Trivialisation, paid news killing journalism, agree experts

A crisis of content and ''the triumph of the trivial'' are the two biggest challenges facing journalism today, says President Pratibha Patil.

After she presented the fourth Ramnath Goenka Awards for excellence in journalism to 31 journalists from across the country in New Delhi on Thursday evening, Patil cautioned against the twin evils.

''On the one hand, newspapers have to offer readers much more than what were the headlines on the TV screens yesterday. On the other hand, television channels have to constantly find ways of filling up 24 hours. Sometimes, this can lead to a crisis of content. Issues can be trivialised while trivial issues can become headlines,'' she said.

These issues again came up at a panel discussion after the awards. Is the credibility of journalism up for sale? Is there a ''conspiracy of silence'' in the media about the way the business of journalism is conducted? How deeply are politicians involved in the practice? What makes journalists strike deals in exchange for space and sound bites? These were some of the questions that arose in the discussion.

At the show moderated by Nidhi Razdan of NDTV 24x7 and Archna Shukla of The Indian Express, the panellists broadly agreed with India Today group chairman Aroon Purie, who flagged off the discussion by saying that paid news was self-destructive and would some day mark the ''death of journalism''.

Earlier, Patil began her address with a tribute to Vijay Pratap Singh, The Indian Express senior reporter who died earlier this week from injuries sustained in a bomb blast in Allahabad that was targeted to kill a UP minister. The Ramnath Goenka Foundation instituted a new category this year, the Ramnath Goenka Award for journalism of courage in memory of Singh, who was posthumously honoured with the inaugural prize.