Sashi Kumar, Chairman of Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, said on Saturday that the role of journalism was being increasingly questioned in the last two decades.
He was delivering a talk on ‘Media and public interest’ at the School of Communication, a constituent of Manipal University, here.
Mr. Kumar said the connection of journalism with the public had changed.
There was now scepticism about journalists. It is necessary for journalists to introspect on various aspects of their profession, he said. Most of the news media were not representative of social or cultural realities of rural areas and was city-centric, he said. “The fact is we are a peasant and rural society. Rural India is real India,” he said. The tyranny of advertisements is dictating the media, Mr. Shashi Kumar said.
There was greater democracy in social media.It is essential for the media to retain public credibility and work for public interest, he said. K. Ramnarayan, Vice-Chancellor of Manipal University, Nandini Lakshmikantha, Director of SOC, were present.
