I remember a couple of them off-hand. One is actually the title of a book by former Newsweek editor Edward Behr: “Anybody here been raped and speaks English?” This is a line Behr stmbles upon when he is covering the Vietnam war and captures the essential difficulties of journalists who can only speak English. Even…
Daily Archives: 15 November 2006
Small tsunami in Japan; not many dead
OK, we are jumping the gun here and revealing tomorrow’s news today, but the magnificently named Shantila Maria Barnes has a nice headline in a world brief in tomorrow’s paper: “Small Tsunami”. The headline brought to mind a headline writing contest that sub-editors at The Times, London, (no less) used to apparently have to keep…
Ravi Belagere please note
Metro Manja saw this on the back of an autorickshaw yesterday: “Love maadidare Love Story. Kai kottre Crime Story.”
A front page does not a newspaper make
Just what should go in a good paper, is a question we grapple with every morning. By any yardstick, we have done well today as we have done for several weeks now. There is more “positivity” on the front page (like the spastics plane ride), more “empowerment” (like the plane fare hike story), more fun…
DEEP THROAT: Who was it?
Who was the ‘Vijay Times’ journalist—reporter, sub-editor or designer, we won’t reveal—who, after seeing Nirad Mudur‘s magnum opus on the moon mission, innocently asked if journalists would be taken on the inaugural trip?
The most happening paper in the world?
One of India’s two best editors—keep guessing!—says The Independent, London, the paper started by a journalists’ co-operative, may probably the most buzzing publication in the world. This frontpage, forwarded to us by the venerable Dr Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi, on the bombing of Lebanon by Israel shows us why.
T.J.S. GEORGE: Immaturity breeds incompetence
It’s not often that T.J. S. George speaks his mind on journalism. At least, not in public. Founder-editor of Asiaweek magazine, editorial advisor to the New Indian Express group, and the author of numerous books ranging from music (MS), to words (Enquire Dictionary), George is the ultimate wordsmith but also, paradoxically, a man of…
Is anybody having fun in journalism anymore?
“Journalism is about playing around, doing mischief, having adventures, taking risks, undermining the powerful, and chortling darkly the whole time. The best work has generally come from people with a certain upbeat, rollicking, world-is-my-oyster spirit.” But “journalism” is now just a synonym for “desperation.” http://nationaljournal.com/powers.htm
5 qualities journalists can pick up from a pencil
CHETAN KRISHNASWAMY forwards a self-explanatory piece of prose from Paul Coelho’s “Like a Flowing River: Thoughts and Reflections”, marked for him by Madhavan Nambiar, additional secretary, Ministry of Information Technology: ** A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point, he asked: “Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is…
IJR 