What constitutes a media person? The traditional view was that you need to work
for a newspaper, magazine and later on with the advent of radio and television
and the internet more categories were added to the list.
Recently, I saw an interesting discussion on election of CPM General Secretary in a Malayalam TV channel – there was N Madhavan Kutty ( formerly Bureau Chief of The Indian Express) and Appukuttan Vallikunnu (Deshabhimani columnist), Ramachandran (formerly Malayala Manorama) and another person I don’t recall. When arguments and counter arguments heated up, each of them started blaming the other for lack of knowledge of inner functioning of CPM!
Blogs qualify as Media!
And one of them pointed out Mr Madhavan Kutty (NMK) is no longer in the media. NMK was aghast about lack of awareness of the fellow scribes and writers. Haven't they seen the emergence of New Media – including online publications and blogs. My head started spinning, blogging is also media activity and the world is now full of media persons!. No wonder and true that many former journalists are now confined to writing blogs. Pity others confined to retirement, unsung and unheard missing the golden opportunity to remain 'blogger journalists'?
My view on this issue is that blogs do not come under the purview of the news media. That is a platform to air your views and ideas for discussion to a larger audience or even a closed group or shared through social media. Google or any company that provides blogging platform free is providing servers, front end for free but are not publishers of the content nor endorse it. But they do have the right to reject objectionable matter uploaded by the blogger.
A news media can be defined as a system where there are trained journalists, cameramen and technical support team who gather news, check its veracity, maintain a library of data, information on various topics and disseminate news and analysis in an objective manner. Blogs do not fall in this category.
Blogs gain acceptability than news?
When it comes to business or products, consumers trust blogs or bloggers more than news, according to Brian Pittman (PR Daily) quoted in Entrepreneur.com.
"That's why blog networks such as BlogHer drive thousands-if not millions-of consumers to the products, services and issues they cover."
Again what Pittman says is a statement and I don’t know whether it has been empirically verified. There are people who believe in the news than adverts. But even if it’s partially true, this tells upon the credibility of our newsmen. Who's responsible for this fall?
Both Newspapers and journalists and the new breed of bloggers come under Article 19 (1) of the Indian Constitution- Freedom of Speech. There ends the similarity, but for all practical purposes, they need to be seen differently.
What’s the harm in former Journalists saying, “ I am a blogger.” Hasn’t it become a more respectful activity than a journo?
Recently, I saw an interesting discussion on election of CPM General Secretary in a Malayalam TV channel – there was N Madhavan Kutty ( formerly Bureau Chief of The Indian Express) and Appukuttan Vallikunnu (Deshabhimani columnist), Ramachandran (formerly Malayala Manorama) and another person I don’t recall. When arguments and counter arguments heated up, each of them started blaming the other for lack of knowledge of inner functioning of CPM!
Blogs qualify as Media!
And one of them pointed out Mr Madhavan Kutty (NMK) is no longer in the media. NMK was aghast about lack of awareness of the fellow scribes and writers. Haven't they seen the emergence of New Media – including online publications and blogs. My head started spinning, blogging is also media activity and the world is now full of media persons!. No wonder and true that many former journalists are now confined to writing blogs. Pity others confined to retirement, unsung and unheard missing the golden opportunity to remain 'blogger journalists'?
My view on this issue is that blogs do not come under the purview of the news media. That is a platform to air your views and ideas for discussion to a larger audience or even a closed group or shared through social media. Google or any company that provides blogging platform free is providing servers, front end for free but are not publishers of the content nor endorse it. But they do have the right to reject objectionable matter uploaded by the blogger.
A news media can be defined as a system where there are trained journalists, cameramen and technical support team who gather news, check its veracity, maintain a library of data, information on various topics and disseminate news and analysis in an objective manner. Blogs do not fall in this category.
Blogs gain acceptability than news?
When it comes to business or products, consumers trust blogs or bloggers more than news, according to Brian Pittman (PR Daily) quoted in Entrepreneur.com.
"That's why blog networks such as BlogHer drive thousands-if not millions-of consumers to the products, services and issues they cover."
Again what Pittman says is a statement and I don’t know whether it has been empirically verified. There are people who believe in the news than adverts. But even if it’s partially true, this tells upon the credibility of our newsmen. Who's responsible for this fall?
Both Newspapers and journalists and the new breed of bloggers come under Article 19 (1) of the Indian Constitution- Freedom of Speech. There ends the similarity, but for all practical purposes, they need to be seen differently.
What’s the harm in former Journalists saying, “ I am a blogger.” Hasn’t it become a more respectful activity than a journo?
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