Giants at J-School- Clarence Page

Two-time Pulitzer winner Clarence Page gave a talk at the Columbia Journalism School this month. A compilation of running notes on my blog: http://gaurigharpure.blogspot.com/2012/02/diggurl-diggpermalinkurl.html

I was dubbed Arjun Singh’s man

Media during Arjun Singh’s regime had things going for them, much to the dislike of much of the bureaucracy and opposition politicians. They had reason to feel done out of govt. houses in prime localities, which were allotted to media people...More...

Climate change: common edit in 56 dailies

The common editorial has been published on page one, of 56 newspapers from 45 countries in 20 different language. Notably, the only newspaper in India to carry the edit is The Hindu. The Guardian of London that led this unique media initiative could not persuade any other paper in the UK ...the response of one US paper:“This is an outrageous attempt to orchestrate media pressure. Go to hell.”...More...

Bhopal before 24x7 news channels

Our priority was survival ; making it somewhere away from the gas, which had by then spread to much of Bhopal . We spent the night with Narasimhan in Arera Colony...whose house was on higher ground and unaffected. On our way up to Narasimhan’s place we found several gas victims who collapsed on the street after inhaling the toxic gas methyl isocyanate...More...

Our celebrity-obsessed media

It wasn't as if he was coming home with an Oscar. Lesser mortals in his circumstances would have preferred to make a quiet entry and slip into their homes unnoticed, even by those in their neighbourhood...More...

Bangalore media: Silly season is here

My sense is that ministers fed the secretariat reporters self-serving statements and lofty welfare announcements. What is spoon-fed is usually spin and hype, rarely, hard news. And officials, generally more reliable than their political bosses, can’t be expected to part with anything more than what they would want media to know...More...

Cub Reporters at Work!

There were at least 20 school students in the room. And they listened to Anusha, a student of Padma Seshadri, K. K. Nagar; of how the pigeons used to nest in the house of her friend's neighbour...Any good story is good for a community newspaper.And this is what we encourage senior students to report for the month of November..More...

The Emergency: Indian media’s shameful era

The power supply, switched off late in the night of June 25, 1975, wasn’t resumed until two days later...The power cut was...to enable the government to gain time to work out modalities for enforcing censorship...More...

Reinventing Nilgiri’s local media

As a community media initiative The Local is the best thing that has happened to Nilgiris in a long time. But as a publication this undersized, overpriced monthly has much to be modest about...More...

Whispers in New Delhi's corridors of power

Keeps you posted on impending postings & transfers of IAS/IPS officials; it carries rumors on who’s under suspension, who are tipped to go on deputation to the Centre, from where; and whose name is up for reversion to the parent state...Whispers publishes political tidbits, corporate changes and other water-cooler gossip...More...

Shamim as they saw him

Those were days when most newspaper editors were treated like doormat by the then I&B minister V C Shukla. He had this penchant for summonning them to his office for a dressing-down.It was in such socio-political environment that Shamim was appointed a director of Samachar (a news agency founded by merging PTI and UNI)...More...

People's radio

Though the state says it is keen to see many thousand radio stations across the country, its processes and policies are discouraging...But people are not giving up. I heard that a body which represents the autorickshaw drivers of Chennai had applied for a radio licence. So did a well known residents' association in Mumbai...More...

About our envoy’s ‘headless chicken’ remark

The episode is bound to cramp the style and tone of media communication of our diplomats everywhere. I get a feeling that henceforth they would open their collective mouth to the media only to read out prepared statements or make suitably inane off-the-cuff remarks. . .More. . .

A cash-for-appointment hoax

That the nation’s highest office is constrained to take note of such claim speaks of the influence of the electronic media. That a TV channel chose to telecast the cash-for-R-Bhavan-appointment claim smacks of irresponsible reporting and poor editorial judgement. . .More. . .

Taslima and the media

. . .she had been attacked elsewhere on earlier occasions, but “it was never like that Thursday (assault in Hyderabad)”. Expressing her gratitude to the press Taslima said that if it were not for the media persons at the venue, “I wouldn’t have returned here alive”. . .More. . .

Attack on Taslima: Some questions

You may ask why the TV crew couldn’t put aside their camera and go to curb the attackers, instead of capturing their attack on film in graphic details. It’s a question that is easier asked by us than answered by the media persons. . .More. . .

An ode to RG

Almost Everything about ‘RG’,
The gait and the cigarette,
Spectacle drooping and studied,
Deep Intellectual anger
Soaring like summer-time mercury,
To the rollicking laughter
That blazoned a Child-like innocence,
Looked an Utpal Dutt reprint! . . .More. . .

Watergate, the unreported story

Newspaper and TV coverage do not alter the course of history. Reporters and columnists can nudge the pace of pendulum in its swing, but cannot reverse the swing of the pendulum. Watergate, however, changed the way the media reported people in power. . .More. . .

Remembering Chittaranjan

Mr Chittaranjan was a rare newspaper editor who didn’t own a vehicle, and used to travel by bus. This was in the 80s, when travelling in a Delhi Transport Corporation bus was no Sunday picnic. He remained a man with a common touch, though he rose to senior editorial positions in Hindustan Times and Patriot, and to be editor of National Herald. . .More. . .

Community journalism

That is why we plan to conduct a few community journalism camps on Sunday evenings . . . .we will share basic skills and tips with the interested. . . Help them write sharp press releases, motivate them to tip us to breaking news, encourage them shoot clear pictures and e-mail us crisp and info-rich copy on local events. . .More . . .