Srinivasan,
once again you have taken upon yourself another unenviable task of inviting suggestions from others and collating them
into a report of suggestions for Press Council to take note of.
my observations: you must have all read the HIndu report today and how Vinod Mehta, Editor Outlook, Sashi Kumar Menon, Chairman of Asian College of Journalism and Barkha Dutt have taken exception to Katju's remarks. As a senior journalist and corp com person, i fully endorse their views that mere Degrees from Journalism colleges and universities is not going to make one a better journalist than one who doesnt have it. So insistence on it is futile, but there has to be some screening also of the entrants.
so this is what i suggest. by the way i am fairly well qualified holding a masters degreee in english and economics from leading universities in the country. but these degrees have not helped me to become a good journalist or a better communicator , but only my slogging on the job and field experience and decades of writing , making mistakes and learning and writing has helped me. all the jobs i got in big MNCs or in indian transationals were based on my field work learnt from my seniors and not on the basis of my degrees???
journalism is one profession where you have to learn on the job. a journalism college at best quickens the process of learning for the scribe amd compresses it within six months what one would learn otherwise in one year or more on the field. fundammentals become clear. but the degree only prepares him/her for learning more and applying it and does not make him/her a better journalist than the other who has learnt the same in probably a disorganised manner , but still learnt it slowly. the one with better questioning skills and better judgement and writing skills gets to write a better story.
vinod mehta said he was a BA fail but still a good journalist. sashi menon says journalists learn on the job. so does bharka dutt echo similar sentiments who holds a degree in journalism from the Icon of journalism schools, columbia school of journalism New York.
The journalist has to know the 5Ws of news reporting , libel laws, ethics well before he/she starts practicising. In the united states journalists fall into two categories ; 1) the journalist ( who may be a teacher in a college ). 2) the prafticising journalist ( who is working in a newspaper/journal or tv network or any other electronic outfit. in india peculiarly they are called working journalists and non working journalists. a big laugh? actually non working journalists are those drawn from technical side who support journalist staff. so the nomenclature should have been non journalist and not non working journalist. typical bureaucratic definitions.
Katju has been perturbed by ethics in journalism. there he is on track. the zee tv episode with navin jindal helped to expose it.
but a journalism degree is not going to ensure he or she is going to be a better journalist or be ethical. the black sheep will be there with or without degrees. its for the white sheep to keep the black sheep at bay.
cheers
ashok
--
TN Ashok
Corporate Consultant,
(Public Affairs/ Media Advisories)
Resident Editor, Industrial Economist,
Contributor, Business Line,
Ex Economics Editor, PTI,
Ex Communications Advisor,
Alstom Group of Companies SA France
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