“Bylines were awarded for exceptional performance. Now, it has become totally routine and that makes every story that person’s story… so willy-nilly he becomes an actor in his own story,” said Mani Shankar Aiyar, Congress leader and former diplomat, at the convocation ceremony of the Asian College of Journalism at Music Academy in Chennai on Thursday.
Delivering the Lawrence Dana Pinkham Memorial lecture, Mr. Aiyar said the “terrible business of breaking news has reached mania proportions… manic proportions”.
“Everyone is competing with everybody else. To put out the story before it has been checked, before it has been analysed and synthesised with other facts and put out in a sober way… what we get is trivialisation, sensationalisation and commercialisation,” said Mr. Aiyar.
“News and comment have become a commodity, which is measured in terms of TRPs. Anchors in particular find that they can catch eyeballs through extreme partisanship. This is journalism as pamphleteering. The story is never about the story but it is about the anchor,” he said.
The winner of the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) Award for Investigative Journalism for 2017 was announced.
Journalist Samar Halarnkar’s investigative story ‘As millions try to prove citizenship in Assam, one man's story reveals perils of proof’ published on IndiaSpend.org on October 28, 2017 was chosen as the winning entry for the ACJ Awards for Investigative Journalism 2017. The award comprises a trophy, a citation and ₹2 lakh in prize money.
‘Club of Shame’
N. Ram, Chairman, The Hindu Group of Publications, said India continued to be in the ‘Club of Shame,’ where various state and non-state actors enjoyed impunity after murdering journalists.
“An important indicator of where we are…is that India is one of 13 countries that belongs to the 'Club of Shame' brought out by the Global Impunity Index — where journalists are murdered in connection to their work. This is measured from 1992 to date. Not a single case has reached its final resolution. This is what they mean by impunity enjoyed by the state, by paramilitary forces, by various actors including non-state actors. Even Sri Lanka got out of the club last year, but India continues to be in what can only be politely called ‘Club of Shame.’
Sashi Kumar, chairman, Asian College of Journalism, said the job of teaching journalism had become far more crucial today, more than ever because of the real threat faced by journalism. “It is important to redeem journalism from the confusion, the distortion... and the practice of it. We are aware of this in our daily practice, teaching ...our faculty are aware of this. At Asian College of Journalism, we combine the ‘how-to’ aspects of journalism with the ‘why’ aspect of journalism, the reflective aspect of journalism,” he said.
