Final year students, with Journalism-English-Communicative English combination, finished their exams. For them, one chapter is over!
Here is wishing them all well.
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New Academic Year
The 2005-06 academic year is over. With the exams coming to an end, next week, the College will prepare to receive its students back after a month. The new academic year 2006-07 will commence on 12 January 2006. The College awaits all its students, eagerly! Their presence makes the College come alive!
The Journalism students will have their regular classes from DAY ONE!
For Your Information
Remember: Girish Kasaravalli’s award-winning Haseena will be screened at Jyothi theatre on 30 April & 01 May 2006, Sunday, at 10.00 am. It is a rare chance to watch a meaningful and satisfying film!
That apart, those of you (my journalism students) interested in viewing some good and classic films, are cordially invited to do so. You could do call me and check the timings. I intend to screen one film a day, mostly in the afternoon (1.15 or so), on as many days as possible, beginning 2nd May. If you are interested, you could make use of the Dept. Library too, during those days for reading on your II & III Yr topics, to understand/ read more on films/ tv, radio, editing, etc. It’s a rare opportunity for you. Grab it with both hands!!
[Well, I already watched Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin and Pscho by Alfred Hitchcock. Both masterpieces. The originals. I liked them immensely. Sorry, cannot paste a write on them, for now. May be sometime in the future!!!
For the II & III Yr (2006-07) students: Kindly visit this blog for information regarding your classes and related issues.
Your seminar topics and requirements will be pasted here sometime in May, probably early May. Have a look; give a thought. Most of you might find it useful to come prepared. Lots of work, time, and energy can be saved for the next academic year. And you will enjoy that!
You have some good news: Fr Principal, as usual, has been extremely generous to the Dept of Journalism. He has gladly given us a brand new and state-of-the-art editing machine. The latest to arrive is, of course, 5.1 surround sound system. Dont’ be surprised, if -next year- you feel as if you have your classes in a good theatre, and are a part of your professional counterparts!
Most of you have finished your exams. Take good rest; enjoy your vacation and break. It would be a good idea to do some internship with some media agency. That will go a long way to spend some time creatively in the field. Doesn’t matter, if you have to go to the office and “do nothing”. Worth it, at this stage. Try to learn from what you see and experience, around.
For your next academic year, great things are awaiting you: a couple of big workshops, seminars, visits, and what not!
Have a great time. Keep in touch.
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Most of the students completed their exams. Probably, those with psychology optional have a paper on 2nd May. Whereas many are travelling today to their respective places, others are planning to do internships and such other things.
Welcome to the II & III Yr B.A. It will be a great year ahead, for you.
Haseena in Mangalore !!!
For those who missed some of the best in the film world, here is good news:
Girish Kasaravalli’s award winning Haseena will be screened in Jyothi theatre in Mangalore on 30 April & 01 May, 2006 at 10.00 am.
The film has English subtitles. Anyone with some interest would definitely enjoy the film, not just the art film lovers – even commercial film lovers would enjoy it.
Do make it a point to watch this film. It is worth it.
Rewarding the Brave Media Missionaries
Thank you for visiting our site. Keep coming again and again! Have U visited www.sacjournalism.blogspot.com? Mindspace versus market share BY SEVANTI NINAN
IT is intriguing to look at the mindspace a media brand garners for itself in relation to how well it does in terms of circulation, readership or viewership. Or what one might call market share. Usually the two go together, but there are exceptions. For more than a decade now the Indian Express has managed to retain public attention in the face of declining circulation fortunes. It has outstanding reporters and a tabloid approach to news. It does hard-hitting investigations and gives them feisty headlines. It has a high profile editor. It is quick to ride on the prevailing middle class sense of injustice when one of their own is killed, or fails to get justice. Be it Manjunath or Satyendra Dubey, Jessica Lal or Priyadarshini Mattoo, the Indian Express gets into campaign mode on their behalf very fast. It also does its share of exposes on the plight of the rural poor, such as its series on farmers’ suicides. Funny balance
When it launched journalism awards earlier this month in the name of Ramnath Goenka with generous cash prizes, it promoted them tirelessly in the newspaper and reiterated at every opportunity the Express was synonymous with excellence in journalism. The Prime Minister was at hand to lend weight to the exercise. The jury was impressive and the following Sunday the paper laid out the best stories for everyone to read. Given the kind of work awarded the point was made that the Indian Express promotes courage, persistence, investigation, concern, as befits its tag line, Journalism of Courage. Its editor said during the award ceremony that the paper did not believe in conventional balanced reporting of the “on the one hand, on the other hand” kind. “On the one hand there is the Times of India, on the other hand there is the Hindustan Times.” It’s the kind of chutzpah that wins delighted applause. With all that sass, you don’t notice its declining numbers. But this month brought readership results from the first round of the Indian Readership Survey for 2006 and the Indian Express figures eighth among English newspapers, after a number of regional newspapers which have no pretensions to being national. The Deccan Chronicle, Telegraph, Mid Day, Deccan Herald, regional papers all, have overtaken the Delhi-based Express group in readership. Last year when Hindustan Times and DNA entered the Mumbai market, IE went from being the number two player in the city, to number four. Economics of activism
Publications have taken to disparaging readership figures. So you can turn instead to the Audit Bureau of Circulation’s certification of how much a paper sells. But the Indian Express chose to go off ABC some years ago. It was the leading newspaper in the country in the 1960s, and again in the 80s it overtook the Times of India briefly to be number one. But when the group split after Ramnath Goenka’s death, its circulation numbers and real estate assets split too. Meanwhile others expanded. When the odds are against you, noisy activism gives you a positioning that could attract advertisers. Then you have the case of Doordarshan which has the opposite problem. Regained market share, but declining mindspace. Earlier this month Prasar Bharati announced at a press conference that DD’s revenues in 2005-06 were around Rs. 960 crores for the first time ever. We all clapped, the Prasar Bharati members in the first row beamed approvingly. Its commercial rivals tend to release profit rather than revenue figures, but DD, burdened with 10,000 plus employees and running costs of Rs. 1500 plus crores, cannot dream of profits yet. Thanks to cricket simulcasts, its bottom line is better than it’s ever been. What the figures say
Going by TAM (television audience measurement) figures which DD released, it improved its audience share last year compared to other Hindi general entertainment channels, in cable and satellite households. Its news programmes on the national channel are the highest watched in the country. It has more direct to home viewers than other DTH players. Its talent contest helped to increase its audience share. In more than half of the TV households in the country, which are without cable, it is the market leader. But, when was the last time you had an indication that Those Who Matter watch DD, including our leading politicians? Except when it telecasts cricket, and gets cursed for occasionally botching it up? Autonomy was flirted with and discarded long ago. Even its mediocrity is passé. It is the sexy new satellite news channels which are winning all the attention. But does a public service broadcaster need to occupy mindspace in the opinion making classes when it has mass viewership? Whose shoes would you rather be in, those of the Indian Express or of Doordarshan? Pasted from The Hindu (Magazine, 23 April 2006) in the educational interest of media students. http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/04/23/stories/2006042300240300.htm
Popularity does not always match market realities.
Encouraging courage and concern: Recipients of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards. Photo: R.V. Moorthy
Power of FM: RJ from an Unexpected Bihar Village
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Air of uncertainty
Had G Marconi been alive today, he would have been proud of Raghav Mahto, a 20-something semi-literate youth from a nondescript village of Mansoorpur in Vaishali, Bihar. For, Mahto has been credited with making Marconi’s discovery hugely popular in the Bihar countryside that lives without electricity.
In a place where people cultivate lal mirchi and hari mirchi, but have never heard of Radio Mirchi, Raghav had been successfully running his indigenously-developed FM radio channel in an area of 12 km-radius covering three districts of Vaishali, Muzaffarpur and Saran, until his shop was shut down by the Union ministry of IT and Communications some weeks ago.
Obviously, the village folks are seething with rage. After all, for entertainment-starved people, Raghav provided them the staple diet of devotional songs, Bhojpuri and Hindi songs, local news, messages on HIV/polio and other public interest messages in the local dialect.
But neither Raghav nor the inhabitants of the area were aware of the fact that running an FM Radio station without a valid government licence was illegal. When Raghav came to know about the law, he shut down his business. But the locals, who were accustomed to listening “Namaskar, Raghav FM mein aapka swagat hai. Ab aap apna manpasand gana suniye…”every morning, persuaded him to carry on. Trouble began when a formal police complaint was lodged against Mahto following a directive from the ministry to identify private radio stations operating without a licence.
Locals are upset and say that they would protest the move. “I do not even have enough money for the treatment of my father who is suffering from cancer. From where will I get such a huge sum,” rued Raghav, adding that a large number of people had approached him and offered financial assistance to restart the radio station.
Raghav’s tryst with radio channel began in 1997 when he started as a electrical mechanic. Later, when the shop owner left the place for good, Raghav took over the electronics repair shop.
“In 2003, I thought of launching my own radio station,” says Raghav, who by then had learned the basic nuances of radio mechanics. “Eventually I made a kit (costing Rs 50), which could transmit my programmes at a fixed radio frequency. This transmission kit was fitted to an antenna attached to a bamboo pole,” elaborates Raghav, “the wires were then connected to a stereo player in my shop, other tape recorders and a cordless microphone.”
His childhood friend Shambhu became the radio jockey. Everyday for 12 hours, the FM station played film songs. “In between we used to listen to local news, besides messages on polio and HIV,” says Deepak, a local. Within months, Raghav became a known entity. “Requests were being sent through local couriers for farmaishyi geet,” he adds.
Abhay Kumar
Pasted from the Deccan Herald (Sunday Herald, 23 April 2006) in the educational interest of media students. For more details, visit:
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/apr232006/sundayherald1130252006422.asp
ooops… 338 More FM Radio Stations!!!
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Pujaa Awastthi
Riding high on the same wavelength
Talent hunts for fresh singers and RJs in local languages, targeting an advertising base comprising agricultural products and equipment and local retailers, and formulating programming schedules to attract housewives, village elders and rural youth – well, radio in India is surely and definitely changing, if one takes into account the strategies drawn up by those who have secured licences to run most of the 338 private FM stations across 91 cities and small towns in the second phase of FM expansion.
Unlike in the first phase, when the licences were given to mainly big players against payment of fat licence fees, the second phase, right now under implementation, has seen both big players as well as moderately successful businessmen, property dealers and real estate developers jump into the bandwagon, thanks to a four per cent revenue sharing regime coupled with permission to bring in 20 per cent FDI.
As FM radio explodes to its full potential, providing entertainment along with information relevant to the local populace, the financial implications will also boom in the coming years. According to a study done sometime back by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the radio industry in India is currently worth Rs 3 billion. This will grow to a phenomenal Rs 12 billion in revenues by 2010, developing at a pace of 32 per cent per year. No wonder, those who have thrown their hat into the ring are an ecstatic lot.
“Sixty per cent of India’s population is young, so obviously our target is the young listenership,” says Rajiv Mishra, CEO of the radio division, BAG Films, which is setting up a chain of FM stations under the brand name Radio Masti in states which very few media planner would have considered a viable proposition even two years ago.
Radio Masti has got licence to set up a string of stations in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Jharkhand and parts of Maharashtra, Punjab, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
“Youth-oriented events at local levels, coverage of relevant local information like traffic situation, interactive shows on relevant subjects like agriculture will be our driving force, apart from, of course, Hindi and local music,” Mishra says, reflecting the philosophy of most of the new FM radio operators.
There are also small-time players like Hisar property dealer Gulshan Singal, who has spent just Rs 55 lakh to take the licence for one station in his Haryana hometown. Singal is already involving the locals in the process of setting up the station by announcing a contest to choose a name for the station.
Mishra is giving about nine months for his first station to start, and it will be around the same time that the rush of new FM stations will begin.
Rajasthan Patrika group and the Dainik Bhaskar Group have similar plans in Rajasthan. “About six to seven private companies have shown interest for a tie-up,” says Siddharth Kothari, director of Rajasthan Patrika. Adding that the Jaipur FM channel will be on air by May. Of the 17 FM radio stations planned by the Dainik Bhaskar group across India, five will be in Rajasthan.
Meanwhile, the government has already earned over Rs 1,100 crore by doling out the licences of about 300 radio stations in the 91 cities and towns, though around 40 stations are yet to be sold.
Definitely, it is “radio ga ga” time for everyone, and it is not just the Queen song that people are singing!
Pasted from the Deccan Herald (Sunday Herald, 23 April 2006) in the educational interest of the media students. For more details, visit:
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/apr232006/sundayherald1130252006422.asp
First Educational Broadcast – It’s by a School
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BLAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH
In July 2005, when the City Montessori School (CMS) – recognised in the Guinness Book of World Records as the school with the maximum number of branches in one city (that is Lucknow) – sent to the air waves at 90.4 Megahertz, its first educational broadcast, it marked one other first for the innovative school.
Today the school’s educational radio broadcasts for two and a half hours in the morning and evening from two transmitters at its Gomtinagar and Aishbagh branches over almost a 24 km area in the city. The programming is a mix of curriculum-based lessons, drama, stories and songs.
However, despite the quality infotainment on offer, not many are tuning in, rues Rupali Chandra, incharge Film Division, who has been instrumental in the initiation of the CMS FM.
“Ours is not entertainment radio, so it is obviously less popular. There are no commercials and no publicity so only people who know us will tune in. We are more focused on creating quality programming,” says Chandra, a high B grade artist with the All India Radio. This emphasis on quality has seen the use of high grade Taskem equipment and the hiring of professional artists for the programming. Inclusive of the part time anchors, the staff strength is 20. The school has also brought time on local cable to broadcast in-house films and motivational talks by its founder Jagdish Gandhi.
Despite the listeners not tuning in, Chandra is hopeful of turning all India. “We have requested the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to widen the range of our transmitters so that we cover the whole of Lucknow. We will be appreciated only when we are heard. Since this is a non-commercial venture, budget is a constraint,” explains Chandra.
The FM license granted to the school in 2004 has lifetime validity and the initial investment in the venture was Rs 40.
Pasted from the Deccan Herald (Sunday Herald) in the educational interest of students. For more information kindly visit:
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/apr232006/sundayherald1130252006422.asp
why radio will bring in a retail revolution
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Radio Activity by Arun Katiyar
It’s just as well that the government has issued radio licences and liberalised broadcast regulations. A couple of years more and All India Radio would have been struggling to keep pace with competition from satellite broadcasters, podcasters, web radio, wi-fi radio and digital audio broadcasting.
Today, by issuing 280 additional licenses to commercial broadcasters in 91 cities (for Rs 11.34 billion), the tally of private FM stations will go up to 338.
The good news is the spread of stations, moving the density of private FM stations from largely A+ and A category cities (like Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore) to C category cities like Sholapur, Mysore, Trichur, Tuticorin, Tirupati, Cuttack etc. In all, there will be 170 channels across 48 C category cities. What this actually implies is that a retail revolution could soon be brewing. And you, as a consumer, may actually get to hear of all the great deals going in your city markets.
Today, advertising rates on private FM stations aren’t exactly what the retail trade can afford. It has been a Catch-22 situation: with high licence fees, radio stations could not afford to keep their rates low; consequently, the only advertisers who could afford radio were FMCGs, banks and other national advertisers with large markets and big ad budgets.
Given the lack of radio research, the large advertisers had a tendency to do two things: stay away from spending on radio since there were no research figures to understand the audience the stations were catering to or beat down radio rates by bargaining against even modest spends.
Now consider the retail advertiser: he has small budgets, needs to advertiser for small durations and cannot afford print or television (which is a waste for him). Where does he go? The retailer has perhaps the best deals going in his markets, but has no reasonable way of reaching his target audience quickly enough. This is about to change.
With license fees being rationalised, advertising rates are likely to quickly look more reasonable. This is the first and perhaps the most important step required. Audience research may still be lacking, but stations don’t have to chase the large spenders any more in a bid to make their bottom lines healthy. They can now address the retailer and tap the long tail of business. The big advantage in this scenario is that retailers (most retailers, anyway) don’t have agencies that insist on research figures. It may be worth asking a quick question here: why does an agency ask for audience research figures, when spends on radio are going to be low anyway? The answer to the question often hurts the agency ego: because advertising agencies are incapable of making a call based on gut feeling.
Everything needs to be backed by research, despite the fact that the retail business is largely based on gut feeling and an innate sense of what makes good business.
There are other reasons why advertising agencies could perhaps be keeping their clients away from radio, except when the deal is sweetened with bundled media like print and television. Agencies don’t like the idea of allocating large amounts of creative talent for radio — maybe it is because radio awards don’t bring in as much attention as print and television awards; maybe it is because the returns on radio are difficult to define and track. Mind you, these are all very legitimate, practical and valid reasons to opt out of radio.
But fortunately for FM broadcasters, the retailer doesn’t have to live with any of these constraints. Retailers don’t have agencies that need to win awards; retailers don’t need to advertise on TV or in print and therefore don’t need ‘deals’ that bundle a variety of media into a campaign.
Instead, the retailer has a clear, simple focus: did he sell more this Ugadi versus the neighbouring shop? If radio can do this for him, he will go laughing all the way to the bank. Or else, next time, he will show the radio salesman the door.
The significant reason why the retailer will love radio is that it is a medium that is accessible to all — you don’t need to own an expensive TV and pay for cable charges each month or be able to read a language to be tuned into radio. The retail trade can focus on an audience that is not necessarily highly educated — and that’s a big plus.
Besides, with the number of FM stations in C-category cities, a majority of them are likely to be in a local language — yet another reason for the retailer to opt for radio.
Clearly, the new round of radio licensing is going to be a boon for the retailer. The retailer is a smart, quick-moving, market-aware creature — he is unlikely to miss the radio advantage.
FM stations need to understand this, unlock retail advertising budgets and help bring in the long-awaited retail revolution.
( The author is a media expert and former station director of Radio City 91 in Bangalore.)
[Pasted from the Sunday Herald, Deccan Herald in the interest of media students.
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/apr232006/sundayherald1130252006422.asp]
