MATHIHALLI MADAN MOHAN writes from Hubli: Breathless chatter and cacophony have become the leit motifs of the modern Indian media echo chamber, regardless of the issue on hand. But is there any illumination when the fireworks go off in the studios? Do we know anything more than we did? Or is it all dust, haze…
Monthly Archives: January 2008
What does your choice of font say about you?
Handwriting experts decipher personalities by looking at signatures. The Boston Globe looks at the choice of fonts chosen by the American presidential candidates to decode what it says about them. Hillary Rodham Clinton: “far from fresh… it projects recycled establishment. The type has a tired feeling.” Barack Obama: “contemporary, fresh, very polished and professional…. Young…
‘The first casualty of a cosy deal is credibility’
The Times of India group’s decision to make strategic investments in mid-level companies, in return for guaranteed advertising and editorial exposure in the group’s publications and media vehicles, through the quaintly named “Private Treaties“, has had several other media houses following suit. Hindustan Times is said to be well on its way to establishing a…
Change when you are on top, not at the bottom
La Vanguardia, the leading quality newspaper in Spain, has had a fine year after it “changed without changing.” In 2006, Innovation International Media made several recommendations on how to go about the change. Juan Antonio Giner, the founder-director of Innovation, lists the lessons learned from the exercise. 1) Change when you are a leader 2)…
Why Rajdeep and Barkha must decline Padma Shri
ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from Madras: Now that CNN-IBN’s editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai and NDTV’s managing editor Barkha Dutt have become the first television journalists in the history of independent India to get the Padma awards, they must do three things. 1) They must revel in the high honour. They must thank everybody including the viewers who…
Padma Shri VD, Padma Shri RDS, Padma Shri BD
Three Indian television journalists have been included in this Republic Day honours’ list, marking a coming of age of the medium in a country where print journalists have traditionally hogged the limelight. Independent television consultant Vinod Dua, CNN-IBN founder and editor-in-chief Rajdeep Dilip Sardesai, and NDTV managing director Barkha Dutt are among the 71 awardees…
If our reporters are sloppy, what about theirs?
PRITHVI DATTA CHANDRA SHOBHI writes from Oakland: Each time a foreign correspondent moves to Jorbagh and begins her South Asia Bureau chiefdom, the West rediscovers the essence(s) of India. If caste and Hinduism were the old Orientalist inventions, as time has gone included into that list are some new ones: Bollywood, cricket, Taj Mahal, IT,…
Just another day in the life of a TV cameraman
A television news team is targetted by Palestinian snipers but the cameraman keeps filming, capturing the fear and the uncertainty, all the while knowing that the next bullet could rip through the lenseye.
‘Indian media in deeply murky ethical territory’
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has, in a party resolution, decried cross-media ownership and warned of the growth of monopolies in the Indian media. It has also slammed the corporatisation of the media, and demanded that the brakes be applied on foreign direct investment in the media which “has made a section of the…
Due to unforeseen circumstances…
In life as in journalism, death is a grim business. The passing of a publication, any publication, is not something to make fun of. Still, this notice, which appears on the homepage of The Astrological Magazine, should bring a faint smile: “We regret to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, the publication…
The media and the stock market collapse
Indian stock markets plunged by 7.4 per cent on Monday, and closed another 4.97 per cent down on Tuesday. The fall, much more precipitous than other Asian and global markets, left small investors nursing their wounds and mourning their phenomenal losses, much of it notional. As the stock markets had soared, the Indian media had…
The shortest route to a journalist’s heart…
The shortest route to a journalist’s heart still continues to be through the liver, in the perception of bureaucrats and politicians. Ajith Athrady brings glad tidings in Deccan Herald: “The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has hiked budgetary allocation norms to entertain journalists. “It has enhanced the quantity of wine that can be served…
Entries invited for Miskloc cine festival
MEDIA RELEASE: Do you really feel that filmmaking is the most splendid activity of the world? Would you gladly meet people who have the same hobby; would you watch movies with pleasure; would you happily get new acquaintances, and would you really measure your strength in filmmaking with somebody? Films, exhibitions, performances, discussions. Do what…
Can the media be as amnestic as its audience?
How much of a memory should the media have? Should it take each day eagerly and feverishly as it comes and rush into judgment regardless of what it reported/opined in the previous day? Should be it be a beacon of balance, proportion, and perspective, even at the risk of alienating its audience? Santosh Desai, former…
The launch that showcased a thousand slips
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: The unveiling of the Nano has fetched the kind of publicity Osama bin Laden would kill for. Purple prose hailing the new peoples car, breathless editorials brazenly brushing aside environment and traffic concerns, mushy interviews with the man himself, over-the-top opinion polls have all greeted the “world’s cheapest car”.…
At last, an Indian video production textbook
With television booming in India, and news and entertainment channels being launched every other day, expertise at video production is increasingly in short supply. It’s a void that journalism schools and mass communications programmes at diploma, under-graduate and post-graduate levels, are trying to fill, but they are hampered by the lack of relevant literature suited…
Al Jazeera: Media predictions for 2008
Forget the news, you can’t believe the ads either
The selling of the news columns in Indian newspapers, a pernicious practice that deliberately blurs the distinction between independently generated news and paid advertisements, has assumed pandemic proportions with language publications unabashedly apeing the market-leader The Times of India, which pioneered the move. But, it now turns out that even paid advertisements are no longer…
Should cricket reporters applaud their captain?
India’s cricket series against Australia plunged into turmoil on Sunday when it lost a closely fought second Test match in Sydney after a flurry of dodgy umpiring decisions robbed what little chance the visitors had of drawing the match. Later, when Anil Kumble ended his post-match media conference with the words “Only one side played…
One culture’s pinnacle is another’s base camp
Vir Sanghvi in Mint: “The new Controller of BBC One, England’s top TV channel, is 40. James Murdoch, who has taken over his father’s media interests outside the US, is 34. “Is this as true of the Indian media scene? Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt are young editors of TV channels. But most of their…
IJR 