The Hindu : Front Page : Sainath decries ‘corporate hijack’ of media agendas

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Sunday, May 04, 2008
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Sainath decries ‘corporate hijack’ of media agendas

Special Correspondent

— Photo: K. V. Srinivasan

READY FOR THE BEAT: P. Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu, gives away the convocation certificate to a graduate of the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai on Saturday. Sashi Kumar, Chairman, Media Development Foundation, looks on.

CHENNAI: A dangerous shift in the moral universe of the Indian media towards corporate agendas has led to the failure of the media in adequately reporting events like the current crises in food, agriculture and labour, Ramon Magsaysay award winner P. Sainath said here on Saturday.

“Good journalism has to be judged by how relevant it is to the great processes of our time… I don’t include Shilpa Shetty, the IPL and Lakme India Fashion Week as part of these processes,” said Mr. Sainath, who is also the Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu. He was addressing the Class of 2008 graduates of the Asian College of Journalism at their convocation ceremony.

Mr. Sainath attributed a “corporate hijack” of media and media agendas as the driving force behind this morass, which had led to a “structural shut-out” of the poor in media coverage. “Some newspapers have even begun to have what they call private client treaties with a company,” he said. “They acquire a stake into a company… and the marketing of [their] products is sold as news. These treaties privilege the right of giant corporations’ surrogate selling above the rights of readers to be informed.”

Citing a report by the Centre for Media Studies, Mr. Sainath said the share of entertainment in news channels was nine times that of agriculture, education, health and environment combined. This growing corporate drive had led to a structural shut-out where it is common for newspapers to have dozens of reporters covering business beats and entertainment, and completely neglecting problems of labour or the agricultural sector. “Agricultural correspondents are like yetis,” he joked. “You have rare, occasional sightings — but unconfirmed.”

Mr. Sainath urged ACJ’s newest graduates to work to correct the failings of Indian media in the last decade. “In the last 10 years, where we should have told stories, we sold products,” he said. “We celebrated as successes and triumphs those that were problems. Our duty as journalists is to signal the weaknesses of society. Did we? In that duty, we failed.”

The ACJ had a record 100 per cent placement with this year’s graduates, Sashi Kumar, the chairman of the Media Development Foundation, a non-profit trust that administers the college, said. He praised Mr. Sainath for “blazing a trail” at a time when the dumbing-down and commodification of news was the dominant trend.

Stressing the importance of journalism education, N. Ram, trustee, MDF and Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, said it was crucial that journalism schools gave their students one-to-one attention, and that was one of ACJ’s strong-points. “Every individual is important in journalism education,” he said.

Shyam Ranganathan and Krish Raghav were announced Students of the Year.

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