Daily Times

KARACHI: “The age of print media has come to an end; there are quite a few whose jobs will become obsolete.” said the director of Center for Excellence in Journalism Kamal Siddiqui in The National Media Conference organized by Center for Excellence in Journalism at the institute of Business Administration on Thursday.

The two-day conference hosted at least 120 journalists on the theme ‘Digital Media and Journalists Security,’ the conference aimed to highlight these issues via panel and breakout sessions. It also includes training modules for practicing journalists.

Kamal stressed that CEJ aimed to help journalists adapt to the fast-changing environment, pointing out that some of the courses offered, such as backpack journalism, were the future.

Speaking in a breakout session, senior journalist Ghazi Salahuddin lamented declining standards of human resources in the country saying, “our collective intellectual capacity is being eroded.”

He said that in spite of digital tools and techniques in the modern world, it seems the total absence of social activism.

Moderator of the panel discussion on “Future of digital news”, Amber Shamsi of Dawn News, stressed, “before you re tweet check for credibility.”

Elisa Tinsley of the International Centre of Journalism spoke about the shift in journalism due to the rise of digital media .She said “journalists now need to know a bit of everything in journalism” She said that everyone in the industry was in a constant learning process.

Another speaker, of National Public Radio (NPR) Hannah Bloch said that those who want to stay in the field of journalism they must learn new tools and techniques of it”.

Addressing the dangers faced by media professionals in the age of digital media, Ovais Jafar of Geo News said that journalists find challenges and threats while reporting online. “So many journalists who produce journalism online have been killed’ he said stressing on the need for digital training for the security of journalists in this context.

Iqbal Baloch Vsh News said that the young people should not wait for any media channel to express ones expertise; they can use social media as well; which is cheaper in its cost as well.” I watch news channels but I do not watch television; because everything is available online.” he said.

To a question, Iqbal said any media group that provides exclusive and credible stories can stand out from the crowd in this competitive era.

Running parallel to the breakout discussions, CEJ held six training sessions for 120 journalists from across the country. Tailored to the requirements of Pakistani newsrooms, trainings were held on the following topics: Physical security for journalists; multimedia/smart phone reporting, data journalism; social media outreach and digital rights.

Earlier, speaking at the opening dinner of the Conference held on April 19 at Avari, Kamal Siddiqi said that since it’s founding, CEJ has trained around 700 working journalists, most of them from out of Karachi, and including many women. He informed that CEJ has been named the best training centre in Pakistan for journalism in a recent survey.