The Hindu : Front Page : Journalists can aim for greater credibility: Shahani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 04, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Journalists can aim for greater credibility: Shahani

Staff Reporter

— Photo: K. Pichumani

Filmmaker Kumar Shahani (left) presents diploma to students of the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai on Sunday.

CHENNAI: As an era of “falsehood and disinformation” comes to an end, marked by the current downturn, it could make it possible for journalists to aim for greater credibility by re-establishing the sacred duty of “witnessing,” said filmmaker and film theoretician Kumar Shahani, addressing the graduating class of the Asian College of Journalism here on Sunday.

One of India’s distinctive filmmakers, whose mentors include filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak, Marxist historian D.D. Kosambi and French filmmaker Robert Bresson, Mr. Shahani said that as democracy was the model that we had chosen, the mode of exchange between human beings had to be built not on hierarchies of wealth or power but on actual “witnessing and sharing of knowledge,” he said.

At this moment, a growing concern was “the residual violence of the last two centuries has gathered itself once again all around us,” said Mr. Shahani. He cited examples of the violence in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India’s north-east, which was spawned by splintering identities and defining them within increasingly narrow bounds.

Especially in times of economic insecurity such as the current state of affairs, “a panic seizes all human relationships that stops people from coming together,” he said.

“Why is it that reality surprises us?” he asked, adding that to come in contact with the presence of other people and nature itself helped us to respond to them, to grow and in turn be informed. But this reality could not be captured “on a planar apprehension,” he said.

“To learn anew requires no shadows of past understanding flattening the real and alive into points and lines. Or to zero and one.” Instead, the nuances had to be understood and conveyed, he said. Citing a musical metaphor, he said: “As you move from one scale to another… a variety of discourses seem to emerge.”

“What I am praying for is a new flexibility in our minds,” he said, which could prevent abuse of the senses and expand our knowledge base and free ourselves.

The economic slowdown that had affected the media industry could provide a “reality check,” said N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu. As the hype faded, quality journalism could emerge, he said.

Sashi Kumar, chairman of the Media Development Foundation, said that despite the downturn, the placements had been “remarkably good,” with 94 per cent of the students being placed in different media organisations.

The college would move to its new composite campus at Taramani in the coming academic year, he said, adding that shorter modules on different subjects, including film studies and graphic designing, would be included.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page