Blogging: An effective tool for journalists to connect readers beyond boundaries

Pratim Ranjan Bose

Some years ago, I had an opportunity to meet the then Indonesian Vice-President Boediono, at Jakarta, on a study trip with a group of journalists from across the world.

It was a cosy meeting at the official residence of the economist vice-president. The interaction was revolving around Indonesia’s reforms initiative and its possible impact on international trade.

But, a bright young auto reporter from the US decided to add a comic element to the discourse. “What car do you drive Mr Vice-president?” he asked. That was time when the American auto Industry was passing through a critical phase, and my colleague was asked to map possibilities of its revival in the face of Japanese and South Korean competition.

Boediono didn't have a ready answer. He shouldn't be having one. The vice-president of a large Asian democracy was not expected to drive a car. He rides a chauffeur-driven car provided by the government. He cannot and must not make his preference to any particular brand, public.

My friend was well aware about the ludicrosity of his query. But, he had no choice either. He was expected to file stories on a format drawn at the editorial meet, a few thousand kilometres away from Jakarta.

He was supposed to ask country heads about their car preferences. Anything else – however newsworthy it may appear to you and I – would be discarded. In this age of specialization, an auto reporter was not expected to write on say, foreign policy or international trade. 

That is the frustration of a journalist in news media of the day. He is not expected to use the media, from where he draws a pay packet, as a laboratory to experiment with new ideas. Because, experiments rarely meet with success and in a modern-day environment, failures are costly. It is a lot more costly to an industry that is now facing serious viability concerns, worldwide.

I am not saying that everything was hunky dory in the past. Dissatisfaction is and was part and parcel to this profession. So much so that I often think, a journalist is born to be disappointed.

The reasons are not difficult to understand.

Most of us took to journalism on very high, if not false, ideals. We were driven by a sense of perceived liberty. My salary might not be as rewarding as a manager, but I am under no compulsion to please a client either. We perceived ourselves as guardian angels to this world, enjoying all the liberty to ask the most uncomfortable questions to anyone and everyone. The pen, we thought, is mightier than money.

We were wrong!

We didn’t count the fragility of ‘liberty’ before money power. Journalism, we were taught, helps create readers and shape public opinion. In reality, news media is increasingly driven by readers’ choice. And that explains why British tabloids offer a more rewarding investment proposition that the elites in global media. As the time passes we realise that the world doesn’t move on high ideals.

The days of idealism are over. In the new order, China uses ‘communism’ as a cover to practise the crudest form of capitalism. The US congress might preach democracy, but the US treasury is run on money borrowed from a totalitarian China.

The ideology-driven cold war is history. It’s time for multi-polar world where fall of one Lehman Brothers can send shockwaves across the globe. The entire world now catches cold, if one Greece sneezes. You don’t need military might to reduce a nation to rubble. The Asian financial crisis made it evident that a mere fund pullout will do the trick.

In this Fund-driven world, the media cannot remain an island of ideology. So it too, is changing. Living in an as obscure location on the world map as Kolkata, I am not here to make a value judgement of the global media. All I am saying is that increasing competition and focus on finances has blurred the border line between any other industry and the media. All are now - and increasingly so - measured against a simple yardstick: the rate of return.

In this new order, newspapers are ‘products’. And, the situation demands that it should be curated enough so as to make it a money’s worth for the buyers - whom we also call ‘readers’. Social equity is important. But the day-to-day life revolves around the demographic profile of the reader, his consumption habits and preferences. Indirectly though, my performance appraisal is linked to his facebook shares. Like my American friend, most of us have ended up as workers on an assembly line. There is little scope of frivolity, here.

And yet, a journalist is by nature an individualistic, egotist animal. He hates a life which is repetitive. It runs in his blood to jump the assembly line. There is a streak in him that always wants to push boundaries. And, nothing makes him happier than the scope of writing and readers’ attention. 

Thankfully, the ‘modern times’ have also opened a window before him to give vent to those frivolous bursts of energy.

To my mind, blogging is an effective tool for journalists to connect readers beyond boundaries and draw some creative inspiration in the process. I started blogging in November 2013, without much conviction or understanding of the medium.

One-and-a-half years later with over 10,000 hits as of May 2015, it is now my very own laboratory to test new ideas, break new frontiers.

It is in this blogsite where I raised some probing questions on the natural gas pricing policy of the Congress-led UPA government in Delhi (Is India offering the highest well-head price to gas producers? Apr, 2014). Readers’ feedback and corporates (sulphuric!) reactions, have strengthened my view that some policy was designed to benefit a few.

For the record, the Narendra Modi government has revised the policy.

Similarly, well received was a series of write-ups on Indo-Bangla issues. Especially the June 2014 report, Is India preparing ground for exchange of enclaves with Bangladesh? that now tops the popularity chart.

A blogsite has lower visibility than a newspaper website. But the steady flow of visitors from across the world is proof that the site has caught readers’ attention and is being constantly shared on social networking platforms.

It was a rewarding experience to know, there are readers for every penny thought. It would be more rewarding the day this blogsite would attract 100,000 hits.

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(Disclaimer: Graphics are collected from the web. Will be removed in case of any objection)