Column | Window Seat

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 22.12.19

Journalism Education: Epistemological Challenges

Recently I was invited to participate in a panel discussion on Epistemological Challenges in Journalism Education in Bhubaneswar.

Epistemology is the philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge. It concerns the means of production of knowledge and also looks into how knowledge relates to truth, belief and justification.

Here is my take on the subject:

Journalists' ability to capture and deliver factual information is central to their sense of professionalism and to their societal and democratic functions. That is what we teach in Journalism schools. At one level we teach the 'how' part of it. And at another level- we teach the 'why' part of it. In between we also teach them subjects like history of media, media law and ethics, media and society to provide perspective and background.

With the arrival and spread of Internet and digital technology the media ecosphere has changed and is changing fast. It has dramatically changed the way facts used to gathered and disseminated. Teaching the skill part is relatively easy. Teaching the conceptual part is increasingly becoming difficult- as the established concepts are getting blurred.

The need to understand journalists' dealings with facts becomes especially pronounced in an age when news organizations face an economic crisis and journalism's exclusive jurisdiction over the supply of news information is challenged by new and old forces.

A 18 country wide study involving 1800 journalists in 2012 findings indicate that conditions of ownership, nature of the political regime, personal beliefs and social environment, produce variance in journalists' takes on reality depiction.

Now the challenges before media educators are:

1. How do we teach our students to engage with facts.

2. How do the students know which is credible fact, and which is not.

3. Whom do they write or narrate the story in audio or av format for and how?

4. What is the role of the journalists in a society?

Cycle

I have been a strong advocate of using bicycle as the preferred transport mode. It is eco-friendly, cost-effective and adds to general health and wellness. It could reduce the traffic chaos and parking problems in big cities.  Unfortunately our city/road infrastructure is not pedestrian or bicycle-friendly. Riding a bicycle is often looked down as too down-market. Fossil fuel driven personal transport is the status symbol for us. We prefer to show off with our car even to go for a short distance.  Interestingly, in many developed European countries, cycling is the preferred mode of transportation.

For many Dutch people, their preferred mode of transportation is the bicycle. According to one estimate, every single day 14 million bicycle trips are made in Holland! Not surprisingly the country is well equipped with bicycle paths; bicycle traffic and safety is taken very seriously in the planning of infrastructure.

We need a change of mindset relating to bicycle. We need to design our city roads to be pedestrian and cycle-friendly. Our netas and babus and celebrities should promote cycling instead of promoting fuel puzzling and smoke spewing SUVs. It will benefit ecology, environment and general health.

Facebook Group

There are hundreds of thousands of facebook groups. There is one called 'Benjyo Soujer', a Japanese group that meets to clean public toilets.

Cleaning public toilets is considered a social activity by some good samaritans in Japan. A group that was started through Facebook meets once a week to disinfect, scrub and bond in the bathroom.

The group, called Benjyo Soujer, has 35 members who get together every Sunday morning, no matter the weather, to sanitize public toilets around Tokyo, disinfecting urinals and sinks. The group's name is a combination of the Japanese word for "lavatory" and a combination of the Japanese word for "cleaner" and the English word for "soldier."

Group members say the cleaning ritual is a way to bond as a community and cleanse the soul at the same time. Along those lines, and this may not make sense to everybody, members are encouraged to clean the toilets with their bare hands.

Benjyo Soujer's leader, Masayuki Magome, says the practice of cleaning with bare hands is similar to a practice by Buddhist monks seeking "peace of heart." It takes the group about an hour and a half to finish, and then they are on to another public restroom the following weekend.

I got this information from an email forward. The idea is brilliant. Can we have a group (or hundreds such groups) like this in India?

Tailpiece : English and Math

A little boy was doing maths homework, saying to himself...

2+5, the son of bitch is 7

3+6, the son of bitch is 9

His mother heard this & asked, "What r u doing?"

Boy: "Doing my maths homework"

Mom: "Is this how your teacher taught you?"

Boy: "Yes"

Infuriated mother called the teacher: Are you teaching math to children by saying... 2+2, the son of bitch is 4?

Teacher started laughing and answered: "What I taught them was... 2+2 THE SUM OF WHICH IS 4."

Moral: PHONETICS is important. English must be mastered before Maths

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The author, a journalist turned media academician lives in Central Odisha town of Dhenkanal. An anthology of his weekly column Window Seat, published in 2019 will be published as a book. Should you want a copy with introductory discounted price, write to him at: mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com