Mr. T.M.Veeraraghav, an Ex-NDTV, The Hindu, CNN IBC and Ex-Professor at The School of Modern Media at UPES (SoMM) in Dehradun visited the school early in this term.
He started off with an example of a generator in a school to explain the idea of nexus between business tycoons and media houses. Today how the owner of the generator can influence the views of the people who are even at times unrelated and unaffected by the existence of that generator over people who are suffering at the cost of mere presence of it.
In a similar light, he spoke about the current CJP protest. He asked students about their source of information. Following the responses, he asked about the authenticity of those sources and if they are shaping their perspectives. He took another example of the US-Iran war and questioned the choice of the source of news. He then made students enquire about ownership of these sources and if the owners of these media houses manufacture the news that we consume.
On responding to one of the questions on reliable sources in today’s world, he advised to choose multiple sources and avoid falling into bubbles of echo-chambers. While responding to another interesting comment on legality of ownership of media houses, he spoke about how, in Europe, there are norms on who is eligible or allowed to run media houses.