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Archive for the 'For the record' Category
Letters modern-day authors no longer write
11 November 2009The brave last words of Prabhash Joshi. RIP.
9 November 2009
The full text of the press release issued by the Foundation for Media Professionals (FMP) of the address made by Prabhash Joshi at a seminar held in New Delhi on Wednesday, October 28, 2009, on the blurring of the line between editorial and advertisements in the Indian media. Joshi, a former editor of the Hindi daily Jansatta, passed away last week, nine days after the address.
Also read: Pyramid Saimira, Tatva & Times Private Treaties
Times Private Treaties gets a very public airing
SUCHETA DALAL: Forget the news, you can’t believe the ads either
Does he who pays the piper call the tune?
SALIL TRIPATHI: The first casualty of a cosy deal is credibility
Selling the soul? Or sustaining the business?
PAUL BECKETT: Indian media holding Indian democracy ransom
Does he who pays the piper call the tune?
PRATAP BHANU MEHTA: ‘Indian media in deeply murky ethical territory’
The scoreline: Different strokes for different folks
A package deal that’s well worth a second look
ADITYA NIGAM: ‘Editors, senior journalists must declare assets’
PRABHASH JOSHI, A HINDI TITAN, IS NO MORE
6 November 2009
sans serif records with deep regret the passing away of the veteran Hindi editor and a fearless voice against media malfeasance, Prabhash Joshi, in New Delhi on Friday morning. He was 72 years old.
Founder editor of the Hindi daily Jansatta published by the Indian Express group, Joshi was a key member of the inner circle of the paper’s fiesty proprietor, Ramnath Goenka. Equally proficient in English, Joshi served as resident editor of the Express in Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Delhi.
Joshi had lately taken on a lead role against the selling of editorial space for advertisers by rapacious Indian media houses. He wrote a searing four-part series on the topic in Jansatta, which he continued to serve as editorial advisor after his retirement.
He was also a key speaker at a seminar* on the subject held by the Foundation for Media Professionals (FMP) in the capital last week, where he revealed the plight of the BJP leader Lalji Tandon, whose campaign in the recent elections was not covered by a single newspaper because he declined to pay for coverage. Tandon won despite the media blackout.
Fittingly, for an avid cricket fan, Prabhash Joshi’s innings came to an end as he watched India fight back in a one-day international match against Australia in Hyderbad, in which Sachin Tendulkar scored the innings of his life while crossing 17,000 runs in his career.
* Disclosures apply
Photograph: courtesy Tehelka
Read the PTI report here: Noted journalist Prabhash Joshi dies
Also read: Searching for Prabhash Joshi on Google
‘Indian media better than overseas media’
26 October 2009
Biting the hand that feeds the oxygen of publicity is a bloodsport among celebrities.
Kabir Bedi, who found his niche in the American TV series Sandokan and later starred in the James Bond film Octopussy, thankfully bucks the trend, in an interview in The Pioneer, Delhi:
Question: Being an ardent follower of news, how do you view media in today’s times?
Kabir Bedi: Media is the fourth pillar of our society. I have great respect for journalists. I myself want to become a journalist but as destiny would have it, I got busy with films, theatre and television and never had time for journalism. In fact, I believe that the content disseminated through print and electronic media in India is far better than what is shown on foreign channels. I am appreciative of the work they do and the important role they play in society.
Photograph: Kabir Bedi as the black corsair in Sergio Solima’s Il corsaro nero (courtesy rohpress)
Also read: ‘Good journalists, poor journalism, zero standards’
‘Largest crowd for a journo’s funeral in 40 years’
1 October 2009
M.K. VIDYARANYA writes from Bangalore: A multitude of friends and family members gathered at the 150-year-old St Patrick’s church in Bangalore on Thursday evening to bid goodbye to Allen J. Mendonca, the journalist turned entrepreneur, who passed away in his sleep three nights ago, at the age of 49.
Just how the sudden passing of Allen—a friendly, ever-smiling, never-say-no, hard-as-knuckles journalist at City Tab, Evening Herald, Indian Express and The Times of India—had touched so many was evident from the sea of mourners at the funeral services held at what is considered to be the second oldest Catholic church in India.
The 18-pillared intricately designed prayer hall was filled to the gills and the friends, subjects and sources were overflowing outside the church premises on to the main road.
I had never seen such a large crowd of mourners attending the funeral of a journalist in Bangalore in the last four decades.
I have lost a dear freind who was my neighour before his marriage. May Allen’s soul rest in peace. I pray god to give courage and strength to Allen’s wife, Sandhya, their son Aditya and his parents Mr and Mrs Charles Mendonca to bear the loss.
Photograph: Krishnamurthy Vidyaranya
Also read: Allen J. Mendonca: rest in peace
What if nobody wants the serious stuff?
21 July 2009Ted Turner who created CNN and invented the 24-hour news cycle, on celebrity journalism, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
“The greatest fear we could possibly have today is an uninformed electorate. That is what really scares me.”
Read the full article: 70 years of Ted Turner
‘Journo’s responsibility far greater than scholar’s’
6 July 2009Max Weber on journalism
“Not everyone realizes that to write a really good piece of journalism is at least as demanding intellectually as the achievement of any scholar. This is particularly true when we recollect that it has to be written on the spot, to order, and that it must create an immediate effect, even though it is produced under completely different conditions from that of scholarly research. It is generally overlooked that a journalist’s actual responsibility is far greater than the scholar’s.”
Quoted by Roger Cohen of The New York Times
It is their opinion they have done an exit poll
17 May 2009Exit polls are said to be more reliable than opinion polls in gauging the mood of the electorate since pollsters catch respondents immediately after they have cast their ballot.
But for the second successive time in five years, mainstream Indian media organisations have fallen flat on their faces in their “exit poll” projections, throwing a big question mark over the authenticity of their claims, the reliability of the pollster’s methods, and their use as a media device.
Obviously, the size of the country, the size of the electorate, the multiple parties and issues involved, etc, making prediction an immeasurably difficult task, but the consistency with which polls are getting it wrong throw a big question mark over the role the media is performing in our democracy: do they have their ear to the ground, catching the pulse of the people whose eyes and ears they are supposed to be.
Or have they become a megaphone for uninformed news, views and gossip, no different from a roadside tea shop.
***
In 2004, all the exit polls predicted a return to power for the NDA giving the ruling alliance a lead of 40-90 seats and more; in the end, the BJP-led alliance fell 32 seats below the predictions and was routed by the UPA.
In 2009, all the exit polls predicted a thin lead for the ruling UPA; some predictions sighted a single-digit margin between the two alliances. In the end, the Congress-led UPA ended up almost 100 seats ahead of the NDA.
***
2004 Elections
NDTV-Indian Express: NDA 230-250, Congress + allies 190-205,
Aaj Tak/ Headlines Today: NDA 248, Congress + allies 189
Zee News: NDA 249, Congress + allies 176
Star News: NDA 263-275, Congress + allies 174-186
Actual tally: NDA 187, Congress + allies 219
***
2009 Elections
NDTV: UPA 216, NDA 177, Third Front 15
Star News-AC Neilsen: UPA 199, NDA 196
CNN-IBN-CSDS: UPA 185-205, NDA 145-160
India TV-C Voter: UPA 189-201, NDA 183-195
Headlines Today: UPA 191, NDA 180
The Times of India: UPA 198, NDA 183
Actual tally: UPA 256, NDA 164
Times Private Treaties: the full list of ‘partners’
17 May 2009The following is the full and unexpurgated portfolio of Times Private Treaties, the equity-for-ads investment arm of The Times of India group as on 11 May 2009.
The list of clients as per industry has had disappeared from the Times Private Treaties website following the recent media scrutiny, and the Google cache has had also been cleared [before it was recently restored].
Also read: Times Private Treaties gets a very public airing
SUCHETA DALAL: Forget the news, you can’t believe the ads either
SALIL TRIPATHI: The first casualty of a cosy deal is credibility
PAUL BECKETT: Indian media holding Indian democracy ransom
PRATAP BHANU MEHTA: ‘Indian media in deeply murky ethical territory’
Two diseases of separation between us & ‘em
7 May 2009
Arianna Huffington, appearing at a US Senate hearing on the future of journalism, on the difference between traditional media and new media:
“Traditional media has been afflicted with Attention Deficit Disorder. They are far too quick to drop a story-even a good one, in their eagerness to move on to the Next Big Thing. Online journalists have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. They chomp down on a story and stay with it, refusing to move off it until they’ve gotten down to the marrow.”
Read the full article: ADD vs OCD
Photograph: courtesy Huffington Post
