XIM University (New Campus), Odisha and IlluminatiX: The Media & PR cell of XIM University concluded their annual media conclave, Communiqué, on January 29, 2022.
The theme for Communiqué was Needs vs Want: A Media Dilemma. The event started with the inaugural address by Prof Fr S Antony Raj SJ, Registrar, XIM University. He spoke about people's perennial dilemma of wants and needs and spilled his thoughts on how people are both the consumers and producers of content. He also shed light on the ever-abiding presence of media and how it influences our lives.
The panel discussion was moderated by Prof Arpita Saha, Assistant Professor of School of Communications, XIM University (New Campus). Here's more on who the eminent speakers of the conclave were and what they shared.
Gurbir Singh, Consulting Editor, The New Indian Express, commenced the discussion about the various media formats available to the audience to combat the dilemma of the needs and wants of their media diet. He emphasised how the trend has shifted from print and television to digital media platforms. He elaborated on the digital media platforms and spoke about the minimal entry barriers and the wide variety of choices it offers to the media consumer. Singh shed light on how the trends have been different for India over the past years compared to other western nations of the world. He also shared his insights on the challenges that media platforms have been facing for decades and are also an issue in the modern era.
Nikhil Chandwani, Co-founder, NYKDaily, started his deliberation by speaking about demystifying news headlines, emphasising sentimentality. He spoke about how clickbait news headlines are misleading people and a need for the news headline to correspond with the content. He highlighted that the global use of digital platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Google search makes journalists' content hyper-visible. This omnipresence of content has terrible repercussions as it can breed fake news. He also spoke about how journalism should focus on digging hidden history, this can be done by providing a comfort zone to the eyewitness. According to him, high-quality journalism is possible through presentation, trustworthiness, diversity and depth of information.
Arushi Sana, Founder, NYKDaily addressed the topic by citing Vedic literature, the concept of Dharma revolving around the principles of Artha, material and social needs, and Kama, wants and desires. She emphasised how Dharma is an important aspect of journalism, which is about the righteous conduct and duty towards community, essential for the sustenance and welfare of the individual, society and creation. She also spoke on how news is being consumed as people have shifted from the ‘chai-akbaar’ phenomenon to short-form news formats. At the same time, digitalisation is the need of the hour. It is also scary because today it has the power to topple and make governments across the world. It does influence elections to a large extent.
Moreover, Arushi said, "Often, media one consumes out of desire turns into a need when it is forced by habit", as it is difficult to distinguish between needs and wants when habits come into the picture. She shared her previous experience as a newsreader centred around celebrity apparel and similar things. In contrast, critical global aspects such as climate and geo-politics are hardly touched upon by news platforms. She emphasised that effective news content will increase when people are interested in such elements. Moreover, she spoke about how media houses were in a tough spot where they had to broadcast light celebrity content during COVID-19 when every news channel telecasted the daily death toll.
BV Rao, Group Editor of a popular news channel, started his speech by quoting his first editor, “Our job is to tell the reader what they need, but not what they want”. He was deeply inspired by this quote and follows it in his life. He discussed social media as a source of information that can sometimes transfer misleading information. He believes the traditional press digs deep to find answers and portrays essential journalism skills. It is crucial to be fair while publishing any information. He extended his discussion by talking about artificial intelligence and how it is good to calculate and know the metrics, but the autonomy of decision-making is eventually being taken away from the editors.
Post the panel discussion, the platform for a Q&A session was declared open by the moderator. An article writing competition, Critiqué, was also organised as part of the conclave on Dare2Compete, where students from across colleges participated. The results of the competition were declared as part of the closing proceedings of Communiqué.
The conclave concluded with a vote of thanks by Utkarsh Srivastava, Coordinator, IlluminatiX, XIM University (New Campus). He extended his gratitude to the vice-chancellor, registrar, speakers, media partners, moderator and everyone who contributed to the event's functioning and execution.
