mediaharsha

By Harsha Man Maharjan This idea grabbed my attention at Martin Chautari media discussion series on 26 October 2006. James Sharrock of School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Ujjwal Achrya of United We Blog(UWB) were pundits on the topic: Nepali Blogging Around February 1 and Now, there. Sharrock’s has to present an essay at SOAS. His presentation depends on this essay. Ujjwal shared his experience of blogging. What grabbed my attention during the program was K.P. Dhungana, a bloger’s wishes. What if king Gyanendra blog to convince Nepali people that Nepal needs constitutional Monarch ? or Prachanda does blogging to share what happened inside Baluwatar during peace talks ? The idea sounds good. Blog is an online dairy. It transforms into journalism if it has journalistic qualities: reporting, quotes as UWB, MeroSansar etc. In Nepal blogging flourished after Feb 1, 2005. There were some blogs before Feb 1. They were personal daries containing personal matters only. February 1...

By Harsha Man Maharjan The issue of reforming state media is in air. Media related organizations like Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), Press Chautari etc demanded this after April revolution 2006. FNJ recommended the government to make the Gorkhaptra Sasthan (GP) a public print media, not a private one. About Radio Nepal (RN) and Nepal Television (NTV), it recommends passing a charter by the Parliament for these media like Britain did for BBC radio and tv. This will bring Radio Nepal and NTV under the parliament instead of the Prime Minister and Minister of Information as it is now. The High Level Media Recommendation Commission 2006 (HLMRC) has recommended the government to privative the GP, make Radio Nepal and NTV public broadcasting services loyal to people . About National New Agency (RSS) it recommends to be loyal to people. 7 September 2006 statement of the International Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression Mission to Nepal says all political parties show their suppo...

By Harsha Man Maharjan. Mainstream Nepali media survive from advertisements. These media never dare to criticize their advertisers. In Nepal instant noodle ads rule the ad market. And we see no information about the negative effect of these instant noodles there. Recently Present government placed instant noodles in the category of luxury goods and introduced tax on them. Noodle industries criticized the government action and stop their production. Heath experts and consumer rights activists know that these noodles are unhealthy. People suffer with malnutrition when they take the noodles regularly. This information seldom comes in mainstream media. Opposite to it, once The Himalayan Times and Annapuran Post even devoted its two full pages to eulogize these noodles. It must be Public Relations material. There might be other newspapers and media doing the same which I missed. Yesterday (3 August, 2006) I was surprised to watch a comedy teleserial on the Kantipur TV, Laina Bhutukai Pa...

By Harsha Man Maharjan The Gorkhapatra, granny of Nepali print journalism always served people in power. It was true for Rana regime. No exception for Panchayat or twelve years of constitutional monary. During agitation for the restoration of democracy in 2062 and 2063, it criticized seven party alliances, movement for press freedom of Federation of Nepalese Journalist. Its tone changed after the king returned sovereignty to people after Janaandolan 2063. Krishna K.C. who used to criticize FNJ and seven party alliance, now writes about press freedom and the need of privatizing the Gorkhapatra Sansthan. He thinks no government can run media in democracy. In his article he even informs that the Gorkhapatra Sansthan is getting nothing from the Government. Instead it is paying huge amount of money to the government. Yet it seems GP has not changed its loyalty. Even today it only serves the ministers not people. It is serving other GP(Girija Prasad Koirala). When will it serve the people ?

By Harsha Man Maharjan Nepal Education and Book Fair has become 10 year. It is the fact that we become matured as our years raise. But it is not so for the Global Exposition and Management Services Pvt. Ltd, the organizer of the fair. Global gave emphasis to one media house this time. It not only paid Kantipur Publication for the advertisement, but also for advertorials. These advertorials appear to create the environment of the fair before the twelve days of the fair. Only The Himalayan Times got few ads from the British Council. These ads informed about the British Council’s participation in the fair. This might have cut the Global’s budget on publicity and increases its profit. Kantipur Publication also participated in the fair. But it reduced the fair’s coverage in the other media. Anjan Shrestha of Educational Book Fair worried that only few media covered this event. He brought writers Manjushree Thapa and Narayan Wagle in the fair so that people can meet their favourite writers...

Below are the old questions of mass communication and journalism at masters level. I collected them from Ujjwal Acharya, United We Blog and Subharaj Shilpakar. 2059 Journalism I Paper (JMC 501) (Mass Communication Theories) Attempt any Three questions from Group A and four from Group B. Group A (3x20=60) Long Answer Questions 1. Describe the range of mass communication theories in their social, intellectual and historical settings. 2. What do you understand by the Asian Perspective of the Communication Theory? Discuss. 3. There can be a number of different, often competing, media structures within the one and the same national media system. This diversity of media structures can be analyzed and understood on the basis of some principles. What are they? Describe. 4. Describe the distinctive features of media organizations in contradiction to other formal organizations. Group B (4x10=40) Short Answer Questions 5. Distinguish a dominant paradigm from an alternative paradigm. 6. Discuss th...

On 18 March Minister of State for Information and Communications Shrish Shumsher Rana urged journalists to disseminate objective news. He was speaking at a program organized by Federation of Nationalist Journalists (FENAJ), Sunsari in Dharan. He even requested journalists to give priority to the nation, nationality and the institution of crown. I think his two statements don’t match with each other. Being objective is to report without being influence by personal feelings or opinion. But they become biased by giving priority to the nation, nationality and the institution of crown. I have no faith in objective journalism. No journalist can be totally objective in journalism. I was taught in early days of my PCL in Ratna Rajya Campus that journalist should do objective journalism. In those days I was never taught about the constraints of media. Neither did I know about the concept of gate-keeping. Today I know the constraints of media: Owner’s interest, advertiser’s interest and others (...

About me and my interest in Nepali Media. Today I am going to write about me. I am a student of journalism and mass communication. I worked as a reporter for two years for Newari weekly Lakas in Kirtipur. I did internship in The Rising Nepal (TRN) for four months. I have worked in other Nepali weekly Kiritpur Darpan in Kirtipur for one year. I leaned about many things while I worked in The Rising Nepal. One of them was about rewriting. I had read in books on writing that rewriting is only way to succeed in writing. Sunil KC, an editor of TRN made me to rewrite my news. And I did. I found what I read in the books was correct. My news became clearer and direct. Editors in other papers that I worked never told me to do this. I am interested in discussing media issues in Nepali. I will do this in this blog. I welcome your comments.

hi, Today is my first day of blogging. I am harsha. Student of mass communication and journalism.