In the prevailing scenario where news has become a commodity, media should strike a balance between responsibility to society and their efforts towards improving commercial prospects, said R. Vijaya Sankar, Editor, Frontline , on Tuesday. Shortly after inaugurating the activities of the English association at National College, Mr. Vijaya Sankar, traced the path traversed by newspapers and electronic media right from the days of the freedom movement.
On the topic ‘media and society’, he said that democracy and enhanced economic activities in the industrial sector have contributed to the media growth in the country. Against this backdrop, there is an urgent need to strike a balance between the role of the media in serving the people and educating them on the one hand, and focussing on its commercial viability on the other.
Issues such as paid news, urban bias and gender bias have come to the fore .
Slums and villages come to the limelight only during natural calamities, riots and major accidents, he said adding that only a very few newspapers focussed on social and development issues. However, a constant struggle is going on between good journalism and bad journalism. He urged the students to go beyond textbooks and master the language besides concentrating on literature, politics and social science. This would enable them not only to organise words, but also to organise the world in a better way.
K. Anbarasu, principal of the college, presided. S. X. Prabhu, HoD, economics, R. Elavarasu, HoD, English, and K. Srinivasan, vice president of the English association, offered felicitations.
The members of the national theatre of the college staged the play ‘Dr. Faustus last days’ .
