the news. the views. the juice.
Tabish Khair, journalist turned poet, in Open magazine:
You were with The Times of India in Delhi for a little les than five years. How has your life as a journalist shaped your writing?
You lose your fear of deadlines, and learn to keep them. You realise that the world is far wider and weirder than you had imagined. And you discover that you are necessary but not indispensable.
Infographic: courtesy Hindustan Times
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Also read: If you’ve been feeling nice about yourself…
This magazine’s newsroom is a real brothel
Just so that the torch-bearer is not forgotten in all the buzz about and clamour for private journalism schools during admission season.
How long should news stories and features be in an era of short attention spans? Does serious stuff have an audience when there are a million diversions? Should we only give what readers and viewers want? Is it all about boiling it down for the lowest common denominator?
The questions facing journalism are eternal.
The Italian writer Umberto Eco, 80, provides a simple answer in The Guardian, London:
“It’s only publishers and some journalists who believe that people want simple things. People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged.”
Europe, maybe. In India too?
Read the full article: People are tired of simple things
Also read: ‘Reader is king, reader is CEO’
To the long list of infirmities journalists are justly notorious for—roving eyes, loose tongues, failing lungs, pot bellies, bad livers, body odour, etc—it is time to add another, uncouth behaviour.
Young or old, male or female, upmarket or downmarket, journalists now chew gum, jarda, etc as if they are all trying to disprove the 36th US president Lyndon B. Johnson who said of the 38th:
“Jerry Ford is so dumb he can’t fart and can’t chew gum at the same time.”
Let the record state that the offending journalist in question in the news reports above belongs to Press Trust of India. Let the record also state that it is not judges who get maha-pissed off at the sight of constantly moving jaws: editors, too.
Images: courtesy Mail Today, The Times of India
Chandan Mitra, editor-in-chief of The Pioneer, speaking at the annual convocation of the Pioneer media school, in New Delhi on Monday:
“Despite the advent of new mediums of mass communication or news dissemination over the years, print journalism is still a vital force and journalism is defined by the print media…
“Students are free to opt for any form of journalism—television, Internet or radio—but to attain in-depth knowledge of the profession, newcomers should join newspapers or magazines at initial stages of their career.
“Internet has brought a big change in media and has made the job of a journalist easier, but it makes you laid back. Every time, one cannot rely on the Internet because it is not credible. It also overloads you with information. Therefore one should stick to a newspaper and TV news channels and read it thoroughly.”
N. Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu, while receiving the honorary degree of doctor of social sciences from the University of Wolverhampton, in Madras on Monday:
“In India, the long-term competition between the self-serving and the public service visions of journalism is on and it breeds tension, confusion and, at times, conflict….
“Ensuring commercial viability and addressing the vital need of being accurate, informative, insightful, educative and relevant is an extraordinarily difficult balance to strike. Many of us believe there is a middle path, a golden mean that can deliver good results.
“News media needs to work out a template of editorial values and principles and a concept of social responsibility they can live up to and also live with.”
Bouncing back from failure isn’t easy, but some people do, as an Economic Times on Sunday cover story shows this week.
The former journalist and Union minister, Arun Shourie:
WHEN I FAILED: “I am the only editor to be dismissed not once but twice from The Indian Express. The first time, Indira Gandhi, put such pressure on [Indian Express owner] Ramnath Goenka that even a tiger like him made a goodwill gesture out of me. But he did call me back and I was delighted to go back. But then he had a series of strokes. Those who were trying to swallow the company thought that S. Gurumurthy and I would be the obstacles. And therefore, they first removed me, and then Gurumurthy.”
WHAT I LEARNT: “My first learning is never look back. Or else you will suffer the fate of Lot‘s wife [in the Book of Genesis, Lot's wife ignores the advice of the angles not to turn back when fleeing the city of Sodom, and turns into a pillar of salt]. My second learning: put your difficulties to work. There are very few difficulties that cannot be put to work. This is easier if our goal is inner growth. Third: always have three careers going at the same time. And carry each one lightly.”
Also read: The sad and pathetic decline of Arun Shourie
Arun Shourie: ‘Intolerant. Abusive. Dictatorial’
A columnist more powerful than all media pros
The renowned photographer Dayanita Singh in an interview with Nadine Kreisberger, in the Indian Express‘ Sunday magazine, Eye:
“I was 18 and had gone to a Zakir Hussain concert. I was prevented from taking photographs by the organiser. I was angry and let Zakir know about it. He suggested I photograph him while he rehearsed the next morning. He then invited me to join him and his musicians while they travelled for a few days.
“That was it.
“I realised then that no other profession could give me freedom from social norms. But photography is just a tool. My references and inspirations come from literature, cinema and music. Photography is simply the vocabulary or medium I use to explore the world I find myself engaging with.”
Self-portrait: courtesy Peabody Museum
Also read: Pablo Bartholomew: cynical and proud of it
