We have moved from the middle ages because of technology and the ease of communication due to technology has been the most remarkable transformation that we have seen which directly impacts the profession of journalism, Ayaz Memon, senior journalist and columnist said.
Delivering the Lawrence Dana Pinkham Memorial lecture 2022 on ‘Benefits and Challenges for the media in the age of technology’ at the Convocation of the Asian College of Journalism Class of 2021-22, Mr. Memon said technology has secularised and democratised the digital platforms and has put the onus on professional journalists to navigate through this ocean of information while remaining relevant.
Mr. Memon also said there was unequal importance given by some journalists to tweets as basis for their stories. “This is a source of concern. This is the laziest form of journalism,” he said.
Mr. Memon said irrespective of which field of journalism one was in, it was the greatest privilege in life to have a grandstand view of events, “for which even a family member or someone close to you might be ready to give a million bucks to be a part of”.
N. Ram, Director, THG Publishing Group Pvt Ltd and Trustee, ACJ, said the state of the news media and the state of journalism, while being closely related, were two different things and should not be conflated. “Everyone knows that the economics, ecosystem and ways of the news media have been disrupted in the most profound way in the digital age by the technological transformations and emergence and impact of the social media as a game changing behemoth”.
The ACJ journalism award for investigative journalism for 2021 was awarded to Shyamlal Yadav and Sandeep Singh of The Indian Express for their story on the Ayodhya Land Deals, while the K. P. Narayana Kumar Memorial Award for Social Impact Journalism for 2021 was awarded to Prema Sridevi and Himanshu Kalra for their documentary on Manual Scavengers. The ACJ also announced a new award category, The Ashish Yechury Memorial Award for Photojournalism in memory of its alumnus from the 2011 batch who lost his life to COVID-related complications.
