Media and Nonsense
A lot of adjectives crossed through my mind when I read "No Institute is an Island" in today's Hindu. The politest rephrase is, Media and sense seem to be an Oxymoron.
When my 2 year old reports one or another kid hit him, my first question is what did you do? When the same thing happens to a photo-journalist, the only even in your newspaper is, Journalist beaten up!
Any word on anything he did to provoke is missing. How is that fair coverage?
I get it now. Journalism such as yours, is the first refuge of the scoundrel. So whatever you do is expected and accepted behaviour.
The next issue would be is hitting back fair. To get that far we first need students with the time and energy to take Mr Mathews to court for invading their privacy. Since our academic schedules don't allow that, a fat lip seems a meager compensation.
If every child who makes it after a lot of hard work into one of the IITs and doesn't cut it, it is the institutes fault. How is 1% of the IIT entrants crashing and burning the institutes fault? A smaller percentage of these take the drastic step of committing suicide. The higher one goes, the harder the fall is a well accepted platitude. Why does the parent/society not cushion the fall? Add why doesn't anyone in the media point a finger at the mourning parents for not giving their child the ability to accept failure and try again?
That would mark you as very unpopular wouldn't it? You couldn't stand a fall in ratings, could you? All you can do is blame the standards of the institute and directly or indirectly contribute to the dumbing down of Indian science and technology.
It is a well accepted fact that our educational system doesn't impart creativity in thinking. What institutes like the IITs do is, teach you to hunker down and solve surmountable problems, the hardwork that is a very big part of any success, that enables our graduates' careers' to soar in the western world. Dumbing down of standards is not going to help them.
But you are paid by word count. No accountability anywhere.You don't have to think, analyze and write. Just fill blah blah blah and then off to the recycle pile.
Just to make one thing clear, we dont need you to report our cultural activities or technical achievements. We are all social media savvy and know how to communicate our successes. Keeping you in the loop is a courtesy to you.
When it comes to reporting on technical achievements, luckily for you, you only have to quote your sources. Educational institutes are themselves responsible for publishing their work in Peer-Reviewed Journals. That doesn't necessarily eliminate plagiarism, but, it atleast reduces it.
As for reporting cultural fests, how different is it from your weekly movie or city cultural activity review? After all, you can't borrow all your metroplus reporting from the associated press or NYT or tout advertisers. You have to maintain a semblance of reporting for people to continue buying your newspaper.
My father used to encourage me to skim the newspaper headlines when I was 10. I give my son the cartoon page. I don't see any point in filling his growing mind with the trash you call unbiased media coverage.
Print media is on the way out. For the first time I see the demise of newspapers such as yours as a great blessing to mankind. Probably local papers like Adyar times will survive. In the 8 years I have followed them, they have not lionized or demonized anyone, they have always covered news relevant to our little corner of the city fairly and accurately. They have always managed to make me feel more connected to my neighbourhood, more willing to take action and help when needed. They do something you have never achieved, make me proud of my area and my city.
You might consider interning with Mr Vincent. But I doubt he accepts riffraff on his staff.
When my 2 year old reports one or another kid hit him, my first question is what did you do? When the same thing happens to a photo-journalist, the only even in your newspaper is, Journalist beaten up!
Any word on anything he did to provoke is missing. How is that fair coverage?
I get it now. Journalism such as yours, is the first refuge of the scoundrel. So whatever you do is expected and accepted behaviour.
The next issue would be is hitting back fair. To get that far we first need students with the time and energy to take Mr Mathews to court for invading their privacy. Since our academic schedules don't allow that, a fat lip seems a meager compensation.
If every child who makes it after a lot of hard work into one of the IITs and doesn't cut it, it is the institutes fault. How is 1% of the IIT entrants crashing and burning the institutes fault? A smaller percentage of these take the drastic step of committing suicide. The higher one goes, the harder the fall is a well accepted platitude. Why does the parent/society not cushion the fall? Add why doesn't anyone in the media point a finger at the mourning parents for not giving their child the ability to accept failure and try again?
That would mark you as very unpopular wouldn't it? You couldn't stand a fall in ratings, could you? All you can do is blame the standards of the institute and directly or indirectly contribute to the dumbing down of Indian science and technology.
It is a well accepted fact that our educational system doesn't impart creativity in thinking. What institutes like the IITs do is, teach you to hunker down and solve surmountable problems, the hardwork that is a very big part of any success, that enables our graduates' careers' to soar in the western world. Dumbing down of standards is not going to help them.
But you are paid by word count. No accountability anywhere.You don't have to think, analyze and write. Just fill blah blah blah and then off to the recycle pile.
Just to make one thing clear, we dont need you to report our cultural activities or technical achievements. We are all social media savvy and know how to communicate our successes. Keeping you in the loop is a courtesy to you.
When it comes to reporting on technical achievements, luckily for you, you only have to quote your sources. Educational institutes are themselves responsible for publishing their work in Peer-Reviewed Journals. That doesn't necessarily eliminate plagiarism, but, it atleast reduces it.
As for reporting cultural fests, how different is it from your weekly movie or city cultural activity review? After all, you can't borrow all your metroplus reporting from the associated press or NYT or tout advertisers. You have to maintain a semblance of reporting for people to continue buying your newspaper.
My father used to encourage me to skim the newspaper headlines when I was 10. I give my son the cartoon page. I don't see any point in filling his growing mind with the trash you call unbiased media coverage.
Print media is on the way out. For the first time I see the demise of newspapers such as yours as a great blessing to mankind. Probably local papers like Adyar times will survive. In the 8 years I have followed them, they have not lionized or demonized anyone, they have always covered news relevant to our little corner of the city fairly and accurately. They have always managed to make me feel more connected to my neighbourhood, more willing to take action and help when needed. They do something you have never achieved, make me proud of my area and my city.
You might consider interning with Mr Vincent. But I doubt he accepts riffraff on his staff.
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