Mangaluru, Jul 4: Five persons including three senior journalists were felicitated at a convention of journalists 'Journalist Fusion - 2015' jointly organised by Karnataka Journalists' Union (KJU) and Department of Journalism, Besant College at the college auditorium here on Saturday.
Doordarshan Mangaluru correspondent S Jayaram, senior photojournalist from Coastaldigest.com Ahmed Anwar and Udayavani Sullia correspondent Gangadhar Matti and two newspaper distributors S Taranath Kamath and Ananthraya Bhat were felicitated in the programme in the presence of Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and others.
Speaking after inaugurating the convention, Mr Kateel said that the media had a responsibility towards the society and should focus more on bringing a social change than publishing news that can cause hurt and damage reputations.
The media has a larger role to play in bringing a change in the society for the greater good. However, it has inevitably become a commercialised sector. The competitive spirit in this sector has increased with the advancement of technology, which had in turn led to irresponsible journalism, he said, stressing that media should not forget its duty towards the upliftment of society.
Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim said that the newspapers had a responsibility of discharging accurate information to the readers. With changing times, journalism has become a tough job for journalists since they have to work under several constraints including constraint of time. Nowadays, the advertising sector regulates the content of news in newspapers and television channels. More often, certain regional news does not get enough coverage due to prior advertising commitments. However, this should not become a permanent trend, he said.
He said that the circulation of newspapers, especially regional ones, was dwindling because of online dissemination of news in a shorter time. However, in today's age of technology, newspapers can definitely survive the onslaught of online and visual media by focusing on investigative stories, he said, calling on journalism students to make regular comparative studies of different newspapers and their news coverage.
Dignitaries such as DK District Working Journalists Union president Jagannath Shetty Bala, DK Information Officer B A Khader Shah, proprietor of Spandana TV Vilas Nayak, KJU district president Sudesh Kumar, Meher Ganguly from West Bengal and several senior journalists were present on the occasion.
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