The Indian media, which faces the challenge of being more inclusive, needs to facilitate entry of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes into newsrooms as they have little representation there, Professor Robin Jeffrey, a leading authority on media affairs, said on Saturday.
Explaining what he construed as a serious challenge for the Indian media, Professor Jeffrey said there are “newsrooms and broadcast studios which have almost no Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes amongst them on the editorial side.”
“That means that close to one in every four Indians will not find anyone much like themselves writing stories, going to the camera or making decisions about what is news,” he added.
Professor Jeffrey, a leading academic known for his work, “India's Newspaper Revolution,” made these points at the Rajendra Mathur Lecture organised by the Editors Guild of India, whose president and senior journalist T.N. Ninan earlier welcomed him.
Professor Jeffrey said that for a very long time Dalits and tribals had continued to be away from the mainstream media and though anomaly had been noticed in the past, the problem had persisted.
He suggested Indians could act on the lines of what the American Society Newspapers Editors did 35 years ago when they had begun an audit of African-Americans' presence in the newsrooms and set target for a rough parity for minorities.
“Annual audit of SC/ST presence in the newsroom and perhaps some very modest annual targets for inducting and bringing along journalists from such communities could be a solution,” he said.
‘Set up trust'
Another suggestion Professor Jeffrey gave was setting up of a trust for funding a “high-quality publication, preferably a magazine, devoted to the issues surrounding the SC/ST experience.”
Keywords: Indian media, inclusive growth, SC, STs employment
The people who were subjected to discrimination's on all grounds and kept away from the reach of basic facilities, access to knowledge and education has to be provided some concessions to bring them to the mainstream of media and communication with open heart and free from jealousy and bias.
oh.. SC/ST are in everywhere in govt. positions because of the major reservations given to them.. and in some families, all member of the family are professional and making huge money. days are no more that, the SC and ST are far away from the main society.. i am not discriminating them, being in the news reading room is not a issue of nation.. there are so many issues needed to be rectified..
I concur with hariharan. They always say that 'let merit decide'. If that is they have been following so far why are there substandards in media? Inclusion of SC/ST does not mean 'merit is sacrificed' as if they are not fit for anything intellectual. Is the caste or untouchability abolished? I don't see that. It should not be sudden and not by legal action. But why do people who think just by including SC/STs merit is sacrificed ever let them play a role ? Though reservation system in higher education has been used by politicians to a great extent like promising some group reservation in case they vote for him/party, if not for the same reservation system, we would probably have never seen some people from those severely disadvantaged sections of society.
India should give priority to talent not caste. What happen if we give priority to SC/ ST who have not good knowledge of Press and Media... nothing.. So please give priority to talent.
Inclusion of SC/ST in to the news media is a welcome idea. Ofcourse, there will be the usual outrcy "merit will be compromised" - as if being SC/ST is synonymous with lacking in merit. Such prejudiced opposition should be rejected outright. The Indian media needs to follow the example of BBC in this case - which has women and men of many races and ethnic groups as their news readers.
I concur. Giving the SC/ST's meaningful employment will a.make them more
responsible about themselves and b.increase the contact potential of
Indian news. But it should be gradual, not by a sudden legal action.
Because then it will become the quagmire that the reservation system has
become in higher education.
The politics of "Affirmative Action" in the USA has been firmly rejected by the US Supreme Court and the US Citizens as illegal and unconstitutional. Bharat should not repeat the same mistake. Let merit and private enterprise decide who will become a journalist for independent media. The media should not become a victim of the insidious quota system.
The quota system is killing education, employment, politics and in fact every aspect of civilized life in Bharat. Politicians are using the quota system for murdering democracy, finances and integrity of elections.
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