Alternative careers after Journalism Part CLXVI

Since most journalists are just corporate or political pimps anyway - it is rather difficult to remove the stain from anyone - so when one quits or finds himself or herself cut back, why not become a real pimp?That is at least what one award-winning sportswriter in the USA decided to do after his newspaper cut salaries.
No really!
Worse still, he did give the girls in his employ a rather bad deal.
Then again, most (most, not all) Indian sportswriters and sports broadcasters are so busy kissing the ground the BCCI walks on, they would probably just be the prostitutes in such a case.

Useless

So, you're supposed to take a man who gets his wife to write his columns for him seriously? (Don't ask how I know, I just know) That and the fact the troika of Raghav, Haresh and Sameer must have been bemused when the pronouncements were made. Frankly, even if 'paid news' was not the disease it is, 'sympathetic' news would be - a company that sponsored the big-ticket event of the year on one group channel is given sympathetic coverage on another.
See, frankly, I feel the Editors Guild is an even more useless body than the Press Council. Until this entire issue of 'Paid News' came up everyone seemed to forgotten it existed and several editors - you know the guys who actually edit papers that matter don't even attend. I have argued that self-regulation is bound to fail and the Editor's Guild paying he matter lip service is bound to ensure that it is buried a quiet death. Until somebody raises it again soon, but by then god only knows if the media in its current shape, size or form will survive.
That said, I still don't believe that 'Paid News' is the greatest threat facing Indian journalism or journalism globally for that matter - the biggest threat (other than pointless self-regulating bodies) is 'cut-and-paste' journalism. Whole chunks of text from Wikipedia, likely written by a Public Relations type are taken as the gospel truth and printed verbatim. You would have thought that young Indian journalists would have learned from the cautionary tale of VN Narayanan, but who cares? You won't see lazy journalism discussed by talking shops will you?
Insincere journalism written or described by monkeys who feel that they're doing a 9-to-5 job and who 'scoops' are handed out to them is worse. At least when it comes to 'Paid News', the company/individual whose news is getting written about has shown some sincerity and maybe some thinking has gone in somewhere. Google might be my best friend, but it has also enabled utter idiots to parade about with 'PRESS' stickers on their cars - I've not had one on my car for over five years now.
Anyway, this was a rush job, I've got far too much work over the next few days for regular updates, even though I'm bemused at Twatteroor's latest adventures. Making fun of the Ministry of Home Affairs under Chidambaram is not a good idea (while it was under Shivraj Patil you were supposed to make fun of the MHA). Mr. Minister, do your job trying to ensure that Indians don't get too badly exploited in the Middle-East (that is your responsibility isn't it?) that they have to stow themselves away in planes.

News!

A desi-born Tam Bram, educated in the good state of Gujarat is one of the winners of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (The Nobel Committee couldn't find his picture????). In the next few days, the media will claim him as our own, possibly the higher-caste hating politicians in TN will swallow pride and also claim him as their own. And in the process we'll forget about Pakistan and China (the only two countries Anchor Man is interested in declaring war on), the Maoists, the Champions Trophy and maybe even the awesome fraternal battle. Even though I doubt we will ever forget the last.
I guess we in the media feel a misplaced sense of patriotism and nationalism when it comes to anything 'Indian' or someone with even an iota of 'Indian-ness' (as long as they're not white, if you believe the desi media, all white people want to do, especially in Australia, is to beat Indians up*), it sometimes feels like "OMG, OMG, OMG" reporting. I'm not saying don't and the last thing I am is a hater, I just fail to make sense of of the brouhaha that follows. More so, because most of the people perpetuating the brouhaha seem to think exactly like me and wear their national pride on their sleeve, but exactly thump their breasts about it. But then again, sometimes I wonder if journalists really think while they're on the job...
In another piece of news, and this was just waiting to happen, the quaitting part at least. ST has quit Soiled Undie Profit and joined SR. I don't get the logic of the what and why, but this has happened. And another popular one doing the rounds nowadays is that Undie spoke to a couple of guys who sold an illusion to some Japanese company (the story is actually horribly old but has been recently discovered by some bloggers). That is old news, because as some of us know (yes, yes, I don't write everything nowadays I'm too lazy and this isn't really 'profitable' y'know) there was some issues regarding valuations. Now the guys who were being spoken to understood that the valuation demanded was an illusory one, since they're masters of the game, laughed at the demands and left. Not that the company isn't for sale (or so we har), but honestly, it would be cheaper to start a new TV channel nowadays instead of inheriting a crazy high-cost structure.
PS: In case you goils were wondering why you should not marry a Bong guy. Wonder no more, a bit boring in parts, but none the less.
PPS: This has to be best photograph I have ever seen. Well, OK I'm exaggerating, but anyhoo...
*Unless your name happens to be Brett Lee when all you want to do is act in Bollywood movies

Weird things...

This is not a random piece of bitchy nothingness, but a piece of random life story...
The last few months have involved a fair amount of work, with a smattering of travel thrown in coupled with good food and lots of beer. But honestly, there has been a lot of work. I don't recall working so hard in the recent past. It made me realise that blog productivity was more of less inversely proportional to 'actual work', even though that really isn't fair. Sometimes I am too lazy to do either. And here is the even weirder thing, I might crib about the work in an occasional post, but I am really enjoying it because I'm doing things I like doing. Sure, the fact that I have my iPod on virtually all the time helps - this is why I love the new Shuffle with its insane battery life - but the work has been interesting.
But back to the point, my Editor told me today morning that on Friday I will have to do something that I have always wanted to. No, not bang a supermodel on an atoll in the Pacific. But something I have really wanted to do, well to be more specific one of those things that I believe made me want to become a journalist, at least in my particular silo any which way. And you what? Right now, I am felling mighty happy that I didn't quit, even though I have both my fingers and my toes crossed. I really, really, really want this to happen.
That said, the most entertaining though to do nowadays is to interview Ministers, the sheer entertainment value of print interviews sometimes is mind-boggling. Yeh mat likho, magar... Chapne ke liye nahin, but... and all this happily carrying on while my recorder isn't paused. I don't know what it is, but a phone recorder - I record on a Nokia N97 right now (more on the phone some other time) - disarms people. Plus I don't have to deal insane proprietary software formats nor do I need to install software just to retrieve the file. Well, a phone recorder and the lack of a television camera. You know, what is funny, I have two really high profile interviews and both organisations are not giving television slots. This much is certain, if they gave ET Now a slot they would be promoting themselves silly in ToI and ET and maybe even carry a double-spread with both these guys.
The downside is that I have to transcribe, I don't outsource because I'm slightly paranoid, but then again, it shouldn't matter.

Jarnailism

Should a course in shoe-throwing now be compulsory in J-school? For Christ's sake, if you have to throw a shoe - Throw it. I mean, if you have to make a scene then make a huge one, and don't let idiots like me comment on your shoe throwing. Mr Singh, you should have taken some lessons from Mr Zaidi, who threw his shoes at 'The Great Satan' himself.
Though all said and done, while I agree that the Congress mucks up its response to the riots of 1984 every time, because they know they are on the back foot. It has been almost 25 years since the riots and the memories are still raw. Just like I'm pretty sure that the Teesta's of the world will continue to bring up Gujarat when Narendra Modi is (maybe?) the Prime Minister. Heck, the wounds of 1947 haven't exactly healed. However, the question is should journalists 'attack' those we are covering?
Well, after seeing the footage, all of it and talking to a couple of people who happened to be at the AICC office, the fact remains that people were making statements to Chidambaram rather than asking questions. Listen, I'm no fan of Chiddu Chodu, that man has pick-pocketed my wallet. But at every press conference, for politics, financial releases, cars no matter what there is always a clown who makes a long, rambling statement. I don't want to hear your statement and I'm pretty sure no-one else does either. Publishing is fairly cheap and online it is essentially free, make your statements there. This guy threw his shoe because he was reprimanded for making a statement and not asking a question. Journalists can indulge in a debate on television and in the pages of a newspaper and even a proper forum - press conferences are not the proper fora for rhetorical statements.
Then again, Chiddu's arrogance at journalists led to the shoe, and a little part of me wanted to shoe to hit him. And that is why I believe the biggest take-away from yesterday is that people should learn how to throw shoes properly. Which is why, I think all J-schools should now start a course on shoe-throwing. But, then again maybe when it comes to the easily offended right, shoes should be replaced by pink chaddi's and the aerodynamics of chaddi's and shoes are completely different. Hmmm... this is a good idea for a J-school book.

Alternative careers after journalism...

The first part in what might well become an increasingly frequent series - and none of them will have the option of setting up an online business or become (like Rick Redfern of Doonesbury) a 'blogger'. Let me assure you, there is little money to be made in 'blogging' and 'social media' on the whole is extremely hyped up. Take that for someone who actually understands what the f*** 'social media' means and does not claim to be a social media expert on 'Twitter'. I'm quite happy with my day job.
OK, back to the point, and I don't know how viable an option this is in India - you know with fringe lunatics such at Muthalik, but more on that later.
Become the manager of a Strip Joint. You know I'm pretty sure you could even hire PYT's in some channels as the girls. (Listen, don't flood me with self-righteous comments, I know where you download your porn from!)
Back to the Shri Ram Sene - which as I remember the Ramayana was a bunch of monkeys. Hey, how is this for an idea - if the BJP wants to prove that the Ram Sethu is man-made, send all these monkeys to build a bridge across the Palk Straits, even though given the current situation, the Sri Lankan Army will cross right over!
You know something, I hold some of the media responsible for creating mofo's like this - just like they created Praveen Togadia. Take away the attention and they will wither away. Note to the BJP - instead of running the Advani adverts everywhere - why don't you bring out a proper web post condemning such behavior if as one of their senior leaders shouted at me on the phone. This is a guy who hasn't screamed at me for a very long time. It is all about PR and the Congress is pitching Rahul G as 'change' when all he will do is more of same old sh*t. The website is nice, but you have to understand that Indian demographics are changing dramatically and by first nominating an old man, you aren't helping yourselves with the youth vote - and running a blog isn't a sign of youthfulness.
I'm not saying become like the British Conservatives, who are the most pussy-footed conservative organisation in the world. In a country where 13-year olds become fathers. The other extreme is Israel where the centrists are rightists- a country which produces hotties like this - hmmm - I could do the job described rather well methinks. Pity, Indian journalism doesn't have too many lookers left!
Oh well...

Robot Chicken

I don't know about you but India ODI's are losing their watchability - we're pulverizing Sri Lanka. Last matchViru and Yuvi and this time Dhoni and Gauti (great to see both the Delhi boys do well though - Go Daredevils)  Almost as badly as they're pulverizing their Tamilian citizens in the north.

Though their most famous Tamilian set another record today. We're treating their bowlers like their government treats their domestic press. I don't know about you, but cricket diplomacy as practiced by India is a bit strange - terminating the contracts of the Pakistani players even if they didn't do drugs. It will be sad to see Akmal and Tanvir go from Warne's team (they do have a loophole for those two and Misbah - but why Shilpa Shetty ugh!). Anyway, I spent a lot of time watching Robot Chicken of late and I'm pretty bugged that no network shows Adult Swim in India. Dang!

Incremental Cost

Sorry, this is a bit of an essay, but I got inspired for some strange reason.

Shyam made an interesting comment on yesterday’s post on the concept of incremental costs when launching an additional product. Basically, he rightly argued that the term is highly misused in the media world and frankly I will agree with him here. While many people will argue that the explosion of the media industry has led to glaring examples of bad journalism, one aspect has rarely been discussed, the media boom has led to horrible examples of bad management.
See, the media industry does not work like say the airline industry. Say airline X starts a new station, they have to sink in certain costs – hire ground staff, air-stairs, buses. All of that costs money. Now with one flight a day, the cost is spread out over just 100-150 passengers depending on the aircraft used. Now if the airline operated two, three, four flights a day, preferably at different times, they would hopefully not need to invest in additional staff or equipment, maybe some more staff to cover themselves. There might still be the cost of additional aircraft, but aircraft nowadays are an operating expense thanks to ‘sale lease-back’ policies. Airline X has managed to add flights to the new destination but at an ‘incremental cost’ to itself.
The same philosophy could apply to toothpaste, shampoo, televisions or any industry with a massive initial capital outlay. Where the media industry fails the ‘incremental cost’ test, at least in India it fails rather dramatically. Why? See, the biggest problem in India remains distribution – while South Delhi and South Bombay, India’s two largest media markets have switched en masse to addressable systems – DTH for example (as have outlying rural areas), the rest of the country (admittedly save Chennai, which is why Sun got into the DTH game – even more money) is still beholden to the crappy co-axial cable.
I don’t want to get into the physics of co-axial cables here, but let us be honest, the co-axial cable is 14.4kbps dial-up in an era of 8mbps DSL. It isn’t as if Indians don’t have the television sets to support several channels, any telly sold after 1990 can support god knows how many channels, and only with new addressable systems which feed through standard inputs that the channel wars are ending. The cable industry is dominated by politicians and the underworld who have loved the delicious tax-free incomes it generates at a far lower risk than selling narcotics. Investing in upgrades isn’t their kettle of fish, which is why even set-top addressable cable boxes haven’t really been popular. To cut a long story short, the co-axial cable can only support about twenty-odd channels with a decent picture and though it can be pumped with eighty channels, watching VH1 which is invariably at the end of the band is torture. Heck, it was in mono too. Ugh!
Moving on this meant, our friendly neighbourhood cablewallahs didn’t just enjoy the lard from consumers they also got paid by channels ‘carriage fees’ to carry their channels in the ‘prime’ band. More black money since the networks always accounted for this money as something else. Heck, at one point the PR boss for a network whose owners also owned an airline told me that their flights to Goa were booked out with cable operators and their wives. That same channel suddenly claimed to be number one in the Hindi news space.
So, distribution in India is a pretty screwed-up business aided by ancient technology. I can’t believe there is so much talk of India skipping generations of technology when the advertising and media industry both of whom swear by high-tech depend on a horribly low-tech system. Even terrestrial broadcast is more high-tech nowadays thanks to DVB-Terrestial. Piecemeal solutions such as DTH or IPTV, which is the final piece of the triple-play puzzle will solve the problem until the I&B ministry replicates the forced conversion model. Not that the distribution mess is restricted to television, print is not much easier, but that is more of a logistical exercise. Well, the newspaper business is slightly different – and Times knows that – their rise to the top in Delhi began when they broke HT’s stranglehold on the distribution market, and how!
So back to the incremental cost question, launching a new channel does not mean an incremental distribution cost. Incremental costs mean costs of around 10-odd per cent more I would assume safely, but the cost in this case was rather massive. Admittedly not double, but not incremental either. In fact, the only cost that could be argued to be incremental was ‘marketing’. Because as I carry on, you’ll see that editorial costs were hardly incremental either.
Now, when you launch an additional product, flanking or not, you would need some additional people. To best leverage costs, you would ideally have people work across channels, magazines or papers. Keeps costs down, pay the people slightly more for the excess work, and you can keep hiring down to manageable levels. But in the case of several ‘additional’ channels, and the case of NDTV MetroNation is the one people will talk about for a long time, there was minimal leveraging of resources.
Of course, as Nag argued with me yesterday, that channel had another flaw – wrong language – the English speaking audience isn’t quite hyper-local yet while Total TV and Dilli Aaj Tak do quite well. The case is the same at Good Times, though that is funded by Vijay Uncle’s largesse until that also runs out. And as I’ve said again and again, Travel and Living is there. But the worst example in NDTV and for that matter even in TV18 are the near zero co-ordination between English and Hindi channels. Massive costs operating two independent operations and the Hindi channels can’t bring in the cash. IBN Lokmat on the other hand is a great success – but that is another story and goes back to the hyper-local point – it works with non SEC A/B audiences.
The problem of having such high costs is simple, the additional channels don’t provide anywhere near the revenue streams that the older, primary channel. Sure the costs were lower than the main channel but revenues are much, much lower. And then you get hit with the whammy of a downturn.
Anyway, I’m sure some media managers will take this a bit too critically and given that I’m disliked by that creed more than I’m hated by journalists for some strange reason I don’t know quite why, but anyhow that is another question. I’m not saying that flanking products or additional products don’t work. I’m just saying they should not be hyped up to be something they’re not. They’re not always money-spinners, they are not advertising specials like Bombay Times and Delhi Times!

Great read!

A friend and fellow navigator in journalism posted this brilliant article from WaPo (read this WSJ article on WaPo) on Facebook (Yes, I also drank Zuckerberg's Kool-Aid, but I will not 'friend' you - heck I'm circumspect on LinkedIn as well). Makes me want to go to DC for the exhibition in question - actually I do want to go to DC sometime but mainly for the Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian.

On Google

I’ve been a journalist by trade for over seven and a half years now and ever since I started out I’ve had a handy tool at my disposal – and it is called Google. Some of the senior journalists I know bemoan the rise and rise of this ‘Google Generation’ using contrived facts and figures and blindly narrating or writing those facts as the absolute truth, but I can’t imagine not using Google. Even though, nothing, absolutely nothing beats the remarkable impact that the mobile phone has had, especially in India.
I really don’t think Google is that bad as a tool. Sometimes when I have to find numbers and the government of India for one usually puts out their numbers in some hidden table somewhere on the world wide web, Google is a boon. Or for finding out email addresses or mobile phone numbers. Popping a simple search string into Google can save you the headache of asking around for numbers.
Especially since we might work with colleagues who treat their phone books as a state secret. I’m lucky that I don’t work with such people, but some of you in the profession know exactly what I’m talking about – heck, I’ve heard cases of journalists actually calling up their contacts and insisting that they don’t speak with the new kid. Google has been an equaliser in those respects.
Sure, some of those on the ‘Free Tibet’ side of things argue about Google’s ethics when it comes to China, but then again India’s ethics with China are equally bad, even though we now have proof that they tried to sabotage things at Vienna. Of course, our diplomacy with certain states is suspect, particularly given our own vibrant and positively chaotic democracy, but that isn’t the point.
The point I’m trying to make is that I don’t think I would have been able to do a lot of the stories that I have done over the years without the amazing search engine or the internet for that matter. Sure, it has spawned a whole generation of extremely lazy folks who take Google and its search results as the absolute truth. When I say we can’t trust what we read sometimes it is because people have copied passages verbatim from Wikipedia via Google or film critics have taken entire passages after searching for ‘(Insert Movie Name) review’. And worse!
But Google has also given a voice to the dispossessed and downtrodden as well as those who disagree with the general point of view laid out by pretty PR types.
Sure, I don’t particularly like Chrome. I’m far too used to needing a toolbar, and despite claims of propriety, using a Google browser gives me the heebie-jeebies when it comes to privacy concerns. Not that Google couldn’t know what I did once I logged into a service provided by the big G, such as Gmail or Google Reader.
But on the whole, I think Google has helped Journalism, particularly in a time of shortening deadlines and the battle for sound-bytes you could always fire up your computer and find a nice familiar web-page. Google. Heck, I’m switching back to Firefox and I continue to love Windows and MSN Live Search isn’t that bad. But Google is like this good friend online (though pagerank manipulators still exist – though they’re called Search Engine Optimisation companies) which usually tells you what you need to know.

Links

This comment had a link to this interesting news item that more bloggers are getting arrested nowadays - not surprising, sinmce there are more bloggers across the world. However, I feel that this other article I read was even more interesting, on how bloggers are approaching journalists to hone their 'journalist' skills. Maybe our celebrity ranters like RGV could do with these lessons too.
I have said several times that the internet is blurring the boundaries of journalism and several people have written epics on this, but I still do not believe that 'Citizen Journalism' as is being touted by several websites promising money and yada, yada is not going to work. Most articles on these sites are little but rehashes of agency news copy, badly written and worst of all, most of the stuff there are rants. I still think that India is a way from creating a Huffington Post (and even they have 'proper' journalists) and it definately will not be created by someone who is trying to be a AdSense scammer. It is the internet stupid, blogs cost nothing!
Anyway, Election 2009 (or maybe 2008) will be heavily blogged about in India for sure. The problem for many people sitting in Delhi is that usually hear the half-swallowed words of a city-slicker who has gone to a village with Rahul Gandhi singing his praises. Maybe not even a city-slicker, but even smarter people. Now, with the democratisation of information, I should be able to find out a lot more about what is actually happening. Even Google has an opinion about it, not about India but on elections+internet in the US.
That said, Election 2009 will be a major differentiator for the news channels, how they report (and predict) the elections will probably make or break some newer channels.

iRock!

A friend told me a very weird thing yesterday, "You know, you probably have one of the best jobs in Indian print journalism today, K. You travel like a maniac to exotic locales. You cover just about anything that takes your fancy. Your life is like a constant blast."
Sometimes, I really wonder how I wandered into the job I have, not journalism per se, because I know how I wandered into the profession, but the job profile that I have. I mean, some of the assignments that I get boggle me, and sometimes sometimes the assignments that just land on your lap are even more puzzling. I just spent the weekend in one of the most beautiful parts of the country on a story that I doubt I enjoy the 'qualifications' to deliver, but then again, I guess writing is a skill and if you were born as a straight bloke, you don't need qualifications to stare at good-looking women.
But I have to admit, my job has been very good to me, in terms of travel. Sure, my passport still has empty pages, but when it comes to going wild and whaky places inside India, I have travelled to some really crazy places, seen stunning natural beauty and environmental destruction, both in scales unimaginable and experienced both abject poverty and gross oppulence, sometimes within hours of each other. But I guess in the process, my ability to get shocked or 'feel' pain or even enjoy a bloody good single malt has taken a hit. Sure, I guess I say all the right things when I have to, feel sympathy with those I have to, and I've probably attended enough alcohol-tasting sessions to blab out all the nasal and palate notes by rote.
Can you manage to see eye to eye with a widow whose husband killed himself over a Rs 20k loan one day in Wardha district and attend a champagne lunch with starlets snorting coke next to you two days later in some South Mumbai joint and feel equally comfortable doing both. I can, I know because I have, and I don't know if that I can possibly be proud of myself because of that.
I sometimes try to rationalise everything by saying, 'It's a job, if I didn't do it, someone else would', and that is exactly what I feel. I have always felt that one should experience a multitude of experiences, high and low in their lives, and god knows, I've had both, both professionally and personally. Totally natural too, but yes the acid did help out some years ago, but the drugs are a thing of the past now other than the occasional smoke.
But my life isn't a constant blast. I don't have a life, I just bounce around from one experience to another. It is fun alright and I really enjoy it, but I'm also killing myself doing this. This is my drug of choice now, I need it, I need the rush and I don't think I can cold turkey. Shit!

Photo : Vijaynagar Beach, somewhere in India!

Changing times.

And this has nothing to do with the ToI. I really thought yesterday was a fairly newsy day - you know with India beating Australia in a proper-ish game of cricket instead of a slam-blam game of modified baseball after three years. Then there were governments falling left right and centre with the two national parties deciding to call their partners' bluff and stand up for themselves, and I am glad that the Congress and BJP finally showed some aggression and did not cow down to politicians who think they're too clever by half, or as in the case of Prakash Karat, serve Hu Jintao.
Nope, according to Aaj Tak, India's Sabse Tez channel, the ups and downs in John and Bipasha's relationship was more important on a day when the government of the country was on the verge of collapse. Which brought me back to a conversation an old friend had with me the other day, "What the hell is wrong with TV News?" And frankly, after searching high and low to find news on the Hindi channels (save two) I had to switch to the English Channels. But this is not the only time TV News has lost touch with reality, I know that P Sainath sounds like a grumpy old man with no clue of the changing times when he complains about the vacuousness of journalism, but sometimes even those of us two generations younger wonder what the hell we are doing in a profession that seems to have lost all sense of what it is supposed to be doing.
It's not just TV, in my last post I highlighted how even a large print organisation didn't do basic fact-checking and ran a story which was comically put down by a large international media organisation (and from what we have heard shit is already flying with at least one PR agency head pointing out to me that it was only a matter of time before someone got caught out in that paper). Stories are born in edit meetings where a reporter, or editor will say, "I know someone who does this.." and a social trend is suddenly created where none exist, and journalists have lost all touch with their readers - and thus reality.
So when the older generation of Editors whine and complain about where news is heading, they do have a point. I may not agree with them about everything, but I do feel sympathetic towards their opinions. And so do a lot of my friends, where are we heading? And what on earth will this profession look like in ten years time?

Transforming reportage...

While there is really no substitute for going out there and 'getting the news' or being a newshound, don't you think Google and Wikipedia between them have pretty much transformed the way we work in the media. In a get-rich quick world where no-body is expected to remember a pretty face or worse still a byline beyond a few seconds, these two online tools have been short-cut extremis devices.
Even though this means that sometimes what look like well researched articles read dangerously like Wikipedia entries, it also means work gets done a lot quicker. I have no clue what I would do without Google. Roll over and die maybe. because the Bossman and his ilk sometimes ask for the most innocuous of information which if you were trying to find stuff the old way would take a few years. But then again, Google has made accessible a whole treasure trove of information to people. One can argue that the internet already might have had the information, but how many people would care to go to the BSE or NSE website and search through reams of information for a specific bit of data. No matter how easy to access or well-designed the site, unless you know what the hell you're looking for as a journo, you'll still use Google. Heck, I'll admit that I've found the strangest sites through Google as well.
I would guess I've become quite good at setting search strings and exploring the whole gamut of Google services, including the very good desi version of Google Local, which I believe will be merged with Google maps and kill the dreams of quite a few Indian start-ups - I know people are screaming over at Web18! But has Google changed the way you report or access information?
PS : Just discovered this while going through Google Analytics. Well, must admit I'm a tad surprised! Also, someone asked for a post on the radio business, and I have to admit I really don't know that much other than the fact that 104.8 FM is the worst channel on earth. And I also hear stories that two senior eds from TVTN have quit to join the Samajwadi Party mouthpiece - Sahara Samay at salaries of Rs 7.5 lakh per month. Of course, if the TV channel is run as well as the airline was run, I don't know how money will really help. Of course, to sell your ethics to protect Mulayam and Amar for that kind of money is well... dunno what to say!

So why did you become a journalist?

I meet or interact with a lot of fascinating people, and am constantly meeting new people, and that I guess is one of the really nice things about the job. Of course, saying that you are a journalist doesn't carry as much credibility as say when my father said it in the late-80's or early-90's, I even get that cynical 'You media types!' look every once in a while and people deplore what the media has done to this country. Of course, I have no intentions to take up cudgels for the media and I end up, smiling and telling them that I don't work for a trashy daily or a news channel, but a semi-respectable periodical, where I guess I am doing fairly well for myself, even though a part of me wants to get out and get back to school, flabbergasted as I am with the unraveling social structure in this country (or as some of my friends say, 'I just know crazy people').
Anyway, to cut to the chase, yesterday I was talking with someone on the phone when this person suddenly asked me, "So why did you become a journalist?" And there was this pause, because the answer wasn't "Because it was there" or "I had nothing better to do" or "I have big tits". I didn't have a straight answer, I actually joined my first journalism job because I wanted some work-ex on my resume and actually joined as an Editorial Trainee, but then I began to enjoy myself. I have always worked across beats, doing all sorts of things. Actually short of sports coverage, I have done pretty much everything, even the stories that got me places were on the craziest topics.
But, that is just a progression, I am saying I enjoy journalism, but I have no answer for the first question. I figure I became a journalist to do something, I guess to write (something I still think I can do better than most) and report (because as a quizzer I always had a fascination with current events) to the best of my ability, and maybe because back then I wanted a 'PRESS' sticker too, because it meant something. This job I thought would be the best use of the abilities that 15 years of the Indian education system had given me. Either this or become a teacher, but I'm too temperamental for that, plus like many good old-school reporters I smoked too much! And I wanted an active job, something that allowed me to go everywhere not sit at a desk all the time, meet people who mattered. I got sold on journalism when my former RE sent me off to Germany for a week-long junket, four months after I joined. Within a year I had seen more parts of India than I had in my previous 21.
I don't know if I have done what I wanted to do, maybe I have worked to the best of my ability but have I always been as diligent with my reportage as I wanted to be, or have I at times treated this job as a joyride, an excuse to lead a good life - travel, drink, stay in good hotels? But, I figure while doing all of that, I also ended up seeing stuff I would not have ordinarily seen, travelled to places that no other job would have taken me, seen both extreme poverty and the gross excesses of capitalism. Experienced some of the most amazing engineering marvels of the world and seen the economic development of this country from a front-row seat ever since I was 21.
But anyway, this gives me an opportunity for me to ask you - Why did you become a journalist? I know one hell of a lot of journalists read this blog, most of them even know who I am. And also that most of them never leave a comment, but all of you guys young and old can and should answer this question. Be anonymous if you want, even though I think you should sign. Why did you become a journalist and why are you still a journalist? Introspection is a good thing sometimes!

Brilliant...

Investigative journalism isn't all about going with hidden microphone cameras and then pretending to uphold democracy while not thinking twice about mailing CD's with mobile phone conversations recorded on them 'anonymously'. It is all about the 'impact' after all.
The Philadelphia Inquirer is doing a fantastic series on how a 'Doctor' from Agra became one of the biggest internet drug pushers in the world. OK, the references to India seem very quaint, but my god these guys were running a multi-million dollar operation. Very well-written by the way. (via Turbanhead)
And by the way, democracy isn't about killing your daughter-in-law and your daughter and then feigning to be holier than thou while not thinking twice before ripping off your elder brother who lives off his army pension (I have the last bit from a colleague). And importantly, nor is democracy about religion-based quotas, I don't care what the Sachar committee report says, if this government allows religion-based quota's, I'll vote for Narendra Modi for Prime Minister no matter how much Mr Sardesai screams and shouts.
I might have reservations about the concept of reservations after seeing the way St Stephen's College put it into practice - because over there, the concept of a 'non-creamy' layer didn't seem to exist, reservations it seemed will go to only those who were 'privileged' enough to get them, so what if their fathers had made it without a quota. I don't like imposing views on anybody, but for crying out loud, if a Muslim-quota was implemented, the only way the BJP could lose is to put that idiotic wife-beater up for PM.
And then there is this wonderful article on 'Being Paris Hilton' - the wonders of technology I tell you. I mean, this woman has used a grainy night-vision self-made porn film to catapult herself to greatness!