History of Press

In his lecture this time, Mr. Vikas Pathak tried to trace the continuities between pre and post independent media. He said that the freedom of press became one of the legacies of Freedom Struggle under Article 19(1) (a) of fundamental rights (Freedom of Press). This challenge of freedom of expression was taken by Motilal Nehru and C.R Das.

In 1931, there was a Karachi Congress session of INC. In this congress, Nehru drafted a resolution to be passed. The fundamental rights included in this resolution included the freedom of expression. On the other side, there was British position which was against this resolution. So, Simon Commission on the other hand said that there would be no bill of rights. After that, a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was formed that looked into Government of India Act 1935.

Mr. Pathak said that one crucial right among the fundamental rights is the freedom of expression. However, fundamental rights can also be amended by 2/3^rd of the majority in the parliament.

So, the fundamental rights are a legacy of freedom struggle. However, some restrictions are imposed on these rights and the court of law decides the case. Mr. Pathak gave example of the cartoonist Aseem Trivedi who was booked under a law for spreading disaffection (article 124 a). Mr. Pathak raised an interesting question over the freedom of expression in media. He asked that whether Indian media or press restricts the right to freedom of expression to feed certain corporate or political interests.

Coming to the Emergency phase in India from 1973 to 1977, Mr. Pathak talked about its effect on Indian media and press. He talked about the famous JP movement which began in Gujarat by Nav Nirman Samiti in 1974. The movement got its stronghold when allegations of corruption were put against Chimanbhai Patel, the then CM of Gujarat. At that time, the people wanted Mr. Patel to resign. At the same time, Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti (under ABVP) became active in Bihar. Jayaprakash Narayan, who was a freedom fighter, was asked to lead a massive campaign against the ruling party.

Speaking on the background of Jayaprakash Narayan, Mr. Pathak said that during the freedom struggle, JP played a crucial role in leading the underground freedom and became a social leader later. JP’s movement was much deeper than the recent Anna Hazare anti-corruption campaign and was carrying a historical legacy too. In June 1974, a historical rally called as Patna Gandhi Rally was organized in Delhi with the slogan of ‘Sampoorna Kranti’. The rally saw around 7.95 lakh people turning up and this was a huge response.

However, another destabilizing factor around this time was railway strike for the railway employees done by the trade unionist George Fernandes. A petition was filed against the then PM Mrs. Indira Gandhi which was an immediate factor to kick the Emergency. Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha upheld 2 charges against Mrs. Indira Gandhi. All this took place at such a time when the mood against Indira was swelling. At that time, Ramnath Goenka of Indian Express was very close to Jayaprakash Narayan.

A barrister named Siddhartha Shankar Ray was asked to draft an ordinance that an internal emergency is being proclaimed in the parliament. So, once this ordinance was signed by the then president Mr. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, all the electricity lines were cut off in Delhi area to contain any news paper of agency from publishing the news of Emergency. Only one newspaper named Motherland brought up the news of Emergency being imposed. After this, Mrs. Indira Gandhi announced on All India Radio (AIR) that because of certain destabilizing forces in the country, an Emergency has been put up.

This sudden Emergency rule invoked a lot of protests in the country. Prominent leaders and journalists were arrested and put to jail who opposed this step. Student leaders from Delhi University were also arrested. However, the resolution was carried and emergency was clamped. In this way, the constitution was amended to aid Mrs. Gandhi.

After 19 months, Mrs. Indira Gandhi called for fresh elections. In between, Sanjay Gandhi became very powerful and carried a 5 point development program. Under such programs, sterilization programs were introduced to curb the high population growth problem in certain parts of the country. In some areas, forced sterilization programs lead to anti-sterilization movements such as in Muzaffarnagar where a huge mass of Muslim population was targeted. This news was censored by Mrs. Gandhi.

Talking about the effect of Emergency on the print media, Mr. Pathak said that the newspapers like The Hindu and Times of India became pro-emergency. But, Indian Express remained anti- emergency. At that time, V.C Shukla became the new Information and Broadcasting minister. So, in order to contain Indian Express form being anti- Emergency, he threatened Mr. Goenka. However, Indian Express came up with blank pages as a protest against the suppression of right to freedom of expression. The Emergency phase left a deep mark on Indian Press as many journalists were sent to jail and a number of newspapers came to an abrupt halt.             

Media Laws

Prof. Satyaprakash continued from where he left off in the previous class. He spoke about Parliamentary proceedings. He brought forward the topic of Nehru- (Feroze) Gandhi tussle. He added that the two most important amendments to Parliamentary Proceedings (Protection of Publication) Act happened during and after the emergency. The two said amendments are Amendment 22 and Amendment 44. He said that the 1956 Act was revived by the Janata Party govt. in 1977 by adding article 361 (A).

He then spoke about one of the most pertinent subjects as far as media professionals are concerned- Defamation. He said every person has a Right to Reputation. And false and defamatory statement against somebody without any lawful justification constitutes defamation. Defamation by spoken words is called slander while Defamation by written words is called libel. Under the Indian Penal Code, there can be civil and criminal defamation.

He further spoke about technicality of this law. Section 499 of the IPC deals with the criminal defamation while section 500 deals with its punishment.

He raised some questions regarding what kind of publication will constitute defamation. The stress was on the phrase ‘lawful justification’. If a newspaper publishes that a said person has committed a crime based on the description by police, then even if the person is acquitted by a court of law later, the person cannot sue the publication.

He gave the example of Justice Verma commission and added that while criticism is fine, defamation is not.   

Communication Language

Prof. Joshi started the class talking about form and content in context of emergence of cinema and Television. He said that content, on any medium, is affected by form. A serial on television is going to be different from theatre because the form is different.

Radio is the true mass media while cinema still doesn’t have that reach and impact. He spoke about Devaki Nandan Pandey who, in a sense, introduced Indians to TV News had a lot of impact on the way news was presented.

He said that ‘message is encoded in Language by people’.

He spoke about the birth of computer that came in as a replacement for calculator and has reached a point today where it has led to convergence of various media including TV, cinema and print. He mentioned the evolution of GUI (Graphic User Interface) as started by Apple and how it led to a revolution in print because the digitalisation of pictures became easier. He proceeded to talk about ‘Internet as the super-information highway’.

He said the new media in interactive while the mass media has not been able to bring this feature. This is influencing the way media is functioning. For example, Radio and TV are trying to bring in interactivity by introducing phone-ins. New media is also influencing language. People write differently on different media.

He gave an interesting example of form affecting content by mentioning how E.E. Cummings, who used typewriter, wrote his name in small caps- ee cummings. He also said that Subtitling is a specialised art. 

He said that English media functions differently in different countries and in this respect, sociology of language must be extended to sociology of media.

Addresser àMessage à Addressee.

In the above, ‘Addresser’ has a conative function. He said that conative functions are instructional and persuasive in nature. 

News Report

Namita Kohli talked about the usage of quotes in the class. Quotes are considered to be one of the basics of journalism. Kohli stressed that it is the other person’s voice that counts and not the reporter’s.

In the case of news reporting, quotes are extremely important. While researching a story, a reporter may get a lot of opinions and quotes but he/she has to see what is important and what will have the most impact. Quotes can’t constitute three paragraphs of the story. The reporter has to create a sense of narrative by interspersing the quotes with the facts.

While writing quotes, attribution is imperative. The reporter has to give the person’s name, age and profession. It lends a sense of credibility and authenticity to the story.

An indiscriminate use of quotes is tedious and shows the reporter’s lackadaisical attitude. Quotes have to be edited but at the same time the essence can’t be changed. The reporter has to be very careful to not misquote a person. Sometimes people aren’t articulate enough to express themselves fluently so the reporter has to be prudent to not distort their meaning. Kohli advised that it is best to run your finished story by the source to avoid any misinterpretation. 

The reporter has to have a command over his/her writing. Some very good writing uses quotes sparingly, for example The Economist.  It does a lot of research on the ground and collects its own data so it doesn’t really need to quote a person.

If somebody says “No Comments”, then that is also useful as it shows apprehension on their part. Writing “No Comments” in the story also gives credibility to the story. The reporter should be able to weave a story around the main story just because a victim, for example, is hesitant to say anything. 

Media Ethics

Principles of ethics form the basis of journalistic ethics and norms. This was the main theme of 23^rd September class by Dr. Anand Pradhan.

He discussed about the different types of principles that are useful for media person. These principles are functional because they provide a philosophical foundation from which to analyse ethical situation and make right decision.

He made clear that a report should always be balanced, one should never exaggerate and always maintain a sense of proportion. The main point which can lead to become a perfect journalist is to avoid emotional outburst. Emotion and journalist are always parallel to each other. He also talked about maintaining balance between the communities and the issues related to those. 

Moving on to teach ethical dilemma he presented many examples which helped us to understand the different types of dilemmas and how to tackle with those. Different types of principless are

Ø  The principle of Utility which says Choose the alternative that maximizes value or minimizes loss.

Ø  Categorical Imperative- According to German philosopher Immanuel Kant, what is right for one is right for all.

Ø  Principle of Golden Mean (Madhyam Marg) which deals with the moral virtues lies between two extremes and the Golden Mean stresses moderation as opposed to extremes or excess. The Greek philosopher Aristotle noted that too much food as well as too little food spoils health. For this principle moderation is the key.

Ø  Veil of Ignorance says that Justice is blind. Philosopher John Rawls argued that justice emerges when everyone is treated without social differentiations. So, veil of ignorance is related to the idea of fairness.

Radio Journalism

R Chug Sir presented before us different types of definitions of community radio described by various organisations. These are:-

Radio as defined by Information & Broadcasting Ministry - Community radio means radio broadcasting with the objective of serving the cause of the community in the service area by involving members of the community in the broadcast of their programmes.

The next definition by UNESCO- community radio is a type of radio service that caters to the interest of a certain area, broadcasting content that is popular to a local audience but which may often be overruled by commercial or mass media broadcaster.

Later on he taught us the advantages of community radio, and why people should be more trustworthy toward community radio.

·         No profit organisation

·         It is for the welfare of the community

·         Participation methodology is involved

·         Voluntary service

·         It challenges the organisation which claims to be public service broadcasting

·         Community radio is development radio, rural radio, cooperative radio, hence it is also known as people’s radio.

Community radio is not a broadcast, it is narrowcast and thus, always for the people who has been never approached by any kind of medium. Hence it is also called as the third media. Keeping aside the advantages there are some disadvantages too. These are:-

·         The financial problem- not a privately owned body

·         Administrative

·         Donation

·         Electricity- as it is community based so there are many places which are barred of electricity

·         Lesser number of Professional or experts

·         Cost of Maintenance

He also discussed about the facts regarding the present number of operational community radio i.e 152 in India and the number rejected are 575.

Lastly the rule of democracy is the rule of radio is

Community radio is by the community, for the community, of the community, in the community and with the community.

Financial Journalism

Financial journalism class started with presentation by two students. This  week the subject of presentation was “CAN INDIA BECOME THE NEXT TRADING SUPER POWER” Simran and Pakhee were speaking for and against the motion respectively.

Simran emphasised on two main factors which can lead India as next trading super power.Begining with demographic constituent , she said dependent population of our country is decreasing fast ., most of the population is contributing to the economy ofthe country. Huge Market lures the foreign investors so gradually increase purchasing power .

Secondly she emphasises on our export of services to the world .India being a largest English speaking nation, we provide low cost effective educated people for out sourcing .

Pakhee speaking  against the motion put forward challenges which India faces in its export business.she said to become a powerful trade nation India need to check on its policies and redesign it India need to check out on its infrastructure facility. Observing  current rupee fall and inflation clouded all over the country its almost cannot stand as trade superpower of the world.

After the presentation  Mr Badrinath spoke on the new insight to trade story of India .Should India always depend only on services ?

He presented  that India  doesnot depend only on services .Our trade is dependent on services and manufacture industry.Various products which we export are:

Gems and jewelleries.

Engineering goods.

Chemicals

Pharmaceticual,[Bulk drugs ]

Leather

Textiles , cotton products

Handicraft

Electronics

While we export a number of products we import also a lot of product .india is on tenth largest importer  which is 1.6%of the world .So India need to check on its export business and further  need to pay attention on our infrastructure , Training and educating labours, improvement of handicraft packaging industry, quality improvement.

We have  growing  manufacture economy which is slow  but steady.The positive factors  favouring  our  trading system and help to become a big powerful trade centre are

Bilateral  agreement

Free trading agreement  with two dozens  countries

India is associated member of ASEAN.

G77 invited member

BRICS member

Big trading patners with UAE, Singapore.

We will be doing export business  upto 500 million dollar in 2017.

We are sixth large exporter of services  while seventh largest importer of services.

Though India has both positive and negative points  on its trade story .India need to check on its policy and free trade to become a trade power of the world.

Reporting

Qualities of a good reporter

1. Affable/Social/Extrovert

According to Mr. Suresh, a reporter has to be a social animal. As a reporter, you have got to talk to people of all kinds. He cited the examples of his own life, when he was able to get vital information about a VIP visit from a chef of hotel ‘Taj Man Palace’, whom he met at his landlord’s house earlier. 

In K G Suresh words,” A contact a day keeps the editor away.”

Concentrating on sources, he said that the second aspect of affability is that reporter should have personal rapport with the sources & never ever let them down.

2. Courage

Mr. Suresh advised students to welcome difficult assignments. A good reporter should not get scared and must have the ability to adapt himself to the surroundings (often new and unsavoury). He gave example of Uphaar tragedy, which he went to cover, and was shocked to find young reporters crying along with the victims and their families.

3. Integrity/Honesty

‘Being honest’ means being honest to your job, your company, your profession. Mr. Suresh said that people will be happily paying you money to get a good coverage. It is on personal discretion and wisdom, that a person has to decide, whether he wants to take that money or not.

4. Patience

As we live in a competitive environment, the pressure is on us to get a good story ahead of others. But, we must have patience when we are trying to get a story; we must be patient enough to cross check every aspect of our story in order to bring it to a proper conclusion. This quality is mainly required by investigative journalists.

Also, while taking interview, we must have the power of patience and persuasion, so as to not offend the interviewee (by being blunt). Mr. Suresh gave example of getting stories from terrorists by practicing the art of persuasion and patience.

5. Inquisitive

As a reporter, we must always be of questioning nature. Healthy scepticism is good as reporters are not supposed to take anything on face value. A good reporter should always be a good learner. We must not fear to tread into the areas which are not of our expertise.

6. Empathy

A chartered accountant or a manager does not require empathy to succeed in his profession, but a reporter needs to have empathy in order to inject a soul in his story, as they are the voice of the people (vox populi).

But today’s competitive environment is eating away our empathy. He gave example when he went to cover a major fire at Chandani Chowk and found one female reporter dejectedly stomping her feet as there were no dead casualties (thus, no juicy story).

7. Motivation

In this field, you need to be motivated, or, auto-motivated. Because sometimes, situation is such that there is no encouragement of ideas, thus frustration may creep in.

Mr. Suresh told students that seniors in this field will try to demotivate you. Thus, even if you do good stories for 364 days in a year, you will pulled up like nobody by your editor for missing a good story on the 365^th day of your year. Thus, very importantly,” you are as good as your last story”.

8. Interpersonal Skills

It matters in a big way what kind of attitude you are keeping with people in general, because tomorrow one of those people will become your source.

Discussing Shivani Bhatnagar murder case, Mr. Suresh alluded to the first point and explained the golden rule of not being a friend (or more) with your contacts.

After that, Mr. Suresh started discussing the topic of News Analysis which is a part of our editing syllabus. He asked some students to read their assignment (Syrian crisis) and then subsequently advised them on their shortcomings. His main advice was to present both sides of the story and then give a perspective (which should be new) at the end.