Karnataka - Shimoga   

‘Media has failed to play its role effectively’

SHIMOGA: Samyukta Karnataka editor Hanasawadi Rajan said on Wednesday that if bad habits arising out of the menace of alcoholism and narcotics were on the rise it was because of the fact that the media had not played its role effectively.

He was speaking at a seminar on the role of students and the media in controlling the ill effects of alcoholism and narcotics organised by the Post-Graduate Department of Journalism and Mass Media of Kuvempu University, the Department of Information, the Karnataka Madhyama Academy and the State Temperance Board.

He pointed out that the public would react to the ill effects of drinking and drug abuse when they came across circumstantial reports appearing in the media. “But the public resistance to it gets subdued before it reaches the community level,” he said.

Mr. Rajan asked newspaper readers and television viewers to openly oppose the menace of alcoholism and narcotics when they read a report or watched it on television. He said it was natural for such undesirable events to take place as the electronic medium was portraying them as commercial ventures.

Psychiatrist K.R. Sridhar, who inaugurated the seminar, said that it was unfortunate that while urbanisation brought in its wake a sea change in the lifestyle of the people, it had also resulted in several contradictions which more often than not tempted them to take to drinking and drugs to overcome tension.

Vice-Chancellor of Kuvempu University B.S. Sherigara presided over the function.

Secretary of the Karnataka Madhyama Academy B.R. Mamatha, secretary of the State Temperance Board H.B. Dinesh, chairman of the Post-Graduate Department of Journalism and Mass Media D.S. Poornananda spoke.

Health Officer of the university Srinivas Rao was present.

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