Category Archives: Media portrayal

“I would like the media to be more responsive to the needs of the poorest people, and less single-minded in their coverage of the world of glitzy entertainment and shining business opportunities. The most vibrant media in the world is so silent on the needs and predicaments of the poorest.” – Nobel Awardee Amartya Sen (quoted in The Hindu, 1 February 2014)
https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/jaipur-diary/article5643002.ece
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=13755

“75 per cent of the population did not make news. […] We need peoples’ movements around Health Justice, Food Justice, and more – some inspiring ones already exist, but are marginalised in corporate media coverage.” – P. Sainath (founder of PARI “People’s Archive of Rural India”) in “We Didn’t Bleed Him Enough”: When Normal is the Problem (counterpunch.org , 12 August 2020, first published in Frontline magazine)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/12/we-didnt-bleed-him-enough-when-normal-is-the-problem/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=20921

“Touring ten drought-stricken states in India transformed the acclaimed journalist Palagummi Sainath – showing him a devastating situation mostly ignored by his fellow journalists. ‘I felt that if the Indian Press was covering the top 5 percent, I should cover the bottom percent.’ – A conversation with Saint Francis Xavier University’s Coady Chair in Social Justice for 2015” (CBC radio podcast May 27, 2016)
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/imprisoned-by-profit-media-democracy-1.3601228
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23847

“PARI is not only archiving invaluable materials about rural India, but also developing a cadre of knowledgeable reporters who can report from rural India about its realities. This digital archive has already received some significant awards for its work, including the Praful Bidwai Memorial Award (June, 2016). PARI seeks to ‘continue its efforts to push the borders of digital multimedia and take journalism, arts, crafts, and literature out of the hands of corporations and hand it back to people.” – Jael Silliman in “Voices from the countryside” by (The Telegraph, 12 November 2016)
https://www.telegraphindia.com/1161112/jsp/opinion/story_118705.jsp
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=21398

“’Deprivation’ refers to the inability of individuals in a society to achieve basic human functionings. Among these are the ability to live a long and healthy life free from avoidable disease and hunger, and the opportunity to be educated and to have access to resources needed for a socially acceptable standard of living […] Although deprivation so defined is a huge part of contemporary Indian reality both in the countryside and in cities, the mainstream media do not generally give it informed, sustained coverage.” –  Asian College of Journalism: “Covering Deprivation” (course-related information)
https://www.asianmedia.org.in/acj/programme/covering-deprivation/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23343

“The Indian authorities’ response to protests has focused on discrediting peaceful protesters, harassing critics of the government, and prosecuting those reporting on the events.” – Meenakshi Ganguly (South Asia director at Human Rights Watch) quoted by Soutik Biswas (BBC News, 4 February 2021)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55906345
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=11721

“[T]here have been constant press freedom violations [with] calls for the journalists concerned to be murdered.” – Reporters without borders (ranking India in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, down to 142 from 140 in 2019)
https://rsf.org/en/india
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23343

“In the 2020 World Press Freedom Index, India slipped a further two notches and now ranks a lowly 142, lower than even Myanmar which is ruled by a military junta.” – Vinay Lal (Professor of History & Asian American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles UCLA) in “Emergency in India, Faux and Real” (26 June 2020)
https://vinaylal.wordpress.com/2020/06/26/emergency-in-india-faux-and-real/

“[T]he key for Native media to succeed is for it to connect to its cultural roots.” – James R. Mountain (owner of the San Ildefonso Pueblo community’s newspaper in New Mexico) in “More than News: Indigenous media empowers native voices and communities” (American Indian Magazine, Smithsonian, Summer 2020)
www.AmericanIndianMagazine.org

“Journalist and photojournalists are professional storytellers who objectively pursue and report the facts. However, everyone’s life experiences inevitably shape what one sees and hears. [T]he field of photojournalism is reinventing itself to respond to the growing need to give members of traditionally underreported groups more of a voice in how their story is told.”- From the Editors in “On the front lines: Journalism may never be so needed – or so endangered” (American Indian Magazine, Smithsonian, Summer 2020)
www.AmericanIndianMagazine.org