Glamour of Journalism

Who's really watching anyway?

"We need you to file more glamorous reports. That's what our readers want"

That was the message a journalist friend of mine, Rupa, was given by her bosses at the Times of India. It could be justified, assuming Rupa was reporting from high society Mumbai. But fact is, she specialises in health issues and was reporting on the North East of India - comprising some of the most under-developed states of India, torn by conflicts and a vastly under-reported region in mainstream media.

Rupa has worked in the North East over years and knows the land and its people all too well. But she soon realised she had no space in glamour-driven mainstream media. She quit the ToI, considered one of the biggest newspapers in India and is currently working on a book on the NE region.

I met up with Rupa and a mutual friend and urban researcher, Rahul Srivastava over dinner the other night. Our conversation wound around the shrinking spaces for good journalism in Indian print media.

Newspapers and magazines will seldom accept researched stories on important developmental issues. Even when they they do pay lip service, the pay is a pittance. So, if you are a freelance journalist, in India, looking at dealing with social issues through your writing, you need to look elsewhere for your sustenance.

That is a very dangerous scenario when good journalists are forced to opt out of the system.

Rupa recounts her experience with a group of journalists on a recent field trip in Haiti. The young journos with her couldn't be bothered about the history and background of the land they were reporting from. Nor were they keen on actually meeting the people at the grassroots, she recalls. All they were concerned about was to get "quotes" and "sound bites" from the iNGO reps working in the region to file stories back to their newspapers. That is the level of depth newspapers really expect these days.

For the best and most satisfying writing, Rahul believes in the power of the blog to get your points across. Commercial work is just that - survival money. The real power and pleasure comes from posting to your blog - unedited, unadulterated.

Yes. There's no money there. But given the commercial interests over social concerns in newspapers these days, that is the only way to go. At least for now.

Glamorous?