A JOURNAL OF THE PRESS INSTITUTE OF INDIA ISSN 0042-5303 July-September 2016 Volume 8 Issue 3 Rs 50 Tobacco habit is a disease, must be stopped CONTENTS • For the sake of media with a conscience / Sakuntala Globally, with control of communicable disease, we see an Narasimhan increasing trend in non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In • A penchant for hype and India, however, control of communicable disease is only partial. sensationalism / Pratab We have therefore to bear the burden of existing communicable Ramchand diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV and also the • A media dialogue on increasing burden of NCDs, says Dr V. Shanta connectivity / Shastri Ramachandran he past few decades have been witness to phenomenal changes in the • Charm and chivalry in health scenario, from an era of high mortality and morbidity to an era of China / Asma Masood Tcontrol and curability of communicable diseases. There is no panic about • The promise and reality cholera, typhoid, hepatitis and polio, and many others are under control. India of Indian politics / has been declared 'polio free'. The advent of vaccine and antibiotics made this J.V. Vil'anilam possible. • Bengal's transgender poll The World Health Organisation in its statistics report has referred to officers make history / Epidemics of NCDs emerging or accelerating in most developing countries. Dipanjana Dasgupta NCDs constitute the leading cause of death and disabilities world over. The • Nothing private about disability adjusted life years (DALY) which was 1:0.5 in 1990 is expected to be domestic violence / Pushpa 1:2.3 by 2020. Achanta The increase in NCDs is a result of increase in life expectancy, control of • How a billion can help communicable disease and lifestyle changes. The major NCDs are cancers, a fraction / Vandana cardio-vascular diseases and diabetes. Chronic respiratory diseases such as Gopikumar asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), chronic liver • Rising demand for laws diseases and mental disabilities related to age (geriatric) also form a part of to protect scribes / NCDs. Nava Thakuria The three major NCDs – cancer, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes – are termed lifestyle diseases. Lifestyle changes are basically related to improved • How a radio channel is empowering women / socio-economic condition, urbanisation and industrialisation. Ashwini Kamble Characteristics of NCDs • It's a minefield, but PR can make a difference / All major NCDs (cancer, CVD, diabetes) are related to lifestyle factors. The C.V. Narasimha Reddi lifestyle factors are substance abuse (tobacco and alcohol), unhealthy dietary factors (high cholesterol and fatty food), lack of healthy living (sedentary • Udta Punjab is not a one-off habits), consumption of high calory food (obesity), and lack of personal and / Shoma A. Chatterji sexual hygiene. Another important common factor for all the three major NCDs • Remembering is the genetic component which, however, is a small component. About 10 Mahasweta Devi / Trupti Shah / Muhammad Ali (Continued on page 4) July-September 2016 VIDURA 1 FROM THE EDITOR Even as social media takes charge, newspapers retain their charm I recently read an interesting Chavern’s views echo distinctly in Also, a newspaper, home-delivered report on the Newspaper an article by Ingrid Cobben on the or picked up from a news-stand, Association of America website WAN-IFRA website, which talks has a feel, a smell that no on-line by David Chavern, its president about the reality journalists world creation can emulate, he stresses. and CEO. Chavern had attended over have to face today – news How true! the Digital Publishing Innovation increasingly ‘breaking’ on social Summit in New York City a week media platforms before publishers earlier, a summit that explored and broadcasters have even had a Why freedom of the key topics and trends affecting the chance to get to the story. press is paramount digital publishing industry and With Facebook Live enabling where he spoke on a panel about audiences to live stream, the role At a time when there is a lot of how social publishing affects the of the news industry to provide talk about freedom of the press future. Chavern believes there breaking news has changed, here in India, and fierce debate are three key points to consider if irrevocably, Cobben says. Advances about which TV anchor is right as a publisher you are looking to in technology and platforms, and and who is wrong, etc, Krishnan’s expand your presence on various the actions of publishers – rather memories of the time in 1975 when social platforms. than consumer demand – are the Emergency was declared in India, First, always remain reader- main drivers behind the growth of provide a sobering and chilling centric. The first thing Chavern says online video, she adds, referring to effect, and a reminder as well, that you should ask yourself is: What the recently published Digital News freedom of the media should never is my audience interested in? He Report 2016 by Oxford's Reuters be curtailed. urges publishers to look at audience Institute for the Study of Journalism. Referring to Sachidananda habits, reader engagement, number Indeed, so much has changed, and Murthy (New Delhi resident editor of clicks and other key metrics to changed irrevocably, in the past two of The Week) writing recently about help understand what platforms decades that it is oftentimes even the night that the Emergency was make sense. difficult to believe. While today’s declared, Krishnan says he is Second, don’t be afraid generation is moving more and prompted to send me this note, to experiment. Although more towards digital, there is still a about his experience that night. So, understanding readers and their large readership out there, certainly over to Krishnan: preferences can help publishers in India, that swears by print. make smart, informed decisions It was in the midst of reading I was then on the reporting staff about which social platforms to Chavern and Cobben’s views that of the National Herald, identified devote time and dollars to, Chavern I received an email from a veteran as a Congress newspaper, though says it is difficult to figure out what journalist. G.V. Krishnan retired in we, as staff members, took the will work if you don’t actually try 1998 as a Times of India correspondent task of reporting an assignment as it out. after spending two decades with the professionally, as someone from the Third, if done right, social newspaper, with postings in New Hindustan Times or the The Times of publishing can lead to new revenue Delhi, Bhopal, Chandigarh and India did. I had attended a public opportunities. Publishing directly Madras. He was earlier with the rally, addressed by Jayaprakash on social platforms or linking to National Herald in New Delhi. Narayan, at the Ramlila Maidan. It articles via social media, Chavern As someone who had spent a life- was at this rally that JP had given a says, requires a re-thinking or re- time in newspaper organisations call to the police and other officials, not to obey oral orders from their structuring of a publisher’s pay- – as reporter, sub-editor, and superiors. wall system to ensure that enough even as editor of a London-based Thought it made a good headline – information is being offered to social fortnightly, the Afro-Asian Echo – ' Get it in writing'. I had even worked followers while still maintaining Krishnan says his old-fashioned out the headline font-type (in which a level of exclusivity for paying mind will not accept anything that it would be set) – 72 point, bold, subscribers. isn't on newsprint as authentic news. all caps. As I sat down at my desk, 2 VIDURA July-September 2016 inserted a blank white-sheet, typed to the coffee house – the EB (electricity And then there was that particular the catch-line – JP's Call – on the board) blokes realised their blunder. friend who couldn't simply ignore sheet, the lights went off… never to And lost no time in locking the stable Issar's call. He came on line to say Even as social media takes charge, come back again, for the next 24 hrs after the horse had bolted. that some 'anti-social' elements were or was it more, I don't remember. A bit more, about the night when being rounded up – the police officer For, when the power supply on the Press Lane lights went off. At could not afford to ignore Issar but Delhi's Press Lane was resumed, the newsroom, the adjacent desk was obliged not to reveal anything newspapers retain their charm the Emergency had been declared. was occupied by our crime reporter, substantive. The only newspaper that made the D.K. Issar. He had a dinner date with As it turned out, mid-night calls newsstand the next morning (well, the New Delhi police chief; Ohri, were made and the so-called anti- barely made, for the copies were I believe, was his name. But Issar socials being taken into custody confiscated as soon as they were had his appointment cancelled at included JP. As someone who stayed delivered) was The Motherland, which the last moment… thought nothing in a Rouse Avenue bungalow, allotted was printed at a press in Jhande- much of it… for police officers tend to the National Herald, adjacent to the wallah. The babus at the ministry, to get called out, now and then, for Gandhi Peace Foundation, where in their anxiety to switch off Press some errand. Ohri came back to the JP was put up, I found that the Lane, that is, Bahadur Shah Zafar newsroom. lights outside JP's place, which were Marg, simply forgot that yet another Later, in the evening, when a staff usually on, had been switched off.