Have a humane face, N. Ram tells media students

Editor-in-Chief, N. Ram called upon media students to always have a humane face both as journalists and human beings.

He was delivering the key-note address at the UGC sponsored seminar on ‘The Emergence of New Media: Opportunities and challenges’, organised by the department of Communication in association with The Hindu.

“There is no use going for academic excellence unless you put in the centre the values of social justice, equity and caring for all human kind,” Mr Ram said.

Mr Ram highlighted his reflections on Indian Media growth trends, its quality issues and the ethical challenges of the same. He questions the term ‘New Media’ as media were always evolving and what was new today would be old tomorrow.

Talking about the state of the media during recession, Mr Ram said, “Journalism is in crises across developed countries. There is a gloom in most developed countries over the future of newspapers and broadcast. New York Times, the world leader of print industry was in major crises and had to take a loan of $250 million during recession. Circulation and readership is declining and the impact of internet and new media has accelerated the downfall.”

He further raised the issue of newspapers losing readership due to the newly developed e-paper, that most popular newspapers had introduced on their websites which attracted a wide global audience. However he said that though internet use and broadband access were growing rapidly across developing countries, traditional media still held importance.

Mr Ram opined that the media had three basic roles to fulfill. Firstly, he said that all media should aim to be credible with respect to the information it disseminates. Secondly, it should be analytical, critical and investigative and thirdly he said that the media had a big role to play in education. He said that it was through the media that masses could be educated about science, technology, history, medicine etc. “Every country which values press and media has broadcast law to govern it. But India does not have any such rules for media. There is no framework of regulatory mechanism,” said Mr Ram commenting on media ethics.

Divya, I year Mass Communication Student from Mahaveer Jain College said, “Mr Ram’s speech was very informative and inspiring. He explicitly brought out the ethics of media which every journalist should follow and practice. As future journalists it was very helpful.”

- KOMAL I MS Com