Abstract of May 2013 Issue of Media Watch

 

Mobile and Internet Communication: Privacy Risks for Youth in Bangladesh

FAHEEM HUSSAIN

Asian University for Women, Bangladesh

MOHAMMAD SAHID ULLAH

University of Chittagong, Bangladesh

This article looks into the privacy perception and vulnerability among Bangladeshi urban youth using mobile and computing devices. Based on a survey it shows a significant number of the youths are unaware about the concept of privacy in the ‘Digital Age’ and also has little or no idea about possible risks relating to shared voice and data communications. Amid the absence of any clear-cut privacy framework at the national level, this article has found that the level of trust on existing mobile telephony to be significantly higher than the Internet. This research concluded that the long term user experience (or absence of it) in mobile phone and Internet do not have any impact on Bangladeshi youths’ perception on possible privacy related vulnerabilities. Concern over data manipulation has also been identified a major influential factor in deciding youth’s online behavioral patterns.

Redefining the Virtual Self: Analysis of Facebook Discourse of College Students in Kolkata

UMA SHANKAR PANDEY

Surendranath College for Women, University of Calcutta, India

One way in which Facebook is unique for creating perceptions of individuals is the degree to which private information is presented by avenues other than revelation by the person himself. Discourses, are not just insulated linguistic ‘objects,’ but are constitutive parts of communicative acts in a particular sociocultural situation. The present study looks at a particular set of socio-economic factors which influence the Facebook discourse of undergraduate and post graduate communication students in Kolkata, India. This research posits the role of interpreting the intentionality of the discourse on the respondents. This recognizes the process in which people decide about how and when they will disclose private information on a group site. The 292 respondents to our online questionnaire classify the topicality, functionality and colloquality of their Facebook discourse among closed ended options. The objective is to relate these intentionality to factors such as broadband use, medium of education, perceived usefulness and goal directedness.

Networked Publics and Identity Construction: Towards an Era of Virtual Socialization

BIDYARANI ASEM

Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, Delhi, India

In the era of digital age where the rate of information exchange and sharing have gone extremely high, the line of demarcation between the sender and the receiver in a communication act came to be less existent. With the rise of new media technologies, social networking sites (SNS) such as Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, etc. have increasingly become a common platform for networking mong people. The term ‘networked publics’ became a more appropriate term for the broad category of users in these virtual networking platforms. One of the most important characteristic features of social networking is the issue of self constructed identity and representation. This emerging trend has become the key towards virtual socialization amongst the networked publics. Based on strong theoretical backgrounds of self and identity construction, this paper tries to explore the various aspects of socialization in the virtual space through a wide array of literature surveys. Notwithstanding their privacy concerns, the willingness to self expose themselves among the public and to what extent people reveal their “self” in the process of identity construction will be highlighted thoroughly in the paper.

New Media Impacts on Journalism: Revisiting the Dynamics of News Production

PITABAS PRADHAN

Aligarh Muslim University, India

The Arab spring of 2011, the Indian Civil Society campaign for Lokpal 2012, and the ongoing campaign for capital punishment to the Delhi gang rape accused, are among a thousands of events, worldwide, which have demonstrated the power of new media in galvanizing the masses for a cause. The advent of high speed communication channels like broadband, optical fiber, and Web 2.0 services coupled with the ubiquitous multitasking devices like smart phones and other handhelds available in multitudes of forms have tremendously increased the scale of messages output and sharing. The pull of modern technology, push of business, and most importantly the search for new ways to satisfy the self expression needs and ambitions of the new generation have made the domain of new media grow beyond expectation. The technology savvy new generations, have learnt to explore constantly expanding opportunities for communication and self expression presented by the Internet and the Web. The interactive nature of the new media technologies have significantly altered the dynamics of journalism in the cyber space to an extent of blurring the distinction between producers and consumers of messages and transformed them into pro-summers. This paper analyses the impacts of new media technology on professional journalism and the responses of the old media.

Adolescents and the Media: Teenagers Talk about Television and Negative Representations

DOROTHY HOBSON

University of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, United Kingdom

Young people are an elusive and exciting audience and user of all media. They are both the most desirable yet indefinable set of groups and individuals who must be attracted, intrigued and held in thrall if media organizations are to succeed in their quests to keep in step with their ever moving interests, This article presents the views of diverse groups of young people aged between nine and nineteen in Birmingham, United Kingdom in the winter of 2010/11 and reveals in their own words how they feel about the way that they are represented in British media. They are avid watchers of television and even more active users of new media. They reveal their eclectic and heavy viewing habits. While they are diverse in their education, social backgrounds and ethnicity, they are united in expressing their unhappiness and discontent about the way that they are represented on British television both in news coverage, documentaries and in dramas directed at them. More worrying is the fact that they feel and give evidence that this negative view of teenagers, affects the way they are perceived by other members of the public. While they are critical of British television they do single out American television as being more aspirational and optimistic.

Bollywood Nuances Affecting Italian Television

MONIA ACCIARI

Swansea University, United Kingdom

Since the 1990s, Bollywood cinema arrived in Europe and successfully settled away from the Indian subcontinent, proposing a diverse, variegated and multisensorial experience not only for South Asians living abroad, but also for the locals. Interestingly, the plural mediatic nature of these kinds of films have penetrated European countries in different ways; some were enthusiastic for the joyfulness of songs, others began reviving connections between hippy culture and Bollywood atmosphere, while Italy, the country under investigation in this article, initiated a series of television programs profoundly inspired by the new and compelling Bollywood wave. The television programs analyzed in this article have the scope to unearth how Bollywood cinema has penetrated the small screen of Italy. Also, this article answers the following question: what are the dynamics that have characterized the artistic encounter between two very different ways of expression? Firstly, the work of Russian Semiologist Yuri Lotman on semiosphere is taken into account in an attempt to highlight how the world of Bollywood and the one of Italian television, considered as two diverse semiospheres, have influenced each other in the endeavor to see a process of exchange and fusion. On a second level, the fusion of formats, such as sitcoms with Bollywood nuances, could produce an interesting reflection on genre. A brief literature review on genre theory has been offered to frame the possibility for the emergence of a new genre, the fusion genre, at the base of this encounter.

CBC and the Science Academy: A Participatory Journey

NICOLE BLANCHETT NEHELI

Sheridan College Institute of Technology, Canada

The publicly funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has a unique, participatory relationship with the science academy that showcases scientific discovery on the Geologic Journey II website—a site run by CBC. Although academics work on interesting projects that have great relevance to those outside academic circles, their work is generally published in journals or texts that are not often accessed or, in some cases, understood by the general public. On Geologic Journey II, a site created in conjunction with the development of a documentary project, contemporary research is highlighted in a manner that makes it easily accessible to a much wider audience. Through the lens of media logic, using the theories of convergence culture and the public sphere, in this paper, I explore how the partnership between CBC and the science academy invigorates public discourse, and why building relationships with community partners makes good business sense for a public broadcaster.

Freshman 15: Are Universities Doing Enough?
STEVEN McCORKLE

University of Alabama, USA

KEVIN ARMSTRONG

Mississippi State University, USA

MARK GOODMAN

Mississippi State University, USA

JANICE GIDDENSClarkson Community Center, Atlanta, USA

Freshman 15 has been identified as a major medical issue on college campuses for over a decade. Scholars have indicated that Freshman 15 treatment options need to include physical fitness, nutrition, and counseling. Our analysis of the web sites of 45 major universities indicates that most schools need to improve their communication methods if they are going to successfully provide intervention to their students.

Audience at Play: An Inquiry into the Song Kolaveri Di

SHUBHDA ARORA

Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad, India

The discourse in communication studies has looked at audiences as active seekers of pleasure through communicative play. This perspective has been talked about extensively by William Stephenson (1988) through his play theory of mass communication. Stephenson refutes Freud who considered play to be an unconscious, passive and an escapist defence mechanism. This paper furthers this understanding of play in the present day of digitization and virtual media technologies. The study proposes that the users of the Internet (virtual audiences) get actively co-opted into the creation and recreation of media content through play. Participative play on the Internet can be equated to what Caillois (2001) has described as Paideia (primitive, pure play of carefree gaiety). Paideia in its new Internet avatar may manifest itself in the form of shares and likes, posts and reposts, comments and recommendations on content sharing and social networking sites. This carefree act of pure play can be attributed to the absence of a proper regulatory framework on social interactions in the cyberspace which in turn makes the play elusive and the players’ (audience) behaviour very unpredictable.

Constraints in Screen Translation: The Socio- Cultural Dimensions of Dubbing and Subtitling

LOVJI K. N

Vimala College, University of Calicut, India

Whether domesticating or foreignising in its approach, any form of audiovisual translation ultimately plays a unique role in developing both national identities and national stereotypes. The transmission of cultural values in screen translation has received very little attention in the literature and remains one of the most pressing areas of research in translation studies. (Mona Baker and Braño Hochel 1997:76) The term audiovisual translation refers to both the translation of the distribution format and its contents. Even though the technical responsibilities of audiovisual translators may become limited, their creative and linguistic abilities, as well as their capacity to match words with both images and sounds continue to be tested. The present paper reflects the pace and breadth of the linguistic and cultural challenges that the translators encounter while translating, subtitling and dubbing films.

Media Watch Invites Papers for September 2013 Issue

Media Watch communication journal invites papers for a special theme issue—
Exploring the Dynamics of Media and Communication Education & Research

Globally media education and research is in its dynamic flux after the emergence of new/social media. The traditional models/process of communications is redefined. Classrooms turned to be virtual and multi-mediated. Teaching and learning began to challenge the concepts of space and time. Teaching and learning becomes more stake-holder centered. Industry and market response is getting narrow casted. Catering for the niche world is vital.  Solutions for all problems are now in apps!.  Media education will very soon become apps centered. 

Cyberspace provides everything from instructional to simulation effects. Media education and research is becoming more of need based.  Media education from the primary to the territory stages had diversified beyond imaginations. Generic subjects and syllabi were replaced by need based techno centered multi-disciplinary managerial entrepreneurship courses. Capstone subjects were replaced by innovative, creative, experimental and emerging disciplines. Cybernetics to cyborg studies, pop culture to celebrity studies, gaming to media entrepreneurship courses are getting prominence. An inevitable cross breed of humanities and social sciences with science and technology already happened in the media education and research. Standardization and centralization of curriculum becomes absolutely impossible. Diversity and creativity enriched in media education and research. The quest for an alternate world to a better possible world was absolutely realized and responded by the media education and research in each nation. Public redefining the concepts of the traditional ‘source and receivers’ gained the locus of attention in the contemporary media education and research. Mediations with these faceless flash and dynamic publics in utmost efficiency and effectiveness had repositioned the study of media process to a higher level. 

This proposed special issue of Media Watch September 2013 on media and communication education and research is an opportunity to explore the critical/logical dimensions of media education and research in our higher education centers. The journal considers articles, essays, and book reviews related to the theme. We encourage submissions from scholars, professionals, researcher, and educators at any level and in any discipline. Your contribution must attempt to enhance and restructure all the dimensions of media and communication education and research to a higher level of enlightenment, to promote further construction and cross breed of educational environment in media and communication studies with other emerging disciplines. It will therefore be appreciated that the papers go beyond the descriptive dimension. Scientific, comparative studies, analytical and dialogic approaches and diverse, pluralistic methodologies are welcome on the following themes: 

·         Social media practices in media & communication education.

·         Role of new media in curriculum development.

·         Stake holder centered teaching & learning approaches.

·         Journalism education and research in a cyber world.

·         Paradigm shifts in media and communication education.

·         Innovative practices by publics in media education and research.

·         De-westernizing media and communication education

·         Internationalizing the scope of media and communication research.

·         Experimentations from the grassroots level teaching and learning.

·         Redefining the value spectrum in media and communication education.

Contributors are encouraged to query the editors in a short e-mail describing their papers to determine suitability for publication. 

Abstract: The abstracts should define objectives, theoretical framework and methodological approach, as well as possible contributions for the advancement of knowledge in the field. As a length measure, each submission should have an abstract of 150-200 words. All abstract submissions must be submitted in advance, preferably before May 20, 2013 through e-mail: mediajournal@ymail.com, sonyjraj@gmail.com, and mediawatchjournal@gmail.com. Early submission is strongly encouraged. 

Length: As the journal is primarily print-based, we encourage articles or manuscripts, including references, tables, and charts, should range between 20-30 pages (6000-8000 words). 

Deadlines:  Once the Abstract is reviewed and if it is found suitable, you will be asked to submit a completed manuscript by June 15, 2013. Review of the papers will be completed before July 10, 2013. 

Style: References should also follow APA style. Visit:
http://www.mediawatchglobal.com/information-for-author/

Guidelines for submission are available at:
http://www.mediawatchglobal.com/instructions-for-authors/ 

Review Process: Authors are informed when manuscripts are received. Each manuscript is pre-viewed prior to distribution to appropriate reviewers. Manuscripts are anonymously reviewed. Once all reviews are returned, a decision is made and the author is notified. Manuscripts should consist of original material, and not currently under consideration by other journals. Author(s) have to submit the copyrights declaration permission to Media Watch before final consideration of the paper. 

Cover Page (for review purposes): Include title of manuscript, date of submission, author’s name, title, mailing address, business and home phone number, and email address. Please provide a brief biographical sketch and acknowledge if the article was presented as a paper or if it reports a funded research project. 

Software Format: Submit papers in both Word (.doc) and Pdf. 

Information: For further information and inquiries about the proposed issue and journal, in case of need, please do not hesitate to contact the co-editor of the journal, Dr. Sony Jalarajan Raj via e-mail: sonyjraj@gmail.com. 

We strongly recommend you share this Call for Papers among researchers who you think may be interested in submitting papers for the issue of the journal.

If any organizations and institutions are interested to associate with Media Watch journal, please write to the Publisher: deepakranjanjena@yahoo.com

For more information about the journal, please visit the journal website: www.mediawatchglobal.com
Blog page: www.mediawatchjournal.blogspot.in

Dr. Sony Jalarajan Raj
Editor, Media Watch
St. Thomas University, Florida, USA
sonyjraj@gmail.com

Changing Face of the Indian Press

A study of Indian history from 16^th to 20^th centuries will indicate that the transition from feudalism to modern society has been slow and incomplete despite the occasional turbulence, turmoil, wars, social reforms, and intellectual ferment.  It was during the mid-19^th century (First War of Independence) and the 20^th century freedom movement that the Indian newspapers played a powerful and prominent role in questioning the forces of authority, social prejudices and the suppression of personal liberty.  During the late 19^th and early 20^th century, attempts to propagate the ideas of liberty, equality, fraternity, and freedom were made by political and social leaders. The journals started by them played a historical role in questioning old ideas and practices like casteism, communalism, superstitions, educational backwardness and women’s oppression. Modern rational and scientific ideas, secularism, tolerance, and economic empowerment of the people were propagated in the writings of national leaders. The newspapers, particularly, served in conscientizing literate and educated people about the need for social reforms and political independence. Until 1950, the newspapers no doubt, served in inspiring people of the country towards a change in their thinking about social transformation, economic empowerment and the establishment of a strong foundation for democracy.  But in recent decades, a decline in the functioning of the press/media has set in. This paper attempts to present a glimpse of events through which the all types of media have passed. Reference is also made to the recent technological changes in our media world and the serious ethical questions they have raised about media’s performance.  

 

Introduction

Authentic and available sources describe the birth of Indian journalism in 1780 with Hicky’s Gazette (James August Hicky) which was largely aimed at criticizing the officials of the British government’s East India Company.  (Malhotra: 2008). The history of Indian journalism is about 231 years of struggle for existence, propagation of free speech and ideas of people, and evolving democratic values of the nation. Media practitioners and historians view the growth of Indian journalism in a number of ways. Some feel the history of pre-independence journalism was based on the people’s struggle for freedom and socio-political development in the country. Others feel that the journalism of those days was not value-based with any ideology and that more than political freedom or nation building or informing and educating people, the press was aimed to perpetuate the British system of political rule and governance. 

From the period of British India to the present free, liberalized and globalised India on the path of privatization, print and electronic journalism has passed through many phases of ups and downs, which have not yet ended. The most prominent change is that journalism once regarded as a mission has now changed into a business or trade, a vocation like any other where commercialization has crept in. Journalists are no longer fighters for the rights of people; they are just mercenary writers, most of them canvassers for their employers. 

The stature of the ‘fourth estate’ (press/media) is now transformed into a trade with its own hierarchies and remuneration-based value systems; social commitment of the past is no longer an asset for a journalist or media professional. In the current situation, the press or the media in general are operated by businessmen for business goals, occasionally pleading for justice for the poor, but most of them ignoring the immense problems faced by the majority of the population. Are the media already on the path to become huge conglomerates all repeating the same types of news and creating a false reality?  Does the motive of making huge profits through advertising, ‘paid news’ and ‘private treaties’ dominating the media world today? Have we, as a nation, lost our social concern and ethical values? Why is there so much talk about corruption among the people in private conversation but not in the columns of the newspapers or in the broadcast and telecast media? Have the media become business establishments with commercial dealings with both the government and private houses, not necessarily confined to this country, but ready to do business with similar institutions in any part of the globe?  Is it the result of globalization?  Do the media have special responsibilities to their own nation?  How do the media behave in chain ownership, cross-media ownership, or any other type of ownership?  What will be the result of that behaviour on the contents of the media products?  Are the newspapers, radio, television, etc. to be treated as products generating huge profits for the investors who have an axe to grind? Are they justified in following practices  particularly suitable to amass wealth in the hands of entrepreneurs who consider the media as a tool for enhancing their private and personal fiefdom and profit motives, rather than utilizing the columns and the visuals for helping government and non-government agencies in solving the burning problems facing the nation—economic  backwardness of the majority, poverty, illiteracy and ill-health of almost 80 per cent of our 120 crores of people, illiteracy of almost half of our population, atrocities against the poor, socially weak and marginalized people, especially in the rural areas and discriminations and violations of human rights, including gender injustices?

Rapid developments in technology in the last two decades have gradually transformed the media scenario and the image of journalism and journalists. The old days are gone for good---when journalists used pencils, notebooks and shorthand! But the scribes of old had plenty of concern for the poor.  

Quite often, today’s media people are using the electronic equipment in news gathering, recording, transmission and compilation of information—and that is a commendable and worthy practice. But there are ethical questions about the use of hidden cameras and pocket tape-recorders and surreptitious recording of events and personalities in such a manner that they are presented in a manner predesigned by the media worker in order to trap the interviewee or  present the event to enhance the monetary gains of the unconscionable reporters, editors, publishers or proprietors. 

The Changing Scenario

Development in technology combined with growth in the number of newspaper readers resulting from the rising trend in literacy have led to the unprecedented growth in the number of newspapers and magazines and in their circulations. During 2011, seven out of the top ten English newspapers registered a growth in readership; five out of the top ten Hindi newspapers have shown a steady increase during the same period. Both Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar continue to lead the Hindi dailies with an all India readership of 164.58 lakhs and 148.79 lakhs, respectively (RNI 2011). Even daily circulation of some other Indian language newspapers is enviable when compared to newspaper growth globally. While circulation and readership increased, print advertisement has not lagged behind. Earlier, the English newspapers had almost 85 per cent of the advertisement revenue. Today, the figures have changed; the Indian language newspapers have started approaching towards an equal share of advertisement revenue with their English counterparts.

Readers are now having options of wide variety to choose publications of their choice because of information available in the Internet. All the technological developments are not fully understood and there are still misconceptions among advertisers. (Singhvi: 2006) Advertisers in India are still looking at quantity rather than quality readership. Newspaper producers have taken the line that they can virtually give their ‘product’ free of charge or at nominal price, a small fraction of the actual cost. But once you have the big numbers, lots of advertising will come to you because the advertisers naturally gravitate towards big numbers. But is serving the advertisers the main goal of journalism?

In a world of increasing globalization, the media have great potential.  They can reach important information to their users, even in remote corners of the globe where it was really difficult to reach in the past. One of the most creditable achievements of the Indian press during the 1980s and 1990s was the spectacular growth in the regional press.   Many factors contributed to this growth, the most important of which was the political alliance among regional parties in the formation of governments at the central and state levels. The trends set-up by Eenadu in Andhra Pradesh, Malayala Monorama in Kerala were highly remarkable. Among other factors the rise of literacy, better transportation, aggressive marketing strategies and increasing awareness among the masses about participation in political process contributed a lot in the changing scenario of print media in the country. The creation of the Panchyati Raj system at grassroots level has propagated the views of common people in creation of more stabilized democratic governance through free flow of information in regional and local press. Now over two-thirds of the regional press readers belong to small towns and rural areas.   

The innovation and changes in technology are re-defining the survival, growth and development of the Indian print media. Present day newspaper readers are not satisfied with the traditional way of news presentation, editorial inputs but something extra insight into what others have not reported. Pandey says that when she took over the editorship of the Delhi edition of Hindustan (a Hindi daily) it had a circulation of some 64,000 copies but just after two years the circulation grew to 4,25,000 copies. The reason for this increase was that ‘even earlier the paper had readers, but we could not reach them,’ says Pandey. ‘It is the same paper, the same printing press and the same staff even today. All that we have done is to pay more attention to the way in which news is coming in and the way in which it is collected. We take the opinion of the people and have discussions with them.’ (Pandey: 2006)

While technology increased the economic prosperity of the Indian press, there has been a perceptible and pernicious decline in standards. Sensationalism, trivialization and titillation are becoming the order of the day. Investigative journalism as sting operation has opened a new chapter which made the press to acquire a more powerful position and helped it to enhance the image of the press as a watchdog of the society. Unfortunately, investigative journalism has often been misused to settle personal scores or to tarnish the image or blackmail individuals. This aspect of the modern highly technologized press deserves a careful scrutiny for taking appropriate remedial measures.      

                                                                                                                     

Conclusion

The time has come to examine and evaluate the ethical aspects of our current media performance and personnel.  How to challenge and shape the print media in the growing technologically competitive and globalized environment giving the utmost  importance to the values of Indian society, tradition, culture and human rights and economic development issues. The press in India has always been at the forefront of national progress. The media institutions and  professionals/journalists must be very sensitive to the country’s multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and socio-religious and plural status. They should always do such act in such a way that shapes and maintains equilibrium and tranquillity in society. Editors and owners of the media industry must pay attention to proper self-regulation that would ensure accountability, and lessen its dependence on advertising and marketing strategies, and the increasing commoditization of news. Newspaper owners and broadcast media managers must recognize that news is not a product. They must ensure that increase in readership or viewership is not attained at the cost of credibility. The undesirable and unethical practice of ‘paid news’ and ‘private treaties’ must end unconditionally. Journalists must have the right to express what they believe to be true, just and fair; this is not a right that should be compromised by profit-motives or commercial interests of an individual or organization. For this to happen, media workers have to assert their own economic independence, affinity for truth and above all their self-esteem.       

       

S.N. Pattnaik is Editor (News), News Services Division, All India Radio, New Delhi-110 001. E-mail: snpattnaik@yahoo.com

Paid News’ Offenders May Lose Registration

The government is considering amendments in the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act to make "paid news" in the media an offence which may attract a monetary fine or, in extreme cases, cancellation of the publication's registration. 

The Information &Broadcasting Ministry's (I&B) move to review the Act comes in conjunction with the Election Commission's proposal to make "publishing or abetting of publishing" of "paid news" an electoral offence that may even led to two-year imprisonment for the offender. 

Although what really constitutes "paid news" is not been defined, currently the attention is on favourable or unfavourable electoral estimates that have been paid for. However, it would also include similar "paid news" on other subjects if it is not clarified that the impugned article is an "advertorial" or a "supplement". 

An I&B ministry source said: "Just as a candidate can be held responsible for giving material for paid news, the publication should also be held responsible for accepting such material." However, with the Lok Sabha polls barely a year away, it's doubtful whether amendments to the legislation will get Parliament's nod. 

The ministry is also considering changes in the Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity (DAVP) rules to block DAVP advertisements to publications that have attracted a repeated censure for "paid news" from the Press Council of India. Several small and medium media organizations are heavily dependent on DAVP ads and this clause would act as a major disincentive. 

Committees appointed by the Election Commission has been unearthing a number of instances of "paid news" recently, including over 400 alleged instances of "paid news" during the December 2012 Gujarat election.

The parliamentary standing committee reviewing the PRB Act has already recommended that an annual statement record of income from advertisements should be filed by publications. Rapping the I&B ministry for not providing a suitable mechanism for checking the menace of "paid news", the panel headed by Rao Inderjit Singh said: "The committee need hardly emphasize that having the provision of furnishing details of advertisement revenue by the publications would definitely address the menace of paid news to a great extent. The committee express their serious anguish that the ministry has missed out an opportunity to curb the menace of paid news.'' 

The legislation has now been sent back to the ministry for suitable amendments. 

In 2011, the EC had recommended amendments to the Representation of People Act 1951 which would make publishing "paid news" for furthering the prospect of election of any candidate or for prejudicially affecting the prospect of election of any candidate an electoral offence with punishment of a minimum of two years imprisonment.

Sourced: (Times of India):  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Paid-news-offenders-may-lose-registration/articleshow/18508803.cms

For more information, please visit: www.mediawatchjournal.blogspot.in
Website: www.mediawatchglobal.com