 Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now be moving to our final panel within this auditorium before we move to the fountain lawns outside and continue the rest of the summit and lead towards the award ceremony. We've spoken a lot about the opportunities, the hindrances and the clash between mainstream media, digital media and other forms of journalism. We're going to now debate on the motion of the ethics related to journalism, talking about ethical challenges in teaching new forms of journalism. I would like to welcome on stage the chair for this session, Professor Avinash Singh, Executive Director in Star Feed. Can we have a big round of applause please? Joining him on the stage to discuss this motion, Dr. Veerbala Agarwal, former professor and chairperson, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, H.P. University Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, Professor Ujwala Barve, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Communication and Journalism, Savitri Bai Pune University Pune. Dr. Ankuran Dutta, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Communication and Journalism, Govahati, Dr. Surbhi Dahya, Cause Director and Associate Professor, English Journalism, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dr. Kulveen Trehan, Program Coordinator, MMC Placement Coordinator, USMC Assistant Professor, University School of Mass Comm, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprasth University, Government of NCT of Delhi, Dr. Uma Shankar Pandey, Assistant Professor and Head, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Surindranath College for Women, University of Calcutta, Ms. Sapna Naik, Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism and Communication, University of Mysore, Dr. Sundar Rajdeep, HOD University of Mumbai. Can I have all the panelists on stage and can we have a big round of applause before we start the panel please? I'd like to hand over to Prof. Avinash Singh while I just go and call the other two panelists they'll join in with you, yes? The dignitaries on the dice and dignitaries in the lounge and dear students. Simple, a friend from Delhi University was talking about few things. So I have to start with something which actually would explain the situation. You buy a laptop today or you buy a cell phone or for that matter you get married. You start repenting within six months. Had you waited for a little more time you would have got the latest model. So ladies please make sure you wait for some time to get the latest model. I am a member of the panel at Delhi University and three meetings we are discussing a course in corporate communication. The moment we start talking they would not like to change even one word from a course curriculum which is 14-year-old. We want to continue and second thing the next part they generally talk about oh you are from a private organization, you are from a private media school. I would simply say we are completely out of sync when we are talking about media studies and the government universities. I was with the government university for five years I left it to join Amity School of Communication and I am saying we did a wonderful job over there. Today it has got 1600 students I would not be talking about that. I am simply talking about what is happening and what is dangerous today. The most dangerous craftsmanship is when you show a portion of truth. When I say portion of truth you know facts are there but you pick up one line to bend those facts and this is what is happening media. And today we also say whosoever controls media controls your mind. I would like to have Dr. Kulveen Trehin. She says she needs to be the first one because she has to rush back. So Kulveen and I have seen this Rajapura girl grow from a student to a teacher to a very good teacher and today she is a coordinator and going places practically every now and then. Since morning we have been deliberating on various issues with the changing media scape, media industry, the intersections between media education and industry, the gap and perhaps if I can call it the trust deficit between the industry and the academia. Everybody has made some relevant points the industry has shown at times has been scaling in its criticism of how media education has not provided or catered to the quality they required. So a lot of questions have been raised since morning a lot of challenges expressed and in this particular session when I was looking at the title of the session new forms of journalism and ethical concerns. I was made to wonder again and again but then ethical concerns remain and more than ever before those ethical concerns which we have lived with when we were pursuing the profession or when we then joined media academics have continued to live on. And why is the situation not changing or becoming more grave than ever before is perhaps because of the kind of conversations we are not having inside the classroom. What are the kinds of conversations we are having inside the classrooms as are those conversations provoking the students to think, think and not merely execute. At the end of the day it's a marriage between theory and practice. A lot of practitioners on this side have talked about skills, competencies, upgradation of technological competence, equipment, equipment with various other new media technologies agreed. But what is perhaps most important for a media educator is to ensure that there is greater understanding of context, cortex and perhaps more importantly the subtext of what is being communicated. The larger focus for quite some time in the last couple of years have been on how to, how to produce a digital video, how to edit a video, how to make a podcast. But what is also important is where are you getting your ideas from, what are your sources, what do you really want to communicate. Do you have it in you to understand the socio-political realities of the issue that you are trying to bring out. What is the ideological bedrock on which you are trying to build this superstructure of a new story, a brand film, a corporate promo or whatever communication. I am trying to include other forms of media and communication when we talk of new forms in journalism. And more of my argument will be vis-a-vis content because we are content creators at best and not technology experts to be so. Now another thing which I found very interesting in the morning sessions was whose story? At the end of the day whose story it should be? Should it be a personal story? Should it be a story which is rooted in public interest? Should it be a story of the people whose voice is lost? People who are on the margins? People who perhaps do not understand policy to the extent others do or people who are within the policy making framework, they are not exposed to that kind of environment. So we have to find that space in which students understand the interrelationship between public, in public interest and policy. And that is why if on media educated side we start looking for then what are the solutions? Then how do I teach? Then when I teach I have to go beyond just sharing information that is glut of information available. I have to ensure that I provoke them to understand the context of the content, to understand what is being constructed in that particular brand film. Construction of gender, construction of identity, construction of socio-political realities, construction of the alternative, construction of the absence, construction of the missing. We have to understand, we have to introduce an element of media appreciation. Whatever media text it may be, film appreciation, advertising campaigns, other forms of communication. We need to introduce media appreciation as a segment in our curriculum to make sure they understand not only the binaries but also representation, depiction, portrayal of issues. And then within that, then provide skills and competencies to ensure that they know how not to do it. One of my students was working with Denso and he was part of the Jack and Jones campaign which was taken off after a lot of protest on social media. And I asked him, I angrily questioned him and I said, did you make this ad? Did you write this copy? He said, I didn't, I protested, I moved out of that particular team. I said, you did. He said, yeah, because I remember the ad appreciation session we had where it's very important to understand the subtext, the subtle introduction of sexism in advertising. Another thing, my last line on this would be, not only have we to make ethical practices, no hyperbole, no exaggeration, no distortion. Part of a classroom teaching learning process but also to make it marketable. It has to be the new aspirational order. We have to ensure that ethical content is equally interesting. In the morning somebody was talking about how content has to be informative and interesting at the same time. Ethical content is equally interesting, is equally entertaining and perhaps can gather more eyeballs if done properly. So the owner slides on media educators to ensure that content creation is rooted in the principles of no distortion, no gender marking, making sure there's equitable just and the FI conclude with is freedom. Not only freedom of choice for the audiences, freedom of content creation on our side as well from the teachers and students. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Trehan. See, we are talking about challenges, ethical challenges in teaching. And we were talking about spurious news in the morning or fake news. I would like to give you some figures. 91 deaths till date since 2009 where, you know, some kind of fake news was responsible. And out of 91, 69 deaths since May 1 this year. 69 deaths since May 1 this year and most of it we say social media, we say WhatsApp media or whatever you want to say was responsible and it was kind of organized crime. So when we say teachers have to face these challenges, what would we be doing? See, today what is happening? News or spurious realities being manufactured, being manufactured by the government, being manufactured by political parties, being manufactured by corporates, the religious groups and the vested interest people. So, I miss those or against these backgrounds when we talk about teaching, what you have to keep in mind. There was this towering personality I met in the morning and she is from Pune and the moment she told people, somebody said students from Pune or student from small places would not get a job. I'll offer you a student's jobs first. But before, Professor Ujwala Bharve, we make you speak. We would request somebody to present a token of our thanks to Dr. Kulveen Trehin. She has to leave, she has a train and train is actually waiting for her. Friends, Professor Ujwala Bharve for you please. Thank you so much. A lot has been discussed since morning about various aspects of media education and in a way I am happy that I am put in this panel where we have to talk about ethics and how to inculcate ethic or concept of ethics in students. But at the same time it's a bit challenging because we are talking only about new forms of journalism which I think includes mostly what is called as the convergence, phenomenon of convergence that we are talking about or using the social media, using Twitter. And somebody mentioned the line, Vidya Balan's line from dirty picture, entertainment, entertainment, entertainment. So when we talk to students about working in the new media, I think the mantra that I would like to pass on is verify, verify, verify. That has always been there actually. It's nothing new that we are inventing today. But in the present context, the temptation to pass on information as soon as you get it is simply unmanageable and uncontrollable. Even for common people, we come across so many instances when people forward the messages even without reading them fully and the same message goes on for years together. There was a joke also on that, that one mother complains that my daughter is not being able to go to the school for the last one week. Why is that? Somebody asked. Because there was a message floating that she is missing. Now she has been returned to us but every time she steps out of the house because the message is still floating around. The point is that somebody finds her and brings her back home. See, this is your daughter. The point is that common man may be excused when he indulges in an attack. Journalists cannot. So I think one of the most important lessons that we have to give our students is that, take a moment and while they are students, they can afford to do that. Once they become journalists in the race to become the first, in the race to become subseites, maybe that is what they have to compromise and break the news as soon as it reaches them. But during the training period, I think we have to emphasize this. We can't emphasize this enough. How much they have to really verify and not become passionate about it and pass it on as it is. Without, as what school we was trying to say is very, very important. Understand the context. Understand the subtext. I'll give an example that is happening in the last two days. I think most teachers now have WhatsApp group with their students and that has become a very good opportunity to discuss many issues with students offline outside the classroom as well because teachers cannot have too much time outside the classroom. This happened in our students group. Somebody shared a picture from Himalayas saying how the election officers are going down the snowy hills, carrying ballot boxes and all that and there were too many likes and all that and nationalistic spirit being aroused and all that. But we also have a serving colonel who is on study leave and who is in our group. So he went out and found out from election commission how the election officers are taken to those remote places and he has also found the actual notification that says that helicopters are used to ferry the officers and he also pointed, he looked because he has served in Seattle. So he looked at the picture and that I think became a very good classroom session or an instructional session when this discussion ensued and people said that see you have to look at every picture, every news item carefully, dissect it and I think that is the new skill that we have to inculcate among the students as to not only take a minute to look at the content that you get but critically evaluate. What is the source? When is this likely to have happened? Where is it happened? From where I am getting it. Many times students just reshare or share tweets. They do not have the practice of going back to the original source and even Google is now conducting training sessions to help you find which is a fake photo which photo has been marked, which photo has been played around with. So these are the ideas that have to be emphasized and shared with the students both the concepts as well as the mechanism to verify and give their seal of approval so to say so that they know when they start working. They do not commit the same mistakes that we just discussed in the classroom. I noted the bell so I will stop here. Thank you. Thank you Doctor Ujwila. One thing which she said just the crux, when in doubt cut it out but what about you know the decay in substantive content? Slowly you know it has come down to 30 second bites now it is 10 second bites and with social media coming up no accountability is there so when we talk about ethical teaching I would say the best person is Dr. Veerbala we have been classmates and practically every everyone all around she must have taken people to Shimla taken care and let's see the response she would give about ethics in terms of teaching. Dr. Veerbala for you please. Thank you. I have got it down everything you know whatever it has come to my mind. So I am happy Mr. Professor of National Geography here. Into the mic please. Check. He was a journalist with the Hindu Sun Times for 18 years. He was a Pro Vice Chancellor of Technical University Shillong and he also worked in the various fields. So I am happy here he is not only my classmate he is a very person from down to earth person. So with the respected teachers who are sitting before me and my youngsters who are sitting on the dice so whatever has come to my mind I have jotted down some points which I will share with you. So this is an era of new media and new forms of journalism. The buzz words are convergent mobile revelation and social networking sites and so on. The world is changing as is journalism and media education with technological advancements. The content everywhere has evolved leading the media educators to think and reformat their strategies. They are facing serious challenges so they have to reach of their strengths to meet them. Media education is not something it was some time back. Journalism started on simple notes as a mission to reform the society and later free India from the clutches of British rule. But it has converted into a corporate entity. The entire scenario has changed. Media education is dynamic by nature more than any other subject. Even for conventional education updating oneself is the basic requirement for teaching purpose and it is to their credit to have some kind of industry experience. However with the introduction of new kinds of forms of journalism upscaling the information becomes imperative which is not the case with many media educators who rigidly follow status queue even with their sources at their disposal. Learning technology is not an easy job after a particular age. In all the years since the inception of media education media educators have had either the opportunity nor the need of periodic and regular practical training and internship with media organizations. Colleges both private and autonomous hardly allow time for its staff to innovate or create improve their intellectual capabilities. They remain fatted with their administrative and other assignments. One of the biggest challenges in teaching new forms of journalism is the lack of updated infrastructure and the training with the latest equipment. This is not the fault of many teachers and is dependent on technical staff. Not all the institutions have ample funds for purchasing the new machinery. They may do with the basic stuff and know just enough to teach the students the basics. Many times therefore even the students are better equipped to handle the machines. This makes the entire situation ironical. Teachers become bad sources of knowledge because of the lack of practical knowledge and using the latest infrastructure. For teachers, ethical challenges in teaching new forms of journalism is their applicability especially in small towns and cities where the changes arrive late as compared to the metropolitan cities or the situations which are not local. For example, to explain terms like embedded journalism to students from rural areas that are not even conversant with many traditional concepts is difficult. Under such circumstances, it is a dilemma for the teachers to keep the students abreast with the new development in the field. The digital divide is one of the obstacles in the teaching of the new forms of journalism. The same can be said of gender divide with all the narrow thinking of the Indian society. Technology has always molded journalism, its conditions and its production practices. With online technologies becoming a part of professional new production, distribution and consumption, editorial structures and journalistic ethics are changing significantly. If you can wind up please. I have jotted down so that I could not take more than four or five minutes. So this is not more than four or five minutes. If you want me to stop, I can stop it. Whatever I have felt in the class, whatever I feel, so I have jotted down because whenever I enter the class, I see the class, I mean, faces of the students, when they are depressed, they are not being motivated. They are rather lured by the, I mean, politics and all that. This is our duty before we enter into the class. First of all, let us teach them the ethics before, I mean, this too. So if you want, then I can. So if you want to stop me, I can stop it. That is no problem. No, I know it very well because, I mean, four, I have, that's why, you know, I have jotted down for four or five minutes. It was not more than four or five minutes. So I can stop it, no problem. But I tell you one thing when, so first, you know, whatever I feel, so first principle of the teacher is to, I mean, when enter the class, to, I mean, motivate the students, they should not be disturbed from any side, from any corner. So bring the, I mean, lower the students to the, I mean, upper side, so the students who are weak and all that. So this is the duty of our teacher and there should not be, I mean, they have come out of their houses and all that to teach ethically, to teach them, to motivate the students. So this is my, you know, I bind it up because whatever I have written, so the time is not permitting. Okay, okay, okay, thank you so much. Thank you, Dr. Veerbala. Fact is this is 2 p.m. session. They all say we have waited for three and a half hours and now you are pushing us when we can actually cut it short. So I'll request Ms. Sapna Naik. She is the assistant professor at Department of Communication at University of Mysore. Thank you, sir. This is a paucity of time. Let me take into just three points which needs to be, which needs to be taken up by any media educator when it comes to ethical issues. As in when we walk into the class, one of the most of the things what I have observed is the moral autonomy. Whenever a teacher has got something to say, we always stop the student. We don't give them much of a freedom to air their opinions because we have our own ideologies. And many a times, especially in the media education, we have seen that a teacher trying to overrule the opinions, overrule the moral values what a student has. That has been happening in the media education quite a long time. So one of the important thing is to see that we keep up with the moral autonomy of the students so that they can grow much more, whether they can have a much more better insight into the issues. The second important thing is the critical sense. Friends, I'm sorry. I'm walking out for the simple reason. We are being pushed to stop it. It's fine. No, you shift outside. I'm simply saying you haven't given time to my speakers. They have come from far away. And this is, at least, I'm walking out. Ladies and gentlemen, we are not stopping any panel. We are just shifting outside. This panel will be now continued outside. So we request all of you to just join us outside. Actually, this venue is only with us till 5.30. And the next venue is Fountain Lawn. Please shift to the Fountain Lawn. We will continue there. I'm really sorry for the inconvenience. But because they have another program here from 6, and we had booked the Fountain Lawn for the award ceremony, so we will do the rest of the sessions there. I'm really sorry for the inconvenience.