BEYOND NEWS
by
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Journalism as a career connect to various stakeholders of the society. Popularity and fame comes fast in this profession. It enhances the feeling of being important in the society, feels good to be a known person. But things are short lived and an individual working as a journalist need to realize this. The face of a model looks beautiful when in make-up, but once it comes out, the real face might not be good. So is the case with journalism as a profession, where everything sounds and looks beautiful to the outside world particularly in the context of India but the inner world has bumpy road involving lot of struggle and manipulations that might go against one’s basic character. Indian journalism had golden era during independence but with the transfer of powers to the countrymen, the phase kept changing here leading to deterioration of values, ethics, moral and functioning modalities day after day. The best part of this profession is like learning every day, meeting new people and setting priorities for life. This is a profession where you fight for others but when it comes to you for seeking justice, doors are shut and rarely will anybody allow you to provide an opportunity to fight your own battle. You may be a voice for your society but if you have to speak against your authorities, you are choked. The story of three journalist friends kicks off in style. They are vibrant, energetic, honest and have killer instinct to do something big in the journalistic world. They invest their prime youth in the profession, without realizing that their present will become past one day. Working round the clock to get news was their motto and mission in life. How to get it first and the best was their competency check in their daily and routine life. All try hard to get the name and fame, they actually deserve. But the life’s nitty-gritty was not all that easy for them to continue their stint to write and speak truth. Their prime youth was invested. This is because the world was not willing to listen to the hard realities. Gradual movement in their career was checked with hurdles of external factors, where they had little role to play. It was ultimately prioritizing things in life-family or profession. While one prefers to move on in different field of corporate communication in the corporate sector, the other prefers to sit back and concentrate on restructuring the family bonding to build the career of the child, throwing his own career in oblivion. The third continue to pursue in the profession but unable to achieve what he wanted to. He remains a wanderer, facing transfer from one city to another and keeps searching for yet stable journalistic career in the organization, after spending more than 24 years in the profession. He sacrificed his personal life for the sake of profession. In return, he falls victim of police atrocity. He is harassed because he wrote against police machinery and their high-handedness. His passion for journalism takes a downturn, the realization of which comes late…. The book entails the developments in their lives that reflects the deterioration in Indian journalism. Gradually from mission to profession and finally becoming like any other occupation has become the journey of contemporary times. Commercialization of media has become an in-thing in this country. Most of the big corporate houses have a penchant to spend money in several crores to use it as a tool to safeguard their business interest. The quality of journalists at the middle and junior level has touched its nadir today and the monitoring agencies are least interested to control the misgivings of this noise….fearing the nonsense value of the media-world in India. It is said that in India people fear four Ps-Police, Politicians, Prostitutes and Press. This is mainly because their nonsense value is too high. The story of trio is a strong reflection on the state of journalism in the Indian society. How the media houses plays havoc with lives of journalists have been marvelously brought out in the Indian context. Low salaries compared to other professions, non-compliance of duty hours, non-availability of basic services to carry out the responsibilities, round the clock expectation of boss regarding availability of field journalist are some of the recurrent issues that were never addressed have been brought out well in the treatise. If you miss a report, you are noticed and denigrated. If you score a report or break the news, the high-ups treat it as a part of duty in the journalist’s life. Life is typical ‘filmy’ and in many places it may sound exaggeration of facts. Incidents that occurred with different journalists have been weaved and injected in characters to narrate the story that has never been written anywhere and hence the name substantiates the title, “Beyond News”. This book talks about journalists, who are working at smaller places struggling hard to meet their ends for bread and butter, while the journalists working in metropolitan are busy to secure five-star life working as a catalyst for powerful and mighty. Authors have developed real plot and sub-plots around three characters in the book though the incidents might not have happened with them but certainly with some of their other colleagues, who faced it. Thus interlinked the stories of all to make it a composite and comprehensive knowledge sharing experiences that is filled with humour, thrill, miseries and rejoice.
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About the Book
The story circumscribe mainly around three characters, who are friends in the profession & personal life. They struggle hard to carve a niche for themselves in the society. The book talks about what journalists undergo in any organization and how the one time noble job of journalism, synonymous with the word mission in India, has now been converted into meagre job. To reach the top editorial post, a journalist needs to sit on the lap of management, write or present things as per their wish. It’s knowledge sharing experiences that is filled with humour, thrill, miseries and rejoice.The book is a story of three friends reflecting the state of journalism in the Indian society. How the media houses plays havoc with lives of journalists have been marvelously brought out in the Indian context. Trend suggest in this country how politicians used criminals to win elections. Later, the criminals instead of working for anyone started contesting elections on their own, thus the advent of criminalization in Indian politics took place. Similarly, big media houses used journalists for their liaison activities to serve their business interest and at the later stage, the same lot of journalists started serving their vested interest by grabbing top posts in the corrodors of power...
About the Author
Shakti Vrat & Sanjeev Shekhar are friends, spent major chunk of time in journalism together. Both shared their experiences whenever they sat together eventually recounting it and penning it with passage of time. It took nearly two years to recount the events that happened in and around them and gradually stitched the stories of their fellow journalists to make it sequential giving it the shape of fiction. Shakti Vrat is a veteran journalist and joined the profession at a very young age when he was in his 20s. He has worked with Nav Bharat & Hindustan. He worked on several exclusive feature stories on tribal community. Shakti Vrat was born in the district of Begusarai in Bihar. His father was a prominent doctor by profession. He completed his higher studies at Magadh, Patna and Dharbhanga. He was a University topper (ranked 3rd) during his Master Degree at L.N.Mithila University. He was fond of Hindi language and read lot of books. He gradually developed the flair for writing and joined the newspaper. In 1986, he joined Navbharat Times and then moved to Hindustan. He has a stint of more than two decades in the field of journalism. He joined the profession in his early 20s. In late eighties, he remained an active member of national council of Indian Journalists Union. He held a vital post in Bihar Working Journalist Union at that time. Shakti Vrat was a founder member of the Hindustan Times Union at Patna. His writing prowess was well recognized. His leadership qualities and interpersonal skills to connect with society was tremendous. Sanjeev Shekhar has been a journalist since 1993. He worked with Hindustan Times, Star News and Channel 7. He is a perfect blend of print and electronic media. Presently working with a corporate multinational heading the HR&Admin and Corporate Communications functions. Born and brought up in a city of Jamshedpur, Sanjeev Shekhar did his schooling and spent initial years of life there. He moved out to do his graduation in Orissa and then to Delhi for his further studies. His father was an academician and noted educationist from whom he drew inspiration for writing. He completed his Masters in Public Administration and PG Diploma in Journalism. He was a topper of his batch in Journalism (1992-93), Centre for Mass Media, Y.M.C.A, Delhi. Sanjeev did a short course in Personnel Management and successfully completed his Post Graduate Certificate in Business Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur. Sanjeev started his career in journalism in 1993. He worked with print and electronic media for nearly one and a half decade. He widely travelled to Bihar and Jharkhand to cover vital developments and reports pertaining to politics, scams, industry, crime, naxalism etc. He prepared feature and documentary stories on various topics related to tribal culture and heritage in electronic media while working with Star News and Channel seven. Received honours from an independent public forum in Muzaffarpur for ‘Neutral Journalism’. Sanjeev shifted to Corporate Communications and attained rich experience in the field. He has a solid record of innovation and excellence in the alignment Communications with business goals under pull strategy. He is presently heading the HR-Admin and Corporate Communications functions of a big corporate multinational.