IIMC advised to initiate
a course on the business of media
Symposium on ‘News Media Education in India’ organised recently at New Delhi addressed the issue of standards within media education. In view of the contemporary trends, Information & Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari advised Indian Institute
of Mass Communication (IIMC) to initiate a course
on Business of Media, preferably a
‘Masters Degree in Business of Media’.
Manish Tewari addressing
at the symposium in New Delhi.
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In view of the changing contemporary media landscape, Manish Tiwari’s view could act as a value addition to the institute in the long run. The minister emphasised that there was an urgent need to standardise quality of media education being imparted in the country and reiterated that ‘fly by night’ operators are the bane of media education paradigm as they are in similar circumstances in other sectors.
Elaborating further, the minister said that challenges confronting the different media streams, such as Print, Electronic and News Media were unique and distinct requiring specific treatment and approach for addressing the issues concerned. There was an urgent need to look at the structural faults which has not been addressed during the media proliferation of the past decade. The minister added that the print media needed to introspect and rationalise its tariff structure and subscription rates in view of the global trends which had stressed the revenue models and decline in numbers. All these trends could lead to decline in quality and standards within the print industry in the country.
News media
For the Broadcasting Industry, Tewari expressed concern over the fragmented market conditions, flawed revenue models and measurement methods prevalent and the rush for sensationalism and TRPs. This also led to serious issues of ‘Manufactured Anger’, ‘Media Trials’ and ‘Infringement of privacy guaranteed under Article 21’ emerge in the broadcasting space. Regarding the News Media, the minister said that while there has been an exponential growth, issues of anonymity, absence of global rules of engagement and serious issues of last mile neutrality remained to be addressed.
On the issue of media classification, the minister observed that there was a fundamental ambiguity with regard to classification of media. The moot point remained whether it was a business under Article 19 (1) (g) or an activity having protection under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution. In the current scenario, the understanding of this classification was extremely important in view of certain events that has taken place, reiterating that media was increasingly becoming a business which in a liberalized economy is the way things are. In the same context, it was important to address the concerns regarding problem of standards when both Article 19 (1) (a) and 19 (1) (g) were read in the same vein and the restrictions contemplated under Article 19 (6) in the interest of general public are viewed with the varying degrees of skepticism and cynicism.
