The Global Communication Association, 11th India Conference that was lately held at the University of Mysore, Bengaluru from 28th~29th January, 2016 saw some of the most influential speakers and industry leaders sharing their expert piece of advice via keynote sessions and panel discussions.
Each year, the conference is based on a certain theme revolving around which the discussions and sessions happen.
This year, the highlight of the Global Communication Conference (GCA) 11th India Conference was “Ombudsman: Media and Social Responsibility.’ Herein, the prime objective was to ‘share information, promote culture, identify challenges, find solutions and exchange the most updated knowledge on various topics of public relations, media and communication.’.
Amongst several other eminent personalities hailing from different domains and industries, one of the speakers who was a panelist was Digital Vidya’s Lead Trainer and Co-founder of Social Panga, Himanshu Arora.
He shared that it was a great experience to attend the conference along with so many renowned names from the print media.
Himanshu was part of the panel discussion on ‘The obnoxious growth of Paid News..is there way to end it?’. The keynote speaker of this panel was Mr. Bharat Bhushan, Editor, catchnews.com; Founding Editor, Mail Today; Former Editor, Hindustan Times; New Delhi. While other panelists who shared their insightful views and thoughts on the topic included Ms. Moushumi Dutt, Senior Director and Head of Corporate Communications, Philips India Ltd., Gurgaon, Mr. K. S. Narahari, Senior Consultant, The Practice; Former Director, Corporate Communications, Texas Instruments India, Bengaluru Mr. Prakash Belawadi, Founder, The Suchitra School of Cinema, and Dramatic Arts; Columnist, Banglore Mirror; Former Journalist, Indian Express, Bengaluru Ms. Saba Naqvi, Columnist, Author and Political Commentator, New Delhi, India.
Enlisted below are some of the points that were talked and discussed about during the 45 minutes long panel discussion:
- The panel discussion triggered off by stating that mixing-up advertising & newspaper is deadly or obnoxious for journalism.
- One of the panelists, Mr. Prakash had a clear & honest opinion that if all journalists will simply follow their hearts, then we can weed the paid news from grass root.
- With support needed to run a print media like newspaper & with highly competitive space, how can the newspaper survive without advertising.
- Furthermore, it was mentioned that these days, news is driven by advertising & not vice versa. Hence, more emphasis must be laid on the latter.
- Additionally, the panelists together opined that till the time corporates have a vested interest or equity in the media, paid news/media will exist & prosper.
- During the discussion, few case such as that of Aamir Khan and how does the distance from capital (like Arunachal Pradesh) effects the news etc. were categorically highlighted upon.
- Hailing from social and digital marketing background, Himanshu represented the digital space & mentioned about the “influencer marketing” & social media cannot be regulated as it is driven by user driven content.
- The internet readers can see through the paid news & eventually it will effect the credibility of the digital property like website or news app. considering the switching cost is very low, it will result in eventually loosing the customer.
Besides this panel discussion, Himanshu was also part of couple of paper presentation like “Study of digital media: A special reference to news consumption among undergraduate students of Mysore city” & “Mobile phone dependency among college students in Tirunelveli – A cultural perspective”.