Recent links

We had an interesting and heated meeting last week about the reportage that followed the Mumbai attacks (and no, we don't call it "26/11"), and Seena will post on that discussion soon. In the meantime, here's some media on the media; some media reports understanding and analysing the issue and some media defending itself:

On the Mumbai attacks:
Biju Mathew's piece in Samar Magazine here
Amitav Ghosh in the NYT here

On the media reportage:
Kalpana Sharma in Tehelka here
Suparna Sharma in the Asian Age here
Delhi Union of Journalists' members here
And, finally, Barkha Dutt responds to criticism here

These links will later move to our side bar and in the meantime, The Hoot is always a great place for media analysis.

Media on Terror report

Here is the Media on Terror report, published by Column 9 - a deeper look at the media reporting on terror in Karnataka. The report was written in the context of a series of arrests that took place in Karnataka between January and March 2008.

The concerns that set the pace for the report were the media reports that emerged at the time rather than the arrests themselves.

Would appreciate comments, suggestions and questions!

The first step

To say it again - Column9 is a group of journalists based in Bangalore, Karnataka.

Why do we call ourselves Column9?

Column 9 is the unwritten column. The column that is always missing. The name stemmed from our realization that there were several issues and perspectives that had either gone missing from our media or had been dropped for various reasons. Within the standard 8 columns of a newspaper, there would be no space for a ninth column filled with these crucial stories. Hence, a group - Column 9, whose endeavor it is to write the missing stories and missing analyses and perspectives into stories that do emerge within the standard 8 columns. As people engaged with media, Column 9 is our effort to not only sensitize ourselves but to re-define our roles as ones beyond mere information gatherers.

This is going to be our space for articles, news reports, stories that we are reading, writing and thinking about.