SHARANYA KANVILKAR writes from Bombay: Indian media houses, generally speaking, have been cagey in reporting the economic downturn and what it is doing to the man (and woman) on the street. They haven’t ignored it, of course, but they have been, let’s say, less boisterous than they were when reporting the boom. At one level,…
Monthly Archives: July 2009
Lucky with 13, will ‘Dalda’ get lucky at 96?
She is India’s first woman photojournalist. In the 1940s and ’50s, her sari-clad figure is said to have been a familiar figure in Delhi, bicycling from assignment to assignment. She was paid one rupee (2 cents) for each of her first eight pictures published in The Bombay Chronicle in 1938. Today, Homai Vyarawalla is 96…
Is economic downturn the best time for redesign?
It’s the season for the redesign of websites. In just the last three weeks, Rediff.com, The Times of India and Hindustan Times have gone in for a overhaul of their home pages. Outlook*, the weekly newsmagazine published from Delhi, has just joined the pack. Above is the new home page created by editor Sundeep Dougal…
Everybody knows what GIEM is, who TGI India is
“Don’t magazines, newspapers have anything to claim?” is a story on “sans serif” in response to television channels constantly claiming to be one-up over the rest either in their ratings or predictions. Well, The Week, the weekly newsmagazine published by the Malayala Manorama group, has responded in a Freudian sort of way with this full-page…
Largest minus largest-read is equal to 3.76 crore
Television ratings are like the Bhagavad Gita for TV companies. They can read into it what they want to read out of it. Which is why each TV station claims to be No. 1 and still somehow turns out to be right in its own way. Ditto, newspaper readership figures. Round one of the Indian…
“TV channels stump particle/ astrophysicists”
“EVERY CHANNEL NOW ENJOYS HIGHEST VIEWERSHIP“ The game of up-onemanship—yes, you read that right, up-onemanship—between Indian television stations on who is behind them, and at what micro-second of the day, has become a bit of a joke. Many have caught it, of course, but only GAUTAMA P. has been smart enough to decide to do…
Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach?
A number of Indian media houses have set up media schools over the years, partly to give something back to the profession, partly because they think existing journalism schools do not turn out recruitment-ready products, but largely to ensure a steady inflow of journalists at a time of heightened competition when everybody is poaching. The…
It happened one night on the day of the eclipse
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: Chalk and cheese can never taste the same. Bill O’Reilly can never be confused for Walter Cronkite. But, on the night of the longest solar eclipse in the 21st century, probably because of it, something close happened on Indian TV. Prannoy Roy (right), the calm and cultivated voice of…
What if nobody wants the serious stuff?
Ted 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
25 years moved so quickly; it seems like just 12
The Bangalore edition of The Times of India turns 25 years old today. But the joy of a great journey from being No.4 to No.1—from climbing from a circulation of 20,000 copies to “over 500,000,” in the words of resident editor H.S. Balram—is slightly marred by a photograph on the front page of the “special…
Daniel Pearl Awards for investigative journalism
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) is inviting entries for the Daniel Pearl Awards, named for the Wall Street Journal reporter killed in 2002 in Pakistan. The Awards recognize and promote cross-border investigations that involve reporting in at least two countries on a topic of world importance. The competition is open to professional journalists…
Less is better for the new, redesigned rediff.com
India’s pioneering news, views and e-commerce portal, rediff.com, has unveiled a brand-new, minimalist home page that is a far removed from its earlier “busy” homepage (screenshot below), and is almost a replica of the beta version of its world homepage. The NASDAQ-listed site, founded in 1996 by adman and entrepreneur Ajit Balakrishnan, is edited by…
Fellowship for radio and television broadcasters
One World Media, a UK-based organisation which aims to increase global understanding through effective use of the media, is offering a two-week fellowship for senior radio and television broadcasters from developing countries. The 2009 fellowship scheme runs from 19 to 30 October. The last date to apply is 21 August. Download the application form here…
When a music magazine takes on Goldman Sachs
It is probably applicable to other spheres of journalism as well, but it is surely no exaggeration to state that business journalism has completely lost the ability to tell it like it is. Unless, it is some small, worthless, unimportant target. Reporters, writers and editors, fearful of losing “access”, are held hostage by PR, freebies,…
Yet another paper redesigned by Mario Garcia
India’s second-largest English language daily newspaper, the 85-year-old Hindustan Times, has a new look from today, with new fonts, new layouts and a new masthead. The new design, by Mario Garcia, is “benchmarked to the best international standards”, writes editor-in-chief Sanjoy Narayan in his introductory note. “You’re holding the future in your hands,” Narayan writes.…
Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism awards
The Ramnath Goenka Memorial Foundation is inviting entries for the 2008 Excellence in Journalism awards. The awards are open for both print and broadcast journalists in 17 categories with cash prizes and scholarships on offer. The last date for entries is 31 August 2009. Visit http://www.expressindia.com/rngf for further details. Email: rngf@expressindia.com Also read: 2009 India…
When only one side of the conversation is “live”
“Breaking News” lost its meaning on Indian television a long time ago. Now, the meaning “Live” is in danger, too. It is not uncommon to find the same talking heads on different TV stations holding forth on the same topic at the same time on the same day. But an even more questionable “live” procedure…
Ours is not to ask why, but Venn it struck us
Photograph: courtesy despair.com Link via Alfred Satish Jones
‘Journo’s responsibility far greater than scholar’s’
Max 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…
22 only if they are counting ‘NDTV’ and ‘Profit’
An advertisement for NDTV’s business channel Profit, appearing in the latest issues of the newsweeklies.
IJR 