomen are replaced with the vapid homogenization of mass culture. Life’s complexities are reduced to simplistic stereotypes. Common experiences center around what we have been fed by television and mass media. We become atomized and alienated. Solidarity and empathy are crushed. The cult of the self becomes paramount. And once the cult of the self is supreme we are captives to the corporate monolith. As the mass media, now uniformly in the hands of large corporations, turn news into the ridiculous chronicling of pseudo-events and pseudo-controversy we become ever more invisible as individuals. Any reporting of the truth—the truth about what the powerful are doing to us and how we are struggling to endure and retain our dignity and self-respect—would fracture and divide a global population that must be molded into compliant consumers and obedient corporate subjects. This has made journalism, real journalism, subversive. And it has made P. Sainath—who has spent more than two decades making his way from rural Indian village to rural Indian village to make sure the voices of the country’s poor are heard, recorded and honored—one of the most subversive journalists on the subcontinent. He doggedly documented the some 300,000 suicides of desperate Indian farmers—happening for the last 19 years at the rate of one every half hour—in his book “Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories From India’s Poorest Districts.” And in December, after leaving The Hindu newspaper, where he was the rural affairs editor, he created the People’s
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Archive of Rural India. He works for no pay. He relies on a small army of volunteers. He says his archive deals with “the everyday lives of everyday people.” And, because it is a platform for mixed media, encompassing print, still photographs, audio and film, as well as an online research library, it is a model for those who seek to tell the stories that global capitalism attempts to blot out. “Historically, libraries and archive have been controlled by governments and by states,” he said when we met recently in Princeton, N.J., where he is teaching at Princeton University for the semester. “They have also been burned by governments, states and regimes since before the time of the library of Alexandria. Secondly, archives have been the sites of major state censorship. You classify something you don’t allow people to know. In medieval Europe and elsewhere, people resisted being documented. They didn’t want to be part of the archive. They knew that recording and measuring their assets were the first steps toward seizing those assets for the ruling class. Hence, the idea of the people’s archive that is not controlled by states, governments or other figures of authority. This is an archive people can access, people can create, people can build and authenticate. So the idea became the people’s archive.” “It’s not different from what I’ve done for 35 years as a journalist, especially my 22 years as a full-time journalist in India countryside,” he said. “The big difference is that a digital platform allows me to do what I was doing earlier but on an infinitely larger scale and in collaboration with hundreds of other journalists. This site has two biases. One is labor, the work of people, how [the] nation and society rest on the backs of their labor. The second is languages.” Sainath’s work is a race against time. He laments that in the past 50 years nearly 220 Indian languages have died. Only seven people in the Indian state of Tripura, for example, now speak the Saimar language. And it is not only languages that are going extinct. The diverse styles of weaving, the epic poems and tales told by itinerant storytellers, the folk dances and songs, the mythologies, the religious traditions, local pottery styles and rural trades such as that of toddy tappers, who scamper up 50 palm trees a day to drain the sap to make a fermented liquor called toddy, are all vanishing, leaving the world ever more impoverished and dependent on mass-produced products and mass-produced thought. Sainath is determined to archive all of India’s some 780 languages, many of them thousands of years old, spoken by 833 million rural Indians. He has amassed 8,000 black-and-white images of rural Indians. And he has sent filmmakers into villages to capture the deep humanity of the poor as they struggle to endure in a world that is increasingly hostile to their existence. For example, the archive website has a powerfully moving film about a 21-year-old dancer, Kali Veerapadran, titled “Kali: The Dancer and His Dreams.” Raised in grueling poverty in a fishing village by his mother, the boy masters the Indian classical dance form known as Bharatanatyam and three ancient forms of Tamil folk dance (one of them perhaps 2,000 years old), and he makes his way to the country’s leading dance academy and finally the academy’s professional classical dance troupe. Online visitors can also see and hear five girls at a tiny and poorly equipped rural school sing, in English, the potato song. Potato, Potato Oh, my dear Potato I like the potato You like the potato We like the potato Potato, Potato, Potato The first credit in each film on the site goes to the person whose story is being told, the second to his or her village or community and the third to the director.
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Sainath’s journal is not a romantic vision of the rural poor. He documents their darker side, the brutal caste system and feudalism that they live under, their bonded labor, their subjugation of girls and women, their prejudices. These conditions and practices, Sainath says, should die, but what is good, what gives people a sense of the sacred and a sense of who they are as individuals, has to be chronicled and protected. “We are not there to adore the final product,” he said. “We show you the labor process. Our potter is not someone sitting in the showroom talking to you. Our potter is a person down in the ditches after the rain digging for clay, on this hands and knees. You see him complaining about running out of clay as the real estate guys take over the area. You see we are running out of clay. We want you to respect that labor. In India labor is invisible. A lot is done by women. I shot a photo exhibition across 10 years called‘Visible Work, Invisible Women,’ from 10 different states. It’s the only photo exhibition in India that’s been seen by over 700,000 people. Because I take it to the villages where it was shot. On the website we’ve digitized the entire exhibition. Each panel is two and a half minutes. You can watch a video and read the original text and the statistics. You can see the original photos in higher resolution. If you watch the video, … you will have me guiding you on a tour around the panel. You won’t see me. You’ll hear my voice. So you’ve got video, audio, text and still photo integrated. It’s as close to the real exhibition as you can get online.” There are photos on the site of men on bicycles transporting 450 pounds of bamboo stalks. “It’s beyond me how he mounted them on the bike,” Sainath said of one bamboo carrier. “But if you read the story, you’ll see how he’s done it. He has strengthened the cycle with bamboo. He has bamboo horizontal bars and bamboo vertical bars and he is supporting the big bamboos on them.” Sainath said that as the press has become steadily corporatized those who seek to tell the story of workers and laborers have been pushed out. “There were 512 accredited journalists covering fashion week in Mumbai and six journalists covering farm suicides, the world’s worst farm suicides ever,” he said. “And [the suicides] are still going on. It’s partly because the media are not interested, but it is also because of the corporatization of the media. There used to be 50 or 60 big [publishing] houses in India that had media connections at state level or regional levels. Nationally, now there are 10 big houses and only three that matter in the mega-money league.” “The ultimate crime you commit in a colony is to steal a people’s history,” he said. “There is a very lovely African saying, ‘If lions were historians, the tales of the jungle would not always favor the hunter.’ The victor writes history. Two-thirds of India lives in rural [areas], and I was the only rural editor in the subcontinent. And when I stepped down [last year], that was the end of that post.” “Corporatization has changed what journalism is about in a very basic way,” he said. “Journalism is about communication. It is about information. It is about connecting to your society. It is about a society having a conversation with itself. From this richness, they’ve reduced journalism, as has happened in the United States. It [journalism] is one more revenue stream for a corporation that has 100 other revenue streams. There are no media monopolies in the old sense. Today’s media monopolies are small branches of much larger conglomerates. Where they were once giant monopolies in themselves, they are now deeply embedded in other corporations through interlocking directorships. Murray Kempton [critically] said the job of the editorial writer is to go down into the valley after the battle is over and shoot the wounded. This is what mainstream journalism is doing now. Look at this catchphrase about talking truth to power. As if 9
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power is so innocent. Poor things, if we tell them the truth they’ll mend their ways? I say talk the truth about power to the masses who are in the thrall of the power.” “We know what’s happening in Iraq,” he said. “We know what’s happening in Afghanistan. You think power doesn’t know? We know who enabled the creation of an ISIS, who’s the default partner. We know who wants help from Iran on how to deal with ISIS and Iraq. I don’t believe in the innocence of power.” “If you cover farm suicides, if you stay with the story and want to tell the story, you are called an activist,” he said. “[But] if you sit polishing your stool with the seat of your trousers in the newsroom for 30 years churning yard upon yard of news from corporate press releases—why, then, you are a professional. You will even be highly regarded, a respected professional, because the corporations respect you. The great journalists in history are never professional in that sense. The best journalism has always come from dissidents. Journalism is also an art of dissent. How many establishment journalists do we remember a year after they are dead? Look at the anti-establishment journalists. Look at Thomas Paine or John Reed. ‘Ten Days that Shook the World’ will be read a thousand years after all the New York Times best-sellers by the New York Times journalists are in the shredder. The great journalists are all dissidents. They spoke the truth against power and about power. The journalism of dissent is the richest journalism we have. And the Third World and ex-colonial countries have far richer traditions than Europe. In the colonies, journalism was the child of the freedom struggle.” “Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded the first Indian-owned newspaper,” said Sainath, who is the grandson of V.V. Giri (1894-1980), the onetime Indian National Congress leader and president of India. “From day one in 1816 the newspaper fought for remarriage, against female infanticide and for the right to education. Indian journalism made no apologies for having a perspective, for having something to say, and not trying to couch it in ‘on the one hand, on the other hand’ evasion. Journalism was a debate within society, a conversation with a nation and a radical tool of social change. Why else did a Gandhi or an Ambedkar establish four or five newspapers? For fun? They lost MONEY on all of them. This journalism has a moral authority. But it is considered as lacking objectivity in American journalism schools. My values are rooted in the journalism of the freedom struggle, which was not just to throw out the British but also to create something that you could call a good society. All the freedom fighters going to jail were also journalists. That’s the journalism I identify with.”
Source : truthdig.com
åÿÊºÊ ∑§ß¸ ’Ê⁄U ‚ûÊÊ Áfl¬ˇÊ ∑§Ù •¬Ÿ Á„UÃÙ¥ ∑§Ù ‚ÊœŸ ∑§Ê ◊Êäÿ◊ ’ŸÊ ‹ÃË „ÒU– ∑ȧ¿U ∞‚Ê „UË ⁄UÊ¡ŸËÁà •ı⁄U ¬òÊ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÃÊ ∑§ Á⁄U‡ÃÙ¥ ◊¥ ÷Ë „UÙ ⁄U„UÊ „ÒU– ¬òÊ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÃÊ ‹ªÊÃÊ⁄U Áfl¬ˇÊ ◊¥ π«∏UÊ ÁºπŸÊ øÊ„UÃË „UÒ, ‹Á∑§Ÿ ¡ÊŸ-•Ÿ¡ÊŸ ‚ûÊÊ ∑§Ë ‡ÊÃ⁄¢U¡ ∑§Ë ªÙ≈UË ’Ÿ ¡ÊÃË „ÒU– ‡ÊÃ⁄¢U¡ ◊¥ ∑§÷Ë-∑§÷Ë åÿÊºÊ ÷Ë ⁄UÊ¡Ê ∑§Ù ‡Ê„U ºŸ ∑§Ë ⁄UáÊŸËÁà ∑§Ê Á„US‚Ê ’Ÿ ¡ÊÃÊ „ÒU, ‹Á∑§Ÿ ‡Ê„U åÿÊºÊ Ÿ„Ë¥ ºÃÊ, fl„U „UÊÕ ºÃÊ „ÒU, ¡Ù åÿʺ ∑§Ù ø‹ÊÃÊ „ÒU– åÿÊºÊ øÊ„U ÃÙ ÷˝◊ ∑§⁄U ‚∑§ÃÊ „ÒU! ∞‚Ê ÷˝◊ ¬òÊ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÃÊ ∑§Ù ÷Ë „UÙ ‚∑§ÃÊ „ÒU, ‹Á∑§Ÿ ¬òÊ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÃÊ ∑§Ë ÷ÍÁ◊∑§Ê åÿʺ flÊ‹Ë Ÿ„UË¥, π‹ π‹Ÿ flÊ‹ „UÊÕ •ı⁄U Áº◊ʪ flÊ‹Ë „UÙŸË øÊÁ„U∞– Ã÷Ë ¬òÊ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÃÊ Áfl¬ˇÊ ∑§Ë ‚ÊÕ¸∑§ ÷ÍÁ◊∑§Ê ÁŸ÷Ê ‚∑§ÃË „ÒU, ¡ŸÃ¢òÊ ◊¥ •¢ÁÃ◊ ‚ûÊÊ ÷‹ „UË ‚Ê◊Êãÿ ◊úÊÃÊ ∑§ „UÊÕ ◊¥ „UÙ, ‹Á∑§Ÿ •‚‹Ë ‚ûÊÊ ∞∑§ ¬˝÷È-flª¸ ∑§ „UÊÕ ◊¥ „UË ⁄U„UÃË „ÒU– ß‚ ⁄UÊ¡ŸËÁà •ı⁄U ß‚ flª¸ ∑§ ◊ÍÀÿ ◊È≈˜UΔUË ÷⁄U ¬˝÷È flª¸ ∑§ ◊ÍÀÿ „Ò¥U– Áfl¬ˇÊ ∑§Ë ߸◊ÊŸºÊ⁄UË ÷ÍÁ◊∑§Ê ÁŸ÷ÊŸ flÊ‹Ë ¬òÊ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÃÊ ∑§Ê ºÊÁÿàfl ÿ„U ’ŸÃÊ „ÒU Á∑§ fl„U •Ê◊ ¡ŸÃÊ ∑§ Á„UÃÙ¥ ∑§Ë ¬„U⁄‘UºÊ⁄U ÃÙ ’Ÿ „UË, ß‚ ¬˝÷È flª¸ ◊¥ ÷Ë ∞∑§ ◊ÍÀÿ-øÃŸÊ ¡ªÊ∞-◊ÊŸflËÿ ◊ÍÀÿÙ¥ ∑§Ë øßÊ, ‚ûÊÊ ∑§ Á‹∞ ⁄UÊ¡ŸËÁà •ı⁄U ‚flÊ ∑§ Á‹∞ ⁄UÊ¡ŸËÁà ◊¥ ¡Ù •¢Ã⁄U „ÒU, fl„UË •¢Ã⁄U √ÿÊfl‚ÊÁÿ∑§ÃÊ ∑§Ë •¢œË ºı«∏U flÊ‹Ë ¬òÊ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÃÊ •ı⁄U πÈ‹Ë •Ê¢πÙ¥ flÊ‹Ë ¬òÊ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÃÊ ◊¥ „ÒU– -Áfl‡flŸÊÕ ‚øºfl
Grassroot Journalist Aug-Oct 2015 10
Values
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Monday MAY 2015
Is this sports journalism, SI ? POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
BY KERRY HUBARTT, SOURCE : NEWS-SENTINEL.COM
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media FRANCHISE owned by Time Inc. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice. Its swimsuit issue, which has been published since 1964, is now an annual publishing event that generates its own television shows, videos and calendars. Its latest cover is competing porn magazines. What all this has to do with sports?
Marissa Payne wrote in Washington Post, ” Hannah Davis isn’t naked on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s annual Swimsuit Issue, but she almost is. The 24year-old model and girlfriend of SIretired New York Yankee Derek Jeter is pictured tugging seductively at her bikini bottom, which is slung so low that a centimeter more would make the shot more suitable for Playboy.But is this really anything new?Sports Illustrated went super low with its bikini bottoms in 2012 when model Kate Upton, girlfriend of Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, wore bottoms so low they were barely there to begin with.” Jennifer O’Neill wrote a piece for Yahoo! Parenting calling the cover “a bit of a nightmare.” JUST BECAUSE IT SELLS DOESN’T VALIDATE SI’S SWIMSUIT ISSUE Kerry Hubartt,the editor of The News-Sentinel commented on newssentinel.com on Sunday, May 17, 2015 regarding SI type journalism. we are reproducing the comment with its original LINK. I’m sorry, but I have had to make myself look the other way when walking past the Barnes & Noble display of the 2015 edition of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue. The 24-year-old model on the cover is Hannah Davis, girlfriend of retired New York Yankee Derek Jeter. She is pictured tugging seductively at her bikini bottom, pulling it so low that, as Melissa Payne of The Washington Post put it, “a centimeter more would make the shot more suitable for Playboy.” The shot, not to mention inside photos of a topless Davis in various poses, has caused several people to question whether Sports Illustrated is crossing the line into pornography. Aly Weisman wrote about the controversy for businessinsider?.com on Feb. 9, saying that while her publication supports Davis as a cover girl, it’s possibly SI’s “most scandalous cover yet.” Weisman refers to an UsWeekly poll that said 68 percent of readers thought the cover image resembled porn, while 38 percent found it “so hot!”
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She also reported that the National Center on Sexual Exploitation “is asking retailers to remove the magazine from public display, particularly the checkout line, and be wrapped like any other pornographic magazine.” But here’s what a Sports Illustrated representative told ABC News in defending its cover: “After 50 years of swimsuit, what everyone knows is that one person’s risque is another’s sexy.” I wrote a column about SI’s swimsuit issues in February 1982, when I was The News-Sentinel’s sports editor, in which I asked what all this has to do with sports. And I wrote, “The answer is, nothing. It has to do with selling magazines.” My column began this way: “Magazines like Playboy and Penthouse have touted the excellence of their editorial content more and more in recent years. And literary experts insist those publications can’t be ignored in the analysis of good journalism today. “But, come on, if they take out the pictures of beautiful, unclad women they aren’t going to sell, good writing or not. “And magazines are in the business of selling. If they don’t, they go out of business. “It’s just a shame that journalism has to be packaged in perversion to become marketable. The exploitation of women seems contrary to the basic tenets of good journalism.” And exploitation it is. Women sell themselves to this kind of display, which is designed to titillate men. Men in society don’t need titillating, they need self-discipline, fidelity to their wives and purity in their hearts and minds, even and especially if they aren’t married, to preserve their chastity for the one they choose to spend their lives with. Pornography — in whatever form — undermines what’s right with men as well as women. And it’s a shame that we as a society buy into the lie that sex in almost any form in almost any degree and with almost any person is OK. My column 33 years ago ended with this: “Skin sells magazines. Ask Hugh Hefner. But it seems paradoxical to the valiant causes good journalists try to uphold when the exploitation of the female body is pandered in the name of good journalism.” By Kerry Hubartt, Source : news-sentinel.com
The ICRC and the Press Institute of India (PII) are back with this year’s much-awaited Annual Awards for Best Article and Photograph on a Humanitarian Subject. The theme for the 2015 edition of the awards is ‘Reporting on the Fate of Victims of Natural/Man-Made Disasters’. If you have written an article or clicked a photograph in keeping with this theme and if it has been published in an Indian national or regional newspaper or magazine between April 2014 and March 2015, send us your entry by 15 September 2015. The results will be announced by November 2015. In both the Print and Photo categories, the first prize is INR 50,000, second prize INR 30,000 and third prize INR 20,000. Last date : 15 Sept 2015. Details : blogs.icrc.org
Grassroot Journalist Aug-Oct 2015 12
Books
25
Wednesday MARCH 2015
Authentic Journalism that Challenges Empire and Its Centers of Power POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
BY KIM PETERSEN SOURCE : DISSIDENTVOICE.ORG (MARCH 24TH, 2015)
The Zimbabwe story encapsulates the modus operandi of Andre Vltchek: go to the region, discover with purpose, and interview people from all walks of life to get the fullest possible local views, Weltanschauung, and insightful commentary on disparity along the power continuum. Some years back, I was approached to come up with a story that I’d really like to cover. There were many, but right away I was drawn to a story whose angle was completely marginalized in any media I had checked. I was interested to go to Zimbabwe and get a genuine impression from Zimbabweans of how they view the direction of their country under the government of Robert Mugabe. How they viewed the redistribution of land within the country. In the case of theft, when the stolen property is recovered, the usually accepted, and rightful, custom is that the property be returned to its rightful owner(s). Therefore, it seems a no-brainer that land that was acquired by violent theft by outsiders should be returned to the long-term occupants of that land. The white colonialists and their progeny came into occupation of that land through, to put it euphemistically, illicit means. Given that the ownership of the land was illegitimate, justice would require that the land be returned to its rightful owners (insofar as ownership of land is legitimate, which is beyond the scope of this book review.1 ) Robert Mugabe, the revolutionary who became president of Rhodesia renamed Zimbabwe, recognized this moral imperative and he set about redistributing the ill-gotten lands held by white colonialists and returning them to the dispossessed Zimbabwean people. This caused an uproar in the capitalist property-rights advocating West. The western demonization of Mugabe began with unrelenting zeal. Later, I came across an article by Andre Vltchek that exposed the lies of western corporate/state media on the situation in Zimbabwe. Vltchek went to Zimbabwe himself and used his own eyes to observe what was the situation there. He talked to the people there to sound out their views – an eminently sensible method of getting the pulse of the citizenry: just ask them. The Zimbabwe story encapsulates the modus operandi of Andre Vltchek: go to the region, discover with purpose, and interview people from all walks of life 13
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to get the fullest possible local views, Weltanschauung, and insightful commentary on disparity along the power continuum. Vltchek, a true cosmopolitan, has been to about 150 lands to report on the human condition, with special concern for the victims in various regions — war zones, refugee camps, slums, and other zones of deprivation and desperation. His reportages are about casting light on the ravages of western militarism and western rapacious capitalism for the rest of the world, pulling on the heart strings of the relatively comfortable people in the West – those who can walk the streets at night, read a newspaper with coffee and breakfast in the mornings, and spend weekends in the park. It is journalism at its most selfless and most meaningful. In Vltchek’s most recent book Exposing Lies of the Empire (Badak Merah, 2015) readers can discover through Vltchek’s words and photographs what life is like for the peoples embattled by insouciant capitalism in farflung places: to name a few — Syria, Eritrea, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Palestine, Viet Nam, and exotic locales few will have heard of, such as Kiribati. Vltchek does not hold back as to what is harming people in the non-western lands. He points his finger — backed by evidence and compelling reasoning — at capitalists; capitalist’s bloody henchmen, the military; empire’s putschists and torturers; economic hitmen; collaborators; religious dogmatists; racists; the education (sic) system; media disinformation and propaganda; etc. Vltchek also identifies regions of courage and progressivism: antipodes to empire. China is a proud and leading dragon, dragging its citizens out of poverty by the hundreds of millions, helping to develop Africa, becoming a financial lender that does not impose austerity on its borrowers like the hapless lands indebted to American financial institutions like the IMF. Cuba has been relentlessly maintaining and improving upon its socialist and democratic revolution despite the petty and illegal American embargo against it. Venezuela and its people have fought off attempted coups, backed, unsurprisingly, by the USA. The West, in all its hubris and ignorance, even attempts to unsettle its banker, China, by ringing it with military bases. It does the same to the Russian bear and tries to bring it to its knees. It is difficult to envision the proud Russian people becoming subjects of empire. Writes Vltchek: The Western Empire insists on controlling everything of any substance. It has even managed to radicalize non-Christian religions, most strikingly Islam: first through the British support of Wahhabis, then through Western creation of the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, that subsequently gave birth to Al-Qaeda, and recently by NATO’s creation of ISIS. The Empire is only interested in controlling the world, not in its wellbeing or continued existence. (p. 39) Vltchek laments monopoly journalism, how it is a stenographer for centers of power, how great crimes of empire go unreported. For example, he writes that in Haiti, the US medical staff, in a far cry from any Hippocratic fidelity, use the Haitians as guinea pigs (p. 53); the monopoly media marginalizes a monumental and ongoing genocide in DR Congo, a genocide that may have claimed as many as 10 million lives (chapter 8); buried in the pages of history is a German genocide carried out against Namibians in their southwest African colony (chapter 61); and currently there is the cover-up of the true composition of ISIS and who helped create this entity (chapters 27 and 67).
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There are 69 chapters of jam-packed information on the lands of empire, and the lands of resistance, and the peoples. A book review can only skim the surface of this fascinating work that explores various facets of empire and resistance to empire. This is a book for everyone. Get it, read it, and become an informed citizen of earth. Find out what our brothers and sisters are resisting and solidarize with them. In particular, people who work within corporate journalism should readExposing Lies of the Empire and find out what an authentic journalist really does. Exposing Lies of the Empire is a monumental work. My only quibble is that because it is a collection of excellent essays, in a few places it is repetitive. However, this is a minor quibble, and it does not detract from the importance of this collection of essays. Read Pierre Joseph Proudhon’s Property is Theft! if you are interested in this topic. Kim Petersen is co-editor of Dissident Voice. He can be reached at:kim@dissidentvoice.org.
Out of Print Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age is a book by George Brock.George Brock is Professor of Journalism at City University London and started there in 2009 (He was Head of Journalism 2009-14).He previously worked as a writer and editor for The Times (of London) for more than 20 years and before that as a reporter for for The Observer. He is on the board of the International Press Institute (and chair the IPI British committee). He is a trustee of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and member of the editorial advisory committee of The Conversation UK. He is on Twitter (@georgeprof), LinkedIn and Slideshare (georgeprof).
OUT OF PRINT takes a long, hard look at the British newspaper industry – its past, present and future. The author, a former journalist with many years of experience – for example, at the London SUNDAY TIMES – looks at the way in which newspapers acquired a position of considerable primacy in British cultures from the mid-eighteenth to the late twentieth centuries, a position that is now under threat through digitization. Brock is well aware of how the internet has changed the ways in which readers consume news – looking for outlets other than that of the newspapers and exercising freedom of choice, as well as making the news themselves through blogs. On the other hand, he believes that there is a future for the printed newspaper – perhaps the circulation figures will not be as substantial as they were in the past, but Brock understands how many readers prefer paper to the screen, even if they own an IPad or a smartphone.Ultimately OUT OF PRINT calls for the newspaper industry to become more flexible, to reject its antediluvian practices of the past, both in terms of news-gathering and distribution, and adapt itself to changing practices. A combination of the tried and tested, the reliable and the trustworthy, allied to new, innovative methods of delivering the news, both in print and online, seems like the formula for future success. Perhaps the book is a little too otofprint.backparochial in focus (there is too much on the Leverson inquiry, and not enough on developments within the American newspaper industry), but it is nonetheless well written and highly accessible. + Book Review by Dr. Laurence Raw – Published on Amazon.com Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Kogan Page; ISBN-13: 978-0749466510
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Ethics
11
Tuesday AUG 2015
In Arabic, The Huffington Post has different set of principles… POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
BY TOM GARA SOURCE : BUZZFEED.COM
In Arabic, The Huffington Post Takes A Stand Against Atheists, Gays, And Selfies. In English, the site is best known for its liberal, progressive politics and embrace of popular culture. But its new Arabic offshoot seems to be heading in a different direction. An Algerian columnist recently warned of a growing trend that could bring Islamic civilization crashing down: the selfie. More young Muslims are taking selfies, he noted, a symptom of “the diseases and the viruses of the Western world” making their way into Arab lands. “I consider my article as an open letter to all the Islamic Ummah’s youth,” the piece said, excluding the approximately 1 in 10 Arabs who are not Muslim in the process. “It is a call to stop adopting such sick behaviors that come to destroy our traditions and the basics of human cultural identity.”cropped-cropped-huffpost-arabia.png Such sentiments are typical fare for readers of socially conservative and politically Islamist media in the Arab world. But its publisher was one new to the Arabic-language media scene, and better known for its close ties to liberal and progressive politics: the Huffington Post. While selfie culture is a mainstay of the Huffington Post’s English-language sites, readers would rarely expect to see religious-tinged screeds denouncing them. Many Arab readers have expressed surprise and disappointment that Huffington Post Arabi, as the new site is known, seems to have taken such an editorial departure from its parent. The selfie article is “one opinion expressed by one blogger,” Nicholas Sabloff, theHuffington Post’s executive international editor, told BuzzFeed News in a statement. “The views on the blog do not reflect HuffPost’s global editorial viewpoint, nor the viewpoint of our HuffPost Arabi editors.”proxy But the themes of the article — of a declining and humiliated Muslim world needing to be reinvigorated by a return to traditional values — are classic tropes of conservative and Islamist media in the Arab world. So why are they showing up time and again on the outpost of one of America’s best-known progressive websites? Critics of the new site have focused on the men overseeing it: Al Jazeera Arabic alumni Wadah Khanfar and Anas Fouda, both of whom are widely con-
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sidered to be sympathetic to political Islam. Both deny any bias in their work, but the site has already been forced to withdraw an article due to its inflammatory message and language. There’s a war against Islam, an Egyptian columnist warned in the article, published on Saturday. The conflict pits secularists and their military allies against the country’s Muslims, he wrote, and the evidence is everywhere, from atheists being allowed on television to nudity being permitted in fashion shows. The government, he warned, would even allow “a press conference for gays in the heart of Cairo.” The article drew on tropes common to Islamist media: resentment of liberals and secularists, the belief in a broad conspiracy against true Muslims, and incitement against gays and other minorities. Its publication by the Huffington Post had many bewildered. Amid a wave of criticism on social media — including for the derogatory Arabic term used to describe gay people — the post was taken down, less than a day after it was published. In its place is an editor’s note, saying the article “should not have been published, as it contradicts the Huffington Post’s editorial positions and guidelines which are based on encouraging positive dialogue and mutual respect.” Since its launch in July, Huffington Post Arabi has published plenty of the kind of stuff you would see on its English-language mothership: quick aggregation of breaking news stories, lively entertainment coverage, and a healthy smattering of liberal bloggers. But it has also caused plenty of raised eyebrows on the Arab social web, as readers who associate the Huffington Post with leftwing celebrity columnists, sideboob, and reliably progressive takes on pop culture come across article after article infused with religious and social conservatism. The company says many of those raised eyebrows are inevitable as it tries to publish truly diverse voices in a region where war, revolution, and withering government crackdowns on opposition groups have left the public intensely divided, and quick to denounce those with opposing opinions. “In a region where the media landscape is polarized, we are trying to create a space where a diversity of perspectives can co-exist,” Sabloff said. “Given the upheaval the region is experiencing, it is likely that articles which have a strong perspective or opinion may upset one group or another. But we want HuffPost Arabi to provide diversity and balance as a site.” The Arabic site falls under the same global editorial guidelines as the rest of theHuffington Post’s network of sites, and while the company declined to share those guidelines, it said they include a ban on “views advocating violence or condemning an entire group.” Huffington Post Arabi is being run as a joint venture between the Huffington 17
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Post and Integral Media Strategies, a company run by former Al Jazeera chief Wadah Khanfar. Its editorial operations are being led by editor-in-chief Anas Fouda, another Al Jazeera veteran. Khanfar became managing director of Al Jazeera Arabic in 2003; a 2007 article inThe Nation contained complaints from numerous current and former staff that under his leadership, the channel took on increasingly Islamist leanings. “The liberals, the secular types, the Arab nationalists are getting downsized and the Islamic position is dominating the newsroom,” Shaker Hamid, a former Al Jazeera correspondent in Baghdad, told The Nation at the time. “The accusations of favoring the Muslim Brotherhood, or having close ties with the Americans, are not new,” Khanfar told BuzzFeed News in a statement. “They have been a result of official Arab propaganda, many governments in the region do not want to see balanced reporting or an outlet that allows all opinions.” Fouda was detained without charge in the United Arab Emirates in 2013 as part of the Persian Gulf country’s crackdown on alleged Islamist sympathizers (he was released after a month). In a statement, he told BuzzFeed News that he “became closer to the Muslim Brotherhood as the leading opposition group in the parliament” during his time at university in Egypt in the late 1980s. “I severed ties with all political groups in the 1990s, so that I could maintain my journalistic independence and integrity,” he said. Since then, he has worked at a number of media outlets, including 24-hour Arabic news network Al Arabiya and its parent company, the Dubai-based MBC Group. In signing up with the Huffington Post, he appears to have taken inspiration for the Arabic site from founder Arianna Huffington herself. The first time the two met and discussed the concept of Huffington Post Arabi, “she spoke to me of the wisdom that is in our region, a region that was once the cradle of civilization and religion,” Fouda wrote in his editor’s note marking the launch ofHuffington Post Arabi. That note, like much of the content on the new site, then took an unexpected twist. “I in turn believe in the positivity of looking for a way out,” he wrote, “and that the inherent wisdom that stems from our history and religious heritage are necessary weapons in this time of #WorldWar3.”
Tom Gara is the business editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in NewYork.Contact Tom Gara at tom.gara@buzzfeed.com. Original Source Link : http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomgara/huffington-pos *Additional Read : Huffington Post causes outrage after Arabic edition criticises gay people, atheists and selfies : The Independent HuffPost Arabi has a rocky start with content too conservative for Huffington Post :Albawaba
Grassroot Journalist Aug-Oct 2015 18
Strokes
GJ Cartoonist of the quarter : Sandeep Adhwaryu
My Quixotic journey towards an unknown destination began soon after I completed my bachelor’s from the University of Sagar (MP). Having burnt the midnight oil for around a fortnight to prepare for the entrance exam of Probationary officer in a nationalized bank, I turned my attention towards the corridors of ‘power’ – the state public services. This infatuation with the babudom held me captive for about six months when I decided it was too good to be mine. Thereafter an accident: I qualified for the Indian Air Force in 1994 and stood fourth in the merit list. However my flight was aborted midway when I was rejected in the medical examination for a minor color vision defect. Although a dampener, this incident sowed the seeds of the make-believe world – so integral to cartooning – which I lived in for the next five years. Bursting with confidence, I led myself to believe that destiny had bigger things in store for me. Hence the Civil Services!! Being painfully aware that this indeed could be my last refuge from the failures, I was left with no option but to work hard. The tryst with blissful ignorance continued for the next five years till I exhausted all my attempts at the Civil Services Exam. I realized that I had made a cartoon of myself. Then why not become a cartoonist? I joked. Attacking a system, which kept me from being its part, was, after all, not such a bad idea. @CartoonistSan www.cartoonistsandeep.com sandeepadhwaryu@yahoo.co.in
With this positive ‘outlook’ I approached the Outlook newsmagazine with some of my drawings. To my surprise I was given a chance, not as a cartoonist though. I graduated to political cartooning only after working as an illustrator for five years in Outlook. Apart from Outlook I have also been contributing two weekly editorial cartoons in MJ Akbar’s The Sunday Guardian. The Don Quixote in me couldn’t have asked for anything better than a job which values chivalrous ideals of defending the helpless and punishing the wicked!! Let us see if the journey of this ‘irrepressible’ Don ends up replicating the original tale of make believe world or is able to make the world believe in him!! Sandeep Adhwaryu about his journey (source : www.cartoonistsandeep.com)
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Ethics
13
Wednesday MAY 2015
CNN physician-journalist poses ethical dilemma POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
BY : JESSICA ELGOT, SOURCE : THEGUARDIAN.COM
Ethical questions have been raised after a CNN crew covering the Nepalese earthquake filmed its chief medical correspondent perform emergency brain surgery on an eight-year-old girl using a saw and resuscitate a woman mid-air on a helicopter, using a cardiac thump.
Dr Sanjay Gupta, the feted neurosurgeon and CNN journalist, who was reporting on the devastating 7.8 magnitude quake, has regularly stepped in to save lives while covering a story for the broadcaster. Gupta is no stranger to carrying out medical procedures in front of the camera. Hetreated a two-year-old boy on assignment in the Middle East, and examined patients on camera after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Connie St Louis, director of the Science Journalism programme at City University in London, told the Guardian that she was “really, really worried” about the ethics of filming a journalist’s medical intervention. She said: “As a journalist with medical training, do you really need to film the times when you get involved? There’s certainly a possible confidentiality issue, as well as the potential for self-promotion. If you film the journalist doing the medical procedure, they become the story. My feeling is, why do it in Nepal when there is no way you could possibly do this in America?” Several ethics experts have previously raised questions over the conflicting instincts of a physician-journalist. Bob Steele, journalism values scholar at the Poynter Institute, said after the Haiti disaster he had uneasy feelings over how “news organisations at some point appear to be capitalising for promotional reasons on the intervention by journalists”. After the disaster in Haiti, where several medical correspondents treated patients on camera, Tom Linden, professor of medical journalism at the University of North Carolina, proposed that new guidelines should be drawn up. He suggested in the journal Electronic News that physician-journalists prioritise their duty to save lives, but that a reporter who treats a patient should not feature that person on a television report, or even ask for their permission to do so.
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In Nepal, the CNN crew filmed surgery on eight-year-old Selena Dohal, who had a fractured skull after a roof collapsed in her home town of Panchkhal, 26 miles (42km) from the capital, Kathmandu. Doctors at Kathmandu’s Bir hospital said Dohal arrived with her grandfather and urgently needed surgery to remove blood clots that had collected on the right frontal area of her brain. Gupta, who is also assistant professor of neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine, said he was summoned on Tuesday by Nepalese doctors to assist them with a craniotomy – the surgical removal of a section of the skull to expose the brain. He scrubbed up in what he described as a makeshift operating room, using iodine and sterilised water to clean the injuries. He had no surgical drill to cut open Dohal’s skull because of the lack of electricity and had to use a saw. “I’ve seen a lot of situations around the world, and this is as bad as I’ve ever seen it,” Gupta said on CNN. “They’re barely able to keep up right now. It’s part of the reason they asked me (to help); I think they’re asking anybody to try to pitch in.” In a separate incident, it emerged on Friday that Gupta was again filming in a scenario in which his medical skills were needed when the crew were on an aid flight in Sindhupalchowk, east of the capital. Sabina Lama, 18, was taken in a makeshift straw stretcher on board a helicopter, which was carrying instant noodles and water to people left homeless by the quake. Mid-air, Lama suddenly stopped breathing and Gupta could no longer detect a pulse. With no defibrillator, Gupta delivered a heavy blow to her chest in a last-ditch attempt to restart her heartbeat. “It is aggressive – but I just delivered a ‘cardiac thump’, a quick, strong hit to the chest in a last ditch effort to shock Sabina’s heart back into action,” he said. Jessica Elgot is a breaking news reporter for the Guardian. This story posted on 1 May,2015 on the Guardian site. Source Link : http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/01/cnn-physician-journalist-ethical-dilemma-nepalsanjay-gupta
»§Ê©¢U«U‡ÊŸ ∑§Ë ªÁÃÁflÁœÿÙ¥ ◊¥ ‡ÊÊÁ◊‹ „UÙŸ ∑§ Á‹∞ ‚¢¬∑¸§ üÊË ¬˝◊Ùº ‡Ê◊ʸ - ~~w}{v{vvv, üÊË •¢Á∑§Ã ÁÃflÊ⁄UË - ~wvyy||yyz üÊË •ŸÈ¡ ‡Ê◊ʸ - ~y{Æ|{w|xz mediafoundation.jpr@gmail.com
ª˝Ê‚M§≈U ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ »§Ê©¢U«U‡ÊŸ, ¡ÿ¬È⁄U ÿÈflÊ•Ù¢ ∑§ ’Ëø ôÊÊŸ ∑§ ÁflÁ÷㟠dÙÃÙ¥ ∑§ •ÊºÊŸ-¬˝ºÊŸ ∑§ ⁄UøŸÊà◊∑§ ©U¬∑˝§◊ ∑§Ë ‚¢÷ÊflŸÊ∞¢ ºπÃÊ „ÒU– ÿ„U ÿÈflÊ ‚ÊÁÕÿÙ¥ ∑§Ê ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ∑¥§Áº˝Ã ‡ÊÈh× ªÒ⁄U-√ÿÊfl‚ÊÁÿ∑§ ‚¢flʺ ©U¬∑˝§◊ „ÒU– ‚¢flʺ ∑§ ˇÊòÊÙ¥ ◊¥ ¬…∏UŸ-Á‹πŸ, ‚ÈŸŸ ÃÕÊ ’Ê¢≈UŸ ∑§Ë ‚Ê◊ÍÁ„U∑§ÃÊ ∑§Ê Áfl∑§Ê‚ øÊ„UŸ flÊ‹ ‚ÊÕË •Ÿı¬øÊÁ⁄U∑§ M§¬ ‚ ß‚◊¥ ‡ÊÊÁ◊‹ „UÙà „Ò¥U– “ª˝Ê‚M§≈U ¡Ÿ¸Á‹S≈U” ‚ºSÿÃÊ •ÊœÊÁ⁄Uà ÁŸÃʢà ªÒ⁄U-√ÿÊfl‚ÊÁÿ∑§, SflâòÊ, ÁflÁ‡Êc≈U ∑§êÿÈÁŸ≈UË å‹≈U»§Ê◊¸ „ÒU Á¡‚◊¥ ‚ºSÿÙ¥ ∑§Ù flÊÁ·¸∑§ ‚ºSÿÃÊ ◊ÍÀÿ ∑§ ’⁄UÊ’⁄U ÁflÁ÷㟠¬˝∑§Ê‡ÊŸÙ¥ -¬ÈSÃ∑§Ù¥ ∑§ •ÁÃÁ⁄UÄà ‚¢flʺ, ‡ÊÙœ, ◊ʪ¸º‡Ê¸Ÿ •ÊœÊÁ⁄Uà •ÊÚŸ‹Êߟ ‚ʤʺÊ⁄UË, ¬˝Á‡ÊˇÊáÊ •ÊÁº ∑§ •fl‚⁄UÙ¥ ◊¥ ÷ʪ˺Ê⁄UË „UÊÁ‚‹ „UÙ, ∞‚Ê ÁfløÊ⁄U ÁŸÁ„Uà „ÒU– ª˝Ê‚M§≈U ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ »§Ê©¢U«U‡ÊŸ ∑§ ‚ÊÁÕÿÙ¥ ∑§Ù ß‚◊¥ Áfl‡Ê· •fl‚⁄U „Ò¥U– ‡Êÿ⁄U ∑§⁄UŸ ÿÙÇÿ dÙÃ, ‚ÍøŸÊ∞¢, Á⁄U‚ø¸ ¬¬⁄U ‚Á„Uà ¡Ù ÷Ë •Ê¬ ÷¡ŸÊ øÊ„U¥, ©U‚∑§ Á‹∞ ©U‚∑§Ë ÁŸÿ◊Êfl‹Ë •ÊÚŸ‹Êߟ ÃÙ ©U¬‹éœ „ÒU „UË òÊÒ◊ÊÁ‚∑§ Á¬˝¢≈U »§ÊÚ◊¸ ◊¥ ÷Ë ¬˝∑§ÊÁ‡Êà „ÒU– 21
Aug-Oct 2015
Grassroot Journalist
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Tuesday MAY 2015
Kim Kardashian or Syrian conflict ? POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
BY ALEXIS SOBEL FITTS , SOURCE : COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW
Reporters at the Times don’t have access to metrics, a stance copied by a number of digital native sites like Vox and the Verge. “If you go down that road, then you end up writing a lot about, you know, Angelina Jolie or whatever,” a Times staffer told Petre, a sentiment echoed throughout the newsroom. So, How do metrics, in practice, influence decision making?
As analytics have entered newsrooms the digital world has divided into two camps. There are those that think attention paid to metrics creates a world where Kim Kardashian beats out more important subjects, like the Syrian conflict. Advocates of data-driven decision making, however, argue that metrics shift the power balance to a more democratic system where readers matter more than editors. But how do these decisions actually play out in newsroom culture? How do metrics, in practice, influence decision making? That’s the question that Caitlin Petre, a doctoral student in sociology at New York University, set out to answer through ethnographic research. Over the course of a year, Petre divided her time between the offices ofChartbeat, leading analytics company, and two newsrooms that sit on opposite ends of the metrics debate: Gawker Media, where the numbers dictate editorial value, and The New York Times, pre-“Innovation Report” a place that was just beginning to define their analytics strategy. Through dozens of interviews with employees and analysis of meetings, Petre’s report “Traffic Factories: Metrics at Chartbeat, Gawker Media, and The New York Times,” just released by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, paints a powerful picture of the substantial effect that numbers have on newsrooms. In the first study to look at the cultural impact of measurability in newsrooms Petre documents the digital revolution in lumbering progress, showing that all newsrooms, regardless of their digital finesse, are still learning the effects of policy as they craft it. “Metrics inspire a range of strong feelings in journalists, such as excitement, anxiety, self-doubt, triumph, competition, and demoralization,” Petre writes. Depending on how they’re implemented, metrics can have vastly divergent effects on editorial culture. But regardless of how newsrooms shield their staff, Petre found, the emotional effect remains. At the time of Petre’s residency at Gawker, metrics dominated company culture, starting with a giant monitor called the Big Board that displays Chartbeat analytics that hung on the newsroom wall. But analytics also factored deeply into the company’s evaluation of its employees- a rating system (dubbed eCPM) calculates how many dollars in salary a writer earns per 1,000 visitors they bring to the site. (Falling below $20 on this rating is grounds for dismissal.) As a result, Petre observed a team of writers fixated on attracting huge numbers at-all-cost, even to their emotional well being. Staffers regularly used drug terminology (“addicted,” “fix”) to describe their relationship to the site; several told Petre they vetted their relationship to analytics with a therapist.
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More tellingly, staffers said their willingness to experiment was dampened by pressure to feed the numbers. As one editor told Petre, sticking to stories that have worked in the past, like “cute things that kids did,” or “unhinged letters,” from sorority girls or “douchebags,” is a surer method of attracting traffic than exploring a new idea. And writers felt the need for quantity always hanging over them. Since traffic numbers varied wildly per post, writers pursued an approach similar to that for playing the lottery – to increase your odds, buy lots of tickets. None of this rewards creativity, or the thoughtful reporting and think pieces that Gawker’s sites have become known for. With traffic as the complete arbiter of merit, reporters responded rationally. Reporters at the Times don’t have access to metrics, a stance copied by a number of digital native sites like Vox and the Verge. “If you go down that road, then you end up writing a lot about, you know, Angelina Jolie or whatever,” a Times staffer told Petre, a sentiment echoed throughout the newsroom. Withholding the metrics from staffers also served to underscore the hierarchical status quo, with editors as the arbiters of what is news-worthy. “If editors alone had access to metrics, they alone could control the way in which the data was interpreted and mobilized,” writes Petre. And, she observed, editors spoke about metrics after-the-fact—when they justified a decision—rather than factoring them in during the decision making process. Yet none of this prevented reporters from gut-checking the analytics themselves, scouring the site’s “most-emailed” and “most-viewed” displays, unsure how seriously to take inclusion (or exclusion) from those daily round-ups. These lists didn’t give writers the blunt ranking that Gawker writers were encouraged to access with every new article, but it didn’t preventTimes writers from being interested in how their work stacked-up numerically. This emotional reaction to analytics, Petre found, is something that had been considered—even capitalized on—by Chartbeat staffers. “It’s not the identity of the number, it’s the feeling that the number produces,” one Chartbeat employee told Petre, a concept reflected in their product. “The dashboard is designed to communicate deference to journalistic judgment, cushion the blow of low traffic, and provide opportunities for celebration in newsrooms,” writes Petre. That’s why concurrents—the number of readers on a site at a given time— operate like a “candy metric,” causing a dial to swing toward the positive zone as the number of visitors goes up. Editors and reporters, according to Petre, consistently associated Chartbeat with “concurrents” rather than “vegetable metrics,” like visitor frequency or the “engaged time” metric that Chartbeat has been working to introduce to advertisers. Those metrics “contribute to its prestige and to clients’ sense that Chartbeat “gets it,” writes Petre, but in her opinion did not feed into editors’ own assessments of their sites. Yet, much has happened since Petre’s investigation. The Times, after the launch of its innovation report, has hired a swath of digital native editors and an audience engagement team to answer the question of how analytics should factor into editorial decisions. On the other side, Gawker, driven by a failure to compete with Buzzfeed’s skyrocketing numbers, has flipped the other way, introducing a new system where editors, rather than numbers, dictate employee compensation. “These recent developments suggest that Gawker and The Times, once polar opposites in their orientations toward metrics, are moving closer to one another,” says Petre. After all, metrics alone don’t create a newsroom culture, it’s the way they’re interpreted. Petre, for her part, recommends newsrooms take time “for reflective, deliberate thinking removed from daily production pressures about how best to use analytics.” Of course, this is a demand that runs contrary to the relentless, constantly innovating pace of the Internet. But if news organizations as divergent as The Times and Gawker can come to a similar meeting place, it stands that others can as well. Source Link : http://www.cjr.org/analysis/how_should_metrics_drive_newsroom_culture.php
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Aug-Oct 2015
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Sunday June 2015
•ÊflÊ⁄UÊ ¬Í¢¡Ë ∑§Ë ∑˝§Ê¢ÁÃ∑§Ê⁄UË „U«U‹Êߟ POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
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BY YASHWANT VYAS
“•Ù¬ÁŸÿŸ ¡Ÿ¸Á‹í◊” ∑§Ê œ◊Ê‹ ◊øÊ „ÈU•Ê „ÒU– ‚’ ’ÃÊ ⁄U„U „Ò¥U Á∑§ º‡Ê ∑§Ê ÄÿÊ „UÙªÊ? •ı⁄U Áº‹øS¬ ÿ„U „ÒU Á∑§ øÊ„U º‚Ë ŸË⁄UÊ ⁄UÊÁ«UÿÊ ‹Ò’Ù⁄‘U≈U⁄UË „UÙ ÿÊ •ÊÿÊÁÃà ∞¡¥«UÊ »Ò§Ä≈U⁄UË, “»§Êߟゔ •ı⁄U “‹Ëª‹” - ºÙ ß‹Ê∑§ „Ò¥U Á¡Ÿ◊¥ ÷Ë·áÊ ⁄UÊ¡ŸÃÊ ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ∑§ ◊„UÊŸ Áfl‡Ê·ôÊÙ¥ ‚ ª‹’Á„UÿÊ¢ ∑§⁄Uà „ÈU∞ ⁄UÊc≈˛U ∑§Ë Áº‡ÊÊ ÁŸœÊ¸Á⁄Uà ∑§⁄UŸ ∑§Ë ∑§ÙÁ‡Ê‡Ê ∑§⁄Uà ÁºπÊ߸ ºÃ „Ò¥U–
π’⁄U fl„U „ÒU Á¡‚ ∑§Ù߸ ¿U¬Ÿ Ÿ„UË¥ ºŸÊ øÊ„UÃÊ– ’Ê∑§Ë ‚’ ¬Ë•Ê⁄U „ÒU ‚Ê‹Ù¥ ‚Ê‹ ¬„U‹ ¡ÊÚ¡¸ •ÊÚ⁄Ufl‹ ∑§Ù ÿ„U ¬ÃÊ ÕÊ •ı⁄U ‚Ê‹Ù¥ ‚Ê‹ ’ʺ „U◊Ê⁄‘U π’⁄U flË⁄UÙ¥ ∑§Ù ÷Ë ¬ÃÊ „ÒU– ‹Á∑§Ÿ, ºÈÁŸÿÊ ø‹ÃË ⁄U„UÃË „ÒU– π’⁄UÙ¥ ∑§Ê √ÿfl‚ÊÿU ÷Ë ø‹ÃÊ ⁄U„UÃÊ „ÒU– åÿÍ Á⁄U‚ø¸ ∑§ ∞∑§ •Ê¢∑§«∏U ∑§ ◊ÈÃÊÁ’∑§ ¬Áé‹∑§ ∑§Ë Ÿ¡⁄U ◊¥ •Ê¡ ∑§Ë ÃÊ⁄UËπ ◊¥ ‚◊Ê¡ ∑§Ù ∑ȧ¿U ºŸ flÊ‹Ù¥ ∑§Ë ¬¢ÁÄà ◊¥, ‚’‚ •ÊÁπ⁄U flÊ‹Ù¥ ◊¥ ¡Ÿ¸Á‹S≈U „Ò¥U– ©UŸ∑§Ë ∑§º˝ ∑§Ê SÃ⁄U ÿ„U „ÒU ÃÙ Á‚»¸§ ß‚Á‹∞ fl ‚◊Ê¡ ◊¥ ∑ȧ¿U ¡Ù«∏Uà Ÿ„UË¥, ¡Ù«∏UŸ-ÉÊ≈UÊŸ ∑§ ºı⁄UÊŸ ‡ÊÙ⁄U ∑§Ù “∞êå‹Ë»§Ê߸” ∑§⁄U∑§ ‚ÈŸÊà „Ò¥U ÿÊ ‡ÊÊ¢Áà ∑§Ù ÷ÿÊfl„U ’ŸÊà „Ò¥U– fl∑§Ë‹Ù¥ ∑§Ë ¡Ù«∏U ©UŸ‚ Á◊‹ÃË „ÒU– Á⁄U‚ø¸ ∑§ ◊ÈÃÊÁ’∑§ flÒôÊÊÁŸ∑§-Á‡ÊˇÊ∑§ ß‚∑§ ’ÁŸS’à ‚◊Ê¡ ∑§ íÿÊºÊ ∑§Ê◊ ∑§ „Ò¥U– ©UŸ∑§Ë Áfl‡fl‚ŸËÿÃÊ •ı⁄U ÿÙªºÊŸ ∑§Ê äÿÊŸ ⁄UπŸÊ øÊÁ„U∞– •Ê¢∑§«∏U •◊Á⁄U∑§Ë „Ò¥U •ı⁄U ∑§Ù߸ ‡Ê∑§ Ÿ„UË¥ Á∑§ ⁄UÊ¡ŸËÁà ∑§⁄UŸ flÊ‹Ù¥ ∑§ ¬˝Áà ÷Êfl ÷Ë fl„UË „Ò¥U ¡Ù ÿ„UÊ¢ ¬Ê∞ ¡Êà „Ò¥U– ß‚Ë ‚Ê‹ ¬ÈÁ‹à¡⁄U ‚ ‚ê◊ÊÁŸÃ „UÙŸ ∑§Ë π’⁄U Á¡Ÿ ¬òÊ∑§Ê⁄UÙ¥ ∑§ ¬Ê‚ ¬„È¢UøË, fl •¬ŸÊ œ¢œÊ ’º‹∑§⁄U ¬Áé‹∑§ Á⁄U‹‡ÊŸ ◊¥ ¡Ê øÈ∑§ Õ– fl¡„U, •ë¿UË ¬òÊ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÃÊ ∑§⁄U∑§ ⁄UÙ¡ ∑§◊ÊŸ ∑§Ë ‚¢÷ÊflŸÊ∞¢ ˇÊËáÊ ‹ª ⁄U„UË ÕË¥ •ı⁄U ¬Áé‹∑§ Á⁄U‹‡ÊŸ ◊¥ ¬ÿʸåà ¬Ò‚Ê ÕÊ– fl ߸◊ÊŸºÊ⁄U Õ •ı⁄U ¡Ù ø‹ ⁄U„UÊ ÕÊ, ©U‚◊¥ ©U‚Ë ŸÊ◊ ‚ ¡ÊŸÊ ’„UÃ⁄U ‚◊¤Êà Ֆ fl ©UŸ‚ íÿÊºÊ ¬Ê⁄Uº‡Ê˸ Õ, ¡Ù ◊„UÊŸ ¬òÊ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÃÊ ∑§Ë ◊Ⱥ˝Ê ◊¥ ¬Áé‹∑§ Á⁄U‹‡ÊŸ ∑§Ê œ¢œÊ ∑§⁄U ⁄U„U „Ò¥U– ‹Á‹Ã ◊ÙºË „UÊ‹ ∑§ ‚’‚ ’«∏U ¬òÊ∑§Ê⁄U „Ò¥U– •ı⁄U, ÿ„U ‚Ê⁄UÊ Á„U‚Ê’-Á∑§ÃÊ’ ß‚ËÁ‹∞– ‹Á‹Ã ◊ÙºË Ÿ Á¡ÃŸ ≈˜UflË≈U Á∑§∞ fl π’⁄U ’Ÿ ª∞– Á¡ÃŸ »§Ù≈UÙ ¬ÙS≈U Á∑§∞, fl ¬Í¢¡Ë ∑§ ©Uã◊ûÊ π‹ ∑§Ê flÊSÃÁfl∑§ “S∑ͧ¬” ’Ÿ ª∞– fl πȺ ŸÊÿ∑§ „Ò¥U, πȺ ◊ÈπÁ’⁄U „Ò¥U, πȺ dÙà „Ò¥U, πȺ ‚¢flʺºÊÃÊ „Ò¥U, πȺ ¬˝∑§Ê‡Ê∑§-◊Ⱥ˝∑§‚¢¬Êº∑§ „Ò¥U •ı⁄U ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ∑§ •∑§’⁄U-¡„UÊ¢ªË⁄U ©UŸ∑§ dÙà ‚ ¬ÈŸ◊ȸº˝áÊ ∑§⁄U∑§ •¬ŸË-•¬ŸË ˇÊ◊ÃÊ •ı⁄U ∞¡¥«U ∑§ •ŸÈM§¬ œÈ•Ê¢œÊ⁄U ∑§⁄U ⁄U„U „Ò¥U– Grassroot Journalist Aug-Oct 2015 24
“•Ù¬ÁŸÿŸ ¡Ÿ¸Á‹í◊” ∑§Ê œ◊Ê‹ ◊øÊ „ÈU•Ê „ÒU– ‚’ ’ÃÊ ⁄U„U „Ò¥U Á∑§ º‡Ê ∑§Ê ÄÿÊ „UÙªÊ? •ı⁄U Áº‹øS¬ ÿ„U „ÒU Á∑§ øÊ„U º‚Ë ŸË⁄UÊ ⁄UÊÁ«UÿÊ ‹Ò’Ù⁄‘U≈U⁄UË „UÙ ÿÊ •ÊÿÊÁÃà ∞¡¥«UÊ »Ò§Ä≈U⁄UË, “»§Êߟゔ •ı⁄U “‹Ëª‹” - ºÙ ß‹Ê∑§ „Ò¥U Á¡Ÿ◊¥ ÷Ë·áÊ ⁄UÊ¡ŸÃÊ ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ∑§ ◊„UÊŸ Áfl‡Ê·ôÊÙ¥ ‚ ª‹’Á„UÿÊ¢ ∑§⁄Uà „ÈU∞ ⁄UÊc≈˛U ∑§Ë Áº‡ÊÊ ÁŸœÊ¸Á⁄Uà ∑§⁄UŸ ∑§Ë ∑§ÙÁ‡Ê‡Ê ∑§⁄Uà ÁºπÊ߸ ºÃ „Ò¥U– ¡Ù øË¡¥ ‚Ê‹Ù¥ ¬„U‹ ¬ÃÊ ÕË¥, fl ¬˝∑§≈U Ã’ „UÙÃË „Ò¥U, ¡’ Á∑§‚Ë ¬Ê≈¸Ÿ⁄U ∑§Ù ‚◊SÿÊ „UÙ ¡ÊÃË „ÒU– ÅÿÊßÊ◊ ∑˝§Ê¢ÁÃ∑§Ê⁄UË ≈UÊßÁ◊¢ª ÁŸœÊ¸Á⁄Uà ∑§⁄Uà „Ò¥U– fl ’ÃÊà „Ò¥U Á∑§ ∑§’, ÄÿÊ, ∑Ò§‚ ’˝∑§ ∑§⁄UŸÊ øÊÁ„U∞? „U◊Ê⁄‘U ¬˝ÅÿÊà ⁄UÊ¡ŸÃÊ-fl∑§Ë‹, Á∑§‚Ë ∑ȧÅÿÊà ∑§Ù ’øÊŸ ∑§Ê ∑§‚ „UË „UÊÕ ◊¥ ‹Ã „Ò¥U, Á∑§‚Ë ∑§Ù ‚¡Ê Áº‹ÊŸ ∑§ ◊Ê◊‹ ◊¥ ©UŸ∑§Ë Áº‹øS¬Ë √ÿÁÄêà ∞¡¥«U Ã∑§ „UË ‚ËÁ◊à ⁄U„UÃË „ÒU– ¬„U‹ ¬ºÊ¸ ÕÊ, •’ ÃÊÁ∑¸§∑§ ºÈS‚Ê„U‚ „ÒU– ∞∑§ ¬˝ÅÿÊà πÙ¡Ë ¬òÊ∑§Ê⁄U ∑§Ê ’ıÁh∑§ ◊‹Ê, ∞∑§ ∑ȧÅÿÊà ‡Ê⁄UÊ’ √ÿfl‚ÊÿË ∑§ »§Ê©¢U«U‡ÊŸ ∑§Ë ◊ºº ‚ ‚◊Îh „UÙ ⁄U„UÊ ÕÊ, ÿ„U Ã’ ¬ÃÊ ø‹Ê ¡’ fl ºÈÿÙ¸ªfl‡Ê √ÿÁÄêà øÁ⁄UòÊ ∑§ ◊Ê◊‹ ◊¥ »¢§‚ ª∞– flŸÊ¸ ◊‹Ê ÷Ë •Ê’ʺ ÕÊ •ı⁄U ∑˝§Ê¢Áà ∑§ ‚ÍòÊ ÃÙ •’ ÷Ë fl„UË ‚ Á‚¢Áøà „UÙ ⁄U„U „Ò¥U– ÃÙ, ÿ„U ÄÿÊ fl¡„U „ÒU Á∑§ ¬Í¢¡Ë ∑§Ù ∑§ÊŸÍŸË ∑§‹Ê•Ù¢ ‚ ¬˝SÃÈà ∑§⁄UŸ flÊ‹ •ÊÁÕ¸∑§ Áfl‡Ê·ôÊ ⁄UÊ¡ŸËÁà ∑§Ù ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ∑§ ‚Ê¤Ê ‚¢øÊ‹Ÿ ◊¥ ø‹Ê ¬Êà „Ò¥U? ∑ȧ¿U ø„U⁄UÙ¥ ∑§Ù fl„U ‡ÊÁÄà ∑Ò§‚ ¬˝Êåà „UÙ ¡ÊÃË „ÒU Á∑§ fl ‡Ê«KÍ‹ ’ŸÊ∑§⁄U π’⁄‘¥U •ı⁄U Áfl‡‹·áÊ ’Ù ¬Êà „Ò¥U, »§‚‹ π«∏UË ∑§⁄UflÊ ºÃ „Ò¥U •ı⁄U ©U‚ “⁄UÊc≈˛UËÿ Á„UÔ ∑§Ê ©Uà¬ÊºŸ SÕÊÁ¬Ã ∑§⁄Uà „Ò¥U– ∑Ò§‚ ¡Ù ‚ø◊Èø ߸◊ÊŸ ∑§ ∞¡¥«U ¬⁄U ⁄U„UŸÊ øÊ„Uà „Ò¥U ÿÊ ÃÙ ©UŸ∑§Ê ©U¬ÿÙª ∑§⁄UŸ ∑§Ë ∑§ÙÁ‡Ê‡Ê „UÙÃË „ÒU ÿÊ fl ◊¢Áº⁄U ∑§ Ÿ¢ºË ’ŸÊ∞ Áº∞ ¡Êà „Ò¥U? ß‚∑§Ê ©UûÊ⁄U “ÅÿÊÔ ◊¥ ¿ÈU¬Ê „ÒU– •Ê¬Ÿ ŸÙ≈U Á∑§ÿÊ „UÙªÊ Á∑§ ¡Ù ÷Ë ß‚ ªÙ⁄Uπœ¢œ ◊¥ „Ò¥U, fl ‚’ “ÅÿÊÔ „Ò¥U, ∑ȧÅÿÊà ÿÊ ÁflÅÿÊÖ ‚Á‹Á’˝≈UË S≈U≈U‚ ∑§ ÿ ø„U⁄‘U, ∞∑§ ¿UÙ≈U ‚ πÊ‚ ‚∑¸§‹ ◊¥ •ÊflÊ¡Ê„UË ∑§⁄Uà „Ò¥U– Á∑˝§∑§≈U, ⁄UÊ¡ŸËÁÃ, ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ, ©UlÙª-√ÿʬÊ⁄U ÿÊ ◊ŸÙ⁄¢U¡Ÿ ∑§ Ã◊Ê◊ ™¢§ø œ¢œÙ¥ ◊¥, •‹ª-•‹ª ◊Ⱥ˝Ê•Ù¢ ◊¥ ߟ∑§Ë ‚◊ÊŸ ©U¬ÁSÕÁà „ÒU– ß‚ Ã⁄U„U ‚ flÒøÊÁ⁄U∑§ ‚ûÊÊ ∑§ ⁄U‚ÍπºÊ⁄U ∑§ıŸ‚Ê ⁄¢Uª ø‹ŸÊ øÊÁ„U∞ ‚ ‹∑§⁄U, ∑§ıŸ‚Ë flÒøÊÁ⁄U∑§ ÷¢ª ¬Ë ¡ÊŸË øÊÁ„U∞ Ã∑§ ÁŸœÊ¸Á⁄Uà ∑§⁄UŸ ∑§Ê âòÊ ÁŸÁ◊¸Ã ∑§⁄Uà „Ò¥U– ÁflûÊËÿ M§¬ ‚ ‚»§‹, ¬„È¢Uø ∑§ SÃ⁄U ¬⁄U ÁŸcáÊÊÃ, ◊ÍÀÿÙ¥ ∑§ SÃ⁄U ¬⁄U ÁŸÿ¢ÃÊ ÃÕÊ ¬˝SÃÈÁÃ∑§⁄UáÊ ∑§ SÃ⁄U ¬⁄U ¬⁄U◊ ÃÊÁ∑¸§∑§– ß‚ ¬⁄U éÿÍ⁄UÙ∑˝§‚Ë ‚ ∑§Ê◊ ∑§⁄UÊŸ flÊ‹ ©U‚ Á⁄U≈UÊÿ«¸U ∑˝§Ê¢ÁÃ∑§Ê⁄UË ¡Ÿ¸Á‹S≈U ‚ ¬ÍÁ¿U∞ ¡Ù Ÿ∞ ºı⁄U ◊¥ ‚Ë•Ù•Ù “∑§Ê⁄U¬Ù⁄‘U≈U •»§ÿ‚¸” „UÙ ªÿÊ „ÒU– ©U‚ •∑§‹ ◊¥ ◊ÊÄ‚¸flÊºË øÍ⁄UŸ »§Ê¢∑§Ã „ÈU∞ Á◊‹Ÿ ¬⁄U ¬ÃÊ ø‹ªÊ Á∑§ ‹Á‹Ã ◊ÙºË ∞∑§ “Á»§ŸÊÚÁ◊ŸÊ” „ÒU •ı⁄U ©U‚∑§ ‹ÊÁ‹àÿ ∑§Ê •ÊŸ¢º ∑§„UÊ¢-∑§„UÊ¢ ¿UÊÿÊ „ÈU•Ê „ÒU– π’⁄‘¥U å‹Ê¢≈U ∑§⁄UÊŸ ◊¥ Áfl‡Ê·ôÊÃÊ ∑§ ÄUà ∑§ß¸ ◊„Uàfl¬Íáʸ SÕ‹Ù¥ ¬⁄U •ÊflÊ¡Ê„UË ∑§Ë ÉÊÙÁ·Ã Á◊‚Ê‹ ∞∑§ ‚îÊŸ Ÿ Á¬¿U‹ ÁºŸÙ¥ ∑§„UÊ, “•Ê«UflÊáÊË ∑§ ºÈπ ◊¥ fl ‚ÈπË „Ò¥U ¡Ù ◊ÙºË ∑§ ‚Èπ ◊¥ ºÈπË „Ò¥U– ‚Ê⁄UÊ ‚≈˜U≈UÊ ∞∑§ ∑§ ºÈπ •ı⁄U ºÍ‚⁄‘U ∑§ ‚Èπ ¬⁄U ‹ªÊ „ÒU–” ÿ„U ∑§Ê¢ª˝‚Ë ß◊¡¸ã‚Ë ¬⁄U Áfl◊‡Ê¸ ∑§Ê ‚àÿ ÕÊ– ¡ÊÁ„U⁄U „ÒU, flÒøÊÁ⁄U∑§ Áfl‡Ê·ôÊ íÿÊºÊ πÃ⁄UŸÊ∑§ „UÙà „Ò¥U, fl øÊ„¥U ÃÙ ∑¢§’ÙÁ«UÿÊ ∑§Ù ’¢ª‹Êº‡Ê ∑§ ªÊ¢fl ∑§Ë œ◊¸‡ÊÊ‹Ê ‚ÊÁ’à ∑§⁄U∑§ øÁ∑§Ã ∑§⁄U ‚∑§Ã „Ò¥U– ß‚Á‹∞ ‹Á‹Ã ◊ÙºË ¬Í⁄UÊ •ÊŸ¢º ‹ ⁄U„U „Ò¥U– Á¡‚∑§ „U◊Ê◊ ∑§Ê º⁄UflÊ¡Ê ≈ÍU≈UÃÊ „ÒU, ©U‚∑§Ë ‚À»§Ë ÁŸ∑§‹ •ÊÃË „ÒU– ◊Êß∑§‹ ⁄UÙ¡Ÿé‹◊ Ÿ ∑§„UÊ „ÒU, ¡Ÿ¸Á‹S≈U πà◊ „ÈU•Ê– ‚’‚ ’«∏UË „UÙ≈U‹ ∑¢§¬ŸË ∑§ ¬Ê‚ ∞∑§ ∑§◊⁄UÊ •¬ŸÊ Ÿ„UË¥, ‚’‚ ’«∏UË ≈ÒUÄ‚Ë ∑¢§¬ŸË ∑§ ¬Ê‚ ∞∑§ ≈ÒUÄ‚Ë •¬ŸË Ÿ„UË¥– •Êª ‚ÈŸ¥ª, ‚’‚ ’«∏UË ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ∑¢§¬ŸË ∑§ ¬Ê‚ •¬ŸÊ ∑§Ù߸ ¡Ÿ¸Á‹S≈U Ÿ„UË¥– ÿ„U ◊Ù’Êß‹ ∑§Ë ‚ÍøŸÊ-ÁflS»§Ù≈U ˇÊ◊ÃÊ ∑§ ‚¢º÷¸ ◊¥ ÁºÿÊ ªÿÊ ’ÿÊŸ ÕÊ– ¡’ •Á÷√ÿÁÄà ∑§ ¬„U⁄‘UºÊ⁄U „UÙŸ ∑§Ë ¬˝ÁÃcΔUÊ ÷Ë øÊÁ„U∞ „UÙªË •ı⁄U ◊ÈŸÊ»§ ∑§ ∞¡¥«U ∑§Ë Á‚ÄÿÍÁ⁄U≈UË ∞¡ã‚Ë ∑§Ê ◊ÊÁ‹∑§ÊŸÊ „U∑§ ÷Ë Ã’ Á‚»¸§ ‹Ëª‹ ∞«UflÊß¡⁄U, »§Êߟ¥‚ ∞Ä‚¬≈¸U, ¬ÊÚÁ‹Á≈U∑§‹ ‹ÊÚÁ’S≈U •ı⁄U ‚Á‹Á’˝≈UË ¡Ÿ¸Á‹S≈U ∑§Ê ‚Ê◊ÍÁ„U∑§ •ÊÅÿÊŸ „UË ‹Á‹Ã ∑§Ê ‹ÊÁ‹àÿ ÁŸÁ◊¸Ã ∑§⁄U ¬Ê∞ªÊ– ‚Ê¢¬-Ÿfl‹ ∑§ π‹ ∑§Ê ¤ÊÊ¢‚Ê º∑§⁄U º¢Ã ◊¢¡Ÿ ’øŸÊ ÁŸÁ‡øà „UË ∞∑§ ∑§‹Ê „ÒU– ‹Á∑§Ÿ ¡ŸÃÊ ∑§Ë flÒøÊÁ⁄U∑§ ‚ûÊÊ ¬⁄U ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ÿ„U ºÊ¢fl ∑Ò§‚ π‹ ‚∑§ÃÊ „ÒU? ÿ„U •ÊflÊ⁄UÊ ¬Í¢¡Ë ‚ ¬Í¿UÙ– ¡Ÿ¬Õ, ⁄UÊ¡¬Õ •ı⁄U ‹ÙœË ªÊ«¸UŸ, ‚ ¬Í¿UÙ! ÷Í‹ ‚ ÷Ë, ©¢UªÁ‹ÿÙ¥ ‚ ◊Ù’Êß‹ ¬ÙS≈U ©Uª‹Ã, »§Ê◊¸ „UÊ©U‚Ù¥ ◊¥ ¬˝fløŸ ∑§⁄Uà ∑˝§Ê¢ÁÃ∑§Ê⁄UË ÁÕ¢∑§⁄U ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ©USÃʺ ‚ Ÿ ¬Í¿UÙ! fl„U Ÿ∞ Áfl‡fl ∑§Ë ⁄UøŸÊ ◊¥ äflSà „ÒU– ¡ŸÃÊ ©U‚‚ ◊ÈÁÄà ∑§Ë ¬˝ÃˡÊÊ ∑§⁄‘U! grassrootjournalist@gmail.com
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Aug-Oct 2015
Grassroot Journalist
Indication
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Friday APRIL 2015
Pulitzer Winners quit Journalism , PR industry is the winner POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
BY JIM TANKERSLEY, CHRIS ISIDORE AND AFP
Journalism is good.Pulitzer award is great. But, PR industry is sucking up winning journalists.Your journalistic job options are dwindling. If you hold on to one, your wages probably aren’t keeping pace with inflation. But public relations is growing, and the pay there is, too. Is this the future of real newsman? 22 APR 2015. Source: washingtonpost.com,wmur.com,manilatimes.net The Pulitzer Prize is journalism’s top award, a celebration of all that is good about the profession. Chris Isidore of wmure.com writes , this year it also highlights how hard it is to make a living in local news.As the education reporter at the Daily Breeze in Torrance, California, Kuznia wrote an investigative piece that revealed excessive pay for a local school superintendent of a small, cash-strapped district, as well as other misconduct. The story prompted a federal investigation. But Kuznia left the paper in August, after 15 years in the business. “I was able to pay the rent. But I wasn’t able to save anything. A house was a pipe dream,” said Kuznia. “It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just the way it was.” Kuznia started the Daily Breeze in 2010 and he said that soon thereafter the newsroom was forced to take a 5.5% pay cut. In subsequent years, his pay stayed put while the cost of his benefits kept going up. “It’s the kind of thing if I was in my 20’s I would have been OK with. But I was approaching 40, so it was scary,” he said. He got a raise after his award-winning investigation was published, but that only brought him back to his starting salary. While he speaks highly of his editors and colleagues at the paper, he worried about the future of a small local newspapers, especially when even major national papers like the New York Times and USA Today are struggling financially and dealing with layoffs. The Daily Breeze “was viable as a job, but not viable as a place you would retire from,” he said. He first looked for jobs at bigger media outlets without any luck. He’s now working in public relations for the Shoah Foundation at the University of Southern California, which is dedicated to collecting and distributing video interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides. “When the offer came my way, I couldn’t pass up. Not because I was getting a huge raise, but because it’s a laudable organization that’s doing interesting work and significant work,” he said. But he’s still open to journalism job offers. Jim Tankersley of washingtonpost.com observes, These are signs of the collapse of the business model for regional news outlets and of the forces pulling on journalists outside a few insulated cities. They are the reasons why, when it
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came to light this week that two new winners of the Pulitzer Prize had left their medium-sized newspapers for careers in PR, no one should have been surprised. If you want a reporting job today, your best bet is to move to D.C., L.A. or New York. They were home to almost one in every five reporting jobs in 2014, up from one in eight in 2004. Anywhere else, your journalistic job options are dwindling. If you hold on to one, your wages probably aren’t keeping pace with inflation. But public relations is growing, and the pay there is, too. So if you want to keep living and working in, say, Portland, the incentives are pushing hard for you to make a jump. Of the four reporters who won the public service Pulitzer for the Oregonian in 2001, two have left journalism – one for a government communications job, one to teach journalism to college students. It’s hard to count how many of the other reporters who were doing high-value work back then at the paper – which gave me my first job out of college, in 2000 – have also left the business. “I’ve joked that every government spokesman job in Oregon is held by a former Oregonian reporter,” the paper’s former editor, Peter Bhatia, who is now a professor of journalism ethics at Arizona State University, told me this week. “It’s not that far off.” AFP reports, in another interview on the Shoah Foundation website, Kuznia ruled out a return to his former profession, and expressed satisfaction in working on “global issues of the highest magnitude,” such as the fight against genocide and for greater tolerance. “I’m very excited to be playing on a bigger stage,” Kuznia said. The Pulitzer committee, in announcing the award, hailed the Daily Breeze’s “inquiry into widespread corruption in a small, cash-strapped school district, including impressive use of the paper’s website.” First awarded in 1917, Pulitzer Prizes honor work published by US news organizations, or of American authors and composers. By Jim Tankersley, Chris Isidore and AFP
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Monday APRIL 2015
How not to use ‘anonymous sources’ POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
BY : PRASHANT REDDY THIKKAVARAPU , SOURCE : THEHOOT.ORG
Can you create a whole story without quoting a single source on the record ? 3 stories, 1 target and 25 points against a person entirely based on “anonymous” sources is a job of gossip compilation or political story ? Prashant R T analyses outlook cover story on THE HOOT *Apr 18 18:17:29, 2015*A Hatchet Job on Smriti Irani. In cases where an individual is speaking out against a powerful government or corporation, the media may be ethically justified to use anonymous sources if there is a danger to the life of the source and also provided that the allegations are corroborated by documentary evidence or other persons who are willing to go on record. There is a thick red line drawing the boundaries between gossip and political reporting. Outlook appears to have been completely blind to this distinction when it published its recent cover story on Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani. outlook.coverThe cover piece was basically about the decline of her political fortunes and was a collection of three stories and an interview. The main story, by Saba Naqvi, reported on the perception of Irani from within the BJP. The two accompanying pieces by Mihir Srivastava and Prathna Gahilote reported on how the bureaucracy and RSS perceived Irani’s performance and future. Theinterview of Madhu Kishwar on Smriti Irani was conducted by Uttam Sengupta. Cumulatively, these three different pieces quoted or cited anonymous sources on 25 different occasions and almost all the sources were critical of Irani. In fact, the pieces are constructed from gossip provided by only anonymous sources; there isn’t a single source speaking on the record. Strangely, the reporters did not even think it necessary to explain why the sources chose to remain anonymous. It would perhaps have been a different story if all these anonymous sources were complimenting Irani but it is clear from the quotes in the three stories that the sources were criticising Irani. Apparently, these three journalists and their editor saw nothing wrong running
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an entire cover story based on purely anonymous sources. Is this ethical reporting? Last year, I wrote in The Hoot about how several journalists threw journalistic ethics and propriety to the wind when they fell over each other to report, on the basis of entirely anonymous government sources, the supposed antics of Gopal Subramaniam. The aim then was to scuttle, at any cost, Gopal Subramaniam’s appointment to the Supreme Court and the media was only too glad to be used as the executioner by the government. Is it ethical to expect a person to properly defend himself against allegations, without revealing to him the details of the person making the allegation against him? No it isn’t. Reporting is about informing readers about facts and in order for readers to form an opinion they need to know the source of the facts. In the interests of greater transparency in journalism, anonymous reporting should be the exception and not the rule and should be resorted to only when the information can be corroborated by a source willing to go on record, or by documentary evidence. As taught to even cub reporters in the West, in no situation should a reporter rely on quotes from anonymous sources to criticize a person. It is very likely that such an anonymous source has his or her own agenda. If at all reporters have to resort to anonymous sources, they should explain to readers the reason why the source chose to be anonymous. In cases where an individual is speaking out against a powerful government or corporation, the media may be ethically justified to use anonymous sources if there is a danger to the life of the source and also provided that the allegations are corroborated by documentary evidence or other persons who are willing to go on record. To attack an individual, however, on the basis of anonymous sources is simply unethical. *ANONYMOUS 25 Excerpts from the anonymous sources in Outlook’s cover story are reproduced below: Smriti, A Fading Memory? (by Saba Naqvi) 1.
For one, well-placed sources reveal that she wouldn’t stand up to greet BJP veteran (and the very polite) Union home minister Rajnath Singh; she would keep sitting in her chair.
2.
There is also the story of a verbal cat fight inside the national headquarters of the BJP with another woman leader and an older account of Smriti pushing out a woman who had come to a Mahila Morcha meeting when she was in charge.
3.
An important BJP member also tells a more recent tale of writing to two ministries on a matter involving women. There was no reply from the HRD ministry though the home ministry sent a prompt letter.
4.
Says a BJP insider, “If she thinks someone may not be important in the larger scheme of things she will not give time. If she imagines someone is against her, she will sometimes not greet him or her. But till now in internal meetings or public rallies where the prime minister was present, she would carry herself like the queen bee of the proceedings. That is why people are quite pleased that Amitbhai has kicked her out of the national executive.”
5.
A member of the NE told Outlook , “Many people at the meeting won29
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dered if Smriti had just had a tantrum and taken her temper out on Fabindia since she can’t shout at Amit Shah and throw files at him.” 6.
A senior BJP leader puts it quite bluntly, “She is very charismatic, bright and hard-working. But she seems to love a fight and that is something that is not required in peacetime. She seems to like controversy as it keeps her in the news. But her PR is so bad. Instead of charming people who come to meet her, she makes them uncomfortable. She is talented, so we are hoping to get her to change her ways.”
7.
“A group from IIT which went to meet her in the avatar of HRD minister had this to tell: the minister declared at least “seven times” that she was not illiterate. She was somewhat offensive, said one of the members, as she had perhaps decided that offence was the best form of defence.
8.
Says a woman leader from the BJP, “Smriti has also been the butt of sexist barbs and comments in Parliament and under normal circumstances we should all have been rallying around her. But the problem is that she does not seem to like most of us, so some of us would not dare to commiserate with her.”
9.
“The problem in Smriti’s approach to politics,” says a BJP insider, “for which she has the talent and the ambition, is that she has found it necessary to seek godfathers, and if they don’t exist, to invent an imaginary closeness to powerful male figures.” No Jotting, the Babu Has Left the Building (by Mihir Shrivastava)
10.
“She was made minister with a cabinet rank as she was thought to be amenable to both the BJP agenda and that of the RSS,” says an RSS ideologue. “Our agenda is not the same as Modi’s. Smriti was seen as a neat compromise.”
11.
“She is defensive and reactive, both at the same time,” says a joint secretary who’s trying hard to evolve some kind of a working relationship with Smriti. “She’s also a bad listener. She should realise that the HRD ministry is a complicated maze. There are so many hallowed institutions, the IITs, IIMs, UGC etc with their own philosophy and work ethics. They are all manned by learned people. There is much to learn before you start to act.”
12.
“She is articulate, smart and has a quick wit and is intelligent enough to know that she knows little about what she’s dealing with,” explains a vice-chancellor of a central university in northern India. That said, she’s quick to assert an “I know” even when she doesn’t get it. Also, if one tries to instil an idea into her head, or explain anything new, she’s quick to retort, “I know my work” or a “This is not your classroom, this is my ministry”.
13.
Another director-level officer empathises with her, “Her job is not easy. She has to work with the bureaucracy that in turn deals with academia. Sure, the wise old heads of academia have a big ego, but she has an even bigger ego. She is, after all, the government.”
14.
A V-C who is well into his 60s hits the nail on its head. “I thought of her as a breath of fresh air. Her predecessor from NDA-I, Murli Manohar Joshi, a professor of physics in Allahabad University and my contemporary, arguably was the worst HRD minister India has seen. But now I feel Smriti is giving even him tough competition. Ignorance is not always bliss,” he says.
15.
Another senior HRD ministry official is so fed up he’s thinking of going
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back to his home cadre. “She is fairly democratic in her rudeness,” he laughs, “it doesn’t matter if the person is head of a coveted institution or an undersecretary.” In one instance, she is alleged to have thrown a file at an additional secretary-rank officer at a meeting. Later, she apparently apologised to him, saying it was her wedding anniversary and she was “tense”, even telling him she would “restore his honour”. He, instead, sought a transfer. 16.
The tone and tenor of her parlance with ministry functionaries has often been described as unparliamentary. “The PMO knows it,” says another joint secretary in the HRD ministry who has applied to go back to the home cadre, “I hope they do something about it.” A Matter of Orientation (by Prarthna Gahilote)
17.
Sources confirm that she’s “on her way out from the Union cabinet” and “very soon”.
18.
Sources close to the Sangh leadership in Nagpur say, “Smriti Irani clearly lacks basic understanding of the ideological concerns on the issue of education. She doesn’t know how important the HRD ministry is for the Sangh. In fact, for the Sangh, the HRD is the most important of all ministries.”
19.
“There’s no doubt the Sangh leadership was unha¬ppy with Smritiji and how she was running the HRD ministry. The last straw actually came last month, when Kakodkarji had to quit from his post because of her. That was unacceptable to the RSS,” a source said.
20.
Sources confirm that the RSS leadership had been receiving constant complaints about Smriti’s behaviour too. “She was rude, oppressive and bossy without any knowledge or information on most issues,” says a leader. It is said that even senior RSS officials who met her had gone back with a “poor impression of the minister”.
21.
Bureaucrats with Sangh sympathies, too, had similar tales to report to the RSS bosses. She would “pick and dump at will”, preferred to “humiliate” senior officers, VCs, academics and experts “in public”.
22.
Moreover, the Sangh found her “slow and lacking in pushing the RSS agenda in education” as agreed upon between the RSS and the government. Sources confirm that RSS has conveyed its assessment of Smriti to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP president.
23.
Party sources confirmed that Smriti’s claim of being close to the PM has upset even Amit Shah, the BJP chief, who sources say had warned the PM, and had also taken it badly when she said Shah had taken advantage of Modi’s absence from the country to expel her from the BJP national executive.
24.
While many in the BJP dismissed the incident as her “old ways of seeking attention”, the RSS listed it as “yet another despicable attempt by Smriti to court unnecessary controversy”.
25.
A source told Outlook “her cabinet rank has gone to her head and that needs to be fixed. We can do without these theatrics”.
By : PRASHANT REDDY THIKKAVARAPU , Source : thehoot.org
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Tuessday AUGUST 2015
..So believe it is the only intelligent newspaper POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
The Indian Express’ new ad would have been more impressive if it didn’t talk down to readers. Rajyasree Sen posted A note on Advertisements by newspapers in Newslaundry.com on Jul 24, 2015. The King is dead, Long live the King. Or in The Indian Express’ case – The Newspaper is Dead, Long Live the Newspaper (ergo, The Indian Express). Indian Express yesterday released its new, very slickly made black and white ad. There’s no dialogue or voiceover in the ad. Just images, with words superimposed on them. It does make for interesting viewing. Starting with a newspaper floating in rainwater, the ad proclaims that first off, we should accept that the newspaper is dead, long before the 9/11 attacks or Twitter came around to announce revolutions taking place. The newspaper had – according to the ad – died when people started watching the news real-time on television. It had become “cold leftovers served with breakfast the next morning”. But before we could start weeping into our breakfast cereal, the ad held out a ray of hope to us. It said: The IE was never a newspaper. It was a vision, to be brave honest and responsible. To bring out not just the heat, but also the light. Because we talk to the Indian who wants to question the answers (shot for some reason on a group of Indians who look like they think they live in Soho, but are actually from Bandra. Seeming to only want to question whether to buy drainpipe trousers or get another tattoo.) The Indian who might be blunt, but is never pointless. Who wants truth more than trivia. The Indian who doesn’t just close arguments, but opens minds. Indian Express. For the Indian Intelligent Therefore, the obverse being that if you didn’t read The Indian Express, you
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weren’t part of the Indian Intelligent. Which is when I looked down at my copies of Hindustan Times and The Times Of India, picked up my butter knife and tried to slash my wrist to no avail. Could it be, that I was not part of the Indian Intelligent? What an unexpected condemnation. I understand that Indian Express is at least trying to stand apart from other newspapers, by not attacking the competition. But is insulting potential readers instead, the wisest move? The consumer as Ogilvy told us way back in the day, is not an idiot. So it’s wise not to call him one. Of course, IE isn’t the only newspaper to call readers idiots if they aren’t choosing to read the paper being advertised. The Hindu had done it as well, when it had released its Stay Ahead Of The Times television commercials. The TV commercials instead of insulting TOI, ended up insulting readers of the TOI. Intellectual snobbery is fine and dandy, but how does it help to show people that they are idiots? And honestly, going by the pick of the lobotomised litter shown in the ad, nothing short of an intensive course in general knowledge will help them. Also, if you think people are so stupid, do you even want them to read your “intellectual” newspaper? Hindu’s print ads for the same campaign had been far better at the time, though. They had attacked the newspaper which was irking The Hindu then, instead of that newspaper’s readers. It was subtle and very on the ball, with each of its digs against TOI being based on fact. After all, why blame the reader for the sins of the newspaper which he/she is reading? The Times Of India ad which had been released before the Hindu campaign should actually be commended for not trying to position TOI as the answer to all things cerebral. It simply said what a lot of people feel about The Hindu or The Statesman. That while they may be intellectual, they are also sure-shot ways of putting you to sleep. TOI more recently made a hero of the reader for its Mumbai edition. Being funny, or serious without being condescending, usually helps. The paper which got it spot-on, without taking a dig at competitors or readers, was Mumbai Mirror which is sadly from the stable ofThe Times Of India. But it did what an ad by a newspaper which knows it has its reporting down pat, should do. Highlight its strengths without pulling down others, or even acknowledging the competition. TOI may know little about serious journalism – but they do know their audience. And seem to know that telling their potential audience that they’re dumbkopfs is hardly the way to win readers. Also, while the look and feel of the Indian Express ad was eye-catching, much like MF Hussain’s Meenaxi, it would have helped if the content was gripping as well and based ever so slightly on fact. Especially, if you’re a newspaper for the Indian Intelligent. Ever since satellite television entered India, readers with access to television, don’t read newspapers for real-time reporting. They read the papers for in-depth analysis of events, opinion pieces, and more detailed commentary than is possible in a news bulletin. If Indian Express feels they’re the only ones providing these add-ons, more fool them. Speaking of add-ons of commentary and opinion and gatekeeping and newsworthiness, the claim of being for the Indian Intelligent would be slightly more palatable if Indian Express showed some circumspection in their columnists and what they dish out to us every weekend. For example, it’s a slight insult to my intelligence to have to read a column such as An Alphabet For India by “Lord” Meghnad Desai. Our school newspaper would have refused to publish 33
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Grassroot Journalist
something so childish. Or this one, by Tavleen Singh about her “street people friends”, which reeks of elitism and the same old Congress-and slightly new Modi-bashing. And these are just two examples that have been occupying prime real estate for years. If there’s one thing that remains constant in Indian Express, it’s their columnists. Whether or not their readers like them. A newspaper which is expressing that it’s more than a newspaper because it doesn’t just report events – needs to at least try and bring in some new thought in its editorial decisions. Otherwise its tall claim has little standing. Yet, IE’s columnists remain unchanged, writing anything that comes to their mind, because not only are they the Indian Intelligent, they’ve also been around for so long. Much like squatters in West Bengal who make the most of the West Bengal Tenancy Act, if you stick around on any real estate for long enough, no one can oust you from it. But maybe I’m expecting too much. I give Indian Express full points for not taking a dig at other newspapers, but the ad would have been more impressive if it didn’t talk down to readers. Maybe the Express should get off its high horse, leaf through Ogilvy On Advertising and then hire TOI’s ad agency. Instead of inferring that we are the Indian Idiot if we aren’t reading the newspaper, which isn’t really a newspaper. The author can be reached on Twitter @rajyasree Original link to this story : http://www.newslaundry.com/2015/0
‚’∑§Ê ◊ÊÁ‹∑§ ∞∑§ ¬«U ãÿÍ¡ ∑§Ù ⁄UÙ∑§Ÿ ∑§ Á‹∞ wÆvÆ ◊¥ ‚’Ë Ÿ ∞∑§ ◊ʪ¸º‡Ê¸∑§ Á‚hʢà ’ŸÊÿÊ– ©U‚∑§ •ÊœÊ⁄U ¬⁄U ÁŸº¸‡Ê Áº∞ Á∑§ ¡Ù ∑¢§¬ÁŸÿÊ¢ ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ‚ ‚◊¤Êıà ∑§⁄UÃË „Ò¥U, ©Uã„¥U ©‚∑§Ê πÈ‹Ê‚Ê ∑§⁄UŸÊ øÊÁ„U∞– ©U‚∑§ ÁŸº¸‡Ê ∑§Ù ’«∏U ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ÉÊ⁄UÊŸÙ¥ Ÿ •√ÿÊfl„UÊÁ⁄U∑§ ’ÃÊ∑§⁄U πÊÁ⁄U¡ ∑§⁄U ÁºÿÊ „ÒU– ¬òÊ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÃÊ •Áœ∑§Ã◊ ¬Ê⁄UºÁ‡Ê¸ÃÊ ∑§Ê ¬ÿʸÿ „ÒU– ¬«U ãÿÍ¡ Ÿ ©U‚ ÄUπÊŸ ∑§ •ôÊÊà ⁄U„USÿ ◊¥ ’º‹ ÁºÿÊ „ÒU– ¡’ ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ∑§Ù •¬Ÿ ’Ê⁄‘U ◊¥ ’„ÈUà ∑ȧ¿U Á¿U¬ÊŸÊ „UÙ ÃÙ ∑Ò§‚ ÿ„U ©Uê◊˺ ∑§Ë ¡Ê ‚∑§ÃË „ÒU Á∑§ fl„U SflâòÊ •ı⁄U ÁŸc¬ˇÊ π’⁄‘¥U ºªÊ– ÿ„UË fl„U ◊Í‹ ‚flÊ‹ „ÒU, ¡Ù ¬«U ãÿÍ¡ ‚ ¡È«∏UÊ „ÈU•Ê „ÒU •ı⁄U Á¡‚ ¬⁄U •¢∑ȧ‡Ê Ÿ„UË¥ ‹ª ¬Ê ⁄U„UÊ „ÒU, ’ÁÀ∑§ ©U‚∑§Ê ÉÊŸÊ •¢œ∑§Ê⁄U ⁄UÙ¡ ’…∏UÃÊ ¡Ê ⁄U„UÊ „ÒU– ß‚◊¥ ∞∑§ ŸÿÊ ¬„U‹Í ¡È«∏U ªÿÊ „ÒU, Á¡‚∑§ ’Ê⁄‘U ◊¢ vw •ªSÃ, wÆvy ∑§Ù ≈˛UÊ߸ Ÿ Á⁄U¬Ù≈¸U ºË– ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ◊¥ ◊ÊÁ‹∑§ÊŸÊ „U∑§ ∑§ ’Ê⁄‘U ◊¥ ÿ„U Á⁄U¬Ù≈¸U „ÒU– ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ◊¥ ◊ÊÁ‹∑§ÊŸÊ SflM§¬ ÄÿÊ „UÙ? ÿ„U ’„ÈUà ¬È⁄UÊŸÊ •ı⁄U ∑§„U ‚∑§Ã „Ò¥U Á∑§ •ÊÁº◊ ‚flÊ‹ „ÒU, ‹Á∑§Ÿ ≈˛UÊ߸ ∑§Ë Á⁄U¬Ù≈¸U ß‚∑§ ◊„UÊ‚¢∑§≈U ∑§Ù ‚◊¤ÊÊÃË „ÒU– fl„U ÿ„U „ÒU Á∑§ ÄÿÊ ∞∑§ „UË ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ÉÊ⁄UÊŸ ∑§Ù •π’Ê⁄U, øÒŸ‹, ߢ≈U⁄UŸ≈U, ⁄‘UÁ«UÿÙ •ÊÁº ‚÷Ë ¬˝∑§Ê⁄U ∑§Ù ø‹ÊŸ ∑§Ê •Áœ∑§Ê⁄U „UÙŸÊ øÊÁ„U∞? •ª⁄U ß‚∑§Ë ß¡Ê¡Ã ºË ¡ÊÃË „ÒU ÃÙ ∞∑§ÊÁœ∑§Ê⁄U ∑§ πÃ⁄‘U ’…∏U ¡Êà „Ò¥U– fl ß‚ ‚◊ÿ ÁºπÊ߸ ¬«∏U ⁄U„U „Ò¥U– ∞∑§ÊÁœ∑§Ê⁄U ∑§ ºÙ √ÿÊfl„UÊÁ⁄U∑§ ¬ˇÊ „Ò¥U– ¬„U‹Ê π’⁄U ÁºπÊŸ ‚ ‚¢’¢ÁœÃ „ÒU– ºÍ‚⁄‘U ∑§Ê ‚¢’¢œ ©U‚∑§ ÁflÃ⁄UáÊ ‚ „ÒU– •ª⁄U ߟ ºÙŸÙ¥ ¬⁄U ÕÙ«∏U ‚ ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ÉÊ⁄UÊŸ ∑§Ê ∑§é¡Ê „UÙ ¡ÊÃÊ „ÒU ÃÙ fl •¬ŸË ◊Ÿ◊¡Ë¸ ‚ π’⁄‘¥U ÁºπÊ∞¢ª •ı⁄U ©U‚ ÁflÃÁ⁄Uà ∑§⁄‘¥Uª– Á»§⁄U ÃÙ ÁflÁflœÃÊ ∑§Ê ‹Ù¬ „UÙ ¡Ê∞ªÊ– ‹Ù∑§Ã¢òÊ ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ∑§ ∞∑§Ã¢òÊ ◊¥ ¬Á⁄UflÁøà „UÙ ‚∑§ÃÊ „ÒU– ∞‚Ë ÁSÕÁà ◊¥ ¬«U ãÿÍ¡ ∞∑§ÊÁœ∑§Ê⁄UË ÉÊ⁄UÊŸ ∑§Ë ⁄UÙ¡◊⁄Uʸ ∑§Ë flSÃÈ „UÙ ¡Ê∞ªÊ– ¡Ù¡Ù ©UºÊ„U⁄UáÊ ¬˝∑§≈U „UÙ ⁄U„U „Ò¥U, ©U‚‚ ∞∑§ „UË ÁŸc∑§·¸ ÁŸ∑§Ê‹Ê ¡Ê ‚∑§ÃÊ „ÒU Á∑§ ¬« ãÿÍ¡ ∑§Ê ºÊŸfl ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ◊¥ ÁflÁflœÃÊ •ı⁄U ’„ÈU‹ÃÊ ∑§Ù ÁŸª‹ÃÊ ¡Ê ⁄U„UÊ „ÒU– ß‚ ’Ê⁄‘U ◊¥ ≈˛UÊ߸ ∑§Ë Á⁄U¬Ù≈¸U •Ê¢π πÙ‹Ÿ flÊ‹Ë „ÒU– ‚⁄U∑§Ê⁄U ∑§ ⁄Á¡S≈U⁄U ◊¥ ∞∑§ ‹Êπ •π’Ê⁄U, ¬òÊ-¬ÁòÊ∑§Ê∞¢ º¡¸ „Ò¥U– ‚Ò∑§«∏UÙ¥ øÒŸ‹ „Ò¥U, ‹Á∑§Ÿ ≈˛UÊ߸ Ÿ •¬Ÿ •äÿÿŸ ‚ ¡Ù ©U¡Êª⁄U Á∑§ÿÊ „ÒU, fl„U Á∑§ÃŸÊ πı»§ŸÊ∑§ „ÒU– fl„U ÿ„U Á∑§ ∑§⁄UË’ v} ◊ËÁ«UÿÊ ÉÊ⁄UÊŸ „UË „Ò¥U, ¡Ù ¿UÊ∞ „ÈU∞ „Ò¥– fl ∑§fl‹ ’Ê¡Ê⁄U ¬⁄U „UË ¿UÊ∞ Ÿ„UË¥ „Ò¥U, ©UŸ∑§Ê ¬˝÷Êfl ÁflSÃÊ⁄U •Ÿ¢Ã ÁºπÃÊ „ÒU– ∞‚Ë ÁSÕÁà ◊¥ ‹Ù∑§Ã¢òÊ •Ê∑§Ê‡Ê ∑§Ê ÄÿÊ „U٪ʖ -⁄UÊ◊ ’„UʺÈ⁄U ⁄UÊÿ
Grassroot Journalist Aug-Oct 2015 34
Experience
18
Tuesday June 2015
’«∏Ë ’˝Á∑§¥ª ãÿÍ¡∏ ∑‘§ ¬ÒŒ‹ ‚ÒÁŸ∑§ POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
¬˝ËÃË‡Ê Ÿ¢ºË
BY PRITISH NANDY
Á∑§‚Ë ª‹Ã ∑§Ê◊ ∑§Ê ¬„‹Ê ‚¥∑‘§Ã „ÙÃË ÕË »È‚»È‚Ê„≈U, ¡Ù Á∑§‚Ë ’˝Á∑§¥ª ãÿÍ¡∏ ∑§Ë •Ù⁄U ߇ÊÊ⁄UÊ ∑§⁄UÃË ÕË– ©g‡ÿ ¬Í⁄UÊ „Ùà „Ë ªÊÚÁ‚¬ ªÊÿ’ „Ù ¡ÊÃÊ ÕÊ– ß‚ ßÁÄʂ ∑§Ë Á∑§ÃÊ’Ù¥ ◊¥ ¡ª„ Ÿ„Ë¥ Á◊‹Ë, Ÿ „Ë ß‚ ∑§÷Ë ∑§Ù߸ üÊÿ Á◊‹Ê– flÒ‚ „Ë ¡Ò‚ ‹«∏Ê߸ πà◊ „ÙŸ ∑‘§ ’ÊŒ ‚ÒÁŸ∑§ ’Ò⁄U∑§Ù¥ ◊¥ ‹ı≈U ¡Êà „Ò¥, ¡’Á∑§ •Áœ∑§Ê⁄UË ¡Ëà ∑§Ë πÈÁ‡ÊÿÊ¥ ◊ŸÊŸ ‹ªÃ „Ò¥–
ÃË‚ ‚Ê‹ ¬„‹ ¬òÊ∑§Ê⁄U ∑‘§ M§¬ ◊¥ ∑§ÚÁ⁄U•⁄U ‡ÊÈM§ ∑§⁄UŸ ∑‘§ Á‹∞ ◊Ò¥ ’ÊÚê’ •ÊÿÊ ÕÊ– ÿ„Ê¥ •Ê∑§⁄U ‚’‚ ¬„‹ ◊È¤Ê ªÊÚÁ‚¬ ∑§Ë •„Á◊ÿà ∑§Ê ¬ÃÊ ø‹Ê– ◊Ò¥Ÿ ∑§÷Ë ß‚ ŸËøË ÁŸªÊ„Ù¥ ‚ Ÿ„Ë¥ ŒπÊ ÄUÿÙ¥Á∑§ ◊⁄U ∑§ß¸ ‚¥¬ÊŒ∑§ Á◊òÊ ÷Ë ∞‚Ê ∑§⁄Uà Ֆ ÉÊÁ≈UÿÊ Œ¡¸ ∑§Ë ¬òÊ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÃÊ ‚◊¤Ê∑§⁄U ◊Ò¥Ÿ ∑§÷Ë ß‚∑§Ê ©¬„Ê‚ Ÿ„Ë¥ ©«∏ÊÿÊ– ◊⁄U Á‹∞ ªÊÚÁ‚¬ ’«∏Ë ’˝Á∑§¥ª ãÿÍ¡∏ ∑‘§ ¬ÒŒ‹ ‚ÒÁŸ∑§ ∑§Ë Ã⁄U„ Õ– ’˝Á∑§¥ª ãÿÍ¡ ’«∏ ÿÈh ∑§Ë Ã⁄U„ „Ùà „Ò¥– fl ∞‚ „Ë Ÿ„Ë¥ Á◊‹Ã– Á¡‚ Ã⁄U„ ’«∏ ¬Ò◊ÊŸ ¬⁄U ‹«∏Ê߸ ‚ ¬„‹ ¿Ù≈UË-¿Ù≈UË ¤Ê«∏¬¥ „ÙÃË „Ò¥, flÒ‚ „Ë ’«∏Ë π’⁄U ‚ ¬„‹ ©‚‚ ‚¥’¥ÁœÃ Ã◊Ê◊ Ã⁄U„ ∑§Ë •»flÊ„¥ „ÙÃË „Ò¥– ÿÈh ◊¥ ∞∑§ ‚Ê◊Êãÿ ‚ÒÁŸ∑§ ∑§Ë ÷ÍÁ◊∑§Ê ’«∏ •Áœ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÿÙ¥ ‚ •‹ª „ÙÃË „Ò– ’«∏ •Áœ∑§Ê⁄UË ’«∏Ë ‹«∏ÊßÿÊ¥ ‹«∏à „Ò¥ •ı⁄U ¡ËÃ-„Ê⁄U ∑§Ê üÊÿ ÷Ë ©ã„¥ „Ë Á◊‹ÃÊ „Ò– ŸÊ◊ ªÙ¬ŸËÿ ⁄Uπ∑§⁄U ªÊÚÁ‚¬ ∑§ÊÚ‹◊ Á‹πŸ flÊ‹ ‹Ùª ¬⁄UŒ ∑‘§ ¬Ë¿ „ÙŸ flÊ‹Ë ÉÊ≈UŸÊ•Ù¥ ∑§Ê ¬„‹Ê flÊSÃÁfl∑§ Áflfl⁄UáÊ ‚Ê◊Ÿ ‹Êà „Ò¥– ‚¥÷fl „Ò Á∑§ fl ∑§÷Ë-∑§÷Ë •¬ŸË ÁŒ‡ÊÊ ‚ ÷≈U∑§ ¡Ê∞¥, ∑§÷Ë ÉÊ≈UŸÊ•Ù¥ ∑§Ù ’…∏Ê-ø…∏Ê∑§⁄U ¬‡Ê ∑§⁄U¥, ‹Á∑§Ÿ Áfl⁄U‹ „Ë ∑§÷Ë ŒπŸ ∑§Ù Á◊‹ÃÊ „Ò Á∑§ ªÊÚÁ‚¬ ¬Í⁄UË Ã⁄U„ ¤ÊÍΔ ¬⁄U •ÊœÊÁ⁄Uà „Ù– π’⁄UÙ¥ ∑‘§ ¬˝∑§Ê‡ÊŸ ∑§Ë ¬˝ÁR§ÿÊ ◊¥ „⁄U SÃ⁄U ¬⁄U ÁŸª⁄UÊŸË ∑§Ë √ÿflSÕÊ „ÙÃË „Ò •ı⁄U ª‹Ã ¡ÊŸ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÿÊ¥ ¿¬ŸÊ •‚¥÷fl ¡Ò‚Ê „ÙÃÊ „Ò– Á»⁄U ÷Ë ÿÁŒ ∑§÷Ë ∞‚Ê „Ù ¡Ê∞, ¡Ò‚Ê Á∑§ ‚¥≈U Á∑§≈U˜‚ ◊Ê◊‹ ◊¥ „È•Ê, ÃÙ ß‚∑§Ê ∞∑§ „Ë ◊Ë’ „Ò Á∑§ Á¡ê◊ŒÊ⁄U •Áœ∑§ÊÁ⁄UÿÙ¥ ∑§Ë ‡Ê„ ¬⁄U ∞‚Ê ¡ÊŸ’ͤÊ∑§⁄U Á∑§ÿÊ ªÿÊ „Ò– (•Ê◊Ãı⁄U ¬⁄U ‚ûÊÊ ◊¥ ’Ÿ ‹Ùª „Ë ∞‚Ê ∑§⁄Uà „Ò¥–) •Áœ∑§Ã⁄U ªÊÚÁ‚¬ ©∑§‚ÊŸ ∑§Ê ∑§Ê◊ ∑§⁄Uà „Ò¥– ß‚∑‘§ ’ÊŒ Ÿ∞ Ãâÿ ‚Ê◊Ÿ •ÊŸ ‹ªÃ „Ò¥– ߟ◊¥ ‚ ∑§È¿ ¬È⁄UÊŸË œÊ⁄UáÊÊ•Ù¥ ∑‘§ Áfl¬⁄UËà „Ùà „Ò¥, ‹Á∑§Ÿ fl π’⁄U ∑§Ù •Êª ‹ ¡ÊŸ ∑§Ê ∑§Ê◊ ∑§⁄Uà „Ò¥– •’ Ã∑§ „È∞ ∑§È¿ ‚’‚ ’«∏ 35
Aug-Oct 2015
Grassroot Journalist
15
Saturday AUGUST 2015
Journalism degrees are killing Journalism POSTED BY GRASSROOT JOURNALIST IN LEAD LINE
BY NADEEM SHAD SOURCE : THETYPEWRITER.ORG
If you only want to study journalism or English at undergraduate level, it’s really up to you. However, don’t expect intelligent readers to respect your ‘expertise’ on the subject when you write articles or present news stories on say Iran, and you can’t at the very least even tell me the name of the last three presidents without looking it up on Wikipedia.
Editors should only hire journalists that have an undergraduate degree in a field that actually pertains to what they write about and journalism should only be taught post grad. In practice, this means that journalists who wish to write about politics for example should study political science. Ideally, this also means that top news corporations that report on politics and international affairs should therefore only hire writers that studied political science at top universities. The top 20 universities ranked in that subject in your respective country if you will. This rule of having at the very least academic if not life experience of your field of interest also applies to journalists who have a desire to write about other areas such as POYNTER, 2013 art and fashion, but especially so when it comes to politics and international affairs. To put it simply, journalism has gotten to the stage where it has become too dirty and too ignorant; to the extent that it often perpetuates dangerous stereotypes and insensitivity that can have real world consequences. In particular, I’m thinking about individuals that belong to minorities. Although journalism has been dirty for some time, I recently attended my sister’s graduation from Medical School and was faced with more proof of journalism’s grimy nature. The dean of the school delivered his speech, during which he mentioned that Medicine was the most trusted profession by the British Public with 90% approval, in stark contrast to the bottom two: politics and journalism. Anyone can write, but the general public puts more trust towards publications and news programs with flashy production values that are broadcast on the TV, and we gravitate towards nationally published newspaper. Sadly, we have become inundated by shoddy journalism by writers with little knowledge of anything other than the skills taught in journalism courses. Many of the journalists we trust have never worked outside of the journalism field, or have at the very least never studied academically the fields they have decided to become ‘experts’ in. Thankfully, economics seems to be the only field exempt from this. The overwhelming result is that we have pieces on domestic politics, interna37
Aug-Oct 2015
Grassroot Journalist
tional relations, foreign cultures and religions that are misguided and downright ignorant. For example, how can one expect write or present a news story on the Middle East without having studied the history of the region at one of the UK’s, the World’s or perhaps most importantly one of the Middle East’s great centres of Middle Eastern education? Especially when they have never lived there, learned the local language, or been exposed to the region at the level that they should be. Of course, this is further compounded by the fact that newspaper and news rooms are still overwhelmingly white. Don’t misunderstand me: things have improved on the lower levels, but senior management is still overwhelmingly monocultural. The idea that you must earn a degree in journalism or English Literature to learn how to write is laughable. As the internet has shown, anyone with a keyboard can write, and some of it out there is pretty good. What is more important is the ability to think critically and actually know about the field you want to write about. Fareed Zakaria wrote about the need for a liberal education before a vocational one, because the former makes you better at the latter. I advocate not necessarily for a liberal education in the sense of the liberal arts but a critical education and one pertaining to the area you want to write about. All too often, it’s easy for me to distinguish between journalists who have been through the narrow route and journalists who take the one I suggest. Of course, some very good journalists have come from the old system, but a lot of great journalists have come from the other route, either due to a diverse education or because they had diverse life experiences which informed their world view before they became journalists. In short, if you only want to study journalism or English at undergraduate level, it’s really up to you. However, don’t expect intelligent readers to respect your ‘expertise’ on the subject when you write articles or present news stories on say Iran, and you can’t at the very least even tell me the name of the last three presidents without looking it up on Wikipedia. Nadeem Shad Currently finishing graduate studies at LSE, starting work soon at Canary Wharf in London for the news agency Reuters.Article written for thetypewriter.org, a community idea driven media movement. Link to original source -http://thetypewriter.org/2015/08/journalism
A Rape on Campus "A Rape on Campus" is an article by Sabrina Erdely published in the December 4, 2014 issue of Rolling Stone, which has since been debunked and retracted by the publisher. The article claimed that several members of a fraternity at the University of Virginia viciously raped a woman, identified only as Jackie, as part of an initiation rite during a chapter house party. After other journalists investigated the article's claims and found significant discrepancies, Rolling Stone issued multiple apologies for the story. The story was included in a Columbia Journalism Review feature, "The Worst Journalism of 2014", where it was described as winning "this year's media-fail sweepstakes". The Poynter Institute named it as the "Error of the Year" in journalism. General details available at - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rape_on_Campus
Grassroot Journalist Aug-Oct 2015 38
Neurons
A new initiative for media sensitization Grassroot Journalist has decided to take a new initiative for media sensitization – Neurons- Communicate the last communicator. Gulluck, a not for profit organization and Grassroot Media foundation to support the idea in execution. There are national dailies, news channels, online portals, mobile feeders and what not from the mainstream media industry with huge claims of readership & viewer-ship, but at the end of the day the last story is fed by a stringer from the remote place somewhere in the beating heart of a restless soul. Stringers and freelance communicators of vernacular press are the actual point where the change in the society is registered first. They are the neurons. A neuron is a nerve cell that is the basic building block of the nervous system. Neurons are similar to other cells in the human body in a number of ways, but there is one key difference between neurons and other cells. Neurons are specialized to transmit information throughout the body. Highly specialized nerve cells are responsible for communicating information in both chemical and electrical forms. If communicators want a grassroot media for greater good, they have to re-invent the communication. Stringers and freelance communicators along with their counterparts in upcountry editions of the newspapers and local cable or hyper local satellite networks are capable of being actual agent of positive change in our society. Explosion of hyper local media is there but no formal training, technological support, intellectual interactions, field refreshers or significant initiatives are to equip them for the way ahead. NEURONS is based on the concept of one to one interactions. NEURONS has five main objectsz
To prepare a database of all the stringers, freelance communicators and professionals with media educators and media students.
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To help rural and semi-urban journalists and fresh media students to sharpen their edge in contemporary context.
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To chalk-out and execute sensitization workshops and follow-up programmes.
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To prepare grassroot journalist training modules for print, audio-visual, digital , mobile and other latest media platforms.
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To create online resource platform, aggregator and bulletin.
With fine minds and dedicated resource persons IT IS TO BE DONE WITHOUT MAKING NOISE. Grassroot Media Foundation, Jaipur Team is a core part of execution. Interested may please drop a mail to grassrootjournalist@gmail.com
LAST DROP
GJ photo journalist of the quarter : Ye Aung Thu
Migrants collect rain water at a temporary shelter near the Kanyin Chaung jetty outside Maungdaw township in the Rakhine state of Burma on June 4, 2015. (Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty Images) The Washington Post published this picture.
Co-founder of the Myanmar Street Photographer Society, photojournalist Ye Aung Thu has been widely featured in international newspaper and magazine publications.