Sashi Kumar: Cause and commitment should be your motto

 Sashi Kumar is a journalist, filmmaker and media thinker and initiator who launched Asianet TV channel and subsequently founded, and chairs, the not-for-profit public trust Media Development Foundation, which runs Asian College of Journalism. He started his career with Doordarshan as newsreader and producer. Later, he worked in PTI-TV as chief producer and general manager of PTI. Sashi Kumar has authored and presented independent programmes on economy, politics and culture on Indian television, like Money Matters, Tana Bana, and Jan Manch

In conversation with Sashi Kumar ...

In the age of new-media journalism, what do you think is the future of print media? Do you think the print media is declining?

Once the new media becomes full-fledged, print journalism will decline. In Western countries, a number of newspaper organisations have been shut down because of the growth of internet and new-media journalism. However, in India, this will happen only in a longer time. We have newspapers that are registering growth, as against the mature media market in the West. There has been a rise in the readers for regional-language newspapers. Literacy programmes are the reason for this phenomenon. I think it will take another 10-12 years for the new media to get domination in the country.

How is new media going to change the face of journalism?

Gone are the days when we had to wait for the morning newspapers. These days, we have the internet, and the information being provided in the internet is very vast. Media is categorised as print, visual, audio, etc. All these media culminate together in new media, where you can read, see, and listen, so the viewers or readers can experience everything. This is used to access information from anywhere and anytime. Interactive feature is another advantage that is worth mentioning about the new media, which allows people to exchange their ideas and views on a certain topic.

Newspaper organisations have to cut down trees to produce newsprint. Unlike newspaper, new media do not have any space restriction problems. Cyberspace is vast and infinite. The capsule format in which information is presented attracts the readers. New media is user-friendly and easily adaptable.

 

The big drawback of online journalism, according to many experts, is its financial viability. How can we integrate the digital media platform to make it financially viable?

When new media will become economically viable revenue model is a big question. So far, new media is not a revenue model; internationally there are few new media platforms like Financial Times, Huffington Post, ohmynews.com which can be taken as examples for revenue models. In the US, classified advertisements sites generate bigger revenues than news-related sites. News journalism sites as a revenue model is yet to be a fact.

What do you think the quality of present-day journalists?

I think there has been a bottoming out in the quality of present-day journalists. Another interesting fact is that the whole distinction between the profession called journalism and readers are blurring. The public itself has become the generators of news. Blogging, micro-blogging, social networking sites are the platforms for this. To evaluate the quality of journalists, it is not possible right now; we may be able to do it after 10- 15 years.

Does the mushrooming of journalism schools affect the quality of journalism?

Respectable journalism institutes have always helped in upgrading the quality of journalists. Until the late 1990s, we did not have a concept of journalism institutions; instead, we had mass communication courses. Universities in the country offered mass communication courses where different communication theories and public relations theories were taught. It was altogether a mishmash. It was in the late 1990s that the country saw the emergence of journalism institutes, whereas the Western countries had institutions which offered courses in journalism. I think that respectable journalism institutions produce better journalists.

On the one hand, the national dailies in English are losing ground. On the other, the vernacular Press is booming. What is your comment?

The national dailies are not losing ground, but the rate of growth is dipping. Their growth is marginal. About the booming of the vernacular Press, as said earlier, it is mainly because of the success of literacy programmes.

Do you think that journalism is a safe career? Or, does one choose the career as one’s commitment to society?

Journalism nowadays is a good career option. Earlier, people opted for journalism out of passion; money alone was not the sole intention. However, at present, this profession is a highly paid job. At the entry level itself, you are paid highly. Apart from this, it is an influential career.

PC: rediff.com, memeburn.com

Article first published in Education Insider magazine