Lessons from Rewari Girl Power - for Corpcom & Media

Call it the Bollywood blockbuster Dangal effect or the new awakening arising out of the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao slogan given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Over 90 girls from Gothra Tappa Dahina village in Rewari district of Haryana had gone on a hunger strike and won their relentless battle for upgrading their school to senior secondary level.

One after the other, the media has started taking interest but it remained mostly region centric. When India Today

TV and CNN NEWS 18 took up the cause at a later stage, the nation’s conscious was shaken. Nobody had to scream ‘the nation wants to know’. Haryana education minister Ram Bilas Sharma was forced to issue a notification to facilitate the higher secondary school for Gothra Thappa Dahina, which shot into limelight thanks to the girls’ agitation.

For detailed story, click:  http://reputationtoday.in/views/lessons-from-rewari-girl-power/

Rajdeep Sardesai? Who is he?

August 9, 2016 Richa Seth PR KnowHow, Vikypedia Exclusives, Weekly PR Roundup

Appalling GK levels of final year Mass Media students!

A Vikypedia Exclusive By B N Kumar

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Rajdeep Sardesai? Who is he?

No, I am not asking this question in the context of Arnab Goswami Vs Barkha Dutt episodes.

I am just trying to narrate my experiences at a Bandra (Mumbai) college that teaches Bachelor of Mass Media (BMM) course. I was flabbergasted when a final year student of BMM asked me this question!

Talking of crisis situations, I said any one could face crisis, people like Rajdeep Sardesai included. A well built, bearded young man, stretching his legs from the front row asked me: Who is Rajdep Sardesai.

Shocked though, I thought he was trying to tease me. But one of the college coordinators quickly said: “It’s okay. Not all of us know everything, right?”

Then, I quickly regained my consciousness and proceeded with my talk which part of the efforts by a Guest Faculty Pool that we at PRCI set up to share our experience and knowledge with the GenX.

When I asked the students as to what they wanted to know from me, there were several blank faces. I had to literally prompt them: “Seek, though shall get. Unless you ask, you won’t be able to communicate. After all, you are the final year students and tomorrow you will be facing the world.”

One girl mustered up courage to ask: “What are the various categories of PR or communication? What is corporate communication?”

I asked myself: Are these the questions that final year students of BMM should be asking? What was the college doing for two years?

As I went on addressing the blank faces, I dealt with the importance of following current affairs, depending on one’s interest “because you will be tested for your knowledge”.

Some nodded, some yawned, while the rest kept looking at me as though I am the cousin of that Penguin which landed in Mumbai zoo!

I asked: “Guys, general knowledge is important. How many of you read newspapers?”

Not many hands went up. One bold girl raised her hand.

No, she didn’t say Bombay Times. She said: Mumbai Mirror.

I asked: “So, Mumbai Mirror? How many pages do they devote for City news?”

Ummmmm…..and more murmurs in the hall…as the students exchanged blank looks, this girl in blue said: “two or three.” (Sorry, Meenal Baghel, to shoc you!)

I gave my audience some tips on reading the newspapers. “You can get your Mirror free if you buyThe Times of India and if you don’t want Mirror, you have the choice of getting ET or Maharashtra Times!”

For a second, I felt like Gajodhar addressing his village folk in the Eastern UP, narrating his experiences in an escalator in Mumbai!

Won’t they like to know about career prospects?

One boy asked: “Yes, sir. How difficult or easy is it to find jobs in PR or media?”

I spoke about the need for communication skills, knowledge of basic, grammatical English and so on and so forth and continued with my adventure: “How many of you have heard of Wren and Martin?”

Few hands went up! Not bad, I thought.

Appalling, it may sound. Most of this bunch of students did not appear to be serious about their course and from their attire they appeared to be out on a monsoon trek or a stroll in the Fashion Street, next door.

Finally, I gave one piece of take-it-or-leave-it advice: “Your parents can afford to pay for your higher studies. Consider yourselves to be lucky. I sincerely hope they are not looking at depending on you.”

(The author is Executive Director of Concept PR and National President of Public Relations Council of India – PRCI)

Social media can shake traditional media if…

• Rajdeep Sardesai Calls for tweets with responsibility
• Addresses launch event of unique knowledge platform PRact

MUMBAI, May 21, 2016: Battling hostile twitterati day in and out, veteran television journalist Rajdeep Sardesai has stressed that social media has the power to shake the traditional media out of its slumber.

File pic

Rajdeep lamented that the traditional media has been failing to focus on real issues impacting the society. “They need to go out into the streets and villages to find facts and report rather than confining themselves to their offices or studios,” he said launching PRact, a knowledge platform floated by Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) and Indian PR Forum (IPRF).

PRact, which stands for PR in Action held a debate on Disruption – How it impacts us, in association with Mumbai Press Club last night. Delegates came not only from Mumbai, but New Delhi and Hyderabad.

Taking time off from his election bulletins, Rajdeep addressed the delegates via telephone straight from his India Today TV studio in New Delhi.

Asked about tablodisation of TV journalism that pioneer TV anchor and his mentor Dr Prannoy Roy attacked, Rajdeep said every news channel has its own way of reporting. But he admitted that the TRP-hungry electronic media failed to address real issues. It is in this context that he said social media can mirror real issues since traditional media does pick up cues from Tweets and Facebook postings.

Amit Tripathi holding the audience spell bound!

When a delegate pointedly asked his as to why TV channels report about drought only when farmers commit suicide, he said “Unfortunately it is true” and asked: “How many of us actually go into the villages and study facts?”

On the usefulness of social media for PR professionals, Rajdeep said: “Yes, it is a good tool. You can effectively use social media for spreading your message and molding opinions. You should think of ways to communicate your message other than merely depending on your press releases.”

Audience engrossed in CHANAKYA - April 2016 issue

Noted digital platform professional Amit Tripathi, managing director of Ideate Labs, said in his presentation that PR and media professionals should be ready for pleasant surprises and shocks as the Internet population is set to multiply by leaps and bounds. “The day is  not far off when each one of us will be connected to six to seven devices such as mobile phones, laptops, ipads and desk tops,” he said and pointed out “this offers a huge potential for communicators to engage their target groups.”

“Digital PR will acquire importance only when you go beyond posting press releases online,” Amit said.

Piyush Jain,  Head – Research and Analytics at Adfactors, presented an analysis of reporting trends of HR related issues. “It is a folly to believe that media does not report

Piyush Jain

much on HR. We identified 316 journalists who report on HR across media, across India,” Piyush said showing his startling study results.

PRCI national president B N Kumar, executive director of Concept PR, said PRact will strive to bridge the knowledge gap among upcoming PR professionals. Vikram Kharvi, Founder of Indian PR Forum, said “This is just a beginning. Between PRCI and IPRF and with the help of Mumbai Press Club we will hold many workshops.” Vikram asked delegates to come up with ideas that will help enhance knowledge levels of PR professionals.

Mumbai Press Club president Prakash Akolkar appreciated the event as a “fantastic one” and said “we all learnt a lot about technology that is overtaking us.”

Getting Rajdeep from his busy election duty is a coup, said veteran journalist Jatin Desai.

PRCI is the premier national body of PR, media, advertising, HR professionals with close to 30 chapters pan India and abroad, while IPRF is India’s largest online community with over 25,000 Public Relations and Corporate Communications professionals across all social platforms.

Stay tuned for the upcoming session by PRact…

For any queries, please reach out to: practindia@gmail.com

(Event pix by D Ramcandran, Solus Media)

Spoof! Newstainment with a Twist!

Have the news channels become entertainment channels?.

I am not the only person to ask that.

 In fact, TV News anchor Rajdeep Sardesai himself told us at our Mumbai conclave in February 2014 that one could turn to News Channels for entertainment!

 The news channels seem to be losing their seriousness. In fact, BJP boycotted NDTV during the poll campaign on the pretext that the channel was not fair to them. Today, we hear some spokespersons threatening Times Now that they will not come to the channel as they are not allowed to speak.

 Even a student of mass communication feels that the news channels are not doing the right thing.

 My daughter, then doing her masters in mass communication, had this experience during a guest talk by Rajdeep. At the end of the talk and the Q & A, she musters enough courage and ask Rajdeep: Sir, why do some of you anchors do not allow your panelists to respond.

Rajdeep passes this question to Sagarika.

My daughter says: She is even worse!

Let me narrate another anecdote.

We had this interesting debate during the Press Club Mumbai’s Red Ink Awards for excellence in journalism last year.

Arnab, Rajdeep, Kumar Ketkar were the panelists and Piyush Pande, Chairman of Ogilvy, and Uday Shankar, Star TV CEO, were the moderators or anchors.

Uday began by saying: Arnab, Rajdeep and Kumar. The rules of this debate are: I will ask you a question. I will not allow you to answer and I will ask you more questions.

Arnab: Uday, you have begun it well. But you forgot one more rule of the game. You will ask a question. Answer it yourself. And ask more questions….

The topic was: ‘Elections 2014: Were We Fair, Or Did We Stoke the NaMo Wave?’

While Arnab and Rajdeep went about discussing the media’s role on propelling the wave, Piyush interrupted ….you may remember that it was Piyush’s Ogilvy that coined the catch phrase: Achhay Din Aanay Walay Hain.

Piyush said: Arnab and Rajdeep, please don’t credit yourselves for the wave. None of us created or stoked it. WE JUST RODE THE WAVE!

So much for credit snatchers and those who claim the highest TRPs.

It was interesting to see that all channels were claiming the Number 1 viewership position after the election results.

It is equally interesting to watch anchors like Rajdeep Sardesai attacking the race for TRPs among news channels?

We have called them the noise channels long ago.

Here is how it will look if we have a debate among news anchors and political party spokespersons.

Let me present an imaginary debate and let me start with a disclaimer: This debate that I am going to narrate is purely imaginary and fictitious and not to be taken seriously at all.

Don’t blame me if you find it real!

Now, the debate begins something like this.

Rajdeep: My son does not watch news channels.

Arnab Goswami: The nation wants to know why!

Barkha Dutt: It is quite sad. Don’t you feel terrible about it? It must be really disturbing.

Rajdeep: In this race for TRPs, we seem to be losing out. We are losing sense in sensationalizing the news.

Print journalist Kumar Ketkar: For you, everything is breaking news.

Rajdeep: Yes, Arvind Kejriwal leaves home…breaking news….Kejriwal reaches Jantar Mantar….breaking news

Arnab: I will not take this. You cannot pass judgement against me on my channel. My viewers know me well.

Barkha: We have different standards. But we can’t live in isolation.

Rajdeep: Breaking news is breaking down.

Karan Thapar: It is particularly disturbing to see all kinds of nonsense. You must explain.

Prannoy Roy: We have spent 25 years in reporting the news…they say the dot makes all the difference….Now let me ask my young friends on what they think of the news.

Rajdeep: My so does not watch news channels.

Arnab: Never ever. Never. Ever. Never Ever. Say such things. My viewers know me well. Now, let me open up this debate and….let me take this call from Chikamagalur.

Manish Tewari: With regards to your call, how many people watch English news channels? My information is that people in places like Eluru or Chakimagalur or Jumri Talayya do not even get to see English or Hindi news channels.

Rajdeep: Yes, regional media is exploding. But does this TRP race is spreading among them as well.

Barkha: I was in Kashmir. I could freely speak in English.

Arnab: Everyone on my channel speaks English. My Hindi isn’t all that good.

Mayank Gandhi (of AAP): The nation need not know this.

Karan Thapar (tightening his teeth): But, but….dont you think it is highly irresponsible on part of some viewers not to watch TV channels?

Arnab: This is undemocratic. The nation wants to know why this selective black out is happening.

Prannoy (holding his chin with his right palm): Let them have the freedom to chose what they want.

Rajdeep: Only in my newsroom, do we watch 20 news channels. And we have some 483 channels airing the news 24x7.

Subramaniam Swamy: Don’t say it so loud. Some parties will give multiple TV sets as freebies during the poll campaign.

Raghav Behl: That will be good for the economy. The FMCG industry may see growth. Dalal Street will look up.

Arnab, Barkha, Karan and Rajdeep try to say something and all that we could hear is noise. Swamy, Tewari and Gandhi just smile away.

-BNK