World Day for Decent Work

Media Release

October 07, 2008

On World Day for Decent Work, IFJ Calls for Action to Improve Quality of Media Jobs
As the global financial crisis has thrown companies into turmoil, it is workers who are bearing the heaviest burden of instability and recession, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said today as it marked the World Day for Decent Work.

Tens of thousands of workers in the financial services sector and millions more across the global economy face unemployment and a bleak future and in journalism and media the story is equally chilling.

In journalism employment conditions have been in decline for years as media owners have cut deep into labour rights and security of employment in order to protect high profit margins in a changing market. Thousands of journalists around the world have been thrust into forced freelance work as jobs in journalism have become increasingly precarious, says the IFJ.

"Even before the financial market collapse, the global media industry was in trouble and we have seen again and again a lowering of workplace standards in media causing insecurity and collapsing standards of journalism, said IFJ General Secretary Aidan White. "The threat to journalists' jobs is not just about personal circumstances for workers and their families; it is also about protecting the quality of democracy we enjoy which is why we are supporting the World Day for Decent Work."

The World Day for Decent Work, October 7, is a day of action supported by the worldwide Global Union movement and involves unions in more than 100 countries around the globe from Fiji to Alaska. Unions are demanding urgent changes in the world economy.

The IFJ fears the world financial crisis will only lead to more forced freelances and job cuts at newsrooms as a focus on the bottom line and shareholder value has replaced the tradition public service values of media companies.

"We believe that the answers to these problems are not a wholesale race to the bottom on working conditions but in just the opposite," White said. "By improving working conditions for journalists, media companies can improve their products and use that to drive revenue growth. Only by working with journalists and treating them fairly will the owners climb out of the hole in which the industry finds itself."

For more information on the World Day for Decent Work go to www.wddw.org


For more information contact the IFJ at +32 2 235 2207

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 120 countries worldwide

FASHION ICONS

SUDHA MILK BlackSpot

Great Indian

NOT A STORY BUT A TRUE INCIDENT


An Indian man walks into a bank in
New York City and asks for the loan officer.
He tells the loan officer that he is going to India on business
for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000.


The bank officer tells him that the bank
will need some form of security for the loan,
so the Indian man hands over the keys
and documents of new Ferrari parked
on the street in front of the bank.
He produces the title and everything checks out.
The loan officer agrees to accept
the car as collateral for the loan.


The bank's president and its officers
all enjoy a good laugh at the Indian
for using a $250,000 Ferrari
as collateral against a $5,000 loan.
An employee of the bank then
drives the Ferrari into the bank's
underground garage and parks it there.


Two weeks later, the Indian returns,
repays the $5,000 and the interest,
which comes to $15.41.
The loan officer says,

'Sir, we are very happy to have had your business,
and this transaction has worked out very nicely,
but we are a little puzzled.
While you were away,
we checked you out and found that you are a multi millionaire.
What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow '$5,000' ?

The Indian replies:
'Where else in New York City can I park my car
for two weeks for only $15.41
and expect it to be there when I return''

Ah, the mind of the Indian...

This is why India is shining

Posted by Neeraj, an IT professional with creative mind, for updating the morale

Journalists seek more training.

Journalists seek more training.

It's confirmed: Journalists want training, especially young journalists, those with less than ten years of experience, who say overwhelmingly—82 percent of them—that they would personally benefit "very much" from additional training.
Broadcast journalists are also standouts: Journalists working in TV are more likely—at 71 percent—to say they'd benefit "very much" from training than journalists from any other medium.
Key questions raised by the report: a chance to join the conversation
· Why does leadership training generate far more demand than any other kind? What is it about that makes it so crucial?
· Why are broadcast journalists more interested in training than their peers in other media? Why don't broadcast newsrooms offer as much in-house training?
· Can training support a stronger culture of ethics and journalism values? Can it help prevent scandals of plagiarism and fabrication?
Introduction
Mae Cheng, an assistant city editor at Newsday and president of the Asian American Journalists Association, thinks earlier and better training could have rescued at least two lost days in her career.
“I was covering the 2000 U.S. Census,” she says. “Before I had any computer-aided reporting training, I got this big map of New York City and I went around the office collecting different colored pushpins, marking the response rates to the Census. I had no idea there was mapping software that could do it in 30 seconds, and other people in the newsroom didn’t know either.
“When I later got CAR training and learned about Excel and mapping software, I kicked myself. I killed a day getting pushpins and another day pushing them into my map.”
Journalists, whether working in print, broadcast or online, want to learn to do their jobs better and smarter.A new study about journalism training, conducted by Urban & Associates, Inc. for The Poynter Institute and News University in 2004, builds on the 2002 study by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the National Council of Journalism Organizations. It says 95 percent of print journalists and 96 percent of broadcast journalists seek more training.That’s up from 89 percent of journalists surveyed in the Knight study.
Results indicate they seek a range of skills and are interested in various forms of learning, including a yearning for more access to e-learning. They want to grow to improve their performance in their current jobs.
“We knew that journalists need and want training, but the appetite for professional development was greater than we expected,” says Karen Brown Dunlap, president of The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla. “Journalists face complicated issues and increased time pressures, sometimes in an environment that provides fewer resources, yet they are determined to produce compelling reports. Training helps.”
The demand is especially high among newer professionals, those with less than ten years experience. While ninety-five percent of respondents said they would benefit from additional training and professional development, respondents under 45 years of age, and those working in journalism for ten years or less, are more likely to perceive the benefits of additional training. Cheng said these results sound similar to what she has heard from AAJA members.
“The findings in this study reflect what we found when we polled our members about what they want from our organization,” Cheng says. “This has been a huge impetus for me to add more value to our membership by adding more training for students and starting journalists, and especially for mid-career members. They, too, still want to learn. Training needs to go on throughout a career.”
The Poynter/NewsU study is aimed at two different constituencies. It is intended to move news organizations that have been reluctant to send people to training. And it will be used by training organizations that will work with those same news organizations.
“We are delighted with this,” says Drew Davis, president and executive director of the American Press Institute in Washington, D.C. “We think this almost perfectly matches the mission of API and validates the things we tell newspaper executives in planning their training and validates our planning.”
Howard Finberg, interactive learning faculty member for The Poynter Institute and project director of News University says, “The Poynter/NewsU study confirms that not only was everything that the Knight Foundation study determined is true, it’s doubly true.”
“It’s another cry to have news organizations put training higher up on their agendas, and not cut the training budget at the first drop in the economic conditions.”
What Hinders Training
What stands between journalists and more training?
Time.
Money.
Accessibility.
“Even when money is not the issue, time is a major factor in decisions about training,” Finberg says.
“Who has time to train in a world where people are just so busy, where staffs are reduced, where both parents work and single parents are often working and where child care is a struggle and many people are starting to care for aging parents as well? For a parent to be gone for even three days is a logistical challenge. The challenge for newsrooms and training organizations is to find innovative ways to meet training needs.”
All survey respondents were asked about their experience with 19 different types of training programs offered within their industry. While clearly not an exhaustive list of all available training, the pattern mirrored that of previous studies. The most frequently-attended seminars or workshops were in-house sessions. Over 81 percent said they had attended one, 55 percent of them in the past year. Training programs offered by press associations were second with 66 percent having attended.
In addition, Poynter/NewsU analyzed three segments of the consumer marketplace – heavy users of training (respondents who’ve attended 7 or more training programs), medium users (4-6) and light users (1-3).
Respondents were presented with 15 different factors and asked how much each would influence their decision to attend a training seminar. Overall, practical content is the primary motivator, with significant proportions of respondents noting that these were “very important” factors:
Acquiring skills to improve performance in their current job (92 percent)
Their personal interest in the seminar/workshop topic (68 percent)
Applicability of the training to organization’s needs (54 percent).
Cost (tuition, accommodations, travel) was a close second behind applicability, mentioned as “very important” by about half of respondents, followed by two additional dimensions of utility:
The ability of the course to help advance a career, and
The opportunity to meet/network with industry professionals.
No other factor—course length, location, faculty, or even recommendations from supervisors—was seen as “very important” by more than one-third of respondents.
“What we would like to see,” joked Skip Foster, editor of North Carolina’s Shelby Star, “is an army of experts who for free will come on-site and personally guide our people for a year.”
While that may not be possible any time soon, 53 percent of respondents reported that their company usually paid all costs associated with a training program. Overall, 14 percent said they paid the costs for training themselves ( the proportion was higher among those working in the broadcast industry). On average, however, 76 percent of the total costs of professional training are borne by the company. A similar distribution is seen when the resource examined is time rather than money: 47 percent of respondents were trained fully on the company’s time, 13 percent on their own time, with an average of 73 percent of the time necessary for preparation, training and travel contributed by the company.
Cheng doesn’t believe it matters in many situations whether a company pays 50 percent or 100 percent of a training program’s costs.
“Once a company finally pays for training,” she says, “it may be the tenth or twentieth time a person asked for it.”
Eighteen different training topics were presented to respondents, who were asked how useful each would be to them. Six were evaluated as “very useful” by more than one-third of respondents, with an interest in Leadership topping the list:
Leadership strategies (61 percent)
Newsroom management skills (55 percent)
Legal issues such as privacy/libel (45 percent)
Ethics and values in journalism (45 percent)
Writing/reporting techniques (41 percent), and
Multimedia news storytelling (33 percent).
Dori Maynard, president of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in Oakland, Ca., focuses on the need for leadership training.
“In this industry we don’t do a good job of training.” she says. “The newsroom approach is often, ‘Hey, you’re a good reporter, you could be an editor.’ And if the reporters-turned-editors perform well, they say, ‘I don’t know why anyone else needs training; look how well I did without it!’
“We need our leaders to understand the need for development and execute. The tasks of journalists and media leaders are so much more complicated today.” The Maynard Institute is a 27-year-old organization devoted to training journalism managers of color.
All types of skills need improvement.
“I’d like to see more training in something as fundamental as note- taking,” Cheng says. “I’ve seen reporters come in without quotes because they can’t write fast enough or their tape recorder died. Even senior journalists would find that useful. And while newspaper reporters could once get by with just words, now they have to be more visual. Even if they don’t want to go on that side, I think it would help to understand graphics better. There is so much we should be getting training on.”
Training in specialized topics (e.g.: broadcast reporting, typography) were rated as “very useful” training by respondents employed in those industries, but overall, there are no significant differences in this pattern by respondents of different ages or tenures in journalism.
The 47 percent of respondents who said training in a specific beat or content area would be useful to them were then asked to record what topic would interest them. A subset of topics mentioned frequently includes:
Beats—criminal justice, education, health, environment, lifestyle, religion/values;
Skills—computer-assisted reporting, investigative reporting; and
Management—mentoring/coaching, budgeting/resource planning.
“It’s important to continue teaching new skills,” Cheng says. “When I started a few years ago, there wasn’t much emphasis on computer-assisted reporting. Now you become more accomplished by being able to work through Excel. Or do word searches. The technology changes the way we report stories and I think we should be given training for that.”
Foster says content, not price, would be his first consideration in judging potential training opportunities for his staff.
“If I’m considering training, I’m not even gonna get past issues of content,” Foster says. “If I’m looking for help in using active verbs in my copy — to make something up — if what’s offered is ‘Juggling and Sword-swallowing,’ of course, content is more important than price. Content is the definition of what you’re looking for.”
Once he finds the right content, Foster is ready to deal.
“Our strategy is, let’s find something we can buy for our people,” he says. “The price shouldn’t be as big a factor as it is. But we are in the real world. I don’t think newspapers are unique in trying to balance the realities and need for training with the annual budget. If we can’t buy people a steak, let’s buy them a hamburger. That may still be more than they expected to get.”
Foster is a proponent of expanding programs such as the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association’s traveling campus, as well as low-priced training programs offered by many regional press associations. “It lets me hit everybody with a little bit, as opposed to a few people flying to St. Petersburg and going to a Poynter seminar. I have gotten so much out of my two Poynter experiences. I wish that for everybody. But I can register five people for training within driving distance or spend the same amount on one air ticket alone. The press associations have been sensitive to this, of how can we give cost-effective training. It’s not as good as if they went to Reston for a week, but it’s better than none. And in our newsroom, more people have gotten training in the last couple years than did in the past.”
With the obvious exception of industry-specific skills, there is remarkable homogeneity in the answers of all respondents to the survey. While this is not unreasonable (given the relatively confined demographics of professional journalists), the fact that there are more similarities than differences in the nature of training needs means that professional development organizations have many opportunities to impact journalism excellence, and that they must be prudent in prioritizing and focusing their efforts in areas where they can showcase their unique competence, and preserve their strong brands.
“We’re not in competition with other organizations on the subject of training because the need is that great,” says Poynter President Dunlap. “I see about 10 steps individuals and news organizations can take in professional development, everything from brown bag lunches to one-year or multi-year programs. We need online courses, regional seminars and workshops, and other off-site training, one day, week-long and extended programs such as Neiman—if the industry is going to perform at the level it needs to perform. We need all of it.”
Broadcast
Seventy-one percent of broadcast journalists surveyed by Poynter/NewsU “very much” saw the benefit of additional training and another 25 percent “somewhat” perceived the benefits—96 percent in all; these numbers mirrored the opinions of broadcast executives as well.
The numbers didn’t surprise Deborah Potter, executive director of the Radio & Television News Directors Association & Foundation in Washington, D.C. “I suppose there is a pent-up desire for more training for a couple reasons,” she says. “It’s not commonly offered in-house by broadcast organizations, whereas I think more newspapers do provide it. And there is much less of it to go around for broadcast than print. So it’s supply and demand.”
The issue, she says, is not that more training should be made available.
“The issue is getting support at the corporate level,” Potter says. “And time. And money. A TV station has a smaller staff than a print outlet. So as often as broadcasters may ask to go for training, they don’t get permission. And sometimes they’re not even asking to go because they’re sure they won’t be allowed to.”
E-Learning Potential
For the industry’s nascent e-learning programs, the Poynter/NewsU study provides a reassuring confirmation of need and purpose.
“It validates our belief in e-learning,” Finberg says. “It’s the research evidence that the concept we came up with is valid. The real challenge will be in execution. There is a lot in the study about where we should take e-learning, not just for Poynter, but also on behalf of other journalism organizations.”
Much of the Poynter/NewsU study results go beyond needs for today and look at needs of tomorrow.
Only 18 percent of respondents have had any experience with online education or e-learning, a proportion quite similar to that reported in previous research on professional journalism education. The segments most experienced with online training are individuals employed outside traditional print or broadcast companies, and those with substantial professional training experience.
“It’s interesting that the numbers for online were where they are since such a small number have experienced it,” Peter Bhatia, executive director of The Oregonian, says. “It’s an indicator that more and more people understand that, over the long term, multi-platform delivery of news will be a reality to all of us. Understanding that will be more important with the passage of time.”
When asked how interested they would be in online journalism training, 72 percent of all respondents expressed some interest (32 percent saying they’d be “very interested”). Individuals that live outside the U.S. are particularly interested in online educational opportunities, as are those who are from smaller media organizations.
“I was personally—professionally—stunned when I saw the demand,” Finberg says. “Part of it is that nobody knows yet quite what e-learning is and even fewer had taken an e-learning course. That’s the good news. The challenge is for any organization to come up with courses that meet that high level of expectation. In theory, everybody thinks e-learning is a great thing. We can’t disappoint when they take their first course. That isn’t just a challenge for NewsU and Poynter; that’s a challenge for every organization.”
Respondents were asked the importance of each of 11 potential benefits of e-learning, and more than half of them were identified as “very important” by a majority—suggesting the relative immaturity of expectations of online education. Equal weight is given to the flexibility of access, technical help, one-on-one feedback and low cost, and neither past experience nor degree of interest in online education appears to shape that outlook. When asked to order those attributes, however, a clear winner is flexibility in timing: More than half of all respondents said that the most important motivator stimulating interest in online education is “the ability to take the course whenever your schedule allows.” Currently, then, it appears that the central premise behind potential interest in e-learning is the “time shifting” capacity anticipated by busy journalism professionals.
The AAJA participated in the first NewsU e-learning classes.
“That was really cool for our members,” Cheng says. “We have 2,100 members over 19 chapters. We have members in Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, and England. Our membership is really scattered, but by offering online courses, our people were able to get training without traveling. We had one online student so thankful for this because she just had a baby. The Poynter class was great because they got on whenever they could. It might be daytime here and nighttime wherever they were.”
Almost all respondents answered a question about the primary obstacles to having an effective e-learning experience. While the richness of their ideas cannot be easily captured, it does appear that answers cluster in four major areas. The most frequently-mentioned obstacle to effective e-learning is the perceived lack of the “high-touch” environment of traditional seminars: the one-on-one personal contact available with faculty and other participants. The second and third major clusters of responses had more to do with self-assessment of the respondents than with the attributes of an online seminar: About one-third of the respondents think that time pressures of work and family life—and the discipline required to “make time” for self-directed training—would be a major obstacle to having an effective experience. A significant proportion also perceives that they’re ill-equipped (i.e.: inadequate computer, skills, Internet connection) for satisfactory online learning. Finally, a small proportion doubt whether an online seminar could equal the quality or effectiveness of an in-person training seminar.
Many of these perceived obstacles link to another finding: More than 60 percent of respondents believe they’d be most likely to access online training at home—either after work or on the weekends. While many think they could do the course at work (after the day’s tasks are finished, between other work or during lunch), it’s clear that the segment most interested in e-learning is also most convinced they’d be training on their own time at home.
“Ideally, newsroom managers should embrace e-learning and provide journalists with the time away from the day-to-day chores. Let them do the training as part of their daily routine,” Finberg said. “Allowing a couple hours a week would be a great help in meeting the training needs.”
Fifty-four percent of respondents report that they’d have less than one hour a day to spend with an online training program, and an additional 42 percent report they’d have between one to three hours a day. Respondents who are “very interested” in the concept are more likely to report a higher time capacity than those who are only “somewhat” interested.
News University—this site right here—is a project of the Poynter Institute and is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Its innovative distance-learning programs sharpen journalism skills on the participant’s schedule. NewsU’s courses offer the quality that is Poynter’s trademark at a fraction of the cost, on a schedule that fits with the participant’s work and family commitments. And they don’t replace Poynter seminars. Rather, NewsU’s e-learning modules provide a new form of training that’s more targeted and more flexible than the traditional in-person experience. NewsU offers three kinds of e-learning:
1. Group Seminars. Participants gather in a virtual space, logging in from anywhere, day or night, over the course of several days or several weeks. A faculty member guides the group through new material, moderates discussions, and provides individual feedback.
2. Self-Directed Learning Modules. These are the ultimate in e-learning flexibility: Journalists can start and stop them whenever they like, progressing entirely at their own pace and going back as many times as they want. They make use of interactive Web technology, so they’re much more than mere collections of Web pages.
3. eSeminars. These are live seminars or events broadcast over the Web; participants can tune in from their computer at work or at home and ask questions in real-time. And if they can’t join in live, the seminars are also available as self-directed learning modules.
When asked which kind of training they would prefer—an in-person or online seminar—more than three-quarters of respondents say they’d prefer the former. The minority have had experience with e-learning and are slightly more likely to choose online, but they also prefer in-person seminars.
In the short-term, the concept of e-learning generates a lot of interest among news professionals, especially those that don’t anticipate having easy opportunities to participate in in-person training. Only when potential users can actually see the product (in this case, a handful of online seminar prototypes or, at least, a “catalog” of potential course descriptions) can they make the kind of judgments that can realistically translate into solid metrics of market potential.
“The hunger is really there,” Finberg says. “The question is, ‘What are we really going to do to satisfy the hunger, since it’s unlikely the training dollar spigot will get turned on?’ We’re taking this report about training as a whole and e-learning as a whole and we’re using it. We told the industry that training was important; here’s another study that proves it.”
Finberg says that even if training funds were unlimited, space and available faculty available for on-site programs would still be scarce. There is also the issue of time; most journalism organizations struggle to find enough time for staffs to get away from their jobs and personal lives to travel for training.
“One solution is bring training to them,” Finberg says. “Either in their newsrooms, in more regional short term training sessions, or through the magic of the information age we live in, a.k.a., the Internet.”
Training as Scandal Prevention?
In both the Poynter/NewsU’s survey and the Knight Foundation’s research, legal issues and ethics training were ranked high. The Poynter/NewsU study didn’t directly address whether more training would reduce the incidents of ethical misconduct and plagiarism that have scandalized journalism, but many journalists believe more training will give the industry a shot of prevention.
“We have summer interns who come in to Newsday with degrees in journalism, but they could use continual training,” Cheng says. “I think it helps to keep talking about ethics. Starting reporters come to me and say, ‘I went on an assignment and they offered me dinner. Should I have taken it?’ Or, ‘They offered me gifts, should I take them?’
“I’m looking for an instructor to teach ethics to our members,” Cheng says. “I want something more philosophical because the classes we’ve offered so far have been more skills-oriented.”
Today, there is less formal training in the average newsroom from direct supervisors. “A lot of us can remember editors who taught us,” Dunlap says. “Now editors have other demands, including endless meetings. They don’t see the time to coach. A college professor told me recently that young journalists are leaving because they aren’t being trained; they aren’t learning. We’ve heard this before. They’re not leaving because of salaries, but because they don’t think they are growing.”
Maynard thinks it may be time that the journalism industry starts requiring continuing education programs for its practitioners, much as professional associations from physicians to engineers and insurance agents demand for their members.
“Many industries require you to keep up,” Maynard says. “I think it’s important that we do that. The public’s expectations of the news media have changed. If we aren’t providing people in the industry with the ability to be current, how can business practices stay current in legal and ethical training?”
Bhatia, executive editor of The Oregonian and a past-president of ASNE, thinks most journalists could use a reminder of how ethics and values play out on a daily basis.
“There is a need for a re-emphasis of the importance and value of getting things right and for ethical newsgathering,” he says. “I think training should be part of an overall game plan to wipe this out. It’s time. As an industry we need to address this and not write Jack Kelley and Jayson Blair off as aberrations. Ninety-eight percent of cops and politicians are ethical but it’s that bad two percent that get the headlines. And it’s that bad two percent that’s defining us as well. We have to address it head on.”
What’s Next?
Now that the need for training has been confirmed and further quantified, what's the next step?
“After the study by the Knight Foundation, they launched an information campaign to increase the funds that go into journalism training,” Dunlap says. “Those who care about professional development need to join the campaign.”
Another emphasis likely to be advanced by the Poynter/NewsU study is that if journalists can’t or won’t come to the mountains for training, the mountains must find their way to journalists even more than they do today, both in person and via the Internet.
Regional workshops have been a big success with smaller newspapers. They are an inexpensive draw that allow journalists to get much needed training.
“The problem is when news organizations think that’s all they need,” Dunlap says. “The industry needs the full range of programs.”
Bhatia says that news organizations that can’t budget for big-name, off-site training programs should be more creative. “We’re a newspaper that already has a substantial commitment to training,” Bhatia says. “We engage in a whole range of training, from Spanish classes for staffers to bringing in people from all over the country to talk to us. Even through the tough times of the last few years, we’ve still found ways to keep the level of training opportunities high. For example, by having our best investigative reporters do seminars on FOI or beat development, there remains the opportunity for people to be exposed to good thinking and good talent. We also do in-house awards with outside people serving as judges, and then we have them come in and do seminars. What this survey does is reaffirm what we already believe to be true. Journalists understand there is no such thing as being too good. We should always be committed to expanding our skills sets.”
Poynter and other organizations offer fellowships and seek contributions for scholarships to assist journalists who can’t afford development programs. According to Dunlap, it’s time for print and broadcast organizations to dig deeper into their pockets and supply both the demand and need for enhanced training.
“The study supports the idea that Poynter should no longer subsidize training to the degree it does,” she says. “The news industry needs to pick up a greater share. We need to serve the need but find greater resources.”
Fundraising for news associations has been tough in recent years. But while newspapers aren’t willing to write a check for certain kinds of training, organizations such as AAJA are finding opportunities to partner with news organizations that will host on-site training programs for them. “The St. Paul Pioneer-Press and New York Times are paying for our members to fly in for seminars and workshops,” Cheng says. “AAJA doesn’t make a dime on it, but it’s a great opportunity for our members. Our mid-career members have been able to benefit.”
Another challenge for professional development organizations desiring to benefit from the Poynter/NewsU study will be selling its merits to skeptical or budget-conscious journalism corporations.
“We have to make the bottom-line case that there’s value beyond the intrinsic,” Potter says. “I don’t think there is a radical difference between print and broadcast groups. The argument has to be made to managers and owners that there is a business case for additional training.”
Methodology
The Poynter/NewsU study was designed to provide strategic information in the overall structure of training and professional development needs among journalists and the characteristics of the potential e-learning market.
To accomplish these objectives, two interlocking questionnaires were developed: one to be administered to alumni, focused on evaluations of Poynter, and another for non-alumni that generated detail on the potential for online learning. Both questionnaires contained the same battery of questions on underlying training needs, as well as key questions on the respondent’s interest in e-learning. Because this research was not intended to quantify Poynter’s share of market or competitive position, all aspects of the questionnaire and sample design were oriented toward maximizing the amount of discrete data that could be collected (including a number of opportunities for respondents to provide extensive written responses to open-ended questions), and toward maximizing the sample size and diversity of the respondent pool. As such, the surveys were administered by mail and online: subsuming the desire for a fully representative sample of respondents to the requirement of providing a rich and detailed data set.
Both the mail and online samples were address-specific, with names randomly drawn from two major sources. Poynter’s database of seminar and workshop attendees was the basis for the alumni sample: first it was cleaned of student names (high school and university) and then it was randomly-sampled for both the mail-out and online portion of the survey. (NOTE: All potential respondents outside the U.S. were included in the online survey.) For the non-alumni sample, a set of industry association lists were merged (Poynter’s non-alumni list, Bacon’s, SND, NABJ, NAHJ, IRE, RTNDA, AAJA) and randomly sampled.
In all, 7,004 surveys were mailed out during the weeks of November 17 and 24, 2003, and the online portion commenced with email invitations sent to 5,317 individuals on December 2, 2003. Responses were collected until December 29, 2003. The final sample comprises of 2,552 respondents: 809 Poynter alumni (a 25.4 percent response rate) and 1,743 non-alumni (a 19.1 percent response rate).
In short, 60 percent of the responses were obtained from individuals working in print (daily or weekly newspapers and magazines), 27 percent from those working in broadcast (television and radio) and 13 percent from other related journalistic organizations, including online, trade groups, and news services.
All phases of the research (i.e.: questionnaire and sample design, cleaning/keypunching of the database, transcription and coding of verbatim responses, data tabulation and analysis) were completed by Urban & Associates, Inc. The size of the sample, as well as the strict quality controls imposed at each step of the process, mean that on sampling procedures, interviewing and data processing, mean that at the total market level, the percentages contained in this report are statistically accurate to within +/- 2 to 3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

journalism-practices-need-change-digital-media

journalism-practices-need-change-digital-media

In the days of print, archives of past news articles were only accessible via microfiche or an expensive subscription to an online archive service like Lexis-Nexus.
Now, when most articles are published and stored online, later to be indexed by Google, anyone's history in print is easily subject to search. An error or misreport attached to an individual's name can last much longer than the original week in print in a newspaper.
A former student at Seattle Pacific University has brought this issue into the public spotlight, requesting an archived article in the university newspaper about a dropped attempted sexual assault charge be removed. Standard journalism practice has long been to never issue a retraction unless the story is wrong, and due to the nature of print, issue it as a secondary article. The shift to online journalism, however, changes the playing field for both media outlets as well as those profiled in articles.Shakespear Feyissa was profiled in the Seattle Pacific University's student newspaper 10 years ago, when discussing alleged discrimination after he was suspended indefinitely from the school, even after charges of attempted sexual assault were dropped. Now, according to the Seattle Times, Feyissa wants the article removed from the student newspaper's Web archive, and the editors are refusing to budge. For Feyissa, who finds references to the article in top results on search engines for his name, the reports of a case that was dropped is a blight on his record resulting in women Googling and refusing to date him. As a lawyer, clients looking to hire him may balk at being represented by someone who was accused of attempted sexual assault.The Online Journalism Review from the Annenberg School for Communication is tackling this new issue in a article questioning whether or not editors should remove content online. The standard response of "we don't pull stories" was based on a print paradigm. The ease of internet searches digging up old content might demand a new way of retracting or updating articles -- especially when charges of a crime are usually big news but dropping those charges are not ranked as high.
One commenter on the Online Journalism Review piece noted that Japan already has policy in place for dealing with this issue; the regional daily that he works for pulls all crime-related articles after a year. Another commenter suggests going back and adding an addendum to any story where the charges were dropped or the accused was acquitted, but how realistic is this in the fast-moving online news space? It's easy to miss follow-ups to any story, especially if you aren't the original reporter.There is a generation coming up who may face the same situation as Feyrissa, either with things users wish they'd never posted or situations users found themselves in that they wish would disappear. Would it really be a violation of journalism ethics to pull stories after a period of time, since that would include those found guilty as well as those found not guilty? Is it acceptable to add an update to the article for those found not guilty or whose charges are dropped? Or should we rely on the relatively new industry of social media monitoring and SEO techniques to simply bury stories we find unacceptable?

From the inbox of Mr Rakesh Praveer, a senior journalist, based in Patna

Young Journos Do Have a Future -- If They Are Nimble

Young Journos Do Have a Future -- If They Are Nimble

Managing one's own expectations about career development is tricky right now, but the news industry's challenges are never so acute as when you have to explain them to hopeful, idealistic student journalists. After E&P introduced our new feature on the "new New Journalism" last week, and solicited feedback, I received several notes from people who were concerned about how to train and inspire newbies. As one radio news director in Alabama put it: "We're trying to balance efforts to serve our listening audience and serve a different web audience while trying to be innovative in our coverage and presentation. Students have asked me about where journalism is going, and I have to tell them that I don't have a solid idea about that right now."This has been on my mind as well after a recent talk I gave at my alma mater to the UCLA Daily Bruin newspaper staff. Notebooks in hand, the students peppered me with questions about whether graduate school was worth it and if the news was destined to be a sea of dumbed-down sound bites. In such situations, it's important to take the opportunity to lead by example and show an attitude of poise and business savvy. It's counterproductive and histrionic to kowtow to the doomsayers who forecast the industry's assured demise, and most people expressing such bleak opinions are lacking in business sensibilities. The same arguments were made about radio, and even movies, after television arrived; innovation and change simply means that a market is changing and a product must adapt. Instead of feeding into fears, consider teaching someone a lifelong career skill that applies to all industries: versatility. It's baffling how many journalists, who comb through countless angles to produce a thoughtful story, are actually one-trick ponies. Of course, there's a reason why Scarlett Johanssen's CD of Tom Waits covers is not as popular as her box office blockbusters, and a committed journalist doesn't want to become a jack-of-all-trades/master-of-
none. But as a former Huffington Post colleague who now works at a major daily pointed out to me after I shared some of the email responses to last week's introduction: "When newspapers are looking to make layoffs they're looking for the people who a) make the most money and do the least, but b) don't have a well-rounded skill set." This is exactly what I told the Bruin staff: There will always be a great career for people who can gather accurate facts and present them fairly, you just have to make a concerted effort to train yourself to be a storyteller in any medium. Practice being comfortable on camera, listen to NPR or Blog Talk Radio, and know web strategy and programming basics. More importantly, though, is that versatility cannot end with editorial skills. I was aghast when I asked the Bruin staffers how many of them knew what a CPM was and my question was met with resounding silence. Same for an Alexa ranking or Google Analytics. Viewing the news through a myopic editorial lens is prohibitive to success. Even one of my very editorially-minded former Chicago Tribune colleagues suggested in an email exchange recently:"You know what young people wanting to go into journalism should really do? Spend their energy figuring out how to make money (i.e. pay for the creation of) for the content news organizations are providing now … We all know a model where content is expensive to create but free to consume is a broken model; and if you don't pay for experienced journalists and for the costs of newsgathering (security in Iraq, for example, or travel costs to follow the presidential campaign), the content that is so widely consumed now … will ultimately suffer. Seriously, the person who figures out the revenue model for 21st century journalism (on all its platforms) will be a hero in the industry along the lines of Gutenberg with his printing press."Talking about advertising revenue and branding strategies may seem inappropriate to some, but there's nothing unethical about being informed or acting strategically to preserve the product of quality news reporting. Rather it is a concerned journalist's responsibility to work outside the silos to facilitate understanding and generate potential solutions that protect the principles of credibility and substance. Journalists are the ones with that unique editorial perspective, which is why we have to push hardest.
I agreed with a 26-year-old beat reporter from Missouri who wrote to me: "In all areas of the newspaper (editorial, circulation, marketing, advertising), the people who have lacked innovation to change the industry to the changing needs of readers are the same people who are largely still in charge."So we should probably encourage the kiddos to boldly pursue their dreams while planning to be critical, vocal, participants in the innovation process once they're on the job. Then we should heed our own sage advice.

A Different Way to Pay for the News You Want

A Different Way to Pay for the News You Want
By SARAH KERSHAW
NEW YORK TIMES, August 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/weekinreview/24kershaw.html?ref=business
You think your local water supply is polluted. But you're getting the runaround from local officials, and you can't get your local newspaper to look into your concerns. What do you do?
A group of journalists say they have an answer. You hire them to investigate and write about what they find.
The idea, which they are calling "community-funded journalism," is now being tested in the San Francisco Bay area, where a new nonprofit, Spot Us, is using its Web site, spot.us, to solicit ideas for investigative articles and the money to pay for the reporting. But the experiment has also raised concerns of journalism being bought by the highest bidder.
The idea is that anyone can propose a story, though the editors at Spot Us ultimately choose which stories to pursue. Then the burden is put on the citizenry, which is asked to contribute money to pay upfront all of the estimated reporting costs. If the money doesn't materialize, the idea goes unreported.
"Spot Us would give a new sense of editorial power to the public," said David Cohn, a 26-year-old Web journalist who received a $340,000, two-year grant from the Knight Foundation to test his idea. "I'm not Bill and Melinda Gates, but I can give $10. This is the Obama model. This is the Howard Dean model."
Those campaigns revolutionized politics by using the power of the Web to raise small sums from vast numbers of people, making average citizens feel a part of the process in a way they had not felt before. In the same way, Spot Us hopes to empower citizens to be part of a newsgathering enterprise that, polls show, many mistrust and regard as both biased and elitist.
Other enterprises have found success with this approach, which, in the Internet age, has become known as "crowdfunding." This financing model takes its name from crowdsourcing, a method for using the public, typically via the Internet, to supply what employees and experts once did: information, research and development, T-shirt designs, stock photos, advertising spots. In crowdsourcing, the people supply the content; in crowdfunding, they supply the cash.
Charities have used crowdfunding, not necessarily under that name, for years. And one Hollywood studio, Brave New Worlds, is financing its movies by soliciting people over the Internet to pay for them before they are made.
The Spot Us experiment comes, not coincidentally, as newspapers around the country lay off reporters and editors by the hundreds and scale back their coverage to cope with a financial crisis brought about, in no small measure, by the rise of the Internet. Another experimental venture, Pro Publica, a nonprofit group led by Paul Steiger, a former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, is being bankrolled by several major foundations to pursue investigative projects that it will then offer to newspapers and magazines.
Spot Us plans to post its articles on its Web site and give them to newspapers that want to publish them. If a newspaper wants exclusive rights to an article, the paper will have to pay for it.
Critics say the idea of using crowdfunding to finance journalism raises some troubling questions. For example, if a neighborhood with an agenda pays for an article, how is that different from a tobacco company backing an article about smoking? (Spot Us limits the amount any one contributor can give to no more than 20 percent of the cost of the story.)
But Jeff Howe, a contributing editor at Wired Magazine whose book "Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business" is being published this month said: "It's not like the crowd is killing the newspaper. Lots of things are killing the newspaper. The crowd is at once a threat to newsrooms, but it's also one of several strategies that could help save the newspapers."
In an early test of its concept, Spot Us solicited ideas on its Web site and raised $250 for an article examining whether California can meet its ethanol demand. That might not pay the weekly phone bill for a lot of reporters. But for its newest project, Spot Us has raised nearly all of the $2,500 it says it will need to fact-check political ads in the coming local elections in San Francisco. "We need 12 more people to donate $25," the site said on Friday.
Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University who is working with Mr. Cohn and who began his own experimental journalism site last year using the public's collaboration in news gathering, Assignment Zero (zero.newassignment.net), has been a leading critic of the traditional model of reporting. Now, with the industry's financial troubles, he may have a more receptive audience.
"The business model is broken," he said. "We're at a point now where nobody actually knows where the money is going to come from for editorial goods in the future. My own feeling is that we need to try lots of things. Most of them won't work. You'll have a lot of failure. But we need to launch a lot of boats."

ON_PUBLIC_DEMAND

Wait

VICTIMS of domestic violence

Nearly 60% of married women in Bihar are victims of domestic violence, the highest in India, according to a survey by the Union Health and Family Affairs Ministry.

An alarming 59% of married women in Bihar suffer domestic violence with 50% of wives enduring physical violence, 19% sexual violence, 2% emotional abuse and 59% experiencing both physical and sexual violence.

The national average for violence against married women is 37%, according to the National Family Health survey which was released recently.

Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh jointly occupy second place with 46% spousal violence.
Manipur comes a close third with 44 per cent, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu (42%),
West Bengal and Assam (40%), Arunachal Pradesh (39%) and Orissa (38%).

The Union Health and Family Affairs Ministry, covered 3818 women and 1214 men in Bihar between April and July 2006.



--

Newspaper cos Q1 net may have risen marginally

INDIA:
Newspaper cos Q1 net may have risen marginally
HT Media, which publishes English daily 'Hindustan Times' is expected to post a 2 percent rise in net profit to 349 million rupees and net sales of 3.18 billion rupees. Net sales are seen to grow 16 percent according to the poll.
The company also publishes business newspaper 'Mint' and is expanding the presence of its Hindi newspaper 'Hindustan'.Advertising will lead revenue growth for HT and its operating margins could contract 130 basis points year-on-year to 19 percent, the Prabhudas Lilladher report said.
Newspaper publishers Deccan Chronicle Ltd are likely to post a marginal rise in net profit as higher newsprint costs ate into margins during the quarter to June, analysts said.A shortage of newsprint supply because of a consolidation in the global newsprint industry and higher demand because of the U.S. presidential elections and the Beijing Olympics has pushed up prices of the raw material, analysts said.
The two events see higher advertisement and news coverages requiring more usage and demand for newsprint, analysts said."There has been a demand-supply mismatch for newsprint... these prices will have an effect on this quarter and the pressure will only increase in the following quarters," said an analyst with a local brokerage, who declined to be named.A shortage of waste print used in China's newsprint plants, rising fuel prices and a volatile rupee during the first six months of 2008, which pushed up import costs, also affected newsprint prices, analysts said.Newsprint cost has increased by 45 percent in the year to the beginning of July to $975 a tonne from $675 a tonne, brokerage Pradhubas Lilladher said in a report.Deccan Chronicle imports all its newsprint requirements while HT media imports 70 percent of newsprint requirements, a report by brokerage Motilal Oswal said.Deccan Chronicle is expected to post a net profit growth of just 4 percent to 872 million rupees while net sales will grow 43 percent to 2.48 billion rupees in April-June, according to a Reuters poll of brokerages.
Deccan Chronicle has launched a Bangalore edition of its English daily Deccan Chronicle and financial newspaper 'Financial Chronicle' in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, resulting in margins getting squeezed by launch expenses, analysts said.Deccan Chronicle is to post its results on July 29.Going forward, the newspaper companies will also face a possible slowdown in revenue growth because of slowing economic growth, said the analyst at the local brokerage.In the September quarter, margins will be squeezed further by newsprint costs, analysts said."It (newsprint prices) will remain at this level or go up 3-4 percent. It will go down once the Olympics end and demand starts coming down," said another analyst also declining to be named.
SOURCE: IN.REUTERS.COM
Mr Rakesh Praveer is senior journalist based in Patna.

Newspaper cos Q1 net may have risen marginally

INDIA: Newspaper cos Q1 net may have risen marginally

HT Media, which publishes English daily 'Hindustan Times' is expected to post a 2 percent rise in net profit to 349 million rupees and net sales of 3.18 billion rupees. Net sales are seen to grow 16 percent according to the poll.

The company also publishes business newspaper 'Mint' and is expanding the presence of its Hindi newspaper 'Hindustan'.

Advertising will lead revenue growth for HT and its operating margins could contract 130 basis points year-on-year to 19 percent, the Prabhudas Lilladher report said.

Newspaper publishers Deccan Chronicle Ltd are likely to post a marginal rise in net profit as higher newsprint costs ate into margins during the quarter to June, analysts said.

A shortage of newsprint supply because of a consolidation in the global newsprint industry and higher demand because of the U.S. presidential elections and the Beijing Olympics has pushed up prices of the raw material, analysts said.

The two events see higher advertisement and news coverages requiring more usage and demand for newsprint, analysts said.

"There has been a demand-supply mismatch for newsprint... these prices will have an effect on this quarter and the pressure will only increase in the following quarters," said an analyst with a local brokerage, who declined to be named.

A shortage of waste print used in China's newsprint plants, rising fuel prices and a volatile rupee during the first six months of 2008, which pushed up import costs, also affected newsprint prices, analysts said.

Newsprint cost has increased by 45 percent in the year to the beginning of July to $975 a tonne from $675 a tonne, brokerage Pradhubas Lilladher said in a report.

Deccan Chronicle imports all its newsprint requirements while HT media imports 70 percent of newsprint requirements, a report by brokerage Motilal Oswal said.

Deccan Chronicle is expected to post a net profit growth of just 4 percent to 872 million rupees while net sales will grow 43 percent to 2.48 billion rupees in April-June, according to a Reuters poll of brokerages.

Deccan Chronicle has launched a Bangalore edition of its English daily Deccan Chronicle and financial newspaper 'Financial Chronicle' in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, resulting in margins getting squeezed by launch expenses, analysts said.

Deccan Chronicle is to post its results on July 29.

Going forward, the newspaper companies will also face a possible slowdown in revenue growth because of slowing economic growth, said the analyst at the local brokerage.

In the September quarter, margins will be squeezed further by newsprint costs, analysts said.

"It (newsprint prices) will remain at this level or go up 3-4 percent. It will go down once the Olympics end and demand starts coming down," said another analyst also declining to be named.

SOURCE: IN.REUTERS.COM




Mr Rakesh Praveer is a senior journalist based in

PITATH Banyan Miracle-- the boy who saw the tree getting up

Dear Friends
The links below are of the recent photos posted on the PHOTOBUCKET site.
For any other informations pl call +91 9835071205.
The below link is of the boy who saw the huge tree trunk getting up on its own and he ran away for safety. But it is MIRACLE
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/1215968533.jpg
The below link is of the father and son who sold the dry tree for five thousand and the great trunk was to be lifted within a day or two but the MIRACLE happened. Earlier the small branches which were used for baking brick by the 'nonias' were of no use as not a single brick got ready. It was futile attempt. Now the poor fellows come with flowers and prasads to offer and are happy as they feel their fate will change for the better. The old man in picture is around eighty plus and his great grand father planted the tree. He was told by his grand father by that time the tree was big enough to cater to the needs of the passersby.
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/1215968534.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968699.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968703.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968701.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968696.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968557.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968553.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968556.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968549.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968552.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968545.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968538.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968542.jpg

FLYING FOR YOUR PEACE_I am tired yet I fly for U

If peace is here why should we get tired.
Sorry we are trying our best
अब प्रयास ही न कर सकते हैं
लोगों से कह सकते हैं
रेकुएस्ट कर सकते हैं
चलो यार हमलोग कुछ तो कर रहें हैं
उनलोगों से तो बहुत अच्छे हैं
जो लोग मेरी सिकायत करते हैं मेरे पीछे
व्हो कार्स वे फॉर वर्ल्ड एंड उनिवेरसे इस फॉर उस।
पास विल काम ओने डे
वे अरे वेटिंग फॉर थे ग्रेट डे
अरे यू

CHAUTHAKHAMBA

Dear Friends

This is our logo please send your comments and suggestions.
You may send postal mail to
Desk Officer
Fourth Estate Foundation
POST BOX No 67
Patna 800 001
INDIA

For any other informations pl call +91 9835071205.

PITATH BATESHWARNATHG NEW PHOTOS

Dear Friends
The links below are of the recent photos posted on the PHOTOBUCKET site.
For any other informations pl call +91 9835071205.
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968715.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968714.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968712.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968710.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968708.jpg
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn286/pitath/?action=view¤t=1215968704.jpg

Sexual and reproductive health among youth in Bihar and Jharkhand

Sexual and reproductive health among youth in Bihar and Jharkhand:
An overview of the sexual and reproductive health of young people in India Authors: S. J. Jejeebhoy Publisher: Economic and Political Weekly, India, 2007
Full text of document
This article published in Economic and Political Weekly is the first of a series of papers that explores the sexual and reproductive health situation among young people in Bihar and Jharkhand, India. It highlights positive changes in the sexual and reproductive health situation in India including declining infant mortality, increased access to skilled attendance at birth, and declining unmet need for contraception. However, the country is also experiencing stagnating levels of maternal mortality, an increase in the spread of sexually transmitted infections, most notably HIV, and the misuse of prenatal diagnostic techniques for sex selection. The paper shows that Bihar and Jharkhand lag behind other states in most indicators of sexual and reproductive health. Compared to other states in India, women marry early, are less likely to use contraception and less likely to have access to pregnancy related care. Key conclusions of the series include:
young people engage in unsafe sex and are vulnerable to risky sexual and reproductive health outcomes
lack of awareness, social support and access to appropriate services are key factors that inhibit safe practices and prompt treatment seeking
many socio-cultural and systematic obstacles deny women access to quality care, and judgemental and insensitive provider attitudes in public health facilities deters women from seeking care in these facilities

HOT_'the way to a man's heart is through his stomach'

Love food

Fri, Jul 4 01:35 AM
The much used adage 'the way to a man's heart is through his stomach,' has been given a full turn in the Recipes for the Kamasutra. The philosophy that guides these recipes aims to bring sex straight into the kitchen, and expects to entice both men and women through aphrodisiacal ingredients and sensual food art.

The author, Komal Taneja, has conducted a foraging tour, searching out a variety of ingredients that tantalise the libido through external and internal stimulation. From innocuous fruits like the phallic banana, or the fleshy peach, to the various chilies and spices, the making of these recipes is aimed to evoke the cry of desire right from the onset.

The preludes to the recipes include text passages that arouse the senses even before the reader gets to the ingredients. And if that's not good enough, pictures from the real Kamasutra are thrown in to ensure that no leaf is left unturned in making the time spent in the kitchen as sensual as the journey post prandial.
The 60-odd recipes themselves look curiously different, yet captivating, and easy to prepare.

Divided by courses, they can be made for any hour of the day.
Between the pictures of the Kamasutra and the exotic food photography by Shailan Parker, the book is designed to make the gastronomical juices as well as the blood flowing. You may want to display it on your coffee table, but the kitchen (or the bedroom) may actually be the best permanent place for it.

MIRACLE BARGAD (Banyan) TREE in Pitath

The big Banyan tree which fell down in a strong strom some two years back. It was just a chance that I got it clicked and saved in my Mobile camera phone. I tried to convince many electronic media people about the MIRACLE but no one believed. One of them even said aesha ho hi nahi sakta. One TV jurno said Delhi ne mana karwa diya hai. Well the below pictures tell the real story. The mediamen who are visiting the spot saying aesha bhi hota hai kaliyug mein. The branches were taken away by innocent people of the village and only the heavy root and trunk was left. As it was too heavy to be lifted and one thing more with no bridge on the CHHERA river there is no way for taking the help of tractor or any other heavy motorised machine to lift the tree trunk. Its a MIRACLE.

Its a miracle. The above picture shows the tree in straight position. No physical power was used to lift it like that. Well the faith of the people is so strong that puja and hawan is going on from the day on ie 20 JUNE 2008, Friday.

The huge trunk from a close range shot. The picture tells the story.

Devotees offering puja. Now the news have spread to far of places first, thanks to the cellular companies for providing tele network in the remotest village Pitath. The scene is like lut sake to lut prabhu ki maya bat rahi hai. All relatives were informed and those living outstation and abroad are rushing in just to have the ashirvad. Most of the local people suffering from several diseases and ailments are cured by the grace of PRABHUJI and the number of devotees is increasing everyday.

NAMAH SHIVAY NAMAH SHIVAY NAMAH SHIVAY NAMAH SHIVAY NAMAH SHIVAY NAMAH SHIVAY NAMAH SHIVAY NAMAH SHIVAY NAMAH SHIVAY NAMAH SHIVAY NAMAH SHIVAY

DEAR ALL

Miracles do happen in this yuga also.

GREETINGS from Pitath, Bhojpur. May the greatest /blessings of MAHADEVJI be with you always I am writing this mail from PITATH a village some twenty kms west of Hari Gaon in Bhojpur district of Bihar , India. Pitath is 122 kms in west of Patna and about 55 kms from ARA the district HQs of Bhojp\ur. Bhojpur is in BIHAR, Bihar is ruled by Mr Nitish Kumar (Chief Minister). Earlier it was Mr Lalu Yadav and Mrs Rabri Devi managing the state of affairs in Bihar.

Interestingly the village is locted very near to Hari Gaon. Hari Gaon i srelated to Mauritius. The Honourable Prime Minister recently visited Hari Gaon. And just a little ahead of it the miracle has taken place. I am sending the report published in the local Hindi daily. The miracle__ there was an old banyan tree which fell down in a storm. The local people cut all its branches and took all the woods for cooking food. It so happened on Friday morning (JUNE 20, 2008) the tree all of a sudden got up on its own.

A boy who was sitting nearby saw it and ran away fearing something unusual was happening. He informed the villagers and it was a miracle.The people started doing puja and offering prashad.The local newspapers carried the report in the next day edition.

By that time the crowd started growing. I am also in possession of photo of the tree which was lying flat on the ground till Thursday(June 19, 2008).

I took the photo to highlight degrading environment.

The faith of people in miracle even in this kaliyuga is strengthened.

The people who don't believe in miracle should come and see the miracle on their own.

My purpose of sending mail to your excellency is to see for yourself the miracle of SHIVJI. Mahadevji's kind blessing is there and it will be very nice of your excellency to visit the place and get Prabhuji's blessings.

Thanking you with profound regards.
GANESH Upadhyay,

Journalist and Social Activist

patnag@gmail.com

+91 9835071205
+91 9334669833

+91 9431848786

Call me anytimePatna

PITATH Banyan tree

MIRACLE_Banyan tree got up on its own

MIRACLE_Banyan tree got up on its own

CHAUTHAKHAMBA_Media outsourcing attracts ire of US brigade

Media outsourcing attracts ire of US brigade
Ravi Menon in Bangalore

June 03, 2008 13:24 IST

For instance, a digital advertising contract between India's second largest IT services provider Infosys Technologies and a major American newspaper group is threatening to become a rallying point for the brigade to regroup and renew attacks on outsourcing of management information systems (MIS) and key operations-related work to India.Infosys Technologies, according to sources, signed an advertising outsourcing deal with Missouri-based Kansas City Star sometime last month. The daily, a part of the McClatchy Company that also publishes the Miami Herald, will outsource advertising production work for its new media/digital business to Bangalore.
An industry source claimed that City Star would be outsourcing its entire digital advertising team to Infosys [Get Quote]. "While the deal is not substantial in terms of payback, over the next three to five years, City Star has been looking at gaining the economy of scale in its production set-up over the past year by outsourcing digital media production across a few of its publications to different vendors," the source said.
On the daily's website, City Star President and Publisher Mark Zieman said the move is expected to reduce the number of employees in the newspaper's advertising services department by up to nine.
"Given the historic transformation going on in our industry, the Star must continue to find ways to run more efficiently in every area," Zieman wrote, adding that all creative work for print and online advertisers would continue to be handled inhouse. "Of course, our advertising customers will continue to interact with our local sales and design representatives," Zieman said.
Zieman did not respond to an e-mailed questionnaire on the deal. An Infosys spokesperson, when contacted, refused to elaborate on the terms and duration of the agreement with the Star, saying that the company does not respond to queries on individual contracts.
Infosys is not the lone vendor in this case. Holdings of McClatchy, the third largest media conglomerate in the US, include the Miami Herald, the Star Tribune, Sacremento Bee, and the Raleigh News & Observer.
The first three dailies have outsourced a part of their advertising production to Express KCS, which runs a production centre in Gurgaon. A few publications owned by MediaNews Group Inc, including the San Jose Mercury News, are known to be among KCS' customers.
In February this year, publishing company Gannet Co Inc outsourced digital ad production work for group newspapers Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and Press & Sun-Bulletin, among other papers, to 2AdPro, a division of Bangalore-based content services vendor Ninestars Information Technology Ltd. Ninestars has global delivery centres in Chennai and Kancheepuram with software development and R&D work done out of Bangalore.
Earlier, The Miami Herald and San Francisco Chronicle, a Hearst Communications Inc publication, briefly flirted with the idea of outsourcing a substantial portion of editorial design work, including copy editing and page layout, to New Delhi-based Mindworks.
Both were quick to drop the plan in the face of stiff opposition from their rank and file, and hyperventilation on the topic from the local press. Now, it's the turn of advertising executives, ad production designers and graphic artists to quake in their shoes at the thought of their jobs getting outsourced to India.
The global market for multimedia digitisation services, which includes digital advertising production, currently stands at $2 billion, growing at over 30 per cent annually, according to experts. Indian companies are targetting an addressable market of 8-10 per cent by 2010. Not big by the hefty software exports target of $50 billion for that year, though a good handle for the outsourcing doomsayers to clobber Indian tech vendors with.
http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/jun/03bpo1.htm

CHAUTHAKHAMBA_The problem that is the media

The problem that is the media
T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan

Between 1980 and 1997, I was a full-time journalist. Since then I have been a columnist for this newspaper. This takes up, on average, about three hours a day. In the remaining time, I do a bit of this and a bit of that and it is great fun.
But since my primary identity has been of a journalist, it is not surprising that people should complain to me about the media as if I can do something about it. Initially, I would defend my professional colleagues as being more sinned against than sinning. But not any longer because I think the journalists have a lot to answer for.
So I have decided to devote this article to the media, for two reasons. The first is that 11 years is a long enough time for me to be able to stop defending my former professional colleagues. Second, in the last few months, there has been a steep increase in the number of times people have voiced very deep dis-satisfaction with the media.
Thus, when people complain, it turns out very quickly that they are complaining about television. Print is usually less complained against.
Second, if you ask enough questions, it turns out that most of the complaints are occasioned by irritation rather than a factual mistake in reporting. That perhaps explains why there are fewer complaints against print, which irritates no one except those about whom it has got the facts wrong. They, of course, are incensed but it is only by chance that one gets to meet them when they are really angry. Some, of course, phone to protest.
Third, in the financial press � about which I can claim to know something � it is not mala fide (as is often assumed) but plain old fashioned ignorance that lies at the heart of the problem. This is not to say there are no bent journalists. But they are far fewer now than a decade ago.
Ignorance manifests in some strange ways. For example, a day before the RBI increased the interest rates, the largest circulated newspaper in the country reported that no such thing was even being contemplated. And when the increase was actually announced, the reporter on the largest-viewed business channel just lost it, saying the RBI had misled the markets because it had said that it "soothing" things just the previous day. Recently, a well-reputed newspaper carried a report on page one that every dollar that India accumulated between April and June cost it Rs 169 per dollar. The actual figure was less than Rs 43.
Fourth, there has been a staggering increase in the number of publications, and with it, a corresponding increase in the number of columnists, that is writers who have a fixed space reserved for them in the publication. The result is that persons with very little understanding, leave alone comprehension, have become pundits, writing pretty much what they please. (Many people believe I am one of them but a pox on them).
Fifth, with only a few exceptions, there has been a general devaluation of the editorial. Few papers ever took them seriously but now in most newspapers it has become just one more hole in the page to be filled. And, what is worse, many important newspapers, it has become a vehicle for airing the personal opinion of the editor, rather than that of some group or class interest, which is what the editorial used to do in the past. Two striking examples of this are worth citing.
One is the manner in which the nuclear deal has been written about by a leading newspaper from the south - India will become a US pawn in that country's battle against China. The other was the view, expressed repeatedly, in a BJP paper from Delhi that the exit of Nepal's monarch was a blow against Hindus, quite disregarding the fact that those who voted the monarch out were themselves Hindus. There has also been a steep decline in the intellectual quality of the persons charged with writing editorials because it costs so much to hire a clever, well-read and sensible writers.
Sixth, the proliferation of TV channels and its hit-and-run nature has meant the deployment of a vast army of the untutored persons who not only report the news but also, as they babble along, give opinions, usually in response to some inane question from the anchor. But, as I said, these persons are merely irritating. It is the print media that hurts more.
I can go on but the short point is clear: those who complain against the media have a much stronger case today than they did in the past. It is the media, particularly television, which has to take corrective steps. The policy only maximising viewership matters has resulted in people not watching the news as much as they used to - they read the ticker underneath instead.
In the old days they used to shoot the messenger who brought bad news. Now the messengers are shooting themselves.