Media Magazine

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WHERE HAVE ALL THE POSITIVE STORIES GONE?

While it is true that the country is spilling over with astounding stories on scams, murders, corruption, electoral hooliganism, communal conflicts and food censorship that find headline space in all newspapers everywhere, somewhere down the line, positive stories have become an invisible entity. One hardly comes across positive stories of people involved in doing good to others or people engaged in larger concerns to better the lives of everyone around. These stories could provide that much-needed beacon...

Where is the media heading?

Times are such that today even journalists admit that the mainstream media are on its deathbed! However, we wouldn’t agree if someone were to say that journalism is dead or that it’s dying. Journalism is in fact thriving, though its contours have changed (for the better, should one say?). But the pertinent question here is why is death staring at the mainstream media. Who is to blame, that is if someone ought to be blamed. As journalists we are required to answer these basic questions, for ...

Where’s free media?

Most channels -- roughly around 300 -- are owned by property dealers who can afford to spend Rs 1 crore, an average monthly expenditure, through money laundering. Every one of them wants to be the Reliance one day. What has taken me aback is that the press has reported the deal but has preferred to keep quiet. Even though journalism has ceased to be a profession and has become an industry, I was expecting some reactions, at least from the Editors’ Guild of India. But then it is understandable whe...

Whither Safe Reporting

The primary objective of journalism is to serve the people with news, views, comments and information on matters of public interest in a fair, accurate, unbiased and polite manner and language. But now with a plethora of news channels, news papers and new media creating waves, people are often confused as to whether news exposure is witnessing an abundance of unethical journalism. Mahatma Gandhi had said, “The sole aim of journalism should be service”. But unfortunately many a time this is bei...

Who is a journalist? Manning trial poses question of vital public interest

When Bradley Manning’s defense attorneys wanted someone to explain journalism ) to the court trying him, they did not call on a journalist, they called on a legal scholar and expert in networks: Yochai Benkler, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard and author of The Wealth of Networks. For as Benkler explained to the court, journalism is now a network – a “network ‘fourth estate’”. In this network, there are many roles that can be l...

Who is Studying Kerala Media?

As Media celebrates its first birthday with a special issue, there is another cause to cheer for the magazine. A recent write-up (Media, February 2013, pp 48–49) showed that studies on Kerala media were missing in this publication. At that time, it was unclear whether the needle of suspicion pointed to the journal’s editorial bias or the poverty of research on Kerala media. It turns out that quality research on Kerala media is skinny in general, not just in Media magazine. I...

Why there is no Indian voice in global media space

“The world is waiting for a digital-age voice from India – a BBC, a New York Times, or even a Chinese Central Television (CCTV). A voice with global interests, global sources, yet an Indian point of view,” said Robin Jeffrey, who has been studying India and the Indian media for decades, in his convocation address at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, in May. He listed certain advantages India has in this regard: unrivalled international connections – throughout Asia...

Without environment there is no democracy

Though I do work in the environment, my first public activity was journalism and I used to do a lot of writing in the Times of India, Indian Express, and Illustrated weekly, and I used to enjoy it. I used to spend most of that time criticizing people, or making fun of them. I was given the title- typewriting guerilla. Now one of the things we are facing today is reporting on environmental issues. We have reporters specializing in financial matters, law correspondents, critics, and all- but one part ...

Women and Crime: Objectivity and Creativity in the Media for and by Women

Since the 1960s, the women’s movement has been engaged in a systematic and constant critique of media institutions and their output. In a world in which the media increasingly provide the “common ground” of information, symbols, and ideas for most social groups, women’s representation in the media helps to keep them in a place of relative powerlessness. The term “symbolic annihilation,” coined by George Gerbner in 1972, became a powerful and widely used metaphor to desc...

അക്കാദമി വാര്‍ത്തകള്‍

മാധ്യമ പ്രവര്‍ത്തകര്‍ സ്വയം വിമര്‍ശകരാകണമെന്ന് നിയമസഭാ സ്പീക്കര്‍ ജി. കാര്‍ത്തികേയന്‍ പറഞ്ഞു. കേരള പ്രസ് അക്കാദമി കോഴിക്കോട്, വയനാട് പ്രസ് ക്ലബുകളുടെ സഹകരണത്തോടെ പ്രാദേശിക പത്രപ്രവ...