The “Indian of the Year” shows of the various television channels, that has comfortably stretched into the first month of the new year, has largely been a case of much of the same. So similar were the “brand” objectives; the award categories; the selection methodology; the “beautiful people”; and the target audiences that had the…
Category Archives: Google Videos
‘Too much interactivity is not such a good thing’
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…
DAVID SUMNER: ‘Magazines will survive, thrive’
MUNCIE, Indiana: Yes, the internet is hurting magazines, but for the large part, magazines are adapting and changing much faster and better than newspapers in meeting the threat. That is the verdict of Prof David E. Sumner, the head of the nationally recognised magazine program at Ball State University, and the co-author with Shirrel Rhoades…
MUST-WATCH: Getting a press pass is very easy
There are others, of course, but journalists should surely rank very high on the totempole of the most grumbling professionals. Grumbling about our bosses, grumbling about our pay, grumbling about the way our organisations are run, we quickly lose sight of what we are here for, and quietly of all our energy. How can we…
When journalists begin asking the right questions
# Did Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose really die in an air crash in 1945? # Did Neil Armstrong really land on the moon in 1969, or was it all staged on the deserts of Nevada? # Did Elvis Presley really die in 1976, or is he still around ducking the cameras and living a life…
How good is me.com for you—and democracy?
WASHINGTON, DC: If the world wide web was seen as the harbinger of the “global village”, customisation and personalisation of internet content have inverted the premise and reduced users to “an audience of one”. This may be good for e-commerce outlets, advertisers, marketeers seeking to deliver targetted information. But how good is tailoring of news delivery…
HUSNI: Will magazines die? Not any time soon
WASHINGTON, DC: In a journalism ocean full of gloom and impending doom—full of pornographic navel-gazing over its current state—Professor Samir Afif Husni comes across like an isle of hope that American publishers, investors, and editors either can’t see or are trying desperately to swim away from. Not only does the chair of the department of…
VINOD MEHTA on what to read, how to write
Vinod Mehta is India’s Last Great Editor. As puppy publishers, egged on by tobacco peddlers, softdrinks salesmen, and milkpowder accountants with calculators, strip Indian journalism of its relevance and conscience with a vengeance, the editor-in-chief of Outlook holds a mirror to what could have been. And as puppet editors sway with the wind and sidle…