HYDERABAD: At a time when journalism is facing serious challenges in the form of ‘breaking-news’ culture, sensationalism and myriad other problems, noted journalist Shekhar Gupta expressed hope that the young crop of journalists would once again put the focus back on ‘serious journalism.’
The veteran scribe, who is currently serving as the chairman of a start-up known as Mediascape, was honoured with the V Krishnamurthy Award for Excellence here Friday by the Centre for Organisation Development. Tamil Nadu governor K Rosaiah gave away the award. The award was instituted in honour of Indian management doyen and the institute’s founding chairman Dr V Krishnamurthy.
Gupta lamented that journalists today were made fun of due to the increasing impact of ‘paid news’ and the way news was being presented in the contemporary times. This, according to him, has resulted in bringing down the quality of discourse in public sphere in the country.
Values like taking ‘tough’ editorial calls inspite of pressure exerted by the managements would remain a constant in producing good journalism. However, he said good journalism would be possible only when managements and editors remain uncompromising to the commitment of journalistic values.Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu governor Rosaiah appealed to the higher education institutions to inculcate a habit of excellence among youth to scale heights in their respective fields.