In this formative era of the digital revolution, journalists not only have to be effective story tellers but also integrate their writing skills and technical abilities to attract readers. They need to be adept at using the digital media and take up the challenges of devising new formats of presenting news.
Robin Jeffrey, visiting research professor, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, said it was a great time to be journalists in India in this emerging digital revolution that provided opportunity to explore new means to communicate.
Prof. Jeffrey was delivering the Lawrence Dana Pinkham Memorial lecture on ‘India’s ‘Bully Pulpit’: Media in a time of digital revolution’ at the convocation ceremony of the Asian College of Journalism here on Saturday.
Tracing America's golden age of journalism in the early 1900s, he said the era of American President Theodore Roosevelt saw the media revolution wherein he had the ‘bully pulpit’ or an outstanding platform as it was known then. The journalists then were known as muckrakers who exposed injustices through research and writing.
“India too is entering a phase of media revolution in terms of digitisation.” Drawing a contrast with the downward trend of newspapers in the U.S., he said the growth of Indian newspapers remained strong in the past 30 years.
Mobile phones and the Internet transformed the ability to gain knowledge and converge various medium of communication in them. Indian journalists could build upon the bully pulpit or the outstanding platform of digital media to reach out to readers. The digital media also foster social equality that is otherwise absent largely in Indian media.
Pointing out that despite the advantages, India’s global media presence was small, Prof. Jeffrey said: “The digital media provides a platform to project Indian voices around the world.”
Earlier N. Ram, Chairman, Kasturi & Sons Limited, elaborated on the crisis that newspapers face and how digital media here are yet to yield a viable business model to rely on.
In all 169 students received their diplomas from Prof. Jeffrey. Sashi Kumar, Chairman, Media Development Foundation, stressed on the need to tweak curriculum to match the changes in the industry. Nalini Rajan, Dean of Studies, Asian College of Journalism, spoke.
