A diamond is valuable though it lies in the dirt.
A few complications in life are an excellent tonic to the brain.
A joy that is shared is a joy made double.
A mother does not hear the music when her children cry.
A tailor has no time to mend his own cloths.
Against God’s wrath no castle is thunder-proof.
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
Candles light others and consume themselves.
Do not make yourself a mouse for the cat to eat you.
Everyone is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day.
From our ancestors come our names; but from our virtues come our honours.
God never closes one door without opening another.
He that eats till he is sick must fast till he is well.
He who considers too much will perform little.
Hold your temper for a moment, and avoid a hundred days of sorrow.
If you are too fortunate, you will not know yourself; if you are too unfortunate, nobody will know you.
Keep conscience clear, then never fear.
Laugh and world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.
Love is the wisdom of the fool and folly of the wise.
Men know where they were born, not where they shall die.
Never think too much of yourself.
People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.
Pluck not where you never planted.
Proverbs are all old; if they are new they’re not proverbs.
Quiet minds are richer than crowns.
Riches are like salt water, the more you drink the more you thirst.
Self-preservation is the first law of nature.
Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.
Some people are so afraid to die than they seldom begin to live.
Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay them.
Spit not against heaven, it’ll fall back on your face.
That is but an empty purse that is full other men’s money.
The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the diseases.
The better workman, the worse husband.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
We need to prove we are employable; says Kathi Mahesh Kumar
UoH Campus: “No mass communication institutions can’t offer job for its students, it is our duty to prove we are employable,” says Kathi Mahesh Kumar, the Communication Manager of Clinton Foundation at Hyderabad. He was delivering a speech in an orientation class for the first year communication students of UoH on Wednesday at department of communication of Sarojini Naidu School.
Being a student of S N School will be a greater advantage to you in your career as you are guided by the outstanding faculties from the country, he added. He was a student of S N School during the period of 1998 to 2000. “What Prof. Vinod Pavarala taught us at our Development communication classes, I realized its real and practical sense only after joined in a NGO at Hyderabad,” he revealed.
Communication is commonsense, but communication knowledge is not common at all. Without effective communication, we cannot change the attitude, knowledge, and policies of the public, he opined. He also talked about the different trends and ethical dilemmas existing in the current Journalism field. By illuminating his previous experience as a news production assistant at the ETV, he said that cooking up of news stories are only for the subscription purpose and no media organizations existing in India without any bias today.
Cinema is his passion than anything; he has some experience in film industry too. “Absence of good script and screenplay is the real cause of crisis existing in the film industry now, we have to overcome it by developing good script writers,” says Mahesh Kumar.
Dr. E. Sathya Prakash, a faculty member of department of communication, introduced Kathi Mahesh Kumar to the students. The orientation classes will be held for a week and eminent personalities from media industry will take classes.
Being a student of S N School will be a greater advantage to you in your career as you are guided by the outstanding faculties from the country, he added. He was a student of S N School during the period of 1998 to 2000. “What Prof. Vinod Pavarala taught us at our Development communication classes, I realized its real and practical sense only after joined in a NGO at Hyderabad,” he revealed.
Communication is commonsense, but communication knowledge is not common at all. Without effective communication, we cannot change the attitude, knowledge, and policies of the public, he opined. He also talked about the different trends and ethical dilemmas existing in the current Journalism field. By illuminating his previous experience as a news production assistant at the ETV, he said that cooking up of news stories are only for the subscription purpose and no media organizations existing in India without any bias today.
Cinema is his passion than anything; he has some experience in film industry too. “Absence of good script and screenplay is the real cause of crisis existing in the film industry now, we have to overcome it by developing good script writers,” says Mahesh Kumar.
Dr. E. Sathya Prakash, a faculty member of department of communication, introduced Kathi Mahesh Kumar to the students. The orientation classes will be held for a week and eminent personalities from media industry will take classes.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Patriotism, charity and activism, freedom celebration takes a new look
UoH Campus: It is not the first time that an Independence Day celebration is taking place in this campus. Nothing was new, but everything seemed to be new for the ones who were gathering at Gurubhurg Singh Maidan as it was the 64th anniversary of the Independence of India.
The function started 10 minutes late than the schedule. VC Prof. Seyed. E Hasnain hoisted the tri-colour flag with the background music of national anthem and he also addressed the gathering. He takes the salute at the Independence Day parade of the University campus school students.
Then it was the time for the cultural programmes of the campus school student s. The colourful programmes like group dance, group song, which highlighted the patriotism and the skit by Karthavya students were the programmes.
Environmental Action Group (EAG) of UoH also had to contribute something special on that occasion. VC inaugurated the ‘say no plastic’ campaign of EAG by buying two cotton carry bags a cost of RS 25 each from the activists. VC requested the crowd to take part in the EAG’s progrmme.
Sweets were distributed among gathering after the official progrmme. In the backdrop of Independence Day, ‘Freedom run for health’ programme is being organized by centre for physical education department was also conducted at early morning. About 450 students participated in the programme.
Impetus club of school of management studies collected the garments and utensils from hostels for orphanages and NGOs working for the betterment of the struggling people as of their celebrations. Bike rally of ABVP workers also held as a part of the Independence Day in the campus.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Bid adieu to the seniors of mass communication
Truly speaking, it was not just a Farewell.. It was actually a festival, a colourful one, which originated in the hearts of the seniors, and came out in the form of laughs, cries and all such emotions they had carried inside them for the past two years. The Junior’s batch of Mass Communication had created a perfect arena for their seniors to come and design one of the most memorable days in their life, which was named as their Farewel.Even though the thought, that they will be missing each other in the near future, had started haunting them; there was no such clue from their part on Wednesday. They just came to enjoy the night..
The Farewell started one hour late than the scheduled time. The seniors were first invited for the buffet arranged by their younger brothers and sisters.Soon after that, it was time for games and other cultural programs, specially planned for the outgoing students. In between, anchor Sidharth, with his humorous and catchy dialogues, was a centre of attraction throughout the program.For the games, senior batch students were divided into four groups. Games like Musical Chair, Mime, etc. were conducted to add flavor to the party. They dedicated their full energy for the games. No one was ready to give up and each one had the thirst for victory.
But finally, it was team Tigers headed by Ardra Balachandran, who came out as the winners and were given a Joker’s cap as the prize. After the games, was the most awaited program of the night- D J, which continued for 3 hours. Next, it was Award giving ceremony, to the best performers from the senior batch, who were polled as the best by their own classmates. At the end was Farewell cake distribution. It was finally Taijrani Ramprasad, program organizer, who brought a change to the smiling faces, by announcing that the event is going to end shortly. It was only then they realized that the talks, the dances, the games and all that took place a few hours before are now going to become just a golden memory in their respective lives.
The Farewell started one hour late than the scheduled time. The seniors were first invited for the buffet arranged by their younger brothers and sisters.Soon after that, it was time for games and other cultural programs, specially planned for the outgoing students. In between, anchor Sidharth, with his humorous and catchy dialogues, was a centre of attraction throughout the program.For the games, senior batch students were divided into four groups. Games like Musical Chair, Mime, etc. were conducted to add flavor to the party. They dedicated their full energy for the games. No one was ready to give up and each one had the thirst for victory.
But finally, it was team Tigers headed by Ardra Balachandran, who came out as the winners and were given a Joker’s cap as the prize. After the games, was the most awaited program of the night- D J, which continued for 3 hours. Next, it was Award giving ceremony, to the best performers from the senior batch, who were polled as the best by their own classmates. At the end was Farewell cake distribution. It was finally Taijrani Ramprasad, program organizer, who brought a change to the smiling faces, by announcing that the event is going to end shortly. It was only then they realized that the talks, the dances, the games and all that took place a few hours before are now going to become just a golden memory in their respective lives.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Ethical Use of New Media by Journalists
Members of society are always communicating with each other in one way or the other, whether they do so interpersonally or with the use of mass media. Throughout the ages, as the world began to evolve, mass media have begun to play a more important role in communicating messages across large areas as we learn of the existence of other nations. We saw an evolution from oral communication to print and then electronic; a shift from interpersonal communication to mass communication. In order to have mass communication, there was the necessity to have mass media, such as newspapers, radio, television, popular books and periodicals, which are used to transmit messages to large audiences.[1],[2] Within the past decade there has been the creation of new media. For all purposes, new media are “a broad communication concept which can refer to …emerging digital technologies and platforms; online journalism; and electronic and multimedia publishing (particularly on the Internet and World Wide Web).”[3]
However, the form of new media which has been the main focus is the internet, which is a “series of interconnected networks allowing communication of data among millions of computers worldwide.”[4] (The terms new media and internet have begun to be used interchangeably, even though new media encompass so much more.) Due to its’ ubiquitous nature, the internet has proven to be a space where many are able to be the consumers as well as the creators of content. Should we trust the information we receive on the internet? Whether the information that is available via the internet is accurate or not is not a concern of the creators. It is the responsibility of the users to be responsible and double check their sources and ensure that all information are accurate. Many items used as reference are just opinions of others or bear many inaccuracies, since anyone can become an author, a scientist, a professor ... a reporter.
Therefore, the questions of what is journalism and who is a journalist have been asked as a result of the advent of the internet. Journalism is referred to as a process that encompasses finding things out and telling them to different audiences through the use of the mass media while making sure that the message is accurate, balanced, complete and objective.[5],[6] The journalist is the person who practises journalism and strives to be fair in his/her reporting of the facts. However, the internet has drastically changed things. As long as someone has access to the internet, they can broadcast any kind of information they wish which is accepted since the internet is a space of democracy. But, the area for concern is that journalists are also using the internet for information and in many cases just “copy and paste” the information and call it a news article which is a vivid display of bad journalism. “This is where the journalist’s role of interpreter of information becomes especially pertinent”[7] and not just that of reporting what information was supplied.
As can be seen, there are many ethical problems associated with the internet such as plagiarism, misinformation and invasion of privacy, to list a few. Plagiarism is the “unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.”[8] This can be seen in the story about the bloggers from Goa who tricked gullible journalists into believing that there was a Nazi German war criminal living in Goa who was subsequently arrested.[9] According to Thakurta (2009) “In June-July 2008, a group of bloggers based in Goa called ‘Penpricks’ successfully pulled off an elaborate hoax on mainstream journalists belonging to a number of reputed Indian newspapers like The Indian Express, The Telegraph, The Asian Age and Deccan Herald...” The journalists of the mentioned media houses accepted the story from their sources as it was and did not double check facts. Thakurta (2009) goes on to state that some of the journalists also invented other “occurrences” in an attempt to make their stories more sensational to gain sales even when it was not their work to begin with.
The act of plagiarising also borders on laziness of journalists which had far reaching consequences on journalism. Had the journalists done their work, did some simple research, they would have found out that it was a prank and averted much scandal from their media houses. However, the internet is available to almost every media house now and it is easier and less stressful to log onto a website and just get the information necessary to make the story. Is this journalism? Also in doing this, journalists tend to gather that data which supports the side of the story they want to show and provide those websites as references. Thus, the reporting of facts is very ineffectively done.
Another problem of using the internet for information is misinformation. “Journalism as a profession suffered numerous setbacks as a result of online misinformation, as reporters found it all too easy to build their reporting and columns on the basis of information, often ambiguous or outright false, they retrieved off the Internet.”[10] As mentioned earlier, anyone can become a journalist online. They need not have any proof of qualifications since the internet operates largely on anonymity. Thus, many are of the belief that information on the internet is accurate and can be trusted. An example of this can be seen in the suspension of Jeff Jacoby, an opinion columnist of the Boston Globe, who was suspended for ‘serious journalistic misconduct.’[11] Jacoby had simply plagiarised inaccurate information from an e-mail and published it without rechecking for accuracy.[12]
Invasion of privacy is another problem of using the internet unethically and occurs when “offensive or unjustifiable access [is] obtained to someone's personality or personal affairs without his or her permission and/or knowledge.”[13] Whether it is being done to discredit other journalists, sneak into people’s lives to get a story or just out of curiosity, there are journalists who misuse the internet through hacking. One such incident occurred in 2008 when “three journalists working for the French publication Global Security Magazine were booted Thursday from the hackers' conference after they were allegedly caught hacking into the private computer network set up for the media.” [14]The invasion of privacy of others has been a standing issue for a very long time. With the advancement in technology and the development of the internet, it is becoming easier to sneak into other peoples’ lives.
As can be seen the internet is a very powerful means of communication with many problems attached to it. As a result, those in authority saw it fit to implement regulations so as to have uniformity of content and to respect and protect the creators and users of the content broadcast. With laws in place, there would be some amount of control over the content being broadcast via the mass media. However, in many countries across the world, such as Guyana and India, there are still no specific laws governing the media (the broadcast bills are still in the authoring and editing stages). Added to this, with the rise in technology, it is becoming harder to regulate the media since their reach and content are very wide and countless, respectively. Thus, in an attempt to protect themselves, media organisations and journalists have come up with codes of ethics in an attempt to protect themselves as well as to appear credible in the eyes of the audiences. Ethics, simply put, are “the moral principles, reflected in rules, written or unwritten, which prescribe how journalists should work to avoid harming or distressing others, e.g. when gathering information; when deciding what to publish; when responding to complaints about their work.”[15]
Should one be governed by his/her own principles then it would be easier to regulate the content on the internet and the use of said content. Ethics, although not legally binding, are a perfect guideline for journalists who use the internet for research purposes as this information superhighway is not regulated. There are regulations relating to the architecture and infrastructure, such as the Internet Society and the Internet Engineering Task Force.[16] However, these bodies do not regulate the content on the internet, for the content are so vast. Additionally, there is no owner to the internet, thus, it is hard to implement any laws governing it since there has to be a worldwide consensus for this to happen. Thus, journalists and those who operate within media environment must ensure that they use the internet responsibly.
In order to avoid problems associated with plagiarism, misinformation, invasion of privacy and many more when using the internet, there is a need for journalists to be responsible. They need to be ethical when using the internet as a source of information. Journalists should aim to: seek the truth and report it, minimize harm when possible, act independently and do not give in to pressures and be accountable for their actions, among many other things.[17] There is a need to double check the information that is found and do not simply copy, paste and print a story from an online source. Stories should follow the TUFF (truthful, unbiased, full, fair) formula as suggested by Merrill.[18] In order for a story to be fair it should be accurate, balanced, complete, detached and ethical.[19]
Granted, the new media, especially the internet, have given rise to a new face of journalism referred to as citizen journalism. However, this does not mean that those trained in the profession should become lazy and misuse the internet. Ethics are important, especially in an area where there are no laws governing the medium. Additionally, one should be ethical least people think he/she is not a credible source of information. It stands to reason that the democratic medium of the internet would be better off not being controlled by any one entity since it is standing up for the “freedom of expression” basic human right. However, should individuals continue to misuse it people will attempt to regulate it. The new media are the voices of the masses...it should not be suppressed. Thus, it should be used ethically.
However, the form of new media which has been the main focus is the internet, which is a “series of interconnected networks allowing communication of data among millions of computers worldwide.”[4] (The terms new media and internet have begun to be used interchangeably, even though new media encompass so much more.) Due to its’ ubiquitous nature, the internet has proven to be a space where many are able to be the consumers as well as the creators of content. Should we trust the information we receive on the internet? Whether the information that is available via the internet is accurate or not is not a concern of the creators. It is the responsibility of the users to be responsible and double check their sources and ensure that all information are accurate. Many items used as reference are just opinions of others or bear many inaccuracies, since anyone can become an author, a scientist, a professor ... a reporter.
Therefore, the questions of what is journalism and who is a journalist have been asked as a result of the advent of the internet. Journalism is referred to as a process that encompasses finding things out and telling them to different audiences through the use of the mass media while making sure that the message is accurate, balanced, complete and objective.[5],[6] The journalist is the person who practises journalism and strives to be fair in his/her reporting of the facts. However, the internet has drastically changed things. As long as someone has access to the internet, they can broadcast any kind of information they wish which is accepted since the internet is a space of democracy. But, the area for concern is that journalists are also using the internet for information and in many cases just “copy and paste” the information and call it a news article which is a vivid display of bad journalism. “This is where the journalist’s role of interpreter of information becomes especially pertinent”[7] and not just that of reporting what information was supplied.
As can be seen, there are many ethical problems associated with the internet such as plagiarism, misinformation and invasion of privacy, to list a few. Plagiarism is the “unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.”[8] This can be seen in the story about the bloggers from Goa who tricked gullible journalists into believing that there was a Nazi German war criminal living in Goa who was subsequently arrested.[9] According to Thakurta (2009) “In June-July 2008, a group of bloggers based in Goa called ‘Penpricks’ successfully pulled off an elaborate hoax on mainstream journalists belonging to a number of reputed Indian newspapers like The Indian Express, The Telegraph, The Asian Age and Deccan Herald...” The journalists of the mentioned media houses accepted the story from their sources as it was and did not double check facts. Thakurta (2009) goes on to state that some of the journalists also invented other “occurrences” in an attempt to make their stories more sensational to gain sales even when it was not their work to begin with.
The act of plagiarising also borders on laziness of journalists which had far reaching consequences on journalism. Had the journalists done their work, did some simple research, they would have found out that it was a prank and averted much scandal from their media houses. However, the internet is available to almost every media house now and it is easier and less stressful to log onto a website and just get the information necessary to make the story. Is this journalism? Also in doing this, journalists tend to gather that data which supports the side of the story they want to show and provide those websites as references. Thus, the reporting of facts is very ineffectively done.
Another problem of using the internet for information is misinformation. “Journalism as a profession suffered numerous setbacks as a result of online misinformation, as reporters found it all too easy to build their reporting and columns on the basis of information, often ambiguous or outright false, they retrieved off the Internet.”[10] As mentioned earlier, anyone can become a journalist online. They need not have any proof of qualifications since the internet operates largely on anonymity. Thus, many are of the belief that information on the internet is accurate and can be trusted. An example of this can be seen in the suspension of Jeff Jacoby, an opinion columnist of the Boston Globe, who was suspended for ‘serious journalistic misconduct.’[11] Jacoby had simply plagiarised inaccurate information from an e-mail and published it without rechecking for accuracy.[12]
Invasion of privacy is another problem of using the internet unethically and occurs when “offensive or unjustifiable access [is] obtained to someone's personality or personal affairs without his or her permission and/or knowledge.”[13] Whether it is being done to discredit other journalists, sneak into people’s lives to get a story or just out of curiosity, there are journalists who misuse the internet through hacking. One such incident occurred in 2008 when “three journalists working for the French publication Global Security Magazine were booted Thursday from the hackers' conference after they were allegedly caught hacking into the private computer network set up for the media.” [14]The invasion of privacy of others has been a standing issue for a very long time. With the advancement in technology and the development of the internet, it is becoming easier to sneak into other peoples’ lives.
As can be seen the internet is a very powerful means of communication with many problems attached to it. As a result, those in authority saw it fit to implement regulations so as to have uniformity of content and to respect and protect the creators and users of the content broadcast. With laws in place, there would be some amount of control over the content being broadcast via the mass media. However, in many countries across the world, such as Guyana and India, there are still no specific laws governing the media (the broadcast bills are still in the authoring and editing stages). Added to this, with the rise in technology, it is becoming harder to regulate the media since their reach and content are very wide and countless, respectively. Thus, in an attempt to protect themselves, media organisations and journalists have come up with codes of ethics in an attempt to protect themselves as well as to appear credible in the eyes of the audiences. Ethics, simply put, are “the moral principles, reflected in rules, written or unwritten, which prescribe how journalists should work to avoid harming or distressing others, e.g. when gathering information; when deciding what to publish; when responding to complaints about their work.”[15]
Should one be governed by his/her own principles then it would be easier to regulate the content on the internet and the use of said content. Ethics, although not legally binding, are a perfect guideline for journalists who use the internet for research purposes as this information superhighway is not regulated. There are regulations relating to the architecture and infrastructure, such as the Internet Society and the Internet Engineering Task Force.[16] However, these bodies do not regulate the content on the internet, for the content are so vast. Additionally, there is no owner to the internet, thus, it is hard to implement any laws governing it since there has to be a worldwide consensus for this to happen. Thus, journalists and those who operate within media environment must ensure that they use the internet responsibly.
In order to avoid problems associated with plagiarism, misinformation, invasion of privacy and many more when using the internet, there is a need for journalists to be responsible. They need to be ethical when using the internet as a source of information. Journalists should aim to: seek the truth and report it, minimize harm when possible, act independently and do not give in to pressures and be accountable for their actions, among many other things.[17] There is a need to double check the information that is found and do not simply copy, paste and print a story from an online source. Stories should follow the TUFF (truthful, unbiased, full, fair) formula as suggested by Merrill.[18] In order for a story to be fair it should be accurate, balanced, complete, detached and ethical.[19]
Granted, the new media, especially the internet, have given rise to a new face of journalism referred to as citizen journalism. However, this does not mean that those trained in the profession should become lazy and misuse the internet. Ethics are important, especially in an area where there are no laws governing the medium. Additionally, one should be ethical least people think he/she is not a credible source of information. It stands to reason that the democratic medium of the internet would be better off not being controlled by any one entity since it is standing up for the “freedom of expression” basic human right. However, should individuals continue to misuse it people will attempt to regulate it. The new media are the voices of the masses...it should not be suppressed. Thus, it should be used ethically.
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