A Karnataka Experience; of multi-tasking journalists

In May 2018, I chose to flesh out an assignment for a documentary film.

The south Indian state of Karnataka was going to the polls, holding elections to the state assembly and the election was expected to follow a bitter, competitive one with three political parties - the Congress, Janata Dal (S) and the BJP.

I chose to make the coastal town of Mangaluru ( Mangalore) my base and the focus of my shoot was on How Journalists Cover Local Elections'.

Covering Mangaluru and its suburbs, unto the temple town of Udupi and as far north as Kundapur in Karnataka, this assignment gave me a closer view of Indian journalists at work in this time and age.

Of significance was the multi0-skilling talks many were undertaking.

At a press conference held at the Mangaluru office of the Congress party, no less than ten journalists juggled with their handphones and ear sets and their pens and writing pads.

At least three of them held up a small camera in the left hand and the handphone in the right; in between they kept taking short notes.

To get to at least one experience of this multi-tasking I spent some time with Violet Pereira who with her husband runs a small news/community website. 

Sitting in a 200 sq ft office in a large building owned by the Catholic church, the heritage Milagres  Church located across the busy road, I got to understand how Violet effortlessly juggled between two tech gadgets as she covered the Karnataka elections.

Elsewhere in Mangaluru, in a meeting I had with the then Chief of Bureau of Deccan Herald, a widely circulated English newspapers with its headquarters in Bengaluru, I realised that Dr. Ronald A. Fernandes silll stuck to the classic old method of field reporting - notepad and pen. 

His newspaper did not expect him to also share snappy videos though Deccan Herald had a website. Visuals were sent by the newspaper's full-time photographer.

The documentary has taken time in post production and should be in the public domain in June / July 2019.

Meanwhile, as the run-up to India's Lok Sabha elections got hotter earlier this year I decided to embark on another assignment - a written one.

The theme - How Do India's Print Journalists Leverage New Media at Elections time.

The grand plan is to travel through 9/12 states in various parts of India, talk to journalists who work for newspapers at state capital, district headquarters and mandal/taluk level and document their experiences.

This is a tough task with elections to be held in 7 phases across April and May. It is summertime and criss crossing India does pose some challenges.

Photo: Congress leader Ivan D' Souza addresses the media in Mangaluru. Courtesy: Daijiworld.com