Students engage with media stalwarts at 1st Media Summit

Budding media professionals from Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication (AIMC), Dwarka, were privileged to attend the first Regional Newspaper Summit in New Delhi. The students interacted with various media stalwarts who spoke about the rise and development of regional newspapers in the context of digital transformation. The key takeaway from the summit was that the regional newspaper is the tangible mirror that circulates the true events happening around us.

With the introductory opening of the summit, media stalwarts were invited to share their opinions and discuss the changes in journalism, especially after COVID-19. Media professionals like Tanmay Maheshwari, Dhruba Mukherjee, Girish Aggarwal, Nalini Singh, Vipin Gupta, Sumit Awasthi, Mohit Jain, Siddharth Varadarajan, Puneet Singhvi, along with other esteemed guests spoke about the growth of the regional newspaper and new media.

The first media summit of PHDCCI concentrated on two precise aspects of Indian media. Firstly, it is the regional language newspapers, with Hindi leading the order to the biggest share simultaneously. Secondly, technology is rapidly changing the way news is consumed and watched. Now, in the digital world, the consumption of news is digitising in regional languages too, yet the printed newspaper is still circulating globally.

Primarily, the discussions captured the depth and breadth of vernacular newspapers, the role of editorial content in capturing readers, changing advertising trends, freedom of speech, and the inroads made by technology in news.

The introductory remarks by Dr. Ranjeet Mehta, the ED of PHDCCI, outlined the event embarked on the 1st media summit, followed by addressing the chief guest, representing the theme settings like technological waves, editorial content, developments of the newspaper, and language journalism in the regional area with regional language unaffectedly.

The summit was subdivided into 5 distinct sessions with captivating discussions on different topics.

In today’s free world, press freedom is at the center of political and social discourse. The newspaper industry has now assumed the role of a public educator, enabling large-scale formal and non-formal education, particularly in developing countries where television and other forms of modern communication are still not available to all segments of society. The objective of the press is to serve the public’s interest by publishing information and views. Newspapers, as distributors of news and viewpoints on public administration, frequently publish content that is unpalatable to politicians and other authorities.

It was opined in the session that newspapers help fulfill the “people’s right to know” as the essential premise underlying press freedom. The summit received enthusiastic support from everyone.