Shouldn’t our media do better?

Date: Jan 10, 2006

Shouldn’t our media do better?

Date: Jan 10, 2006

Readers are no longer content to be passive receivers of news. Many of them are more interested in being part of a forum or discussion than being recipients of other people’s opinions……In the end, people want reliable information. Trust is everything. “The skills we have as journalists – the ability to gather, to verify, to sort, to investigate, to challenge, to aggregate – will always be in demand in any society..”

(The Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, at a public lecture organized by The Hindu, in New Delhi Jan.10, 2006)

Date: Jan 10, 2006

Rightly said Mr. GVK about readers are no longer content to passive receivers of news.. & that article in the Hindu was also nice to read.. Press & Print media have to look at other ways and means to keep the circulation high. The only way they can do is to report the facts with lots of investigation.

Along with the readers, even advertisers too are concern about the kind of circulation the paper does. What is the reach? what is the readership? etc.,

The newspapers can't publish wrong information, I guess publishing wrong information once in a while is permissible.. but not regularly? whatever might be the information..

Today's TOI Mysore & Mangalore edition, the article about ASI Team visiting Shravanabelagola for the cable car erection, there was a mention "Karnataka minister for public works, energy and also district-in charge H D Revanna said Rs 2.5 crores has been earmarked for security arrangements on the eve of Mahamastakabhisheka celebrations from February 22."

I was under the impression that the celebrations were starting off from Jan 22nd with our President of India inaugurating the event. So from where does the Feb 22 arise?

Another incident was publishing a wrong photo in the front page and the next day regretting the error.

I guess I am asking too much of co-ordination between the cities, printing press and the reporters..

Date: Jan 10, 2006

Media does make mistakes, not intentionally. CNN-IBN yesterday showed some young congressman in bangalore talking (Gowda-Congress spat) while showing his name on the screen as "Mallikarjuna Kharge". They did not bother to correct it and in fact the anchor (these young chaps are good at speaking but need to be better at General Knowledge!) referred to statement made by Mallikarjun Kharge and attributed the same to the video clip shown. I have seen bloopers on NDTV as well. Recent one was mentioning that the ICC (based in Dubai) was moving its meeting to Karachi due to the death of the Saudi King! The Saudi King had indeed passed away last month but the recent death was that of the Dubai Monarch and thats why they moved it from Dubai!! NDTV did correct the same shortly thereafter.

The mistakes created these days it seems stems more from the fact that news is developing at the speed of light and each media, in trying to outdo the other for viewership/readership, sometimes jump the gun and get their facts crossed up.

Thats not the point. We are not talking about mistakes made and corrigendum published. We are talking about responsible journalism. Investigative journalism does not always mean hidden camera stings. The point is whether journalists are merely keen on capturing sound bites or whether they have enough interest to cross question, verify and challenge claims from those that issue baseless and uninformed statments.

Our media must do more. Ask more questions, seek out the relevancy, check background. Star of Mysore says "We believe comment is free, but facts are sacred". Nice slogan and good work so far BUT if facts are sacred, how come their reporting is recording soundbites and not checking the veracity of claims before publishing? as Mr. Gouri satya has kindly mentioned my letter against Lakshmana's loose talk on aviation matters. SOM reported all his fancy talk without checking even their own reports on the Mysore Airport that were published a decade ago. Not to taget SOM, can't do without my daily does of SOM every evening. I'm trying to make a point that reporters of SOM and others need to wake up, smell the coffee and don't let others take them for a ride. There is plenty of news out there but a fixation is taking place with recording the sound bites of some of our "informed" citizens all the time and most people find that either boring or "space filler" material. Ads are more exciting sometimes!!

Date: Jan 16, 2006

A note to my previous note. Not only the press/journalists, our people need to do more, Mysoreans espcially. The reasons for some organizations self appointing themselves as "representing" the common man in Mysore is due to fact that most Mysoreans, including the educated lot, are lethargic to the problems facing the city.

There is no alternate civic activism. Mysoreans here and abroad only like to reminisce the past, keep "golden memory" of how things were in the past, talk about idlis and dosas and generally lament amongst themselves about the state of affairs now. These are the people who should use forums such as this to also get involved. Write on mymysore.com, Write to their real representatives, question these jokers who come to their door for the next election due this year, to the MCC. Ask them and raise issues in Newspapers about the reasons why Mysore is going downhill fast. Oh, but this is too much work for the lazy local.

Thats why some of the self appointed organizations do so much rabble rousing and get their names in the paper instead of actually doing some good work. Civic activism is doing all those things suggested above and more. It does not mean dharnas in front of some establishment and shouting slogans against the mayor, commissioner or the MCC. If Mysoreans are serious, wake up, smell some of that lovely coffee that we are famous for and do something about it. Vote these people out if they can't do the job. Start talking about issues in public, force a debate.

Date: Jan 19, 2006

Hundreds of people staged a protest in front of the Forest Dept. office on Thursday against ‘reckless’ tree felling in the city…..The Hindu

Deccan Herald carried a 4-col. picture to go with its report on dharna in front of Aranya Bhavan, organized by the Association of Concerned and Informed Citizens of Mysore. The photo gave no evidence of a turnout in hundreds, as mentioned by the other newspaper. The photo showed a ‘throng’ of 28 protesters, including a woman.

Where did the others go? I can think of three possibilities:

1) They were camera-shy.

2) Had dispersed before the DH photographer made it to the scene.

3) DH photographer and the ‘The Hindu’ reporter were not covering the same event.

Date: Jan 19, 2006

I think Mr. GVK, point No.3 mentioned in your reply seems more plausible. The other funny thing is that, it has been reported that the "Aranya Adhikaris" and most of the other bigwigs were not even there at Aranya Bhawan due to the Tiger Census work! It is reported that only a few personnel, one administrative officer to whom the agitators presented a memorandum and perhaps the watchman and peon etc were at the office while the "protest" was going on.

So, what was the point other than cheap publicity? It amazes me that there seems to be a shortage of quality news available for newspapers to take up so much space and promote some rabble rousers.