 We now move to our penultimate panel discussion before we break for our award ceremony. We discuss the challenges faced in media literacy. The chair for this session, please welcome Mr. Brij Paava, senior editorial lead BW Business World, joining him on stage to discuss the motion, Dr. Ruchi Jagi, director, Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Professor Charulata, VSJMC Vivekanan Institute of Professional Studies, Ms. Shikha Rai, Assistant Professor Ignu, Dr. Neeru Johri, HOD BJMC, Managing Editor, Mask Communicator in Charge, Community Radio, Jims, Mr. Suresh Gaur, Professor, SP College of Communication and Management, Bharati Vidya Bhavan, Professor Farhad Basheer Khan, AJK Mask Communication Research Center, Jamiya Milya Islamya New Delhi, Professor Usha Rani, Department of Communication and Journalism, in the University of Mysore. Ladies and gentlemen, can we have a huge round of applause for our panelists as well as our panel chair? Hello everybody, am I audible? Can you please? Bridge, I'll hand over to you. So the best thing about this panel is that this is the only panel which has majority of ladies, so a big round of applause for this panel for achieving that. And the power of women. So I've been sitting here since afternoon and I've noticed that there are parts of this discussion which were really interesting, there were parts which were not, and I'll be very frank about it. I want to make this panel as interesting as possible and this topic is I guess the most interesting, you know, it's media literacy. It doesn't just concern students, it concerns common people as well, especially with the times we are living in. May I put it into perspective that a single message today can actually kill a person, right? And a single message can start a revolution. I was just discussing with our executive editor and he stated that a single message started the Arab Spring, right? Right from Egypt to Syria to Libya. And we saw how the whole scenario of the Middle East as we see today changed. We also see how social media websites are banned in countries like Pakistan and China and how they have stopped revolutions in the past, haven't allowed revolutions to come up. How many of you know about a gentleman called Antonio Gramsci? Anybody? Antonio Gramsci, right? He was a post-Marxist scholar who said that the revolutions could never happen because of something he called hegemony or par which we don't see as par but it is being exercised upon us. Antonio Gramsci would have been very happy today. Why? Because the par is in the hands of the people now, right? It's not anymore in the hands of the government. It's not anymore in the hands of the institutions. It's in the hands of the people with a single text message. We can start riots and we can start revolutions. So my first question to my panelists today is, and we'll keep it very crisp, we'll keep it very short and we'll keep it a question-answer session rather than keynote addresses because that's how we can make it really interesting for our audience as well. Why do you guys think media literacy today is important? Not just for your students but also for common people sitting here watching us. I hope this will come on TV as well shortly and why is it important? May we start from this side? Thank you, Bridge. Good evening to everyone. I think Bridge has made it very interesting. He has opened a discussion with question-answers and when we came here and most of us were discussing now where is the energy left? Is anybody going to be interested in listening? And when we saw the food there and everything was so and we were all talking about it, you know? But definitely media literacy like you have shared one word, one sentence, one piece of information can create revolution and accessing that information is very, very important and everybody has been talking about content and the attention span, the diversification, the rift which is going on between private and government universities. There is a representation of both and the gaps between real life situations and so many things. And when it comes to media literacy, I think it is very, very interesting what you have shared and I would like to talk, there was a panelist from I think Madras and Shidha was there. I would like to talk in context of community media which is community radio. I want to share experiences of that. You know, we run a community radio station and we are talking about maths literacy. We are doing a half an hour program on maths literacy and when we did research, you know, there were challenges at three levels, the content and we all talk about content only the operationalization is also very, very important. Very important, very difficult and the financial aspect, how you sustain yourself in community media and in some specifically in context of community radio and when we did a lot of things we were doing and generating content is very, very difficult. What people want if somebody shared like it is the organization's prerogative but when you talk of media literacy, I think when we talk of reaching out to the unreached, it is the other way around, what they want and the whole focus through radio stations is generating content and especially in context of maths. Generally it is audio visual which has been the prerogative which is evidence also shows and we are doing it through oral medium. So there are challenges in media literacy of content, how you generate content and what the people want and making the people speak is very difficult. It is very easy to say like it is very, when you're talking of in context of community radio but getting them to radio stations to talk about their problems is very, very challenging and I think that's one of the challenges. Okay, so I would like to put another question in front of you guys and it's a very important question. You are professors, you make the futures of our country and the kids who come to your classes come from various backgrounds and a certain background might make a person right wing, a certain background might make a person left wing. My parents have been very open since start. That makes me a more liberal person. In a classroom with a bunch of students, it's very important to maneuver their thinking. Maneuver might be a negative word, maybe in a very positive way to change their thinking as to something which is more liberal. And that's also part of media literacy. Why? Because ultimately those students will go to journalism institutions and actually tell people what to think and what not to. See what we are listening today. Apart from 1, 2 channels, everybody is there barking on this news channels and giving us certain opinions. Media today makes opinions. So how difficult it is for you and anybody can take this answer. How difficult it is for you to actually inculcate ideas and students which can make them put in perspective certain opinions once they become professionals and to change people's mindset in a positive way. Yes, you took the mic up, you can go ahead. Alright, so I think the question that you raise is extremely significant because we are not just dealing with students who come from diverse backgrounds. But I think currently in the current context, we are also dealing with very charged opinions. And that's a huge struggle because you as a teacher can also seem to be imposing an opinion where there could be a reaction which can be very aggressive without understanding the nuances of the argument. I always think that it is very important for a teacher depending upon, I mean we all have our political ideologies. I don't think that any one of us is apolitical and I think professors of media studies, if they are apolitical they don't have to be teaching media studies. There's nobody apolitical, everybody has. If they claim to be. So what I'm trying to say is that very important. So if I lean towards the right or the left it's very important for me to use texts, use examples, use evidences which put before them both points of view. I mean just like a journalist who we expect to be fair in reporting, balanced in reporting. As a teacher you have to be so aware and conscious of doing that. That's one thing that brings in a more nuanced discussion in class through. That's a very important point, putting both the perspectives in and let the student decide which perspective they want to. And just last thing to this, I also think that it is also important to tell the student that what we think and what they think there is no right and wrong in it. I think unless we engage more with subjectivity. I mean people have been talking about journalism and objectivity so much today. But I think everybody just dumps down the idea of media education to teaching people skills, being objective forgetting that everybody bases their experiences in a certain context. And you cannot be completely objective about it. So I think if we get more fluidity in the classrooms we'll be able to definitely channelize some sort of critical media literacy. Yes ma'am, you wanted to comment. Now that is a typical classroom situation which Ruchi just talked about. Am I audible? Audible now? Yeah. Alright. That is a typical classroom situation. I come from a distance education university and these are the times of bite sized videos where in a few seconds you must be able to convey your message. These are also the times where teacher is not that person who is the drone acharya of everything. You are a guide by the side. So you keep telling the people and it's more of a hands on experience. It's more of online learning. It's more of MOOCs, massive online open courses. So these are the times when anybody may be on the job and has a break, can attend to a lecture asynchronously or synchronously and then understand what it all means. And for all so much of information overflow that is happening, the entire onus of choosing, whether the information is correct or incorrect, whether you should believe it and how much to what extent you should believe it. Like somebody in the other panel was saying that one wrong message led to 15 deaths. That onus is on you. Hence the need for media literacy. This is also one area where media industry has not really been treading. So most courses on media literacy, yes ma'am, I'm coming to you. Most courses, and then I'll come to you ma'am. I'll just take it forward. Just one interjection. Most courses on media literacy are today offered by NGOs, journalism companies. Institutions don't seem to be that grappling up with the problem. Don't you think the onus is more on institution side because they create the future of India? Definitely. I would say the more onus is on media education institutions to bring media literacy into the Salabar and to discuss these things because as I will go back to where you started, we are living in a hyper abundant media environment and media mediated society we are living in. Where we have a lot of media, 24 by 7 we are bombarded with different kinds of messages from different kinds of media mediums. So it is very important that each and every individual because what is happening is in earlier times the media organizations or the advocacy groups or the NGOs they had that responsibility of creating the content or spreading of the messages. What is now happening is that each and every individual in the society today is I would say is a media factory. They are producing powerhouse or a media factory they are creating content and just putting and sharing it. So three things I would stress on one is the creation of the content. We should know what is being created, who is creating it and why it is being created. What is the objective of it? And second is, second C, I would say three C's. First is creation of the content. Second is communication. How it is being communicated and the person who is receiving those messages they need to know why they have been chosen to receive that message, why they are receiving those messages. So communication. And the third is the consumption. How you consume that content which comes to you, whether you send it forward just without thinking or what do you do with that or you get influenced because each message has a power. So when it has a power as you said it can bring revolutions, it can bring change. We have seen how it happened in Syria or we even fight against corruption. So it can bring people together and we see the lynchings. Absolutely. So I'll come to you guys now and the same question for you and then I'll come to a very pertinent question that is, ma'am you can go ahead. If you know if you'd like, good ma'am first. She's been waiting for the time. Go ahead. Hello. I take the perspective of the public. Forget about media educators, journalism students but what about the public because we spend most of our life with consuming media content. What happens to their mindset because you are creating images and whether it is print, across print, electronic and online you are creating, you are producing a lot of messages. How are the public taking it? You know that is my worry. That is my deepest concern. That is where I support and endorse media literacy and it is most of the, as a researcher I will have to admit that most of the studies on media literacy concern school children and they're all studied abroad, you know in US as well as in European countries and they have, so it is mandatory in public education system in US, Australia and other countries to have media literacy component. Even we need to bring it because it is but children are already overburdened you don't want to add anything more but this is a media saturated society you need to bring in some kind of education because public is consuming whatever they are captive audience they have no other alternative but to consume whatever is being manufactured is being told to them but they should be told how to watch a program and how to interpret how to, so it is the skills the critical thinking skills the critical thinking skills and I am worried about the media stereotypes whether it is gender or the Muslims or Dalits, the gender stereotypes that you create and that is you are making the national mind you know you shouldn't be doing that but people doesn't know what is public interest and what is business interest and most of the media houses are run on business as much as I want to keep listening to you I have to, because you are raising some amazing points and I will come to both the gentlemen before put a very interesting and very important point and I would request your attention is how do we create fearless students today we are in a scenario where we see people being journalists being burdened down by fear one is liberal mindset the other is the fear of being open about what you think you know a recent example in the United States of America where a reporter from CNN actually stood up to the president the most powerful man in the world and said, you know boss, you are wrong can that happen in India? No and you know that is because we have been instilled with fear at a certain level and we can't come out of it as professors, as teachers what do you think, and sir I would come to you what do you think, how can we instill fearlessness in your students? this is a very important point, I want you to you know restrict it very good I am really happy to answer this I am from mass communication research centre Jamia and we are producing a very different breed of student and then what I can do is I can share my experiences of how to inculcate that that the qualities and how to understand how to say things which are relevant and positive that is how we could produce Barkha Dats or Shahrukh Khan or Kabir Khan or bring Pulitzer first time to India or bring Oscar first time to India that happened because when we interact with the students we tell them the meaning and understanding of what you are saying in what context it needs to be said and then the teaching learning format is quite different there what I teach is is by interacting with them making them understand that how what you are writing would means what and I let them you know ask them to bring clips people who are sitting here and are my students would know that my first exercises would be actually to cull out clips from wherever they want it interesting and then we in the classroom you know understand why it was created what intent what is viewpoint what was the goal is that you know filling up the goal or not so this is rather than putting it into curriculum and making it dead what we do is it becomes live project it become a project where people are actually interacting and understanding media literacy so there are two side of media literacy one side is to make people very very aware and fearless also the second point actually very very nice how to make them fearless is the moment you give them confidence make them understand that they can you know can do whatever they want and get away with it put them so much skill that they are not you know out of job they can create their own you know businesses the moment you make them financially secure mentally sound and should be so the fearlessness comes with education so if they are really educated in a true sense they they become quite fearless yeah so you say it depends on the personality the type of curriculum the teacher personality I am saying so I would come to you the same question you could throw some light on it with your experience with your values as to how to instill fearlessness among your students and after that I will have a small question answer session because and then we do a wrap right bridge thank you for this I am Suresh Gaur I teach public relations and preach PR both I teach and preach PR the question is how to create a fearless student there could two qualities introvert and extrovert if you are introvert you can't be fearless because you cannot explain yourself you can express yourself you are introvert by nature if you are extrovert it's it's all by birth you know I say a teacher makes a person strong I don't agree with this it's your personal qualities which make you strong your knowledge your experience your expertise that's a debatable not debatable you say teacher I am a teacher I am a preach both look if you say that a teacher make a student strong there are 90 students in a class you make every 90 students strong no only few he named Shah Rukh Khan he named Barkha Dutt I have left sir I can't read mind it you cannot make 100 students of a class in a say first class first division there are third division also there are second division also there are toppers also so take it that way I am talking practically you know I am not supporting I respect the teaching profession but if I said the teachers makes the students strong no they are so many students in the class they are flipping with the mobile phones listen to the professors sorry to say this even professors doesn't close the phones so how can you say this that the teachers make them strong they just look look look look look I tell you I will come in bridge this question when we talk about something fearlessness how to create a fearless person a teacher cannot make anybody fearless mind it that would be your opinion by the fearless fearless comes from family the parents the atmosphere is grown up she is grown up that kind of personality built up by the family and the friends around you that creates fearlessness a teacher can educate you but it depends on the student whether you get educated or not the teacher teaches every student equally he is you know guiding students on the black board on the smart board I get your point I get your point what I am saying is fearlessness is a personal quality it comes from within if you want to be fearlessness that you have to be very strong in that those girls who go to army those who lead the cricket teams they are fearless who made them just tell me the dungal family ok so I will have to cut you short here no problem no problem there is a very strong point which came from professor and we all respect that you know as but I personally saw many of my friends in classrooms who would come from backgrounds hail from very poor backgrounds who would not know how to speak in front of a teacher and we had a great teacher who would make them speak even if they have to give a presentation they are not scoring good he won't score them he said prepare it again I will help you and I will make you present and then he will mark them accordingly so you know and guess other panelists also slightly disagree I will go to the audience now if there are any questions on this panel anybody wants to yes sir I want to suggest that media literacy has been talked about a lot but not structured learning of media literacy still formulated and practiced if there is a very good initiative that business business world is creating a community of educationists and that too in the context of media if the media organization world and some interested universities and institutes can come together create an applicable implementable media literacy concept for the school students from class 9 to 12 and actually take it forward maybe as a CSR maybe as an outreach it could be a comment I will just come to the answers if anybody wants to take the question raised by the gentleman there and because we are within the time limit yes it was actually a comment okay so I have been told that this is a little okay so can I at least say concluding remarks so again thank you so much guys it was an amazing session I mean this was the most interesting session not because I was the moderate of course you can give me a round of applause for that but I had an amazing panel with amazing points of view and I hope that you know media literacy gets inculcated not you know among students but among the general people as well all of us sitting here we should know how to decipher news I think we should definitely say one thing that it's not that there have not been any media literacy movements, plans the only thing is that of course there has been a problem with the sincerity of intentions they have been done in a more compliance oriented kind of a format rather than looking at them more organically and the second problem is that we always look at things to bring results so we want a behavior change as the first result and don't think about critical thinking so I think that's a huge challenge I have to say two things one is that I really welcome this suggestion and from my institute I would probably would be happy to collaborate with this so this could be one outcome and the other thing is we have gotten more sponsors sir wants to partner with us in the next summit the second point I wanted to make that as the media why it couldn't taken off we you know we teach it under several garbs of several other subjects why it couldn't because it does not make people loyable you know they understand the whole nexus of politician whatever whatever you know the industrialist and everyone and how it how marketing are you know used for selling votes and opinion and everything we need to be when we sit together we need to inject something with media literacy where we can make it a very marketable thing where it is whole bigger although it's short of time but it's getting very cold as well we all have to go back at the one last point before I hand over to Karthik Karthik you know among media in amidst media literacy the only point which stands out is how do we create fearless people how do we create fearless students who can debate, discuss come on stage and fill us it