INMA 2012: News will always be dynamic

The International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA) hosted its 6th Annual SouthAsia conference in New Delhi on 7th & 8th August 2012.

 

This conference has been seeing some power packed sessions. The topic of debate in these sessions have been very informative and impressive.

 

One of the topics covered in these sessions was ‘The Future Of News’. This session was moderated by Jacob Mathew, Executive Editor, Malayala Manorama & President WAN-Ifra. Two eminent panelists at this session were M.J. Akbar, Editorial Director, India Today & Headlines Today and Sanjay Gupta , CEO, Jagran Prakashan Ltd.

 

Mathews welcomed the panelists to the session. He said the debatable topics included the existing formats and its relevance in the future and secondly the easy availability of news for the consumer.

 

Akbar stated that news in any form will always be in demand. He said man lives in a community and ignorance in such a community can prove detrimental to his progress.  Hence curiosity will always be a vital part of his life and as a result news will always thrive. He went on to say that news needs a vehicle and that too will be provided by news organizations in future.

 

Akbar also said that it is not the future of news but future of the journalist which is at stake today. They fall into two traps, viz. either they are gullible to reporting news in any form which can be dangerous in terms of credibility and the other that they consider themselves more important than the news itself.

 

He reverted to the basic point in question and said that technology cannot destroy one another. On the contrary they have to exist side by side. Every product be it radio, television or newspaper has it’s own rationale and news organizations have to be ‘format driven’. He concluded that there is no cause for concern as long as newsmakers and news owners understand that news is dynamic and not static.

 

Gupta agreed with Akbar on several points. But he felt that it is important for the news media to engage the audience in a public debate over important issues. He also added that good journalism is good business. On an end note Gupta went on to quote Richard Gingras. “The pace of technological change will not abate and to think of our current times as a transition between two eras rather than a continuum of change is a mistake.”