October 04, 2003 NEWS LETTER Vol. 011003
Indian cinema provides an alternative to the western way of seeing the world, offers a different language and medium to express our thoughts and experience. And guess what, more people watch Bollywood products than Hollywood can reach.
Which is why Kate Winslet can walk down Janpath and not be mobbed, even when her face stares out of a million Titanic t-shirts hung in the shops. Which is also why Shahrukh Khan cannot walk into Harrods, London, without causing a riot.
Journalists: Unwitting Friends of Jihadis?
By : Moorthy Muthuswamy nuclear physicist, guest columnist at South Asia Analysis Group, a strategic think tank based in Chennai
The coverage of Islamic fundamentalism by journalists and other media people have made me ask a number of fundamental questions about those who make up journalism. My foray into journalism has been through freelance. I have published now for well over four years, from opinions to letters. While I have been successful in publishing in some journals, I have also seen myself rebuffed, time and again, by others.
Journalism, although important, is not a field that attracts the smartest
-- the social status and financial rewards are not those associated
with upper echelons of a society. The preparation that goes into being
a journalist, typically, involves taking most courses in humanities.
This has a major drawback, in the sense that, the college students of
journalism do not get to solve problems, unlike students of professional
or scientific background.
Left
Vs Right
This is not say that all journalists are on the left. Clearly, training
and the kind of job they do put most of them on the left when it comes
to most issues. But there is also a significant section of journalists
who are on the right. But they are a minority. Since the events of Sept.
11, there has been a gradual shift among the public in favoring the
right. Left has discredited itself greatly with its many missteps with
regard to Islamic fundamentalism. The few good journalists on the right
have done an immensely good service for the civilization, exposing Islamic
extremists for what they are. MORE