THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An independent press is the true sign of life of a democracy, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has said. He was addressing the public after presenting the awards instituted by the Kerala Media Academy, an autonomous institution under the state government, to media persons and students at Mascot Hotel here on Friday.
“Today, we live in a world of convergence, where the borders of journalism have blurred and the definition of the media itself. More than a mission, the media is now an industry, which operates in a dual product market, selling the same product to both consumers and advertisers. The newspaper gains a great circulation so that it can sell the readers to its advertisers. So does television, with its viewership,” Khan said.
“Today, some media houses tend to use trends like post-truth as excuses for compromising on editorial integrity and for justifying paid news. The very concept of news is changing and it reaches us diluted as entertainment. All these trends are challenges that could prevent a free press from performing its democratic role as a credible watchdog of society. The greater challenge for a journalist today is to be watchful of unethical practices that creep into one’s work in the garb of business considerations,” he added.
Khan also pointed out the advent of social media and its benefits and harms to the public. “The advent of the internet and the social media has unfortunately begun to justify the unscrupulous rat race to reach the audience. The freedom of expression has given ordinary people the courage to voice their opinions and concerns. But, the credibility of such expressions is often questionable,” he said. He also congratulated all mediapersons who won the awards, the students who excelled in their diploma course and the colleges which brought out the best campus magazines.
The awards for journalism presented were for the best human interest story, the best editorial, the best local report, best photograph and for the best story in the visual media. Shaajan C Mathew, V M Ibrahim, K V Rajasekharan, K Sujith, M T Vidhuraj and A A Shyamkumar received the awards, considering the social impact of their work.
Thus, the committed journalists of today also have the responsibility of identifying the truth from the pile of social media half-truths