Simply Malicious Service

(For my other posts see http://journo1958.blogspot.in/)

Simply Malicious Service, that's how I want to redefine SMS.

The ferocity with which malicious information has spread through SMS in the latest info war against Northeast people and the accuracy with which it hit the targets and extracted the required reaction astounds everyone. It's equivalent to the launching of a successful Agni exercise.

Now, the question arises as to who has injected the deadly virus into the mobiles. While the Intelligence is after the DNA of the virulent messages and their progenitors, we have some points to ponder.

How to track malicious information in the millions of SMSs that are sent out everyday through various operators is the gigantic question before cyber specialists.

I am reminded of how some people got the vicarious pleasure in making bomb hoax calls to even schools. The government has to take severe action against such rumour-mongers by bringing out a legislation.

The new episode has added a chapter to the cyber war that has emerged as another war front. India will do well to tackle this kind of war given its information technology prowess.

Technical issues apart, are we as a nation not tolerant to cultural differences and identities? Those who are intolerant and want to keep their identities only should hang their heads in shame for not rising above 'narrow domestic walls.'

(For my other posts see http://journo1958.blogspot.in/)

Sorry state, indeed!

(For my other posts see http://journo1958.blogspot.in/)

A sorry state of affairs indeed! A 65-year-old Dalit leader recently committed suicide, citing a reason that many would not think so serious as to take one's life. He obviously was fed up with the state of affairs and the way people's reps and leaders functioned. while the details of this incident are yet to emerge - and may never see the light of the day due to media apathy -- there is no doubt that he was upset about the way things are. Are people being served well by their leaders? It may be a moot question but ask anyone on the street, in buses and trains, and at workplaces you will come across the common refrain -- leaders have become selfish and serve well their own own ends, and those of their kin. Such people are seen in small groups, associations, and even in leading organisations. Their ulterior motives are to benefit at the expense of others and to sustain vested interests. Public interest always suffers in this process. People are denied basic services such as potable water and proper roads. And, if they ask for them through the RTI they are putting their lives at risk. A vibrant democracy no doubt, but is it an utilitarian one?

(For my other posts see http://journo1958.blogspot.in/)

Hisssss Act Against Bribe

The campaigns against corruption --- whether by Hazare, political yatris like Advani, or other outfits --- may well have taken a leaf out of the method adopted by a villager to tackle corruption in Haraiyan tehsil in Basti district, an obscure place in Uttar Pradesh this past week (November last week). The man finally let the lethal weapon he had with him – hissing snakes!

Reportedly angered by the bribe sought by the revenue staff to clear his paper for an additional land, for which he had appealed to President Pratibha Patil, the man, named Hakkul, thought this would be the best way to get his message across.

The employees scurried for safety taking refuge on tabletops and some ran away fearing for lives. This made up a hilarious scene for a movie!

We wake up from slumber to reality only if something hurts us or threatens our position or existence. This many would frankly admit.

What the snake charmer did was right. But we do not know the full story like why he wanted more land for conservation of the reptiles, etc. But his action would definitely have had an impact on the government servants.

This only shows that the lower bureaucracy must be included in any scheme of anti-corruption measure envisaged. If this is true, how is it fair not to include Group C staff of the Central government and the judges themselves.

If the aim of all is to eliminate corruption, it has to be at all levels – right from the peon to the minister.

Press paints Naxals negatively

“One must know what one is writing about” may not seem to be a far-fetched idea for a journalist. Yet, there are many who do superficial reporting of events and follow them up with analyses that do not present a proper perspective of the issues involved.

This seems to hold true in the case of journalists who write about naxalites and issues that concern them, according to a study of the reports of four newspapers – two in
English, The Hindu and The New Indian Express (TNIE) and two in Telugu (Eenadu and Vaartha). Most of them lacked an in-depth study of the ideology of the movement.

The study covering eight years, from 1999 to 2006, was the basis of a book on “Newspapers and naxalite movement” written by Dr. J. Madhu Babu and published in 2010 by Kanishka Publishers, New Delhi.

The study comes up with some startling disclosures: that the press as a whole has projected a negative image of the naxalite movement by focusing on naxal violence such as blasts, burning of properties, attack on authorities, etc.; that the newspapers ignored tribal welfare questions, the agony of people and their reactions to activities of naxalites and the police.

With the press failing “to focus on the unresolved question of tribal welfare…the tribal uneducated or semi-educated youth are attracted towards the Naxalite movement.”

The press has not analysed the reasons for the failure of welfare programmes to reach the tribal population, it says. This theme received less coverage. The Hindu, for example, did not publish even a single news item on tribal welfare measures during the study period.

The comprehensive study, carried out with tested research methodologies, covered a total of 4,387 news items published, 2,330 photos, 31 edit articles, 74 editorials, 10 editorial cartoons, 55 pocket cartoons and 184 letters to the editor. These were evaluated against a wide range of factors such as category of news, sub categories, and whether they were favourable, unfavourable or neutral.

Eenadu published the highest number of news items (31.8 per cent), followed by Vaartha (31.5 p.c.), The Hindu (19.6) and The New Indian Express (17.1).

The highest number of photos (1,000) was by Eenadu, next Vaartha (892), The Hindu (233) and TNIE (205).

TH and TNIE each published only one cartoon on the issue.
In terms of editorials, Vaartha (74) led, followed by Eenadu (16), TNIE (14) and THE HINDU (8).

During the study period of eight years, there was not a single article on naxalites in The Hindu while TNIE wrote only two; Vaartha led with 20 and Eenadu followed with 9.

The Hindu accounted for the most number of letters to the editor (75) among the dailies.

It also gave more prominence in terms of political parties’ reactions and human rights issues involved. In coverage of peace talks, TNIE put out more stories. All the papers, including Vaartha, gave less coverage to people’s reactions against naxalites and police.

Journalists have become insensitive to the killings of naxalites and police repression. For example, headings of the encounter stories give only the figures. And only the police version is carried.

The Naxlite issue is seen more as a law and order problem and the violence as harmful to society.

In coverage of reactions of political parties to naxal activities, The Hindu gave prominence to the Congress, BJP, Communists and the TDP while The New Indian Express gave priority to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.

The study rightly points out that the newspapers have the onerous task to represent the case of the poor and the voiceless in society. They also should play a positive role in resolving the conflict between the naxalites and the government.

The book also presents profiles of important naxal leaders and the chronological events in the movement, and the profiles of the newspapers covered, which are of research value.

Students and researchers in the field of journalism can benefit by reading the book, especially about the content analysis methods adopted.


K. Kirubanidhi
Sr. Asst. Editor
The Hindu
Email: journo1958@gmail.com

Digital publishing for Indian news media - Part III & last

Integrated Newsroom

The major problem is the integration of the print and online staff – the two poles in an organisation . We may have to take lessons from many organisations that have already done it. In India too, integrated and coordinated newsrooms have come about in the Hindi newspaper majors Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran respectively.

When professionalism was seriously talked about by the media and decisions taken in the 1990s in India, it usually related to the blue-eyed boys and girls, namely the reporters and correspondents. But the western experience of rotation of journalists on the desk and on the field was clearly ignored.

Now the integrated newsroom ought to encourage this in both versions. And only the term journalist would matter more if they are rolled into one and asked to do reporting and editing by turns. This would also the address the problem of lack of special stories and exclusives as all journalists will feel the need for breaking news of all hues.

What will differentiate one paper from another is the publishing of special stories with human interest and exclusive ones across the spectrum. Once this tribe of integrated journalists comes into being, there is nothing that is going to stop them from making their organisations the best ones.

Jakarta Globe

Take the Jakarta Globe online, for instance. The stories that come under the Editors Choice are very interesting and well-written. Recently, there was a story about their Homeless World Cup soccer team members – one of whom walked a long distance to raise funds to enable the team go to France for the cup. He was inspired by his mother’s words to keep promises, something that was ignored by a prominent public personality.

Compare this with some segments of the cricket-obsessed Indian media that chose to downplay the Indian hockey team’s protest over the paltry sum offered to them for their recent victory over Pakistan in the Asian Champions Trophy. All sports need to be encouraged and the media needs to play a larger role in this and derive all advantages that it can get from the youth in this respect.

The Globe also had a story about comics being used by Islamic schools to teach tolerance showed the transparency with which their system works. It received very sharp comments both from a person who opposed fundamentalism and another critical of Christians.

I wonder whether such feedback could be put on any website in India.
The challenge for the Indian media is to be glocal as well as local. Non-news sites are already tapping the citizen journalism front which quenches the thirst for news ignored or not covered by the mainstream media.

The Indian media needs to take all these factors into consideration and launch digital initiatives by playing to their strength and adding new readers through modern methods and devices.


(journo1958@gmail.com)

K.Kirubanidhi
Sr. Asst. Editor
The Hindu
Chennai

Digital publishing for Indian news media - Part II

Advice for Indian media

With India and China together forming the third largest Facebook audience segment, it is clear that the Indian media industry should tap the social media tool with focus on the youth.

The remark -- at the September 2011 WAN-IFRA meet in Chennai -- by The Washington Post managing editor Raju Narisetti – an Indian who has reached the top in the newspaper after major stints in the Indian media – can be taken as a piece of advice in the interest of the Indian media. He says “the time is in favour of India to catch up and this needs to be done by measuring up things, setting goals and rewarding the right people.”

These examples showed that an integrated newsroom is the future. The Washington Post had achieved the integration in 2009. It was done by using highly developed software systems that streamlined operations and increased productivity. Raju Narisetti, after becoming the Managing Editor of the Post, revamped the systems and remapped workflows.

Among the software systems for editorial operations displayed at the WAN-IFRA Expo were those of the CCI, 4C plus, and Comyan.

A variety of news websites straddle the virtual world, all with their own USPs. Besides there are MSPs as well – if I may call them the Mass Selling Propositions. Some Indian news sites have already started tapping these MSPs to their advantage. They know precisely what the modern world, especially the vast segment of computer and net-savvy youth want.

What cannot be printed by any decent standards is meat for online audience, or so one is led to believe. It was a shocker to view the pornographic snap of Poonam Pandey on a news website on September 4th. Indian cricketers better sit up and watch it in the pavilion instead of bothering to go out and bat and bowl! And more or less similar pictures and videos are part of the daily staple that such sites offer.
You tap a potential no doubt, but what kind of a moral self-regulation are you are adopting in order to cater to this MSP? And mind you talk about corruption of all sorts except moral corruption and you expect these youngsters to fight!

Vinita Nangia may very well blog on this as she has got a good number of followers who are asking serious questions on societal and individual behaviour. Perhaps, what the youth needed was a link to the inspiring site of India Against Corruption.
This represents a slice of the cut-throat competition that has emerged online. Is it different from the days of sensational journalism indulged in by the Indian magazines in the 1980s?

This takes us to the question of quality journalism touched upon by The Washington Post’s Raju Narisetti. His newspaper has gone public now with the standards adopted by it in regard to digital publishing. It is an interesting document worth adoption with local amendments by other online news sites. The Post’s Ombudsman wrote that the stories are read and cleared by two editors except on occasions when the reporter/writer uploads the story straight into the site.

To the Indian print media, struggling to earn and retain online audiences, these may seem faraway but a beginning has to be made in this direction. After all accountability and transparency are the current rage.

There are many other challenges that the media groups face in their quest for dominance and excellence in online publication.

The first of these may be the required qualified staff to run these sites on a 24x7 basis, something on the lines of the non-stop TV nonsense! While it is a costly proposition to recruit highly qualified and experienced hands for these operations, it’s no less exacting task to fit the already available print media staff into the online ventures – what with their traditional outlook, practices and tired hands, eyes and minds. But there is going to be benefit if they are chosen and trained and encouraged with monetary and professional incentives. They know the USPs better.

In fact, some of the newspapers, we were told at the conference, found that the older staff were able to adapt themselves to the new conditions better than the younger ones. The way out could be a mix of youth and veterans whose experience, loyalty and resilience count.


(journo1958@gmail.com)

K. Kirubanidhi
Sr. Asst. Editor
The Hindu
Chennai

Digital publishing for Indian news media- Part I

Going digital has evolved from just an option to an essential ingredient for news organisations that are trying to integrate their newsrooms and exploit print and online and other media opportunities.

WAN-IFRA meet

Something of a weather forecast was in store for the Indian media companies, especially the print media, at the WAN-IFRA 2011 conference and Expo held from September 6-8 in Chennai. It warned of a storm, already blowing across the West dipping circulation figures even for major newspapers, hitting the Indian segment in the not-too-distant future.

If Indian firms are not venturing into the fast-growing digital and mobile platforms effectively, they will be the losers in the highly competitive environment. The competition is not only among newspapers, but non-news players such as search engines and social media sites who are garnering advertisements – an estimated 65 per cent of the advertising on the web.

Thirty per cent of the world’s population has access to news through the Internet, 40per cent read newspapers, and 60 per cent use mobiles. Countries like Indonesia have already tapped the potential offered by the mobile market. While high Internet and mobile growth in India which had the second highest Internet mobile traffic in the world in 2010 --- a mind-boggling 635 million people owned mobile sets in 2010 and 16 million people used mobile to access the Internet in 2009 -- may not mean high intrusion or penetration, the runway has to be prepared for take-off in these segments.

There are problems such as high cost of access to news on the handsets for lower strata of society and marketing of low-end phones that do not have multi-media capacity. However, the PC growth and declining prices for them are good portends.

Real challenge

The real challenge, however, lies in creating online and mobile content that engages and serves the audiences and retaining their interest so that sustainable models could be worked out. Though the media industry in India itself seems to be having a pessimistic and non-chalant attitude relying on the stable markets that anyhow are growing, the warnings by experts in the field from abroad are clear signals for taking coordinated multi-media initiatives. What they are saying is that please do not commit the mistakes we have made, but benefit from them.

There are examples from overseas as well as India to prove that digital initiatives can supplement the print media revenue. Every company will become a media company, said Larry Kramer, founder, CBS Marketwatch.com, U.S. He put it bluntly: “If you are not creating commodity content (what people want) you are dead.”
The successful models showcased at the summit included Jawa Pos and Jakarta Globe from Indonesia and Ringier AG from Switzerland; Malayala Manorama, Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran from the home turf.

The digital initiatives need to be based on research and surveys into consumption of different media by consumers, the audience size and behaviour and their specific needs and preferences.

The success of youth-driven Jawa Pos (the group has an astonishing 179 newspapers for different regions and segments and local TV stations), stemmed from not only routine marketing strategies, but also from social media networks, especially Facebook which is a craze in the nation. Small but thoughtful initiatives such as campaigns in colleges and contests with incentives led to a considerable following for the paper on the social media.

The Jakarta Globe, which had just 500 fans on Facebook in May 2009, now has 1,54,646 fans and over 58,000 followers on Twitter. The two social media sites bring between 10 and 15 per cent of web traffic to the newspaper’s site. Though in terms of revenue it did not mean much, its presence on the social networks has been established and this has to be leveraged while making digital and marketing decisions. The newspaper achieved this with dynamic youth ambassadors and a dedicated team of the web edition.


(journo1958@gmail.com)

K. Kirubanidhi
Sr. Asst. Editor
The Hindu, Chennai.