Indian journalism slipping due to laziness

Hyderabad: Vijay Joshi, Editor in Chief, Press Trust of India, said that the emerging popularity of the social media is proving to be a major “scrutiniser” of the main stream media. Addressing students in the Department of Journalism and Communication, here on Friday, he said, ` earlier, the readers and viewers had just the letters to the editor to air their views on news disseminated in the media.

In today’s context where social media consumption is on the rise, it is crucial for Indian media to address the challenges of erosion of credibility, missing ethical integrity and “laziness”.’ “Mainstream media is no longer seen as credible. Some of this criticism is justified because media have not been as true to the profession as they ought to be, be it in the form of bending rules, deliberately putting out certain stories.”

Stating that Indian journalism is as good as the best in the world, Joshi said, adding: “Of late, we are slipping due to laziness. For example, taking allegations and publishing them as it is without due diligence.”

He pointed out that this problem is not unique to India, and cited the case of U S media “treating Donald Trump as an entertainment figure” during the pre-election phase. “We need to guard against laziness and double-check and cross-check information.”

Replying to queries, Vijay Joshi said editors need to be trusted when it comes to decisions about whether to carry or drop a story. “If that trust between reporters and the editors is missing, then maybe it is better to move on to some other organisation.”

He explained the functioning of the news agency and the role of an Editor-in- chief. He advised students to read History as “it is the best guide to the future” and said it was a good time to hone writing skills, cross check information while reporting and above all “follow one’s heart.” Diversity and plurality is India’s strength, he said and added that the sheer size and the diversity present enormous opportunities.

Accidental journalist
Like many students who take the Journalism course in Osmania University, Vijay Joshi, in the mid-1980s, also saw the APSRTC student bus pass as the immediate benefit. As it turned out, the course became a pass for him to live and work across half the globe.

Joshi, recalled his entry into the Journalism Department and said that he wanted to move to the United States to pursue his MS in the energy/ petroleum sector. Since he had a few months before he could apply and shift to the US, at the insistence of his friend, he appeared for the BCJ entrance and cleared it while his friend could not. Thus he made his entry into the Department of Communication & Journalism.

Joshi credits his time in the Department for the turn his life took from being an M.Sc. (Geology) graduate to an accidental journalist to, finally, an accomplished one.

For 27 years, Mr Joshi worked in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt, Iraq and other countries across the East and West Asia as a foreign correspondent for American news agency, the Associated Press. He returned to India in February this year to take over as editor-in-chief of Press Trust of India.