SAJAforum

THIS BLOG: SAJA Mobile launches for BlackBerry

Having trouble keeping up with all your SAJA reading? Have a BlackBerry? Then have we got a great idea for you!

You can now get the latest updates and news from SAJA on your BlackBerry mobile phone.

SAJA Mobile is a free download for your BlackBerry – just visit our mobile website  at http://www.saja.org/mobile - click the "Download Now" button, and enjoy automatic SAJA updates on your mobile device. Once installed, you’ll see the SAJA Mobile icon in your BlackBerry menu.

No need to worry about accessing articles – they’re automatically pushed to your device. And the best part of it all: it’s accessible anywhere – you don’t need network coverage to read articles, so put your subway time, flying time, or any other time to good use!

Don’t have a BlackBerry? Don’t sweat. Check the SAJA Mobile website often for updates. The company who created this for us, Polar Mobile is planning to support the iPhone and Windows Mobile devices in the coming months. In the meantime, look on enviously at your BlackBerry-toting colleagues!

Post your comments below. Or give Polar CEO Kunal Gupta feedback - kunal.gupta[at]polarmobile.com

MEDIA: Ramachandra Guha follows up on SAJAforum in The Telegraph

Several weeks ago we published a long essay by Fulbright scholar James Mutti, "India, Democracy and the Press," examining whether the growth of India's media was at odds with its development as a democracy. The article prompted many well-considered comments and criticisms by a number of scholars and media experts, but the most recent response to the piece came in The Telegraph a couple weeks ago. Ramachandra Guha, author of "India After Gandhi" and one of Foreign Policy magazine's Top 100 intellectuals, has written a fairly extensive commentary on the issues Mutti raised here. From "Watching the Watchdog: Time for the Press to Look Within":

The formal institutions of Indian democracy are not especially marked by the capacity for self-correction and self-criticism. One fact should make this clear — that no senior politician, civil servant, or judge has ever been successfully convicted for corruption or abuse of power. What then of that great informal institution of Indian democracy, the press? Is there a mechanism by which we can understand, and correct, the errors, biases, and malpractices of newspapers and television channels?   

This question is prompted by a discussion currently taking place on the website of the South Asian Journalists Association. It was initiated by James Mutti, an American Fulbright scholar, who had spent time studying the functioning of the press in northern India. Mutti found that “there is an inherent tension between India’s much-hyped economic growth and its deepening democracy”.

Guha then summarizes some of the criticisms of Mutti's article, including Sevanti Ninan's point that the non-English language press are better at looking at issues that affect less affluent Indians. But Guha thinks that if anything, the problem is even worse than Mutti suggested:

...in so far as the English language press is concerned, Mutti’s criticisms may in fact have understated the problem. He speaks of the focus on glamour and celebrity and the neglect of the lives of ordinary Indians. This, he suggests, was a consequence of the press’s wooing of the consuming classes, who are a large (and massively revenue-generating) world unto themselves. It may be that because he is an American he mentioned Bollywood rather than cricket. But, as the manic coverage of the IPL has demonstrated, this game has contributed even more to the dumbing down of the media.   

REQUEST: Use of the word "Pak"

[ See SAJAforum collection of coverage, sources, resources about the Bhutto assassination ]

As you may know, the SAJA Stylebook for Covering South Asia and the Diaspora forbids the use of the word "Paki," noting it's a slur - the desi equivalent of "the N word." See the relevant entry here: http://www.saja.org/stylebook.html#paki

Last night, however, I got a note from a friend about the word "Pak":

I think it's better to use Pakistan instead of PAK - not to be uber politically correct - but I think the shorthand is mainly used by Indian newspapers and not elsewhere.

Is my friend correct? Would love some guidance here. Please post your comments below.

From SAJA, the South Asian Journalists Association

Have you seen the brand-new SAJA.org? Check it out for special members-only content, including jobs, special offers and more!

Sign up to become a member!| Meet the SAJA Board| E-mail: saja@columbia.edu | Follow @sajaHQ on Twitter

What is SAJA Blog? This is SAJA Blog

Hello, friend. Welcome to our Bliss, the online, total and constant satisfaction of SAJA Forum. It is New, and with you, it is also Improved. Lavish it with attention, feed it with information, and with leads, and with rumors confirmed by 2 or more sources. Perhaps you would like to write for SAJA Forum, or share your pictures? If so, please do let us know. Our appetite is great, as if our Need.

SAJA Forum begins with this Convention, but it goes far beyond. It needs to know who got the story, and who got it wrong. It needs to know where the jobs are, and what they pay, and occasionally, why they're not paying when they said they would pay and are now blaming it on falling circulation or a bad advertiser or the dollar-rupee exchange rate. Exactly how do you get an agent? What is an appropriate advance for a first book? Is it possible to enjoy a city beat after working in a war zone? Did Suketu sell more books by being a Pulitzer finalist, or did he sell a whole lot more? What do he and Rushdie chat about?

Yes, friend, many questions indeed.