Hyderabad, Dec.18 (Hydnow): Expressing concern over the future of media and Journalism and the sanctity of news in the face of disruptive technological advances, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu has urged all the stakeholders to ensure credible journalism since media is an effective tool of empowerment of people for informed public discourse.
Naidu spoke at length on “Journalism: Past, Present and Future’’ while delivering the M.V.Kamat Memorial Endowment Lecture in virtual mode from Hyderabad today.
The Vice President listed the concerns about media and journalism as issues relating to; Freedom of press, censorship, flouting of norms of reporting, social responsibility of journalists, decline in the values and ethics of journalism, yellow journalism, journalism of false crusades, reporting for profit, disinformation in the form of fake and paid news, disruptions caused by the Internet and the future of media amidst these concerns and challenges.
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Naidu said, “Yellow journalism seeks to cloud the facts by resorting to eye-catching headlines and promotes distortion and misinformation. Journalism based on taking up false crusades as witnessed in the case of suicide of a film actor recently, is a fellow traveler. Both are aimed at increasing readership and viewership and should be avoided.”
The Vice President voiced concern over the implications of the growing ‘instant journalism’ triggered by the emergence of Internet and social media expansion in the form of propagation of fake news and erosion of journalistic norms and ethos. He further noted that technology giants have emerged as algorithmic gatekeepers of information and the web emerging as the main distributor of news. Naidu, in particular, referred to the financial implications for the traditional media like the newspapers with their journalistic products being leveraged by technology giants and not sharing the revenues with the concerned. He noted that the Internet has disrupted the revenue and reporting models with serious implications.
Naidu stated that “The information and reports generated by the print media at substantial cost is being hijacked by the social media giants. This is unfair. Some countries are taking measures to ensure revenue sharing by the social media giants with the print media. We too need to take a serious look at this problem and come out with appropriate revenue sharing models for the survival of traditional media.”
Naidu also urged the media to give adequate attention to reporting on developmental efforts and outcomes by examining and analysing the triggers of change, partnerships built and participation of people and other stakeholders, challenges faced and the way they were overcome etc. “This kind of positivity reinforces the trust of the people in the institutions of our body polity” he said.
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The Vice President urged the media persons to keep news and views strictly separate without allowing each of them masquerading as the other. He also stressed the need to stem the decline in journalistic values and ethos.
Naidu also complimented the media organisations for standing up to the crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic and sustaining the cause of empowerment of the people.
Pro Vice Chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) Dr. H.S. Bhallal, Vice Chancellor Lt. General M.D. Venkatesh, Director of Manipal Institute of Communication Dr. Padma Rani and members of administrative and academic departments were among those who attended the event. (Hydnow)
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