The Talk Journalism Show - Vox Media Festival: Intriguing sessions

The Talk Journalism Show - Vox Media Festival, a three day talk show giving insights into journalism was a grand event that was attended religiously by prominent journalists, authors, ministers, publicly renowned personalities and representatives from Google, YouTube and Instagram.
Dainik Bhaskar was the Print Media associate for this event.

Event details:

Tabulated at Hotel Fairmont, a gorgeous hotel outlay on the Delhi Road, the last day of the event took place on Sunday, July 31, 2016.

Workshop for photography enthusiasts by Instagram India:

In the Talk Journalism Show - Vox Media Festival, a photography workshop was also methodized by Instagram India.

Closing day sessions:

• The last session being a closing session for the event, was a session by the Former Union Minister and Senior Journalist Arun Shourie together. Discussions and views were portrayed on the ‘Freedom of Media and Code of Conduct for Journalists In the Changing Times’.
• In the evening session on the last day, Senior Journalist Ms. Barkha Dutt also took a session on the Kashmir Issue and varied her discussions from this topic to the topic of Arnab Goswami and the current controversies associated with both. The senior journalist expressed that on grounds of religion, the people of Kashmir still maintain and display uneasiness.

Senior Journalist Ms. Barkha Dutt and her intriguing sessions:

• Senior Journalist Ms. Barkha Dutt took hold of the session ‘The Unquiet Land’ where she discussed that how Kashmir is that part of India, where chaos remains round the year on grounds of religion, freedom and politics.
  People on grounds of religion are still mislead and misguided.
• The journalist expresses how she has experienced pain in her life in the Kashmir scenario personally and has been closely related to it. She on saying this also says that she is not being biased in this scenario.
• Dutt had a one-on-one talk with a 16 year old teenager who lost his eyesight because of the use of pellet guns. When the young boy was asked as to why was he biased towards the militants, his response was because the militants are trying to save Islam as a religion. This clearly speaks out the unsaid, which is freedom is being directly attached to the religion.

Guiding students for making a proper career choice:

The journalist expressed views on the disturbing state of the news channels in the country and stated her opinion for the students to not take up or make television journalism as their career path.

Expressing views on the genuinity and cross-checking and verification of data:

• Dutt expressed that in television and print media, data and facts are doubled checked, their legitimacy is determined.
  On the other hand, she stated that there is no standard or a stringent process set for verification of one’s identity and identifying an honest answer on the social media handles.
• While the journalist boldly made this remark, she also supplied it with a personal experience.
  She mentioned that was in a meeting with the officials of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), where one of her pictures was edited by use of Photoshop (editing software) as per her opinion and was edited to an extent where there was a pack of currency notes in her hand. The picture went viral on the web without her permission and verification.

Interviewing Ms. Sonia Gandhi:

Ms. Dutt expressed that he toughest of the interview to conduct till date has been that of Smt. Sonia Gandhi. The latter does not express views on any matter whatsoever. Ms. Gandhi is an early riser in the morning (03:00 AM) and is an admirer of the American Political Drama series House of Cards. She loves to watch the series in her pastime.

Arun Shourie: Let’s talk it out

The session ‘Independence of Media - Then and Now’ was a session commemorated and taken by the Former Union Minister Arun Shourie.

• Television channels are running shows by the name ‘News Of the Day’ which have their apparent team of 6 panel members.
  Such members believe they are highly influential.
• Well, the real ones to be blamed in this case are the viewers and the readers of such television shows and news. People just do not stop watching such shows and continue giving weightage to them.

Mr. Shourie believes that some news channels are working as the headline management company for the government.
Actions have not been taken by the government on Operation Blue Star or Panama Papers. Government officials on being asked the cause behind this responds that written notices have been sent (in the form of letters) which have not got a response.
Mr. Shourie questions that in a technically advanced economy where one resides, are we really waiting to write letters and notices and waiting and pondering over their responses?

RTI, NGO etc, must regularly monitor the work of the government, this is what Mr. Shourie believe in.

Media must never negotiate or make deals out of facts and the genuinity of data. Certain industries and investors are getting into the media sector.
Content is being sold, and this leads us to question ourself, how will the freedom of media be seen in such a scenario? Media must always put up questions.
Media people and journalists turn cold feet on questioning the Modi government and instead of bringing concerning issues into the limelight, bring forth other unimportant news.

Mobile Internet Services: The ban by the government

Information Technology experts from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) discussed about the issues concerning the stoppage of the mobile internet services by the government in light of national security.

To live without the mobile internet services in today’s modern society seems like an impossible task. Why does the government block the internet services and this step by the government, is it right or wrong.

Such matters were debated on in the session ‘Trigger Happy Nation - Mass Blocking Of Internet In Crisis’. People namely Mr. Arvind Gupta (IT Sales HEad, BJP), Mr. Ankit Lal (IT Sales Head, AAP) were present in this session. The session was moderated by Shivam Vij.

Mr. Ankit expressed that in the past 1 year, internet services have been shut down in the country at 13 places. The government shuts down internet services to hide the administrative failures and looks for an easy way out to complete its obligations.

On the other hand, Mr. Arvind Gupta expressed that shutting down internet services has nothing to do with political matters. Closing down of internet services merely is done in the health of national security and public disorder.

Stringers: Their Story

The importance of stringers was also discussed in one of the sessions in the Talk Journalism Show - Vox Media Festival. The session named ‘Breaking News - Stringers Tell Their Story’ was organised and taken by the political editor of NDTV, Mr. Rahul Srivastava.

Every year near about 10000 stringers enter the media and journalism industry, out of which a very low number of candidates secure a proper job.
The rest of the crows is forced to work for the media in distant districts or change their career line.
90 per cent of the breaking news in the media and journalism industry is supported by the stringers.

Journalist Prakash Chandra Hota stated that in providing the breaking news, stringers are are provided 10000 rupees.

Case of stringer: Gone worse

On hearing the blasts in Chhattisgarh, a stringer went on site to obtain information and news but was captured by the Maoists.
The incident and happenings of all what happened there was known only to that stringer, but the police arrested the stringer on account of being associated with the Maoists.
Stringers hailing down from Print Media have a better knowledge about the understanding of how things work and the usefulness of news and data.
Stringers are the ones who suffer cost cut. Journalist Ravikant expressed that the struggle and pains taken by a stringer are not valued in front of a senior journalist.

Lifestyle journalism:

Lifestyle journalism has taken a shift and advancement in the past few years. Branding and public relations are bringing down their weight on the lifestyle.
 Social media has changed the ways news reporting.
All this was discussed in the session ‘Changing Face Of Lifestyle Journalism’ by Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar, member of the former royal family of Udaipur and journalist Jayraj Singh.
The session was moderated by the news editor of Dainik Bhaskar Ms. Prerna Sahani.

Mr. Jayraj believed that to be associated with lifestyle journalism, it is not mandatory to belong to the elite class, but to understand that style, one must be inclined towards it. Mr. Mewar stated that there is a huge and quick change in the consumers, readers and viewers.
People want to portray themselves as being ideal on the social media, but amidst all this, they must also pay heed to their culture.
Ms. Sahani stated that in the next five years, the lifestyle market will rise by a 12 per cent, the value of which is said to be 394000 crores INR.
All this will give a rise to the experiential reporting of the food, travel, apparel and automobile industries.