The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Rameshwar Thakur urges media to shun sensationalism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 17, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Rameshwar Thakur urges media to shun sensationalism

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: With technology making news and views accessible to people 24 hours a day, the media, both print and electronic, has a new challenge in making news relevant and timely, apart from reinventing itself to ensure that news delivered is both useful and objective, Governor Rameshwar Thakur said here on Friday.

On National Press Day, the fraternity should strive to move away from excessive speculative reporting on politics, and turn to more objective reporting and analysis that can help society , he said inaugurating a seminar on “Is the media provocative?” organised by the Karnataka Media Academy and the Department of Information, as part of National Press Day celebrations.

The media should become “the voice of the voiceless” and its reporting should be responsive and sensitive to society’s needs as well as ills. Most of all, the media should present news pertaining to politics with restraint, and avoid going overboard on mere speculation and rumour. Stories that are well-sourced are more authoritative and objective, and readers appreciate them more than reporting based on speculation, he said.

Journalists must be impervious to pressures and temptations, and possess the means to ensure their reporting is authentic. They must avoid overkill, and use their sharp insight to present fact and analysis in a way that readers are better informed and can make the right choices, the Governor said.

Chairman of the Legislative Council B.K. Chandrashekar made specific reference to the media’s treatment of the political developments in the last month in Karnataka. “Every newspaper, every television channel had its own take on the developments, and the reports were often different, if not entirely contradictory. The constant bombarding of the viewers and readers with too much news ultimately failed to serve the main objective of journalism — to disseminate news and aid its understanding with quality analysis,” Prof. Chandrashekar said.

He suggested that when political gossip is published, the journalist must scrutinise the news in detail, cross-check and verify authenticity and reach the reader in a user-friendly manner.

H.S. Balram, Resident Editor, The Times of India, in his keynote address defended the media saying: “This is the globalisation and free market era, and there is a great deal of competition in the business of news. We have to keep the demands of the readers in mind.”

Media Academy Chairman V.N. Subba Rao; Commissioner, Department of Information, K.V.R. Tagore; senior journalists from various news organisations were present.

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