'Parampara' at IP College

Parampara, the annual two-day festival of the department of mass media and mass Communication, IP College was recently celebrated with much fan fare. Several inter-college competitions including a quiz, ad-mad competition and just-a-minute were organised. A total of 45 teams participated in the quiz. The team from Hindu college bagged the first prize where as the second prize was awarded to the team from Law Faculty.
However, the highlight of the festival was the national seminar, which was held on the second day.The topic of the discussion was, "''Why tell the truth'', said, the Fourth Estate". Media personalities like Anupam Kher, Kiron Kher, Humra Qureshi, Tripurari Sharan, director, Film and Television Institute of India, Anurag Kashyap, film writer and editor, participated in the event. Naveen Kumar, director general, Doordarshan, chaired the session.
Anupam Kher in his role as the chairman of the Censor Board emphasised on the importance of truth in our daily lives. Kiron Kher said that, in commercial media like cinema and theatre, entertainment becomes priority for those who produce these projects. Hence, the perspective tends to be coloured. Anurag Kashyap agreed that the, ''what sells'' phenomenon is the most important one in any media business. Whether, a film or documentary is based on absolute truth is secondary.
The underlying theme agreed upon at the event was that coverage of news was no longer ''objective'' as the tendency is to sensationalise events to increase curiosity amongst readers. This curiosity leads to immediate increase in readership or viewership, which has become the sole aim of media organisations. However, Humra Qureshi, in relation to media coverage of Kashmir pointed out that those who can''t say the truth should not write.
Sankarshan Thakur, political editor, Tehelka referred to the politico-social condition in Bihar in his presentation.
V Padmini, a third-year media student felt that the students wanted to understand the concept of ''objectivity'' and ''representation of truth in Media'' and hence the topic was a very important one that was needed to be discussed.