At the invitation of the Department of Communication and Journalism of the University of Kerala I delivered the Swadesabhimani Ramakrishna Pillai Lecture honouring the memory of an ‘all-time great’ of journalism.
The topic of the lecture was Influence of Pressure Groups on the Media.
The text of the lecture is available at the Babu Bhaskar Google Group site.
1 comment:
I comment on your paper, not just as a communications professional, but also as a lay-woman who has almost given up on the media in India.
It is my opinion that journalists, as a breed, have experienced a qualitative deterioration in India. As is evidenced by the fact that the quality of news on offer each morning seems to sink lower and lower. I suspect, more than the fear factor and the arm twisting of the pressure groups, Greed has a greater role to play in this deterioration.
I have personally seen marketing professionals 'dictate' news to senior journalists in the offices of well known publications. As I have seen, journalists and their photographers agree to cover upstarts for modest remuneration and freebies.
WE have a plethora of PR agencies which earn the the butter on their bread by simply by feeding lethargic journos with press notes and pictures. Press conferences are no longer done without lunch and cocktails in a fancy 5 star hotel.
Even worse, I have heard, seen and read instances of media channels engage in bullying of their own when challenged.
Sadly, the fourth estate today, largely has an inflated opinion about its muscle power. And this is true, not just of the print media, but also of the news channels and media in cyber space as well.
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