Category: Media

Shrinivas Khale was an employee of Akashwani Mumbai Centre. He was assigned the clerical work in the library of radio tapes. He used to issue and receive recorded tapes. He was a musician par excellence. He composed a tune for a children’s song Tap tap padti angaavarti parajaktachi phoole written by Mangesh Padgaonkar at the instance of Mai Warekar. Later he composed a tune for Shukratara mand waara written by Mangesh Padgoankar . The original song was a solo but was made a duet as per the request of Khale himself. It has become a very famous bhavgeet in  Marathi. Padgaonkar also joined Mumbai Centre of Akashvani later and Khale became his colleague.Padgaonkar never liked a musician of Khale’s caliber doing the clerical work. Khale then got an offer from HMV ( now Sa Re Ga Ma ) to work as a recording officer.He was to get the authority to select the songs to be recorded. His talents would be utilized in this position. The salary was thrice the salary he got at the radio centre. He was to get the authority to select music director for the song. He could himself compose the tune if necessary. This in fact was the beginning of a  new chapter in Khale’s life.

Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation puts on air old Hindi film songs in the morning in a programme called Purani Filmonka Sangeet and this programme conventionally ends with a song of K L Sehgal. On 3rd September, 2011, the anchor Jyoti Parmar announced the sad demise of music director Shrinivas Khale and paid him a tribute, and put on air Desh hich maata….desh dharm majha song of 1967 Jivhala film sung by Krishna Kalle. This broke the convention followed in the programme since 1955 of ending the programme by a K L Sehgal song.

23rd July, 2015. Radio will be completing 89 years in India and next year it will be completing 90 years.The organized radio broadcasting started on 23rd July, 1927 in Mumbai by Indian Broadcasting Company. It is an audio medium. Akashvani has started a new era of broadcast journalism.It transmits 300 plus news bulletins through 40 plus centres everyday. there are additional channels — FM and News-on-Phone. These bulletins are heard. That is the reason why the diction and pronunciation are very important. It believes in simple sentences, rather than complex long-winding sentences. Akashvani has witnessed many important events including the broadcast of the mid-night Tryst with Destiny speech by Pt. Nehru when India got freedom on 15th August, 1947. These bulletins have been broadcast for more than 84 years. Radio reaches where no other channel could reach.

The tabloid culture has emerged in a fiercely competitive media world that is after scoops ruthlessly. All these sensational stories are obtained by fair means or foul, and as one can guess not freely with a smile. The audiences love to read the salacious sories without bothering how these were sourced. It is a comment on the attitudes of the audiences, on the society that sustain the media by high circulation figures fed by this very culture. Till it is veiled, all is well. The moment the secret is out, all need a fall guy. We cannot bear the weight of our own trespasses. A newspaper that holds others to account fails when it comes to itself. Murdoch admitted that invading people’s privacy by listening to their voice mail is wrong, paying police officers for information is wrong. Brooks admitted that The News of the World employed private detectives under her editorship. Murdochisation of media is seen everywhere. There is lack of sensational news  everyday. Sensation has to be created at any cost. Hearst called journalism  the shift between the ads. Murdoch cared about this shift more than he did for the ads. Rupert makes money in TV, and movies but loves the print media romantically. Tabloid journalism is more difficult than broadsheet journalism because tabloids have to try harder. Real journalism needs journals. Rupert Murdoch ran the great ones.

The concept of a studio has come to us from the Western world. It came to India through the Britishers. It is the space where the artist or a sculptor works. It has the facility to allow enough sunlight in. A studio has stools of different heights, isles, stands, facilities for colour or earthen work, tools and equipment. There are set of brushes to do the oil, water and acrylic paintings. An established painter has at least a set of 100 brushes. There are palettes of different sizes. Though it is difficult to have a studio, it is the dream of every artist. It is the identity of the artist. He is the king of this space. His creativity is exercised in this space.

J J School of Arts was set up in 1878 with studios. It has six spacious studios including the dean’s studio on the first floor. The dimensions are appox. 30×30 feet or 30×60 feet. There are arched wndows to receive light from the north. Their height is 15-20 feet. These can be opened-shut with srings easily. There are curtains to control the light. In the curriculum, tere are subjects like figure study, potrait, life painting. In the classrooms, the models were seated. The students were educated about the anatomy, perspective and tones with reference to the models. The seniors have nude study. These classrooms are closed. The restricted entry is indicated on the paper pasted on those closed doors. The models come from the poor strata of the society. They posed either on wooden planks or steps. They posed either sitting or standing. The background was made by coloured drapery. In front, the students are present in two semi-circles — the first semi-circle being of donkeys and the second of isles. The arrangement allows to accommodate more students in limited space. There are exhibits of stalwarts and past students on the walls. There is enough space do the paintings. To learn the subject of  composition, there was a large long-wide table with benches by the side to seat. The smell of colours and linseed oil linger in the studios. There is a big rack to store portfolios in the colour. There are full big sized drawing boards and palettes of  everywhere. The hurt caused by the drawing pins accidently fallen on the ground  is a common experience. The dustbins have charcoal pieces, crusts of colours, exhausted colour tubes, rags and mops, pencil remnants and discarded paintings. There are basins outside the studios in the passage. The brushes can be cleaned here. These studios are at times converted into art galleries. Gorge Molecy designed the neo-Goethic architecture.

Newspapers were financed, for much of the 19th century, by political parties. The party controlled the editorial matter. By the end of the 20th century, there were hardly any party-affiliated newspapers left.Newspapers rely on the advertising revenue to sustain themselves. It is believed that this is better than party financing, as journalism becomes more independent. The aim is to have wider audiences for the benefit of the advertisers. This keeps the advertises happy. However, there is a tendency to adopt studied inoffensiveness, an unwillingness to speak truths not palatable to the audience. Even then the media sustained on advertising are more independent than the paty-financed media. Many advertisers support a media, and so no individual advertiser wields total power. Advertisers throw themselves to the background, and we can occasionally forget that they are there. Of late, there is concern about news that is paid for, which borders almost on advertising.

The media business is, however, not a thriving business. Media companies have reported losses. Media companies tie up with large corporates but still by themselves they are medium and small enterprises.Though the whole industry remains scattered and small, big players have slowly appeared to build new businesses. News Corporation-Star India of Rupert Murdoch, TimeWarner- Turner India, Walt Disney-Walt Disney India group and Sony-Multiscreen Media are the MNC players.

Media dependence on advertising has kept it small and will have to find new sources of sustenance to make it big. The consolidation of media interests (especially news) in the hands of a few has also been discussed. It is also to be seen whether the entry of non-media businesses will affect the media. In India, there is already cross-media ownership e.g.  a media company can operate a news channel, a newspaper, radio station and web platforms. There is a demand for an independent media regulator.

The Sun was a Monday-through-Saturday newspaper for more than 40 years. It has become a seven-day-a-week operation now. It was published on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012 for the first time. The Sun on Sunnday is the best answer to their critics. It is a classic Rupert Murdoch mounting a counter-attack at a moment of vulnerability. It may fill the void created by the closing of the News of the World. Though the company News Corp. is sustained by non-newspaper business, and is more a sports and entertainment company, it is drawn into newspaper business by Murdoch’s fondness for them.

It is the third most popular social media platform after Twitter and Facebook. It has a message for the media: a picture is worth a thousand words. It shows the rise of the visual web. It allows its users to share images by ‘pinning’ them. Instagram, acquired by Facebook, is another example. Facebook’s timeline feature is heavily driven by images instead of text. Printerest does not have ads on the site but publishers and brands can use the images to link to their own websites. It encourages companies to pin from various sources and to create pin boards for different types of material,

British judicial enquiry examined the Murdochs about News of the World scandal. Rupert Murdoch apologized for failing to take measures to avert the hacking scandal. He cast himself as a victim, and said that the scandal was hidden from the  owners‘ top executives. He seemed to blame the subordinates for not alerting him to the practices being used at the newspapers to secure its scoops. He predicted that the news business would be ‘purely electronic ‘ in five, 10 or 20 years. He cautioned the judge regarding regulatory measures envisaged consequent to the scandal. He said the press guarantees democracy, and we want democracy rather than autocracy. The Committee in its report indicated Murdoch by saying that he is not fit to exercise the stewardship of a major international company. It is now left to the House of commons to decide whether News International committed contempt of parliament, and if so what punishment should be imposed on the organisation.

The work style of Murdoch has always remained a matter of debate, admiration and criticism. Prof Daya Thussu, West-minister University, UK has written about such working style. Some features of this style are

*  focus on commercial interests

*  ownership of the different type of media, and aggressively work towards it

*  use political contacts regarding the ownership rights against the promise of good publicity.

*  exploit rules

*  put sensational and glossy programmes and news for commercial benefit

This working style is confined to Murdoch group, but is more less extendable to other media groups too. The strictures passes by the committee are not thus restricted to News Corpn.only. The criticism against Murdoch is quite old. His media expansion in the UK and the work culture were matters of debate. It was alleged that in the UK, there was support from Thatcher and in the US from Regean. The media moghul sobriquet is thus not entirely on the basis of respect.

The charge is not against an individual but against a type of work culture in the media organisations. It may be a political charge, but political system represented by the parliament has a right to raise it.

We have much to worry here against the above background. Let alone the media owners, do the political forces here have even the courage to bring to book the errant journalists? How many times the individual rights and the right to privacy have been uphold while doing journalism? Murdochisation is not on decline. The politicians will have to tell the media at times, “ You have erred. You be responsible. “