21st Century Journalism in India

Contents: Acknowledgements. Introduction/Nalini Rajan. Part I. Representing the unrepresented: 1. The gender factor/Ammu Joseph. 2. The problem with media reportage of queer lives/Siddharth Narrain. 3. At least some children get 'Mosambi' some of the time/Sandhya Rao. 4. The unwritten writing: Dalits and the media/D. Ravikumar. 5. Dalit Murasu: surviving a difficulties decade/V. Geetha. 6. 'What is the Spanish word for appeasement?'/Subarno Chattarji. 7. Prophetic misreading/Anjali Kamat. Part II. The plurality of practice: 8. Economics through journalism/V.K. Natraj. 9. Media freedom and the right to privacy/Geeta Ramaseshan. 10. Exposing the media spiel on rural women/K. Kalpana. 11. Writing science: breaking the language barrier/Vijaya Swaminath. 12. The arts beat! Feel the heat!/Aditi De. 13. Writing on art/Geeta Doctor. 14. Pun Job, Sind, Gujarat, Maratha: humour in Indian journalism/Baradwaj Rangan. Part III. Media in perspective: 15. The information revolution and the emerging media ecology/Sashi Kumar. 16. In your face! Teaching broadcast journalism/Amanda Harper. 17. My days at Sun TV/A.S. Panneerselvan. 18. Prescribed truth, licensed freedom: the press in post-Mahathir Malaysia/Mustafa K. Anuar. 19. When the news desk makes the news/Subhashini Dinesh. 20. Covering photojournalism/Desikan Krishnan. 21. The relevance of the metro section/Shonali Muthalaly. Part IV. Future trends: 22. Journalism: the practice and the potential/Subramaniam Vincent and Ashwin Mahesh. 23. Citizen journalism and the new media/Ethirajan Anbarasan. 24. Online journalism in India: 2000 to 2005 and beyond/Sunil Saxena. 25. Caught in the net/Frederick Noronha. 26. Blogging--a new paradigm in journalism/Subhash Rai. 27. Tell me a story: writing and teaching narrative/Robin Reisig. 28. India: a billion testimonies now/Robert Brown. About the editor and contributors.

"The Indian media is witnessing an explosive situation with newspaper and magazine circulations increasing in great numbers and television news channels--in both English and regional languages--going up by the day. Internet news portals, too, are recording a good number of hits.

Journalism, then, holds tremendous promise for both seasoned and budding journalists. However, behind every promise, there lurk dangers and temptations, which must be scrupulously avoided if the basic values of the profession are to be safeguarded. Otherwise, the relentless spotlight of criticism will turn on journalism and its practitioners.

21 Century Journalism in India is a path-breaking book that looks at the practices and theories of journalism in the 21st century. This collection of writings by practising journalists is perhaps unique in that they have turned the spotlight on their own profession.

The volume is thematically divided into four sections:

Representing the unrepresented deals with media representation (or lack of it) of largely ignored sections of society, such as homosexuals, Dalits and other minorities or weaker groups. The plurality of practice studies the coverage of vital areas such as economics, legal issues, science, arts and culture and humour. Media in perspective looks at different kinds of journalistic practices, including photojournalism. Future trends discusses newer forms of journalism, like blogging and citizen journalism.
    
This book is essential reading for practising journalists, students and scholars of journalism and mass communication and also the informed/interested general reader."