Urdu newspapers are ignoring youth: Ansari
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- Media & Corporate communications
- Saturday, 31 December 2011 10:08
- Published Date
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Gujarat Global News Network, Hyderabad
Urdu journalism is in dilemma. Urdu is getting confined to older generation and so the issues raised in Urdu press. In the process younger generation is not reflected in the content of Urdu. Vice President of India Hamid Ansari said the problems confronting Urdu print media include many of a unique nature with a disturbing dimension.
Inaugurating the World Urdu Editors Conference here Ansari noted that the demarcation between journalism, public relations, advertising and entertainment has been eroded because of the new media devices available and the commercial considerations involved, Ansari called for developing methodologies of retaining the essence of these attributes in the new surroundings of the newspapers.
"Other problems of Urdu media relate to resources, advertisements, news gathering methodology and adaptation of new technology," he said. "A good newspaper should cater both to public demand and to the need to shape this demand. Only then would it be in a position of opinion-maker. News coverage needs to move away from the purely sectional interests to what would satisfy a wider audience," he said.
He said that the difficulty here is that despite the overall increase in population, the percentage of Urdu speakers to total population has registered a noticeable decline. Thus the younger age group does get excluded in some parts of the country. One implication of it is the effort by the newspapers to focus on the older age groups.
Stories of interest to youth downplayed
The development stories, of particular interest to the youth, thus tend to be down played; by the same logic, older and familiar grievances remain disproportionately in focus. Responsible publications can perhaps do more to mould taste and cajole the readership in the direction of contemporary issues, he said.
Ansari said that Urdu isan international language, a language whose speakers are to be found from far east to far west and everywhere in between, a language so captivating and enchanting that ahl-e-Urdu propose to carry it in the life hereafter:
Isi main ho gi Khuda se bhi guftagoo Maikash
Ke roz-e-hashr bhi hogi meri zuban Urdu
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