Hyderabad: Dr. Mohan Guruswamy, eminent economist and social commentator, said that since all the major media outlets are owned by Business Houses the news and views presented on TV or in newspapers turn out to biased.
“Journalism is a historic duty but news gathering is a capital intensive industry…Unfortunately all the major media outlets in the country are owned by big corporate.
This is creating a conflict of interest,” he observed.Mr Guruswamy was speaking during the third day of the week long workshop on Media functioning on Tuesday.
The workshop has been orgranised for the students of Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Maulana Azad National Urdu University. “The press should ferret out the truth seriously. Even the routine folks should start blogging using Facebook, YouTube etc to put out their version of reports.
One should remember that the mainstream media is under a lot of pressure. This is how the truth will come out,” he added.
He said that the requirements of ‘generalists’ in the media were over. Therefore, the students should work on selecting an area of their interest and converting it into their specialisation.
Social media is a safety valve. And surprisingly it is now playing the role of the opposition, he quipped. “We have democracy without discussion.
And strangely the debate is taking place in newsrooms but not in parliament,’ he added.The other speaker of the day was Mr. Hartosh Singh Bal, Political Editor of the Caravan magazine.
He said, “Reporting is a craft and requires training. Like in any other craft it also needs lots of practice…You don’t rush things. For every investigative reporting you need institutional support and lots of patience.
Sting operations are used but rarely. Real investigative reporting requires a journalist to go through mountain of government reports, company credentials, cross referencing etc., “ he remarked. “Instead of twenty do just two stories. Go through company balance sheets and credentials of directors of companies.
Understand the flow of money… Investigative journalism requires time, patience and most important of all institutional backing,” he added. Prof Ehtesham Ahmad Khan, Dean, Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, welcomed the guests while, Dr. Mohd. Fariyad, Associate Professor, conducted the proceeding.