Re: [Goanet] TOI in Goa/ at a 'price' ...
Mr Frederick Noronha said : An idea of building a people's daily was actually tried out in Goa. It was called NOVEM GOEM. Anyway, one could mention the experience of the barely-concealed BJP-floated daily Marathi newspaper 'Gova Doot'. While it did reward some pro-BJP reporters with fancy posts, I hardly see such a one-sided propaganda organ as a solution to the issues attempted to be raised earlier. That's just my view. Would be glad to be proven incorrect. My response : 1 ) Thanx for providing a link to the Novem Goem debacle. I feel that was an amaturish attempt with a dependance on charitable funds ( and the resultant lack of accountabilty ) and no provision for the continuing funding required if a risky venture like this was to survive the initial turbulence faced by being in a competetive market. Although an interesting story , it is not related to the model I proposed. 2 ) Regarding Goa Doot , I think you are not entirely correct in your assessment. This piece of trash is nothing but a blatant propaganda machine for the BJP ( and the source of funding , whoever denies it , must be from that political party ...or those who support it blindly ) Anyone who thinks otherwise is a moron. The same can be applied to a Goan rumourmonger weekly with the word BJP being replaced with anti-BJP. Once again , the example you provide is not even remotely related to my model. If you have any further thoughts on the idea I have floated , I would love to hear more from you. Meanwhile , may I remind you of some outstanding queries I have about another post you made : http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2008-February/069529.html regards, anand ( Dr Anand Virgincar ) _ Share what Santa brought you https://www.mycooluncool.com
Re: [Goanet] TOI in Goa/ at a 'price' ...
DR ANAND VIRGINCAR WROTE: I am almost certainly being silly from here on and inviting a barrage of justified ridicule. I am not aware of the finances required and the figures are purely for illustration . Is there any possiblity of say Rs 10 /- per household being levied per month( with discount or waiver on a means tested basis ) which would yield ( multipying by approximately 2.5 lakh households who can afford this ) a kitty of Rs 25 lakhs per month. Initial capital outlay could well be co-erced out of the government coffers or from genuine charitable sources ( or from the NRG pocket ). Would this not be sufficient to run a daily or weekly with high calibre well paid staff and unbiased content ? I did vocalise these thoughts to our mutual political friend and he felt it was feasible in terms of enforcement ( but then , his dictatorial style of decision making is something that even a supporter like me will point to without hesitation ). Your views from the journalist's side would be much more interesting. My reply: An idea of building a people's daily was actually tried out in Goa. It was called NOVEM GOEM. For an insider's view of what happened to it, check: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11523/11523.txt (search for Novem Goem ... takes a little while for the entire text to get downloaded). I will not hazard a guess who our mutual political friend is. I have a healthy distrust for politicians who use the electoral system to their advantage. Anyway, one could mention the experience of the barely-concealed BJP-floated daily Marathi newspaper 'Gova Doot'. It was set up in the past couple of years. While it did reward some pro-BJP reporters with fancy posts, I hardly see such a one-sided propaganda organ as a solution to the issues attempted to be raised earlier. That's just my view. Would be glad to be proven incorrect. FN -- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph +91-832-2409490
Re: [Goanet] TOI in Goa/ at a 'price' ...
Another English Daily from Goa - Times of India Which also means our monthly newspaper bill will increase by another say Rs.115 to about Rs.410 assuming TOI is sold at Rs.3. My, lucky Goans! Rs 410 would buy you about just _one week_ of _one_ newspaper in our parts, probably excluding the week-end edition (usually Rs 125). And don't tell me yr incomes are 1/16th of ours, if you can afford all these papers! :-) Cheers, patrizio Dnooos!
Re: [Goanet] TOI in Goa/ at a 'price' ...
Hi Patrice, Regards to Dnooos! The issue isn't just about price. As I see it, it's more about what such low newspaper prices (Indian newspapers are already among the lowest-priced in the world, at 2 or 4 or 6 US cents for a 24 pager broadsheet!) do to the media market and journalism here. Firstly, it pushes those newspapers that lack such deep pockets out of the market. That could seriously affect the diversity in the media, however flawed the current media operations are. Secondly, the papers become heavily advertiser-dominated (politicians have ended up paying for election-time news coverage, even in local papers in Goa that have been inspired by the ToI style of ultra-high profitability and conflict-free journalism). It brings in high salaries for journalists, but along with it comes an acute loss of freedom because of the advertiser-is-right-at-all-times and treating newspapers as just another salable product (like toothpaste or soap, forgetting the social role of the industry). Since the reader pays only a very, very tiny fraction of what it costs to put the newspaper together, the voice of the reader is not at all heard; you can imagine the impact such an approach would have. I'm not pointing only to the ToI here; papers in Goa too have been enthusiastically following this model in recent years. But with the ToI showing how successful it can be, I guess the situation would only get more acute. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that, all things considered, the reader is being paid to buy a newspaper. If this is the case, how can we complain when we find newspaper don't contain news, specially of a public-interest kind, anymore? I would prefer a model of citizen-journalism based even on some form of volunteer-driven public-interest journalism. Okay, it's not perfect, but it works in some ways. That political parties eager to justify their stand in cyberspace have taken getting their arguments repeatedly (through proxy or otherwise) heard over Goanet could itself be taken as a justification of sorts for this argument. So when you compare price, please also compare the role played by the newspapers concerned. FN On 19/02/2008, Patrice Riemens [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Another English Daily from Goa - Times of India Which also means our monthly newspaper bill will increase by another say Rs.115 to about Rs.410 assuming TOI is sold at Rs.3. My, lucky Goans! Rs 410 would buy you about just _one week_ of _one_ newspaper in our parts, probably excluding the week-end edition (usually Rs 125). And don't tell me yr incomes are 1/16th of ours, if you can afford all these papers! :-) Cheers, patrizio Dnooos! -- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph +91-832-2409490 The Goa books blog: http://goabooks.wordpress.com Goa1556 (alt.publishing.goa): http://goa1556.goa-india.org
Re: [Goanet] TOI in Goa/ at a 'price' ...
Dear Frederick-bab, I feel that is an excellent analysis of the way goan newsmedia is controlled by financial interests. The comment that readers are being paid to buy these newspapers in particular is very well constucted indeed. I genuinely sympathise with the reporters and columnists who besides not being rewarded sufficiently in financial terms ,are also hamstrung by not being able to express their thoughts as freely as they wish As you are no doubt aware , the BBC in the UK has a funding system which as far as I am aware , is unique ( but I am very much open to correction on that pointyou may well know of many other similar examples from around the globe ). 1 ) The BBC is funded by the licence fee ( This is an amount of approximately £ 150 a year per household with discounts or waivers for students or the elderly living on their own as well households on nil / very low income ). which is compulsory for every household that owns a functional television set . This is enforced pretty strictly with heavy fines and if necessary court proceedings involved if the license fee is not paid and you are found to be using a television set. The above fee is more than sufficient to cover news and related programmes . Additional funding for entertainment ( like sport and soaps ) is accumulated for the BBC by sale of DVD's , toys, clothing ,books etc etc based on more popular programmes ). The quality and quantity of the latter varies from year to year depending on the returns from this second source of funding. 2 ) Several good outcomes result : i) There are no commercial advertisements on BBC TV , radio or publications. ii) The institution is not dependent on business lobbies or the goverment for its finance. iii) As a result of ( ii ) above , the reporting is pretty unbiased. iv) No financial targets have to be met by the independent committee which manages the BBC. v) The aam aadmi has a very significant say in both the choice of programmes and the monitoring of the impartiality. Just for instance , if I feel strongly that the reporting of the Iraq war was biased in favour of Mrs George Bush ( also known as Mr Tony Blair ) I could ring up the BBC watchguard and a PIL type proceeding would be launched on my behalf if I have even a barely reasonable case. I am almost certainly being silly from here on and inviting a barrage of justified ridicule. I am not aware of the finances required and the figures are purely for illustration . Is there any possiblity of say Rs 10 /- per household being levied per month( with discount or waiver on a means tested basis ) which would yield ( multipying by approximately 2.5 lakh households who can afford this ) a kitty of Rs 25 lakhs per month. Initial capital outlay could well be co-erced out of the government coffers or from genuine charitable sources ( or from the NRG pocket ). Would this not be sufficient to run a daily or weekly with high calibre well paid staff and unbiased content ? I did vocalise these thoughts to our mutual political friend and he felt it was feasible in terms of enforcement ( but then , his dictatorial style of decision making is something that even a supporter like me will point to without hesitation ). Your views from the journalist's side would be much more interesting. luv and regards, anand ( Dr Anand Virgincar ) _ Get Hotmail on your mobile, text MSN to 63463! http://mobile.uk.msn.com/pc/mail.aspx
Re: [Goanet] TOI in Goa/ at a 'price' ...
Dears, It is easy to talk about citizen-journalism based even on some form of volunteer-driven public-interest journalism . I have been there and done that and know just how difficult it is in Goa. Only the VASCO WATCH ploughs a lonely furrow after 8 years. It cannot add much to content and print quality as long as it cannot add to the advertising support. The fact that it has continued is credit to the grit of the ex-Navy man, Cmdr. Anantnarayan and his family.I salute him. Suffice it to say ONE MUST BE A PART OF THE CHANGE ONE WANTS TO SEE. I did my bit with the PLUS tabloids for half a dozen years and GOENCHO ULO for two crucial years. Right now Konkani writers like Michael Gracias [JIVIT] and Ashok Chodankar [KONKANN DIVO] are showing what can be done to have one's say on one's own terms. Well, Goanet has undergone a sea change. In my view, at least the pro-BJP debate is Goa centric ...which the endless discussion on USA invading Iraq was not! Right or wrong we can debate, but it is Goa centric, the essential item of the Goanet charter which the Moderators often allow to be flouted with impunity [somethimes for want of any discussion at all.] Newspapers today charge money because of the RNI requirement. I think the entire amount is given away as retailer and distributor's margins/commissions and help to prevent the papers from being dumped or sold as raddi directly. Warm regards, Miguel Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:19:44 +0530 From: Frederick [FN] Noronha * ??? [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Goanet] TOI in Goa/ at a 'price' ... Hi Patrice, The issue isn't just about price. As I see it, it's more about what such low newspaper prices do to theedia market and journalism here. Secondly, the papers become heavily advertiser-dominated (politicians have ended up paying for election-timenews coverage, even in local papers in Goa I would prefer a model of citizen-journalism based even on some form of volunteer-driven public-interest journalism.Okay, it's not perfect, but it works in some ways. That political parties eager to justify their stand in cyberspace have taken getting their arguments repeatedly (through proxy or otherwise) heard over Goanet could itself be taken as a justification of sorts for this argument. So when you compare price, please also compare the role played by the newspapers concerned. FN On 19/02/2008, Patrice Riemens [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: My, lucky Goans! Rs 410 would buy you about just _one week_ of _one_ newspaper in our parts, probably excluding the week-end edition (usually Rs 125). And don't tell me yr incomes are 1/16th of ours, if you can afford all these papers! :-) Cheers, patrizio Dnooos! - DELETE button is history. Unlimited mail storage is just a click away.
