कश्मीरियों की जगह खुद को रखकर देखना होगा...

अरुंधति राय इन दिनों कश्मीर पर अपने बयान को लेकर चर्चा में हैं। उन पर जो आरोप लगे हैं, उनका जवाब अपने लेख के जरिए उन्होंने भेजा है। इसमें जो बातें उन्होंने कही हैं, उनमें कुछ भी गलत नहीं है। दरअसल सारा मामला नजरिए का है। यदि हम न्याय, सम्मान, अभिव्यक्ति की स्वतंत्रता जैसे मूल्यों पर आधारित समाज चाहते हैं तो हमें किस तरह व्यवहार करना होगा, इन्हीं सवालों को अरुंधति ने अपने जवाब में उठाया है।

मैं जम्मू-कश्मीर में साढ़े चार साल रहा हूं। मैं एक किस्सा यहां शेयर करना चाहूंगा...

(यह तस्वीर सांकेतिक है)

शायद 2002 नवंबर की बात है। हम श्रीनगर से कंगन गए हुए थे। रास्ते में एक गांव में हम चाय पीने के लिए रुके। जब हम नीचे से चाय पीकर आए तो सोचा कि यहां गश्त के लिए तैनात सेना के जवानों से बात की जाए। हल्की बर्फबारी हो रही थी। पास में बंद दुकान के आगे के शेड के नीचे दो जवान अपनी एके राइफलों के साथ बैठे थे। मैं और मेरा एक साथी (जो पत्रकार नहीं था) उनके पास गए। बातचीत की। मेरे साथी पश्चिमी उत्तरप्रदेश के थे और वे दोनों जवान हरियाणवी थे। लिहाजा बातचीत परिवार तक जा पहुंची। बातचीत में उन्होंने बताया कि वे अविवाहित हैं। उनमें से एक जवान ने थोड़ी दूर पर दिखाई दे रही करीब 12-13 साल की बच्ची की तरफ इशारा किया कि वो पंसद है तो ले जाओ उसे दुकान पीछे। वह सुंदर सी अबोध बच्ची अपने सिर पर लकड़ी का गठ्ठर लिए अपने छोटे भाई के साथ घर जा रही थी। जब वह करीब आई तो जवान ने उसका हाथ पकड़ कर हमारे साथी से कहा साहब ले जाइए इसे, पसंद कर लीजिए। हमने उससे कहा कि ये क्या कर रहे हो, छोड़ो उसे। वह बोला आप चिंता मत करो, हमसे कोई कुछ नहीं बोल सकता। खैर हमने जवानों को डांटा और कहा कि तुम्हारी ड्यूटी इनकी सुरक्षा है न कि शोषण। बच्ची और उसका भाई कांप रहा था। उन दोनों बच्चों के चेहरे पर डर और किसी अनहोनी की आशंका की लकीरें साफ पढ़ी जा सकती थीं। इस तरह के वाकए कश्मीर में हर जगह बिखरे पड़े हैं। 

हम आप अपने को उन बच्चों की जगह या उनके मां-बाप, भाई-बहन की जगह रखकर देखें...हमारे साथ, हमारी बहन के साथ या हमारे बच्चों के साथ ऐसा सुलूक हो, तो हम किस तरह से देश, दिल्ली, फौज आदि के बारे में सोचेंगे...

ये है अरुंधति का जवाब

Pity The nation

By Arundhati Roy

I write this from Srinagar, Kashmir. This morning’s papers say that I may be arrested on charges of sedition for what I have said at recent public meetings on Kashmir. I said what millions of people here say every day. I said what I, as well as other commentators have written and said for years. Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice. I spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world; for Kashmiri Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their homeland; for Dalit soldiers killed in Kashmir whose graves I visited on garbage heaps in their villages in Cuddalore; for the Indian poor who pay the price of this occupation in material ways and who are now learning to live in the terror of what is becoming a police state.

Yesterday I traveled to Shopian, the apple-town in South Kashmir which had remained closed for 47 days last year in protest against the brutal rape and murder of Asiya and Nilofer, the young women whose bodies were found in a shallow stream near their homes and whose murderers have still not been brought to justice. I met Shakeel, who is Nilofer’s husband and Asiya’s brother. We sat in a circle of people crazed with grief and anger who had lost hope that they would ever get ‘insaf’—justice—from India, and now believed that Azadi—freedom— was their only hope. I met young stone pelters who had been shot through their eyes. I traveled with a young man who told me how three of his friends, teenagers in Anantnag district, had been taken into custody and had their finger-nails pulled out as punishment for throwing stones.

In the papers some have accused me of giving ‘hate-speeches’, of wanting India to break up. On the contrary, what I say comes from love and pride. It comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped, imprisoned or have their finger-nails pulled out in order to force them to say they are Indians. It comes from wanting to live in a society that is striving to be a just one. Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. Pity the nation that needs to jail those who ask for justice, while communal killers, mass murderers, corporate scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor, roam free.

Arundhati Roy
October 26 2010

Creating symbiotic relationship between media companies and bloggers

John Wilpers is, literally, a world-class news blog expert. He specializes in seeking, vetting and delivering high-quality blogs, as well as the best local or global bloggers writing about specific geographic or thematic subjects for print and online clients. Those clients have included the LA Times, Christian Science Monitor, GlobalPost.com, Miami Herald, and the San Diego Union-Tribune. In his 38 years in journalism, John has run an international newspaper group, started more free dailies than any U.S. editor, launched numerous city sites for AOL, and been a reporter and editor at small weeklies, major metro dailies, and magazines.
 
One of the best newspaper industry analysts and practitioners, Ken Doctor, (Who  has just published a book, “Newsonomics,” and created a companion website. ) interviewed him....

Do you mind being called a blog wrangler, and if not, what exactly does a blog wrangler do? 

Actually, I do not see myself as a blog wrangler because “wrangling” implies the use of force to get dumb animals to go in a direction they might otherwise (and wisely) not choose.  I consider myself a blog matchmaker: I match the needs of information companies (newspapers, magazines, online-only news sites) for ever broader, more relevant, and deeper content with the needs of bloggers for exposure, broader platforms, enhanced credibility, and increased revenue opportunities. There are blog wranglers out there cramming websites full of blogs without regard for the benefit of the company or the blogger, creating blogger ghettos distinguished only by the fact that the content is created by non-staffers.

•       What’s different about the Pro-Am space than you thought two years ago? 

Two years ago, few editors and publishers were open to, never mind enthusiastic about, integrating high-quality bloggers in their online and print publications. But significant circulation and staff erosion has convinced editors that 1) they must do something to stem the reader flight, and 2) the answer is not to be found exclusively in their diminished newsrooms. Today, more editors finally accept that to be relevant to readers with passionate interests in a bevy of both traditional and non-traditional information verticals, they must rely on outside creators of content. If they don’t, topic-specific bloggers and websites will steal their audiences, dooming newspapers to death by a thousand cuts. In the very near future, newspapers and magazines must become information companies that both create AND curate the very best content about everything in their geographic and/or thematic niche(s).

•       With all the fuss about the Demand Media/Examiner models, how do you explain what you do to the bloggers you work with? 

Both Demand Media and the Examiners are large-scale operations with a very different agenda than my tailored efforts to match the very best bloggers in a niche with a prestigious information company looking to enhance their presence in that niche. While the Examiners and Demand Media allow anyone to apply, I hand-pick the bloggers my newspaper, website, and magazine clients wish to invite to become partners. I tell the bloggers I approach that they have been selected only after an exhaustive search and only because they are experts in their field and because they write exquisitely. I also tell them that we think we are offering a symbiotic relationship. That said, Demand Media and the Examiners do offer very modest compensation whereas my clients do not. We do, however, make it clear to the bloggers we approach that they are free to end the relationship whenever they think it’s fulfilled its purpose from their point of view.

•       You’ve developed a worldwide touch with finding bloggers. Have you noticed any significant differences continent-by-continent, country-by-country, or is the web one big neighborhood? 

Bloggers worldwide have more in common than they have geographic differences, but there are unique characteristics. Continentally, the African and South American blogospheres are much smaller but are growing. And there are national differences: The Germans, French and Brazilians prefer to write in their native language compared to the great number of bloggers in other countries writing in English. Some countries (England, Venezuela, Pakistan) seem to have more political blogs than others and, of course, there are some countries where bloggers feel they must write anonymously (Middle Eastern countries, some African and South American countries, Indonesia, Pakistan). And in Vietnam, bloggers cannot write about politics at all. But by and large, the web is one big neighborhood in the sense that the vast majority of bloggers are very focused on and dedicated to a single topic. They write, not for fortune, but to increase awareness of themselves and their world, be it politics, music, astronomy, medicine, rugby, a particular charity, etc. When I approach them in a manner that indicates I have not only deeply read and come to appreciate their work but I also bring an invitation that I believe is in their best interests, they almost always agree to participate, Yes, there are bloggers looking to make money, but they are, for now, a small minority. And even some of them still see a benefit in partnering with a major media organization.
You can contact John at: 
www.johnwilpers.wordpress.com

विजुअल किस्सागोई काइनेटिक ग्राफिक के जरिए

विजुअल किस्सागोई (स्टोरीटेलिंग) में यदि काइनेटिक ग्राफिक का इस्तेमाल किया जाए तो किस्सा (स्टोरी) और रोचक बन जाती है। इसका इस्तेमाल वेबसाइट और टीवी पर बखूबी किया जा सकता है, खासकर तब जब आपकी स्टोरी में आकड़ों और सांख्यिकी की भरमार हो। काइनेटिक ग्राफिक के इस्तेमाल से बोझिल आकड़े रोचक तो बन ही जाते हैं बल्कि इनको देखना भी मजेदार अनुभव होता है। इसलिए आपका टीजी इन स्टोरीज में आदि से अंत तक बंधा रहेगा।
उदाहरण देखिए....

Website Traffic : TOP 25 U.S. Newspapers

The top 25 U.S. newspapers ranked by total unique monthly visitors for the past 12 months:

1. USA Today - 239,425,560
2. The New York Times - 217,513,400
3. The Wall Street Journal – 122,397,004
4. The Los Angeles Times - 94,889,543
5. The Washington Post – 9,1758,837
6. New York Daily News – 82,225,690
7. The San Francisco Chronicle – 46,696,844
8. The New York Post – 45,903,055
9. The Chicago Tribune – 33,230,030
10. The Star-Ledger – 31,836,326
11. The San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times and The Oakland Tribune - 28,391,971 (combined)
12. Chicago Sun-Times – 27,351,047
13. Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News - 23,797,570
14. The Houston Chronicle – 23,203,975
15. The Dallas Morning News - 22,858,507
16. Seattle Times – 21,878,532
17. The Arizona Republic – 20,598,071
18. The StarTribune – 20,537,048
19. The Denver Post - 20,058,704
20. The Plain Dealer – 18,755,471
21. The Oregonian - 17,421,959
22. The Detroit Free Press – 15,522,009
23. The Tampa Tribune – 13,280,440
24. Newsday - 11,443,807
25. San Diego Union-Tribune – 10,928,313

US newspaper : TOP 25

While Google PageRank is an accurate gauge of authority on the Web, it doesn’t tell us much about how much people ‘Like’ a newspaper. When it comes to ‘Likes’, Facebook is the authority. It took a little (okay, a lot of) trial and error to find the Facebook Pages for each of the Top 25 U.S. newspapers (you’d be surprised how hard some of the top 25 make it to find), but alas here’s the list of the Top 25 U.S. Newspapers ranked by the number of Facebook Friends (‘Likes’) each newspaper has (click the link to visit the newspaper’s Facebook Page):

1. The New York Times - 781,655
2. The Wall Street Journal – 140,515
3. The Washington Post – 68,152
4. The Denver Post – 30,690
5. USA Today – 28,332
6. The Los Angeles Times - 20,715
7. The Chicago Tribune - 19,448
8. The Arizona Republic - 18,002
9. The New York Post – 8,087
10. The San Francisco Chronicle – 8,051
11. The New York Daily News – 7,376
12. The Cleveland Plain Dealer – 5,996
13. The Houston Chronicle – 5,486
14. The San Jose Mercury News - 5,417
15. The Detroit Free Press – 5,379
16. Newsday – 5,092
17. St. Petersburg Times – 4,538
18. The StarTribune – 3,563
19. The Dallas Morning News – 3,498
20. The Seattle Times – seattletimes    3,112
21. The San Diego Union-Tribune – 2,822
22. Philadelphia Inquirer – 2,100
23. The Oregonian – 1,890
24. The Chicago Sun-Times – 1,837
25. The Oakland Tribune - 1,132
26. The Contra Costa Times – 971
27. The Tampa Tribune – 625
28. The Star-Ledger – 372

Very good graphic - explaining the whole thing

Daily Telegraph published a very good graphic depicting the whole story of Chilean miners rescue..

I would like my team to create such a graphic whenever occasion arrives....let us see.

It shows times's thought process!!!!

This cartoon is not funny.

Published today by The Times of London in a column explaining why the British paper has decided to make again T2 as a separate section.

President of Innovation International Media Consulting Group (London) Juan Antonio Giner says...

Perfect:

Hard news and main section for the lord of the house.

Soft news in the trashy T2 section for the lady of the house.

A macho and ghetto approach that explains why many editors and publisher don’t get it.

Go to the streets.

Go the offices.

Go to the stadiums.

Go to the universities.

…or just look inside your own newsrooms.

Women and men sharing the same spaces, jobs, sports, education and interests.

But our macho newspapers don’t get it.

So good luck if you alienate 50% of your potential readers!

This cartoon is a perfect example of a reality that doesn’t exist anymore.

Breakfast together?

Reading the newspaper?

The only real thing is that the readers of these macho newspapers are as old as the people shown in the cartoon.

And, you know?, they will die with them.

NewSSlate Prototype : new digital multimedia device

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dcvkkjp4_47f8r37gf4&interval=5&autoStart=true

Here there is a slideshow explaining the basic functions of this new digital multimedia device.

The first integrated multiformat, multimedia, multichannel news and entertainment device developed by INNOVATION+BERMER Labs and released in Hamburg at the WAN-IFRA World editors Forum (WEF) during the presentation of 2010 Innovations in Newspapers Global Report.

MONEYWISE!!!

There once lived a great mathematician in a village outside Ujjayini . He was often called by the local king to advice on matters related to the economy. His reputation had spread as far as Takshashila in the North and Kanchi in the South. So it hurt him very much when the village headman told him, "You may be a great mathematician who advises the king on economic matters but your son does not know the value of gold or silver." 

The mathematician called his son and asked, "What is more valuable - gold or silver?" "Gold," said the son. "That is correct. Why is it then that the village headman makes fun of you, claims you do not know the value of gold or silver? He teases me every day. He mocks me before other village elders as a father who neglects his son. This hurts me. I feel everyone in the village is laughing behind my back because you do not know what is more valuable, gold or silver. Explain this to me, son." 

So the son of the mathematician told his father the reason why the village headman carried this impression. "Every day on my way to school, the village headman calls me to his house. There, in front of all village elders, he holds out a silver coin in one hand and a gold coin in other. He asks me to pick up the more valuable coin. I pick the silver coin. He laughs, the elders jeer, and everyone makes fun of me. And then I go to school. This happens every day. That is why they tell you I do not know the value of gold or silver." 

The father was confused. His son knew the value of gold and silver, and yet when asked to choose between a gold coin and silver coin always picked the silver coin. "Why don't you pick the gold coin?" he asked. In response, the son took the father to his room and showed him a box. In the box were at least a hundred silver coins. Turning to his father, the mathematician' s son said, "The day I pick up the gold coin the game will stop. They will stop having fun and I will stop making money." 


The bottom line is: 
Sometimes in life, we have to play the fool because our seniors and our peers, and sometimes even our juniors like it. 
That does not mean we lose in the game of life. It just means allowing others to win in one arena of the game, while we win in the other arena of the game. We have to choose which arena matters to us and which arenas do not.

जिए का तो कोई अगला पल होता नहीं

अपनी दुनिया को दूर से देखना
उन जिए पलों की तहों में उतरना
उनसे बाहर निकलना
उन पलों को जीना जो अब तक अनजिए रहे
यानी अनजिए के पल
जिए का तो कोई अगला पल होता नहीं

Most honest journalist recruitment adv!!!

Company:	Illinois Valley News
Position:	LONG HOURS LOW PAY
Location:	Southern, Oregon
Job Status:	Full-time
Salary:	$20,000 to $25,000
Ad Expires:	November 5, 2010
Job ID:	1204231

Description:How bad do you want to be a reporter? Bad enough to work nights and weekends? The poor glutton for punishment that's chosen will cover city and county government. Sports and general interest feature stories.In exchange for your long hours and tireless efforts you will be rewarded with low pay and marginal health insurance. Please send resume, and 3 writing samples to wonclive@yahoo.com This is a full time salaried position located in the beautiful northwest.