‘Responsibly Digital’

Social Media Day, celebrated on June 30th, turns 7 this Thursday. It was launched by Mashable in 2010 to recognize and celebrate social media’s impact on global communication. Exploring the theme ‘Responsibly Digital’, Ahmedabad is going to host the celebrations in India for fourth time in a row. Presented by Shivalik group, this year’s ‘Social Media Day’ will be hosted at Novotel Hotel. See full story here. » On the 77th birth anniversary of the iconic music maestro R D Burman, award-winning senior entertainment journalist and author Chaitanya Padukone launched his latest book “R.D.BurMania -Panchamemoirs”. Padukone, who shared a close bond with R D Burman had started his career with an interview of Burman. Read more here.  » Mumbai welcomed a new retro music station ‘Redtro 106.Chaar’ on June 23. Under the banner of Red FM network, which has geographical presence across 48 cities in India, this is the first radio station with the newly-acquired Phase III license. Redtro 106.Chaar with the tagline ‘Phir Bajao’ seeks to give a modern twist to the classic retro and focus on the music of the 90s. » Congratulations to Rajiv Mishra for joining ETV, TV 18 as Group Business Head. Having more than 22 years of experience, Mishra was previously associated with Samsung as Vice President and Head – Media, Corporate Communications, CSR and Spokesperson. He has also worked with various media organizations like Hindustan Times Group, Star TV, Zee TV, Reliance Infocomm Limited, TV Asia of USA, News 24 (BAG Films and Media), and India News, among others.

First Source : Online

Results for The Hoot’s online survey on the media habits of youth are out. Conducted in April-May 2016, the survey suggests that news websites are the single largest source of news followed closely by newspapers and news apps. Facebook’s recently launched Instant Articles feature bagged the fourth position which bumped TV news channels to the fifth position. “Newspapers still rank high among young newsreaders, but TV is losing its audience”, the report said. » India Radio Forum (IRF) concluded the 11th edition of ‘The Excellence in Radio Awards’ on May 13, 2016 in Mumbai. The awards were distributed in four categories Programming, Talent, Promotion, and Marketing & Advertising. Red FM swept the stage with 13 awards, followed by Big FM, which grabbed eight metals, while Radio Mirchi bagged six metals. See full list of awardees here. » According to a report from Pennsylvania State University in the US, the current social media sites lack in collaborative privacy management issue. The findings showed that social media users act independently on some privacy issues, but are interdependent when information is co-owned by multiple users. See full report here.

Insight Into Arnab

On the occasion of Times Now completing a decade, Arnab Goswami spoke to afaqs! about his learnings and experience. Goswami believes it’s all about conviction in the business of television news, “viewers respond to impactful stories and there is no complicated science to it”. » Star India retains its exclusive broadcaster role for the English Premier League. Viewers will be able to watch the next three seasons of EPL on Star Sports channels as well as Hotstar and starsports.com. “This partnership is key in our strategy of promoting football as a priority sport in the country,” said Sanjay Gupta, COO, Star India. » Read how SC’s ruling in favour of Red FM impacts Sun TV in the long term. » IIMC’s alumni association strongly condemned and demanded swift investigation into the attack on TV journalist Kishan Barai. Barai was attacked during a press conference in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday, the culprits are unidentified.

Respite For Red FM

Red FM seemed to have gained some respite with the apex court’s ruling in the FM auctions matter. The Supreme Court dismissed the government’s plea against the Delhi HC decision, who had ruled in favor of the channel last year. “A company could not be barred from participating in an auction merely on the ground that some of its shareholders (Maran family in the Aircel-Maxis case) were facing criminal action”, SC said. » Zee Digital Convergence Limited’s OTT platform DittoTV gets precedence over TV. With a new feature called ‘before TV’ viewers will be able to watch content from the Zee Group channels before it is aired. This aligns with Zee’s continued focus on content and service innovations for the consumers. » Films Division’s agreement with DD Bharati has been extended. Now FD will telecast documentaries on Doordarshan’s cultural channel for two more years. “The agreement may be extended if the slots prove popular,” said FD Director General Mukesh Sharma. » ASCI’s Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) upheld complaints against 38 out of 70 advertisements in November 2015. Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Patanjali Ayurved Limited were few of the errant ones in latest tally of misleading ads on the idiot box.

Acts of Intimidation

The Editors Guild of India issued a statement on Saturday condemned “the blatant acts of intimidation and threats to Siddharth Varadarajan, Editor of The Wire, by student members of the ABVP in Allahabad University (AU) that forced the police to intervene to escort him to safety.” The incident took place last Wednesday when Varadrajan had gone to the university to meet VC RL Hangloo, after he was refused permission by AU authorities to address a symposium at the Senate hall of the Arts campus. » Fake Facebook pages and WhatsApp groups run by persons pretending to be journalists in Kashmir are crippling journalism by spreading rumours. In a latest episode when rumour about anti-polio drops killing Kashmiri children created massive panic shows the trend of misuse of social media in J&K. Reported by The Hoot. » RED FM 93.5 has come up with a national campaign. Named – Bahut Kiya Sammaan, Awaaz Uthate Raho 93.5 RED FM Bajaate Raho, the campaign focuses on city specific issues such as pollution, unhygienic conditions, water shortage, and traffic jams, and urges people to raise their voice in protest. » I&B Ministry has asked all private channels to carry DD News telecast of the Republic Day Parade on 26 January with sign language interpretation to make it more meaningful for the differently-abled.

India Season

The BBC has announced the launch of special show ‘India Season’ with an aim to highlight the fast growing economy’s stories to a global audience. Launching on 27^th August, it will deliver a range of content examining all aspects of India’s business, political and cultural life on its various media – radio, television and online. » Bangladesh Journalist Probir Sikder, editor of the Bangla daily Bangla 71 and online news portal u71news.com, has been arrested on the charge of maligning a senior minister on Facebook bringing under strain Sheikh Hasina government’s commitment to free speech and minority rights against the backdrop of recurring murders of liberal bloggers. In the post, Sikder had said his life was under threat and added that the local government would be responsible if he were killed. » The government has decided to challenge the decisions of the Madras and Delhi High Courts order on Sun TV FM auction case that allowed Kalanithi Maran promoted Sun Group to participate in the FM radio phase-III auction. According to PTI, the challenge on the court orders is on the grounds that the courts have not taken the pending criminal charges against Sun Group promoters under consideration.

Bihar Bhaskar

Aiming to dominate their presence in Bihar, Dainik Bhaskar launches its 2nd edition from Baghalpur, reports exchange4media. To complete its full foray in Bihar, the newspaper will be launching two additional main editions from Muzzaffarpur and Gaya along with seven district editions in Hajipur, Purnea, Biharsharif /Nalanda, Arrah, Chhapra, Samastipur and Darbhanga. » The Financial Times’ journalists had written to their new masters concerned about editorial independence.  Clearing the air, Nikkei chairman Tsuneo Kita gave assurances to the employees on Friday, saying, “The Financial Times will continue to enjoy complete editorial independence and freedom, just as all news organizations should have.”  The FT reputation and influence in US, UK and Europe complements Nikkei’s strong foothold spread across Asia. » Bajate Raho, Red FM! The court has cleared the decks for the radio channel, allowing it to participate in the first batch of Phase – III auctions which began yesterday. Reaffirming faith in the country’s judicial system, Red FM COO, Nisha Narayanan, expressed her pleasure on the outcome of its court case.

Video Bhaskar

3 minutes, 3 times a day is all you need to view the important Video Bulletins covering the stories from Dainikbhaskar.com, the digital arm of Dainik Bhaskar Group. Tune in on mobile and web platforms at 10am, 4pm and 8pm.  Rock on DB Group!! » The Hoot raises a good point. It praises The Hindu but not other media houses who have failed to mention the source of an eyewitness video material when filing news. The story centers on a foreign national slapping a security guard when she was denied entry to an event.  An FIR has now been filed against the assailant. Vijay Verma, a PTI photographer, on his Facebook account, first posted the video story – ethics please. » Red FM has confirmed that it will be moving to court today as it seeks to get the MIB and Home Ministry’s decision against it overturned. The Home Ministry has denied security clearance to Sun TV Network, the media arm of Sun Group, following which the MIB, last week, refused to allow Red FM and Suryan FM to participate in the Phase III auctions. » Catch ‘THE MASTERMIND’ on India News every Saturday @10 PM, a crime reconstruction programme hosted by renowned crime journalist Ravi Sharma, Crime Editor, India News. The show will recreate crime scenes piece by piece, with victim and criminal perspectives.

New York FM

Red FM, Radio Mantra, and My FM win bronze awards at the ‘New York Festivals World’s Best Radio Programs’. Red FM’s ‘Morning No. 1’ (Bengaluru) and ‘Ek Kahani Aisi Bhi’ (Kolkata) won a bronze each under Best Info/ News Talk Show and Best Innovation categories respectively. ‘Ek Diya Vinod Ke Naam’ from My FM received recognition in the Community Service category, and Radio Mantra claimed Best Event category with ‘Aasha.’ In the TV/Film awards, Animal Planet India was India’s sole winner with a bronze for their promotional campaign ‘Celebrating Wildlife of India’. For more, visit here. The contributing editor of New Statesman magazine, Laurie Penny, reacted to her FB account being suspended. She tweeted, ‘Just got suspended by Facebook because I’ve been using a pseudonym so I can hide from goddamn trolls.’  She claims that using her real name opens her to rape and death threats. Facebook has also been criticized earlier for not allowing transgender and gay users to choose identities of their own, as per its ‘real name’ policy and terms of use.

Unified Radio

The Association of Radio Operators for India (AROI) appealed to the PM requesting that Red FM (part of the Sun Group pending investigation) be allowed to operate.  ‘Radio is a free-to-air concept and shutting down Red FM will result in job losses’, said Secretary General of AROI, Uday Chawla. Scroll.in has launched ‘SocialWire’, a service that claims to showcase the top stories from across social platforms and rank them based on an ‘influential score’ algorithm. The service is able to analyse over 100,000 posts, create lists, and cluster groups from various influencers and news sources. 92.7 BIG FM in Kolkata has celebrated Tagore’s 154th birth anniversary, as ‘Baadh Bhenge Dao,’ a ‘Rabi Parbo’ concert, saw collaborative musical performances from Indian and Bangladeshi artists.