IIM Kozhikode - Leadership Series - Rendezvous with Barkha Dutt, NDTV

[Kalpana Heliya]

[URL="http://www.iimk.ac.in/"]

IIMK Leadership Series

Ms. Barkha Dutt (Padmashri & Managing Editor, NDTV)

4th November 2009

As part of the Leadership Series organized by IIM Kozhikode, Ms. Barkha Dutt, Managing Editor of NDTV was on campus and interacted with the students, faculty members of IIMK.

Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIMK welcomed the guest and recollected how she has redefined television journalism in India. Further, Prof. Chatterjee recounted that over the years many students, especially girls, have named Ms. Barkha as their role model.



The session, an engaging discussion, ranged from issues like 26/11, naxalism, discrimination in India, challenges and opportunities from new technologies et al. When asked how she would like herself to be remembered, Ms. Dutt replied tha’t as a person who would not take no for an answer and one who pushed existing boundaries’. On talking about challenges faced by conventional media in the wake of technological changes she opined that newspapers should reinvent themselves and that TV reporting would benefit from internet/IP TV. She spoke about the growing acceptance of online communities like Facebook, Twitter, blogosphere etc. ‘With mobile phones every man today is a journalist’ said Ms.Dutt and quoted instances where actual TV reporting was entirely based on information from ordinary people on the ground.

Ms. Dutt was critical about the condemning of TV reporting during 26/11 Mumbai attacks. She said that looking back it is clear that TV coverage should have been more responsible but added that it was total chaos then. “No one knew what to do. Not the government, nor the police, not the army nor the media” said Ms.Dutt. On questioned if there should be regulations on TV reporting, she strongly disapproved it but was of the opinion that media should have self-imposed guidelines when reporting such traumatic events. When asked why TV media highlight trivial issues at the cost of important news she agreed that it does happen and more by Hindi news channels, attracting good TRP numbers. She added that it is indeed a challenge of her profession to provide important news content in a relevant way to the masses and achieve a balance between good journalism and interest factor. She also appealed that as consumers we should completely reject such irrelevant programming.

The discussion touched many issues like Gujarat 2001/ Sikh 1984 riots, naxal threat, Kashmir, Northeast, challenges to the younger generation etc. The audience also questioned Ms.Dutt on her personal motivations and what does fear mean to her. As a word of advice to future managers she said that in her career she has met people of high integrity from different walks of life. She urged the aspiring mangers to never lose track of self and said that it is possible to be fiercely competitive while never compromising on integrity.

The session concluded with a promise from Ms.Dutt that she would come back to IIMK in future and thanked everone present even as the gathering applauded in appreciation of the distinguished guest. It was really “an invigorating session at the stunning IIM Kozhikode campus” as she tweeted later on her Twitter page.


Media Cell,IIM Kozhikode in association with Managementparadise.com