Overwhelm Response To ‘Varthalap’ at Siddipet
Hyderabad: Speakers at a Media Workshop (Varthalap) organised by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) at Siddipet this morning called upon journalists to brush up their skills in tune with the changing times to serve better. Inaugurating the workshop attended by an overwhelming number of 125 journalists from print, electronic, and social media, the District Additional Collector Sri. Muzammil Khan, IAS, said that media plays an important role in disseminating the right information to the public.
He urged journalists to spread positive messages about the various initiatives of the Government and enable the people to get benefitted out of them. He urged the media to exercise caution and prevent the spread of false news.Smt. Shruti Patil, Additional Director General, in her keynote address, said that the outreach activity is meant for enhancing awareness of media regarding various central government schemes and initiatives.
“Our endeavour is to ensure the flow of information between the government, media, and people so that the information reaches the prospective beneficiaries,” she said. Smt. Shruti Patil also briefed the participants about the structure, functions, and role of PIB in the publicity of policy initiatives. Shri.V. Balakrishna, Joint Director, PIB, highlighted the aim and objective of the Vartalap programme.
“Vartalap is a platform to strengthen ties between government and media in order to ensure better and effective flow of information down the grassroots level,” he maintained. Smt. Varganti Gayathri, Media & Communications Officer, PIB Hyderabad, was appreciated by the officials and speakers for making the workshop a grand success with her planning and coordination.
The event had two technical Sessions taken by a senior journalist Dr. S. Ramu and a Google-certified Fact Check Trainer Smt. Satya Priya on the ‘Best practices in Journalism’ and ‘Combating fake news including fact-check mechanism’ respectively. Dr Ramu, who worked with Eenadu, The Hindu, and Mail Today for about 25 years and has taken charge as the Chairman of the Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) Hyderabad chapter recently, urged journalists to strive hard to bring the lost glory to the field of journalism.
“We are amidst the pessimists who constantly talk ill about the media, an essential instrument to safeguard democracy and the rights of citizens. Every journalist should contribute to the common good by writing positive and human-interest stories,” he said adding that the new information technologies should be used well to reach out to people effectively.
Dr Ramu, who did his Ph.D. on ‘Ethics and Journalists”, shared six tips with the participants to excel in the profession: 1) Love your profession to the core, 2) develop a broad outlook of every issue, 3) improve your qualifications and upskill yourself, 4) collaborate with thinkers, intellectuals, and social activists, 5) brush up your communication skills and 6) become tech-savvy. He also spoke about salient features of the Press Council of India’s ‘Norms of Journalistic Conduct’ and suggested the PIB conduct exclusive workshops on it.
Smt Satya Priya shared tools and techniques to counter false information that is contaminating the communication process through social media. She showed the ways to debunk false information, texts, and photos, with the help of various tools. The technical sessions were followed by an interactive question-answer session. Smt. Varganti Gayathri, Media & Communications Officer, PIB Hyderabad, proposed a vote of thanks.
Shri Aswin Kumar (Adminstrative Head), Shri Koteshwar Rao (Field Publicity Officer) and Kavya (Graphic Designer) from the PIB head office in Hyderabad were also present
