Shivaji Sarkar is head of Journalism department at Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), India’s pioneer institution in terms of mass communication and journalism. He is also known for his ecomomic journalism among his friends. In ‘Talk of the Week’ he shared his view with fachcha.com regarding journalism in pre-recession era and post recession era, new trends in the mass communication and so on. Exceprts:

Fachcha.com: How would you define journalism in pre-recession and post-recession period?
S. Sarkar: At first, I do not agree that there has been any kind of recession in India. Corporate sector has earned over Rupees 60,000 crore profit. There is surge in the corporate taxes. Industry has registered a huge profit. Revenue collection from corporate tax and other related tax have increased in the last financial year. Only, the collection from personal Income Tax has reduced by about 14 %. It simply indicates that while corporate and industry sectors have done better; common persons have been deprived from their job on the name of recession. Jobs have been frozen, salary cuts announced and implemented. Media organization too has taken huge benefit on the name of it.
On the other side government did not take any action in this regard. It did not make any climate which could keep journalists away from exploitation. A kind of free hand was given to the media organizations. It was government’s job to protect journalists and common employees from their exploitation and create a better environment for them.

fachcha.com: But what impact you see on Journalism overall due to recession?
S.Sarkar: See, Corporate sector also deprived media from their earnings. On one hand they cut down their advertisement expenditure and expanses related to social responsibilities, on the other hand they also sacked a large number of employees on the name of recession. Not all but some of the media houses have been hit by it. But no media house has lost money as such. Whatever loss they have made due to it they saved money it by reducing their employees or say downsizing. It was mere loss of employee and not organizations.

fachcha.com: It there any Change due to recession in the nature of journalism?
S. Sarkar: The scene has definitely changed. We can see more influence of corporate sector in every field of journalism. Pattern of news has changed. Criticism of government’s work, which was an important job of journalism, is now vanishing. But some good changes have also come, like horizon of coverage has increased. Many new fields come in the sphare of journalism like property, fashion, auto, lifestyle and so many others. But in-depth coverage has also been decreased. Investment on research work and news coverage too has reduced. Some of the newspapers like Indian Express, Hindu are doing so but most of the newspapers are not doing so.
Public relation activities have increased on the name of journalism. It was not so that there was no public relation activity earlier but now PR is dictating that what should be covered and what should not.

fachcha.com:What would you say about paid news?
S. Sarkar: It will continue directly or indirectly even in post recession era (if you believe that there was any recession). Even newspapers and news channels have started new phenomena that they now do campaigns. There is so called ‘campaign’ recently for Pakistan’s peace process. A prominent channel and a particular house started campaign. The newspaper given eight page on the daily basis while the house is known to count every inch for its commercial uses. We need to probe that who has been paying for it. Even government should probe it through its intelligence agencies that who has paid for it.

fachcha.com: Would you like name it?
S. Sarkar: There is no need to name it. It is obvious. The house is not known for charity.

fachcha.com: But it could be need of hour? The newspaper may be following its editorial policy only.
S. Sarkar: I’m not ready to buy it. There are so many pages for opinions. Editorials, Editorial pages, op-ed or opinion pages are there but campaign is completely different thing.

fachcha.com: What about regulations on the media organizations?
S. Sarkar: The situation of regulation is poor. We have very poor regulatory authority as Press Council of India. Owners of Newspaper organizations have made it a toothless organization. However, it is considered as an esteemed organization throughout the world. While the regulatory bodies in other countries are in much better position. UK Press Commission is a powerful regulatory body. Here we have PCI but it is limited to newspapers only. There is no regulation mechanism for TV channels. They talk about self regulation whenever government talks about regulation. But where is self-regulation. You see the type of content being provided on the news channels on the name of news.

fachcha.com: But imposing a regulatory authority is a kind of restriction on freedom of media?
S. Sarkar: No, Having an independent regulatory authority is in the interest of democracy. It does not mean that you mess up everything on the name of regulation. Government should empower Press Council of India for regulation of TV channels too and extend its purview to other forms of media.

fachcha.com: As a head of Journalism department of India’s best institution, Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) what would you say about future of media?
S. Sarkar: India is a vast country. As literacy and education is growing among the people will need media both traditional and new media. India has very good scope for newspapers, tv channels, internet, radio and other forms of media.