Media should strike a balance between negative and positive happenings in society, President Pratibha Patil said on Tuesday.
“There is a tendency in some sections of media to focus excessively on news which is negative. There is, of course, a lesson to be learnt from events that are
negative, but equally important is to convey positive messages and to inspire people,” Patil said as she addressed the first joint session of the 62nd World Newspaper Congress and the World Editors’ Forum.
Journalism should remain anchored in some basic principles and criteria, she said.
Journalists, the President said, have a stake in building a safer world in the backdrop of rising global terror.
Terrorists had woven a complex network across the world.
Nabbing consignments of weapons and drugs in one part could reveal a conspiracy of a much larger dimension. “For the media, it implies that even though it is covering certain local events, it must necessarily look at other linkages,” she said.
Changes in media would continue to be determined by new technologies and interface with technology would be a constant challenge, she said.
Media representatives, too, discussed the future of newspapers in face of global financial crisis hitting advertising revenues and circulation as well as the growth of the Internet and multimedia.
While the newspaper industries in developed countries have been hit by the crisis, global sales of newspapers continue to grow, boosted in large part by growth in emerging economies like India and China, a statement on the conference’s website said.
The next three days, attendees will discuss the role of multimedia, restrictions faced by sports journalists and how to fight them, and the role of Google.
(With inputs from AP)