Is it one-sided coverage on J&K?

SEVANTI NINAN
In spite of the massive coverage in recent times, the point of view of the Kashmiris hasn’t found a voice in the media.
Arundhati Roy, who, like Arun Shourie, needs a lot of space to have her say, argues over seven pages in Outlook that the continued military occupation of Kashmir must stop, and that we have there a State whose younger generation ha s been “raised in a playground of army camps, checkposts and bunkers, with screams of torture chambers for a sound track”.
Vir Sanghvi and Swaminathan Aiyar assert in columns in the Hindustan Times and Times of India, after citing different sets of reasons, that the time has come to give Kashmiris the right to self-determination.
On Times Now, on prime time over two days, Arnab Goswami celebrates the patriotism of soldiers who have given their lives for Kashmir. On the day of his funeral, two children of an army officer are put on air to tell the channel’s viewers about their father, with Goswami goading them on. “Are you proud of your father, what would you like to tell people on our show today?” he asks the 11-year-old son. The next evening there is a special report, titled We love Kashmir Too, talking to the families of those officers who have lost their lives in Kashmir.
Voice of India
At the end, Sajjad Lone of the Peoples Conference is pitted against two elderly former officers. One of them voices the sentiment that India cannot leave Kashmir after it has been part of the country for 60 years, extremism etc. is all wrong, and “we are all brothers”. Says Goswami: “Sajjad this is the voice of India, it is very easy to have a TV debate where you pit people against one another (Hinting at Barkha’s Dutt’s show, is he?). This is the voice, Sajjad. You have talked about the sentiments of the people of Kashmir, what about these two, Sajjad.”
Sajjad says, in Kupwara there is a village of 250 widows in a population of 5,000. That is also the voice of Kashmir. If these men have been killed, the question that should be asked is, how can we trust the people of India? Whereupon, one of the two other men on the show says he has been supporting an orphan girl in Kashmir. Lone says that is gracious of him, but people from all over the world are supporting orphans in Kashmir.
Later in the show, Goswami displays more sanctimonious nationalism. Accusing Lone of trusting Rawalapindi more than Delhi, saying at some point that this sort of intolerance happens only in Pakistan while referring to what happened to Mojahirs. To which the PC leader says, if you talk of Mojahirs, I can talk of Gujarat and hundreds of communal riots here in last 15 years. Arnab Goswami then gives ..........

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Read more in The Hindu Magazine.

Print media is giving way to online media

The recent Fairfax announcement of significant job cuts at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald is another indication of the steady shift in the centre of gravity in the media world.
Traditional media are gradually giving way to online media. I used to do a newspaper column. I now do this blog.
Even politicians are sensing the structural shift that's occurring and responding accordingly. While Fairfax newspapers have lost revenue in classified advertising, Fairfax online businesses are growing strongly.
Governments are facing similar pressures and opportunities. As my responsibilities squarely cover the issues involved in how government functions, I've been spending some time working on serious reform options. We already use the opportunities that the web 2.0 world offers a bit, but we could be doing a lot more.
I'm in the early stages of organising a trial government blog. The purpose of the experiment will be to explore the possibilities for government participation in blogging. Meaningful government involvement in the blogosphere requires much more than just telling a bunch of public servants (or politicians) to get blogging.
A number of questions need to be thought through.
Should we set up our own blogs or just pop up on blogs that are already operating?
How much leeway should we give public servants to express opinions on behalf of the government?

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Read more in The Age ( theage.com)

Manav Gohil too, starts blogging

If filmstars can blog, so can our TV actors. Ram Kapoor proved it earlier. And now Manav Gohil has joined the band wagon.
Manav after being a succesful face on TV, has now moved towards Bollywood. And it was during the shooting of his first film Bhanvraa that the actor decided on blogging.
Well, it was not entirely his decision, so to say. The actor found it difficult to keep in touch with his fans, and when persuaded by one of them from Canada, the star finally started blogging.
Manav, known for his hibernation has decided to be regular with his blogs. In his first post he talked about his absence, his first film and a quote by his mentor. We hope, now his fans are happy!
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Read more in Buzz 18 on the Links for You.

Starting a Blogging Business that matters

What entrepreneurs shouldn’t forget is that blogging is just a style of writing, and that a blog is just a type of website.

Therefore, you should look at any company that monetizes editorial through advertising as a similar business.

However, a blogging business has many advantages over a traditional media business or even a traditional internet media business:

• It’s much simpler to start a blog than it is to start most types of websites. You can use software like WordPress to get started with minimum technical knowledge.

However, if you are starting a serious business you will most likely want to use the services of a development and design team to make sure everything looks great and works perfectly.

• It’s easier to drive traffic to a blog than to a traditional website. Bloggers are more inclined to link to their competitors, and therefore if you write good content you should be able to get coverage much quicker than other internet media businesses.

Also, when you get more links from other bloggers you will also get more search engine traffic too.

Tips For Creating A Blogging Business That MattersDon’t make your blog too reliant on you. Too many bloggers allow themselves to become the only recognisable face of their blog as they rise to internet stardom.

This is great at the initial stage; however it causes more of a problem when you want to focus on growing your business and less on being the face of your blog. This is also something that will put off any potential buyer.

Try to get writers on board that are able to earn an equally great reputation with your audience. Spend money on building a cool internet brand. Too many blogs are built on sub-par domain names, and have horrible looking designs. This is okay for your personal blog, but it’s not okay for your business blog.

Be prepared to spend some money on getting your blog design right, and making sure the back-end works fine too. If you don’t, you can be sure this is a decision you will regret further down the line.

Build contacts and get exclusives. Nothing builds a blog’s reputation like getting an exclusive on a story. And there are no ways to get exclusives other than having sources. If you start breaking stories, you will start to develop a formidable internet brand within your industry. Go to conferences, network, and use internet sources like LinkedIn to get put in touch with the players in the industry you write about.

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Read more in The Art of Blogging on the Links