A webinar on ‘How to utilize lockdown to be a better journalist’ was conducted by Ms Medha Shri Dahiya, Senior Editor - Hindustan Times where she stated how every situation has two sides and we all are seeing the not so good one now. “But the good side is that we have ample time to improve and make ourselves more employable,” said Ms Dahiya. She shared about the role of a journalist and news that included being an opinion maker; thought engineer; protector of values; the news as cultural artefact, presenting a version of the world; influencer, deciding what people are going to give their attention to and journalistic interventionism. She also talked about how news presenters show a version of the world/fact making it integral to watch a number of channels to get the complete picture.
Talking about the qualities of a journalist, Ms Dahiya advised students that this lockdown was a good time to hone their skills. She shared that a good journalist should have a nose for news; ability to translate complex ideas into reader-friendly copies; be informed on the subject of your story; know various point of views on the subject matter and be balanced; be courageous; focus on fact checking before submitting the news and always stick to the deadline. She suggested students to honing their skills including communication, voice modulation & presentation; acquire new skills; be with the change; become friends with tech and learn new software to become more employable in these dynamically changing times.
A webinar on Media & Disaster Management with respect to COVID-19 Outbreak was conducted by Prof. (Dr.) Vikas Dogra - Head of Department - Department of Journalism & Mass Communication, Himachal Pradesh University. He shared at length about the disaster management cycle, its various stages and about the factors in disaster response including seriousness that deals with relative impact in terms of people and money; manageability that comprises of relative ability to mitigate or reduce the hazard; acceptability includes degree to which the risk of hazard is acceptable; urgency that is the probability of risk and hazard and growth that covers potential for the hazard or event to expand or increase in either probability or risk to community or both.
Dr. Dogra explained students about the vulnerability matrix and the effect of disaster on the surroundings and people. “If the vulnerability index of people is high, interest of the media is high. Media often acts in public interest,” said Dr. Dogra. He also stated how media channels is bitten by the ‘breaking news’ bug that is often accompanied by misrepresentation of facts, often sidelining serious news that leads to viewers or readers complaining about over and under interest of the media in an event; over and under reporting; over and under interference; opinionated and non-factual/wrong reporting.