Jaipur, 11 August 2018 — There is an India that is ignored by Mainstream Media, and the panel with Uma Sudhir, Harpal Singh, Vidya Dharamraj and Vikas Pandey shed light on the issues of those marginalised by media.
“We see less, and we have less reports from remote areas of India. We need to study tribals to know what is invisible India”, said Vikas Pandey, journalist, BBC.
He added, “In the present era, journalist should use social media more efficiently for invisible India. It needs to write more stories and make short films which must be pro-poor. We need to talk about solution, not the problems. Keep invisible India in your mind. it is your responsibility and try to find stories.”
Journalist Harpal Singh, who has been working with the Hindu in Adilabad, since 2005, spoke about such stories. He shared his journalistic experiences related to tribals living in and around the district of Adilabad. “I have encountered stories which seems meaningless to urban people, but yet have been published or telecast”, he said. His extensive experience in covering tribal issues was displayed through photographs of tribes, their dwellings, and their customs and rituals. The people here work for six months in agriculture, and the next six months they do other things. This includes making colours from the tesu flower.
“International media doesn’t cover the real India”, said Uma Sudhir. “We believe that journalism is something that makes the world better. ” she added.
According to her, the most important challenge for a journalist, is not just to tell the story of the event, but to take it beyond that. She said, one should have emotional engagement, something that people empathize with and strong passion to create a larger perspective story, that should be meaningful and sensible.
Text: Rimjhim Sharma | Photo: Rimjhim Sharma | Photo desk: Anu Sonia | Editorial coordination: Jyoti Mamnani
This report was filed during Live Newsroom workshop conducted by Institute of Integrated Digital Journalism and Mass Communication (IIDJM) at Talk Journalism 2018.