Magis May, 2016

magis

may 2016

magis

| lesson on ethics

knowledge works

The orator

Shekhar Gupta, Chairman & Founding

Editor of Mediascape Group

Topic

Changing Role of Media in

Today’s India

Mr. Gupta shared his experiences from his

almost 40-year-long career as a journalist

and talked about the evolution of media

and its role through the years. He ob-

served, “Truth never hurts anybody, but

where there is nobody to tell the truth,

rumours become the truth.” Discussing

about both the positive and negative sides

of media and news reporting system in

India today, he said that ‘a painful and

noisy media is anytime better than a bunch

of lies’. Any normal citizen with a smart-

phone can have access to media, thus

becoming a part of the media. However,

he also expressed concern over media

houses being run by people with money

and power for vested interests.

dignitaries at the event

The session was attended by TV Nar-

endran, Chairman, Board of Governors,

XLRI and MD, Tata Steel India and South

East Asia, Fr E Abraham, SJ, Director of

XLRI, Dr. Pranabesh Ray, Dean [Academ-

ics] at XLRI and Fr Oswald Mascarenhas,

SJ, JRD Tata Ethics Chair, Professor of

Business Ethics at XLRI.

views on ethics

Fr. E Abraham, SJ

, said, “While Eth-

ics is a set of principles of right conduct

or a system of moral principles, business

ethics in particular can be regarded as the

study of business situations, activities, and

decisions where issues of right and wrong

are addressed.”

TV Narendran

, observed, “Ethics

encompasses the entire spectrum of human

conduct. However, today, ethical deficit

and lack of integrity in public affairs has

become such a major issue that public

confidence and trust in public officials and

private organizations have taken a severe

beating in our nation.

The oration

Ethics being an integral part of XLRI’s cur-

riculum is inculcated in the students through

conferences and seminars. The JRD Tata

Ethics Oration on Business Ethics is organ-

ised every year to encourage ethical code of

conduct among students, the business leaders

of tomorrow. Many eminent personalities

have used the platform to voice corporate

concerns and share their experience of facing

ethical challenges in their respective field.

This year, the 24th JRD Tata Oration, was

delivered by well-known journalist Shekhar

Gupta, Chairman and Founding Editor of

Mediascape Group at the Tata Auditorium on

24 November, 2015.

24th JRD

Tata Ethics

Oration

Tete-a-Tete with

Shekhar Gupta

Shekhar Gupta shares his views

about media and the onset of new

media journalism with members of

student society

ExLink

How was your experience at

XLRI? Did you enjoy the oration?

I enjoyed myself! There is nothing

a speaker likes more than a full hall.

I was happy that most of you stayed

on for the Q&A. They were quite

receptive. In fact, now you should

ask how the audience liked it!

Does corporate ownership of

media houses in any way affect

your editorial privilege?

To be honest, it can. In some cas-

es, it has – very few cases. But where

it has, journalists have made it evi-

dent that it has. So I think corporates

have also now realised that even if

you put money in a media organisa-

tion, they can’t use it, because the

dice is stacked against them. There

is always somebody else. Now what

is the power of an owner? The main

power of an owner is the platform.

But now platforms have become

social media as well – platforms are

free. So there has been a great em-

powerment of the journalist.

Since a lot of advertising has

shifted online, how has this af-

fected the bottom line of media

houses?

Everybody has to have an online

policy, and everybody has to have a

social media strategy. I think right

now in India newspapers are

surviving, but I think the next gen-

eration will not read newspapers.

Particularly in English – Hindi

might take another 15-20 years – but

really, everybody is shifting

online.

What about the trend of news

becoming shorter and shorter,

with applications like Twitter

and News Inshorts?

News Inshorts only gives you a

summary. But then if you’re inter-

ested, then you have to go back to

the story – it gives you a link, right?

Twitter is different, you can just go

and make your point on it. The im-

portant thing about Twitter is it helps

you intervene in a debate instantly.

But I would say a combination of all

these is very empowering.

How did the idea of Mediascape

come about, considering you

were engaged with big media

houses in the past?

I think, one, I got tired of doing

whatever I was doing – bored, more

than tired. Second, everybody wants

to build an institution in their life,

so we thought instead of rebuilding

institutions for others, we’ll build

something of our own. Also there

are some ideas of how certain things

can be done differently – at lower

cost and with better quality. So it’s a

fantasy, let us see. I just have a few

people working with me, and we’re

right now in the planning stage. So

with every week something new is

happening.

Any suggestions or advice you’d

like to give us, sir?

I think the most important thing is to

stay curious. Don’t take everything

like, ‘

ye bhi chalta hai

’. Stay curi-

ous, and stay interested.

Shekhar Gupta lights the inaugural lamp as (Second from left ) TV Narendran, Dr. Pranabesh Ray, Fr E Abraham, SJ, and Fr Oswald Mascarenhas, SJ, look on