STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania: As online media vehicles rev up and vroom off on the infobahn, traditional media slowcoaches seem to have hit upon “interactivity” as the magic device to slow down the upstarts. But too much interactivity can be a bad thing, especially if the content is not good enough, says S. SHYAM SUNDAR. Professor…
Monthly Archives: October 2007
Magazine stories in 100 words or less. Or else.
If there can be a book titled How to talk about books you haven’t read, surely somebody should do the donkey’s job of wading through thick, fat, heavy magazines, and telling you what you need to read in a television soundbite-sized capsule? Wait no further. In a seriously time and attention challenged world, bent double…
What it takes to be a good television journo
NDTV’s Barkha Dutt may be the first name on most aspiring journalists’ lips, but the real star of Indian television in many ways is Shereen Bhan. Smart, sharp and with a face to match, the CNBC anchor is frighteningly versatile, flipping from show to show, showering her broad smile on a a variety of subjects.…
‘Sadly, lensmen are just a cog, never the wheel’
The well-known photojournalist T.S. SATYAN was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award for Freelance Photojournalism instituted by the Essel Group and the Zee Network, in Bangalore on Sunday. Another Mysorean, former Praja Vani editor M.B. SINGH, was also honoured similarly. This is the full text of Satyan’s acceptance speech. *** “Thank you for the honour done…
‘Modern advertising endangers media diversity’
STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania: Time was when the advertising world revolved around the simple 30-second spot. Put one out and, more likely than not, it was sure to capture everybody’s eye at some time or the other. But diminishing attention spans, a growing media clutter, and cutting edge consumer technology—through devices like personal video recorders, TiVo,…
Stephen Colbert on the media. And so can you.
A “lamprey that latches onto a subject and just sucks and sucks and sucks until your brain and your soul is as dry as a crouton.” Stephen Colbert on the press, quoted in Vanity Fair
Man behind ‘most important story of our time’
The magazine calls it “The Most Important Story of Our Time”. The magazine’s editor calls the reporter’s work “one of the finest in the history of Indian journalism”.The magazine is Tehelka. The story is the sting operation of what happened in Gujarat in 2002 “in the words of the men who did it. The editor…
The world’s “best sexiest advertisements”
Anyone can make sexy ads, but it takes a certain amount of focus, greed, and sheer insensitivity to make the sexiest ones, says Media Circus. View the entire set of 12 ads here: The best sexiest ads in the world
What it takes for a woman to be a journo in Iraq
New York: The International Women’s Media Foundation awarded its “courage in journalism awards” on Tuesday to women who risk their lives covering the news. One award was given to six Iraqi women who work in the McClatchy Newspapers bureau in Baghdad, a job so dangerous that they cannot take the chance of being photographed, not…
An Afghan journalist needs help. Your help.
SUNIL K. POOLANI writes: A friend of mine, Kamran Mir Hazar, an Afghani poet, journalist and writer who used to a very successful website, has been a daring and vociferous voice of freedom of expression in Afghanistan from the pre-Taliban days. Once the Taliban took over, he had to flee to Iran; when the USA…
Intelligence is sexy: Hot for words
Is there a connection between the word evil and the word medieval? Katie Gonser gets an eyeful and an earful by way of a response for the grammar girl.
Never say ‘cheese’ to a herd of elephants
From The Hindu: SRIKAKULAM: The herd of wild elephants that are on the rampage in the forest areas of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts claimed yet another victim, this time a reporter working for a Telugu daily, on Friday. K. Nagaraju of Andhra Prabha was suspected to have been trampled to death while three other reporters…
JOHN CURLEY: The road ahead for newspapers
STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania: The threat to newspapers may be from online sources, but the battle has to be fought with good content, backed by solid in-paper promotion of editorial and advertising content. So says John Curley, the first editor of USA Today, and the man who succeeded Al Neuharth as president, chairman and CEO of…
Is it an idol (sic)? Is it a statue? Is it a mannequin?
Political photography, like all photography, is about timing. But good photography is no longer easy on the chaotic Indian political landscape where hundreds of (“still”) photographers and (“video”) cameramen now jostle and slug each other out for a slice of the pie. This picture by Manjunath M.S. of Karnataka Photo News is a very fine…
James W. Michaels, Rest in Peace
James W. Michaels, the US army ambulance driver who was faster than any reporter to tell the world that Mahatma Gandhi had been assassinated, and then went on to edit 1,000 issues of Forbes magazine over 37 years, passed away in New York on Tuesday, the eve of Gandhi’s birthday. He was 86. Michaels covered…
Why do (old) reporters end stories with ‘-30-‘?
“Some say the mark began during a time when stories were submitted via telegraph, with “-30-” denoting “the end” in Morse code. Another theory suggests that the first telegraphed news story had 30 words. “Others claim the “-30-” comes from a time when stories were written in longhand — X marked the end of a…
Sir Vidiadhar Naipaul’s seven rules for writers
Like George Orwell before him, Nobel laureate Sir Vidiadhar Naipaul dug deep into the well of his writing experience and came up with a list of simple rules for those learning to put mouse on pad. *** 1. Do not write long sentences. A sentence should not have more than ten or twelve words. 2.…
‘Indian media now needs to look at quality’
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the 66th Annual General Meeting of Indian Language Newspapers Association in New Delhi on Wednesday: “There is concern all over the world over that the growth of television and internet threatens the survival of print media. In many countries, readership of newspapers is declining. Even in India, there is…
The end of newspapers is nearer than you think
How much longer will newspapers as we know them last? Not much longer, according to most analysts. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, is a lot more precise. “I predict that the end of printed newspapers will happen in the time it takes for most people to upgrade their cell phones two more times. The…
The five best books about newspapering
In the Wall Street Journal, veteran reporter and New York Sun editor Seth Lipsky lists the five favourite books on newspapers and newspapermen: 1. “The Paris Edition” by Waverley Root (North Point, 1987) 2. “How I Got That Story” edited by David Brown and W. Richard Bruner (Dutton, 1967) 3. “The Brass Ring” by Bill…
IJR 