News

The axiom that journalists should be dispassionate interpreters of events, no matter how harrowing, has been severely tested in the deadly wake of Hurricane Katrina. The magnitude of the destruction left by the storm and the desperate straits of thousands of its victims were challenge enough. Many reporters, clearly affected by what they were seeing, showed their empathy in their stories, and some...

NEW DELHI, September 4: Wildlife photos do not always make for good posters. Especially, when they are politically incorrect – when they are insensitive to wildlife in general, and when they violate exisiting wildlife laws. A few days back, a collection of three photographs in Rajasthan Patrika did just that. Wilfelife conservationists woke up on the morning of August 30 to see close-up pictures...

NEW DELHI, September 4: India's ranking as the second largest newspaper market in the world also has a flipside to it. In terms of percentage of reach (of newspapers), it lags way behind developed countries. The gap between India and leading countries on this count would depend on which source you would like to go by – World Press Trends 2005 (which draws on the National Readership Survey 2002...

It may sound callous, but the truth is that the thousands of middle class Indians who sat glued to CNN watching and discussing, of all things, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, weren't remotely driven by a sense of Christian charity or Hindu compassion. On the contrary, you could detect their smirk at the descent of the American Dream into a Third World nightmare. Don't get me wrong, the Indian...

(KRT) - The Sun Herald and its predecessor newspapers, The Daily Herald and the Sun, have a proud 121-year tradition of never having missed a publication day. That is pretty amazing when you consider that we do get the occasional hurricane in these parts. Last Sunday afternoon, our staff hurried to put the finishing touches on our Monday edition so that everyone could speed to a place where they...

Deccan Chronicle is looking to consolidate its position in South India, and may look at the acquisition route to establish a presence in the Karnataka market. The publication claims to have garnered a circulation figure of 255,000 copies in Chennai on weekdays and 290,000 on Sundays. Of these, only 23,000 copies are through the ICICI cardholders’ subscription tie-up. While on acquisition plans, a...

Any Weblog or podcast in one of theBOBs' nine languges (English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Persian and Arabic) can participate in the Deutsche Welle's 2005 theBOBs -- The Best of the Blogs. THE CATEGORIES The Deutsche Welle is organizing an international Weblog award. The competition is aimed at supporting the free flow of information on the Internet and will be...

The Independent: As Good As It Gets? The Independent - like the Guardian, a newspaper with supposed progressive credentials - noted blandly in a recent editorial that "Global warming is given little coverage by the US media." (Leader, 'The American consensus of denial is crumbling,' August 19, 2005). True enough. But look at our own doorstep; at the wholly inadequate coverage of climate change in...

There has been quite a bit of action in the Hindi news genre of late, especially with regard to the number two player. Even as the numbers have been throwing up a different player every week recently, media professionals explain that decisions in the domain rely more on perception now and less on TRPs. And as more players are set to enter the field, the situation will accentuate further. Looking...

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing over 500,000 journalists in more than 110 countries, is deeply concerned about reports of a violent attack against TV journalists in Chennai. According to IFJ sources, on August 31 a television crew was allegedly assaulted in Chennai while covering a victory celebration of transport employees who had been...