Why you should invest in the Hoot!

IN Media Practice | 26/10/2013

We try to hold a mirror to media practitioners by casting a spotlight on their acts of omission and commission. Who ducked covering something important? Why?

THE HOOT needs urgent support

The media is supposed to cover the news but has itself begun to make news, almost every day. The big difference between now and the time the Hoot came into existence as a media monitor, is that the media has at last begun to cover the doings of its peers. But not nearly as much as it should.

Newspapers, television and the Internet have immense power in a democracy. Given their agenda-setting role, they need to match power with responsibility. For more than 12 years, the Hoot.org has struggled to keep a beady eye on this amazing beast. It has been a struggle because following the media, investigating their work, researching their ownership, making the calls to verify their practices, respecting the time and effort of the contributors with a modest remuneration -- all this and more requires resources, human and financial. Sometimes donations and grants come, mostly they don’t.

We try to hold a mirror to media practitioners by casting a spotlight on their acts of omission and commission. Who ducked covering something important? Why? Which issues were given a miss by the media at large? We also believe in doing research on trends in the profession such as the influence of the public relations industry, or the presence or absence of Dalits in the media, and the nature of police sourcing.

These are not very solvent times for the media industry and it is no surprise that the Hoot like others is feeling the pinch. We do have grants for a research project and for free speech, but no substantial grant to pay for the writers and researchers we need for the media watch activity, which faces the prospect of a shut down.The money required to run the site is a minimum of Rs 30 lakh a year.

We have had to slash our payments for writing to a third, though we sincerely believe free lance journalists should be paid well. The site is currently run by a part-time editor and just a single full-time staffer. To support the research and debate on the site and the costs of production and web management we need to raise funds from civil society. Reader supported media watch is the only way forward.

The Hoot began its life in the early years of the Internet in India. Its supporters and friends have found it on the Net. So it is but natural that as we think of ensuring its continued presence, we turn to you -- its readers and friends -- to help us sustain this effort.

Pitch in please!

WHO WE ARE

The Media Foundation which runs thehoot.org is India’s oldest civil society media initiative. It was registered in 1979 and enjoys 80G certification. Your contributions are partly tax deductable.

In order to retain the independence of the website we are looking for contributions from a large number of people. The money required to run the site is Rs 30 lakh plus a year. We also solicit contributions under the CSR budget of companies.

You can check out the Hoot’s track record below. If you think what we do is worthwhile, please contribute. No amount is too little or too much. Use our payment gateway or make a bank transfer or send a cheque. Please go to this page on the site for details. Contributions to The Hoot are tax deductable.

The Hoot Reader, a volume of writings on different themes since 2001, culled from the website, has been published by Oxford University Press in August 2013. All those who donate Rs 5000 or more to the Hoot will get a free copy.

WHAT WE DO

The Hoot has three focuses:

· Media critiques

· Press freedom

· Media research

Regular features on the site:

· Tracking ethics issues in national and regional media practice

· Timely commentary on developments concerning the media

· Readable snippets on its errant ways

· Tracking the latest media news

· Daily tracking of free speech violations

· Publishing an annual report on the state of freedom of speech

· Carrying periodic research on media coverage.

· Databases that are useful for journalists

Databases on the site:

· Who owns the media? A media ownership database, which tracks media ownership in the country from the registrar of companies.

· A guide to reporting rape.

· A press laws guide for journalists.

· Cyber Rights FAQs for youth and citizenry in general

· A media statistics database.

OVER THE LAST THIRTEEN YEARS –

Many contentious media issues were covered only on this website. Some of the more recent ones are:

On job losses in media:

On losing our jobs at IBN

On the media empire of Sudipta Sen in West Bengal and the Northeast:

The chit fund media baron

Death of a newspaper

Blame game and a cover-up

On the Bofors expose, 25 years after

The Bofors story, 25 years after

On the Radia Tapes

The Radia Tapes debate: journalists and others write in
The Radia Tapes debate: working journalists introspect
The Radia Tapes debate--swallowing the bait
Radia Tapes: Media ethics at the crossroads

On police sourcing of bomb blast investigations

Biased police, embedded media?

Reporters as police stenographers

Let courts decide, not media and police

On the media business:

The Times, the Jains, and BCCL

Good for business, bad for freedom

On moral policing by Telugu channels:

TV voyeurism touches a new low

Free Speech Tracking

In 2010 we started The Free Speech Hub on the Hoot.

Research

The Media Foundation is currently conducting a two-year study in five states on the media needs of low income groups, in rural and urban areas. It looks at the challenges to public service broadcasting at a time when the media is digitising. This is a Ford Foundation-supported study.

Other Research studies

2013

Discrimination against Dalits in media

Part 1 - The untold story of Dalit journalists
Part 2 - Caste on the campus
Part 3 - Farewell to media dreams

Unpacking prime time news (in 2 parts)

Part 1 Awash in advertising
Part 2- Jingoism on the airwaves
Part 3- What news TV puts out at prime time

Women and violence

Telugu prime time: violence abounds
Women, popular culture and violence: joining the dots

2012

Kudankulam:Kudankulam's nuclear holy cow

Covering the states:

Part 1 - IPL, politics and crime dominate
Part 2- Skewed sports coverage in top dailies
Part 3 - Personalities drive political coverage
Part 4 - No focus on development issues