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‘Press should respond to new challenges’

SINGAPORE: Indian newspapers have “performed invaluable democratic functions somewhat better than the other news media” since Independence. However, journalism, especially the print media, “needs to respond better than it is doing today in India to the challenge and opportunity of being relevant and being read.”

The Hindu Editor-in-Chief N. Ram struck a resonant note of caution in a powerful presentation on “Media Outlook 2011” at a plenary session of the conclave on “Opportunity India” here on Friday. The session, styl ed “Cutting Edge: India,” took place on the second and final day of the conclave. Under the overall banner of “Salaam India,” Chennai-based Zak Trade Fairs & Exhibitions Pvt. Ltd. is organising varied events here, including this conclave, in a series that will end on Sunday.

Goutam Sanyal, Joint Secretary in the Indian Ministry of Food Processing Industries, outlined the state of play in this key sector, with particular reference to the prospects of foreign and domestic investments.

Suhasini Maniratnam, film celebrity and social activist, presented glimpses of contemporary India through admirable anecdotes and a short visual narrative on the mood of the country’s diverse population.

Chairing the plenary session, Predeep Menon, Executive Director, Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, commented that the topics addressed, ranging from some aspects of India’s macro-economic scene to the country’s film and media scenes, truly reflected its diversity and its “cutting edge” potential as a 21st century powerhouse.

With the vision of India through the media prism dominating the session, Mr. Ram said: “Increasingly, journalism as we know it and the news media are being integrated into Entertainment and Media (E&M) industry. Socio-politically, many media platforms, many forms are important, starting with the good old press, which is the oldest of the news media components in India. Radio came second, then television, and now you have the New Media. And, it doesn’t even begin to speak about the work that people like Ms. Suhasini are doing. Important work. They have a huge influence on society, some of it is very serious, some of it is different.”

On balance, “the news media in India cannot afford to be complacent, because core values have already come under pressure from this tendency to fold journalism into E&M. It is happening on every media platform, and the pressure is going to increase.”

However and “contrary to the general impression,” Mr. Ram said, “the political stake in the news media is going to be, in part, its saviour.” The media as a whole, but more particularly the press and broadcast television, “are important players in the political game in India.”

Noting that the New Media was “beginning to make a significant impact on newspapers, television journalists, and the practice of journalism in India” in this broad context, he remarked that “what is touted as the emerging centrality of the internet seems some way off.” On balance, though, “given the trends and pressures on journalism from other factors, particularly hyper-commercialisation, complacency is the last thing our press and television journalists need.”

A wake-up call was already sounded for the press in the West, where “the culture of the always-on,” a nice phrase from an article in The New York Times, “has huge import and implications for jour nalism.” Viewed against such a global and spatial horizon, too, “the future of Indian journalism will certainly be compromised and the game lost, if it acquiesces in a market-driven strategy” or if it were to be “folded into E&M.”

The mobile platforms “are [also] now becoming important in countries like India and China. And some kind of journalism has to be done there as well, and it has to be multi-media.”

As for the big picture of the Indian news media in this complex milieu, “even if it seems, at times, that journalism, as we have known it, is riding into the sunset, it is our great professional and social responsibility to preserve its elements.” It was essential to “preserve the core values and, above all, the soul” of journalism in India.

Answering questions from the participants, Mr. Ram said: “Consensus, more or less, [is] that [India’s] greatest achievement is its vibrant political democracy. We have made it through the dangerous decades — that is the title of a book by Selig Harrison a long time ago. [And] we are seen as rising now. But the biggest failure — sometimes, the news media certainly underplay it — is the fact that you have the world’s largest mass poverty and deprivations. … However much you want to be gung-ho about the Indian economy, the opening up, foreign direct investment (FDI) and all that, you [have] got to hasten very, very slowly in our context.”

About FDI into the Indian media scene, Mr. Ram said: “There has been a protectionist wall, raised largely for political reasons. Also, newspapers are still growing from a low base. It is protectionism for very good reasons, historically. From Nehru’s time, the policy is not to allow any foreign participation in newspapers dealing with news and current affairs. The television is a different story. There is an invasion, from the skies, of foreign content, and also a little bit of FDI interest in television. … It is going to change. We need to bring constitutional and legal protections for the freedom of broadcast television on a par with the freedom we have in the press.”

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