Socrates

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." 

Socrates

"To find yourself, think for yourself."

Nelson Mandela

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

Jim Rohn

"Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day." 

Buddha

"The mind is everything. What you think, you become." 

Wednesday, 13 December 2017

Coping with Failure

Failure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success.
Types of failure
          Failure can be differentially perceived from the viewpoints of the evaluators.
Types of Failure
          Failure to anticipate, Failure to perceive, Failure to carry out a task
          Loser is a insulting term for a person who is generally unsuccessful.
Winners Vs Losers
          “The Winner is always a part of the answer;  The Loser is always a part of the problem          
          The Winner always has a programme;  The Loser always has an excuse.
          The Winner says, “Let me do it for you”; The Loser says. “ That is not my job
          The Winner sees an answer for every problem; The Loser sees a problem for every answer.
          The Winner says, “It may be difficult but is possible”; The Loser says,  “ It may be possible but is too difficult.”
          When a Winner makes a mistake, he says, “ I was wrong”; When a Loser makes a mistake, he says, “ It wasn’t my fault.”
          Winners have dreams; Losers have schemes.
          Winners see the gain;Losers see the pain.
          Winners see possibilities; Losers see problems.
          Winners believe in Win/Win; Losers believe, for them to win someone has to lose.
Three notions of failure
  1. Failure is an event in the ‘real’ world. Therefore beliefs and assumptions can only cause failure through affecting people’s behaviour
2.       Failure is a  mismatch between events in the ‘real’ world and expectations in the ‘mental’ world. Cognitive errors may perhaps cause failure in two ways: either by causing ‘incorrect’ behaviour or by perverting perceptions and/or expectations.
  3. Failure is an event entirely in the ‘mental’ world (as an experience of dissatisfaction), and so may be directly caused by mental objects such as false theorems.
Positive Attitude towards Failure  “You can look at your
          limitations and believe that they can be corrected or supplemented.
          faults and shortcomings and believe that you can improve yourself.
          inadequate experience and training and believe that you can acquire new skills.
          your fears and build pillars of courageous faith into your life. You can say, “God plus me equals a majority.”
          your imperfections and respect yourself anyway; you can affirm to yourself, “when I am good – I’m good; when I’m not – I’m human!
          Possibility Thinkers are those persons who intuitively embrace a positive self-image and assume that they “can”.
          Failure is never final to the person who has a healthy self-regard. Success is never ending to the person who keeps believing. “I’ve got a lot to offer and I’ve still got a lot to give. Next time I’ll make it.”
How to look at things in a different perspective
          1) Know your limits. Failure is not an option. Whether you realize it or not, you still have the power to choose the right decision in reducing your chances to make another mistake or failure.
          2) Don't compare yourself. Sometimes, we tend to overlook other people's success into our own. We don't realize that it only torments our so-called egos to the point where we lose the passion and confidence to the things we are capable to do.
          3) Don't let high expectation of other's affect you. These expectations are highly imposed by our immediate family members, friends, teachers, co-workers, colleagues, husband, wife and others
          4) Be realistic. You must be man enough in facing your biggest mistakes and its consequences. Instead of blaming yourself forever for becoming a total failure. You have to sort things out on what went wrong and do better next time as simple as that. Remember your failures and mistakes doesn't define and make you a lesser person.
          5) Avoid taking yourself too seriously. Sometimes, you have to find a sense of humor in simple things up to complex despite all the chaos. Life is boring without something to laugh about at the end of the day. So what if people laugh at you? perspective
          6) Be "Rich in Fine Works". Brighten up a person's day by sharing positive thoughts. Give a little love and all comes back to you. Don't you just sit out there, sometimes you have to be the one to get involve, explore all the possibilities that life has to offer. Just go and have a life!
          7) Seize the day. We have to learn how to live life as if it is our last because it is the only way we can appreciate how marvelous the gift of life. As well as counting our everyday blessings literally.
          8) Be a blessing to others. No matter how well or bad they treated you be nice and open anyway. Sooner, they will come to realize it in return.
Rational Approach
          The first thing you want to ask yourself after deciding that a, “How can I understand the reason for this failure
          An important part of coping with failure is developing the kind of coping attitude toward life. 
          Being Persistent: not give up after failing if we view our failure as resulting from lack of effort. When adopting a problem-solving attitude it is upto us to take responsibility for our failure. Persistence also involves focusing on achieving success rather than worrying about avoiding failure.
Maintaining Pride by applying Effort and Talent
          After considering how we can feel good about ourselves when we succeed, we might want to ask how we maintain pride when we fail.
Finding the Right Balance between Self-Handicapping and Self-Responsibility.
Seeking Challenges: Seeking Challenges has a lot to do with self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is developed by living a life of goals, seeking out good role models and exerting enough energy to experience meaningful accomplishments..
Finding the Right Balance between Self-Handicapping and Self-Responsibility.
We therefore have to learn how to savor successes and to cope adaptively with failures. When it comes to savoring successes, we will want to practice the skill of rewarding ourselves.
Developing Competencies The concepts of self efficacy and internal control are related to the desire to learn new things, to master challenges, and to develop competencies. This kind of life attitude is very useful for helping us cope with failure.
Using Failure as an Opportunity to Develop Competencies
Taking Credit for our Effort and Ability
Living with Realistic Expectations:
Setting Goals that will make our Lives Interesting and Rewarding
Matching Expectations to the Difficulty of the Challenge
Failure Does not Mean . . . 
          “Failure doesn’t mean you were dumb to try; it means you had courage to explore and experiment to see what would work and what would not.
          Failure doesn’t mean you don’t know how to make decisions; it just means you have to make another decision.
          Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure . . .it does mean you haven’t succeeded yet.
          Failure doesn’t mean you have accomplished nothing . . . it does mean you have learned something.
          Failure doesn’t mean you’ve been disgraced . . . it does mean you were willing to try.
          Failure doesn’t mean you don’t have it . . . it does mean you have to do something in a different way.
          Failure doesn’t mean you’ve wasted your life. . . it does mean you have a reason to start afresh.
          Failure doesn’t mean you should give up . . . it does mean you must try harder.
          Failure doesn’t mean you’ll never make it. . . it does mean it will take a little longer.
          Failure doesn’t mean God has abandoned you . . . it does mean God has a better idea!


Monday, 11 December 2017

Framing Theory

An actual frame, nothing to do with framing theory.The theory was first put forth by Goffman, under the title of Frame AnalysisFraming is in many ways tied very closely to Agenda Setting theory. Both focus on how media draws the public’s eye to specific topics – in this way they set the agenda. But Framing takes this a step further in the way in which the news is presented creates a frame for that information. This is usually a conscious choice by journalists. In this case a frame refers to the way media as gatekeepers organize and present the ideas, events, and topics they cover.The concept of framing is focused on the essence of the issues at hand rather than on a particular topic. The basis of framing theory is that the media focuses attention on certain events and then places them within a field of meaning. Framing is an important topic since it can have a big influence  to media organization.

Framing theory suggests that how something is presented to the audience  influences the choices people make about how to process that information. Frames are abstractions that work to organize or structure message meaning or media place on the information they convey. 


He put forth that people interpret what is going on around their world through their primary framework. This framework  is regarded as primary as it is taken for granted by the user. Goffman states that there are  two distinctions within primary frameworks: natural + social. Both play the role of helping individuals interpret data. So that their experiences can be understood in a wider social context. The difference between the two is functional. 
Natural frameworks identify events as physical occurrences taking natural quote literally and not attributing any social forces . Social frameworks view events as socially driven occurrences, due to the whims,goals, and manipulations on the part of other social players . Social frameworks are built on the natural frameworks. 

An actual frame.

Framing techniques per Fairhurst and Sarr (1996):
  • Metaphor: To frame a conceptual idea through comparison to something else.
  • Stories (myths, legends): To frame a topic via narrative in a vivid and memorable way.
  • Tradition (rituals, ceremonies): Cultural mores that imbue significance in the mundane, closely tied to artifacts.
  • Slogan, jargon, catchphrase: To frame an object with a catchy phrase to make it more memorable and relate-able.
  • Artifact: Objects with intrinsic symbolic value – a visual/cultural phenomenon that holds more meaning than the object it self.
  • Contrast: To describe an object in terms of what it is not.
  • Spin: to present a concept in such a ways as to convey a value judgement (positive or negative) that might not be immediately apparent; to create an inherent bias by definition.
Framing is  the way a communication source defines and constructs a any piece of communicated information. Framing is an unavoidable part of human communication – we all bring our own frames to our communications.

Friday, 6 October 2017

RAJA RAM MOHAN ROY & Indian Journalism


The Press is  aptly referred to as the fourth pillar of democracy other three pillars are Legislature, Executive and Judiciary . We consider press as free from bias and prejudice. Press reflects the realities of this world as wished by social and political world. The press tries to motivate, mesmerize or change the opinion of the people in such a way that people of a particular taste will be addicted to a particular newspaper. This is how a newspaper turns or moulds the language of the news as well in such a manner that it can fulfill its desired goal. It can represent murder and bloodshed along with love, mercy and kindness.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy was born in a famous family of Bengal in 1772. He was a great scholar of Sanskrit, Persian, and English and knew Arabic, Latin and Greek.

 Rammohan was a great champion of the freedom of the Press. His efforts to liberate the Press were made with the aim of education Indians about the affairs of the nation in their true perspective. He himself published newspapers in English, Bengali and Persian for the purpose of creating mass consciousness as a veritable check against the British authoritarianism. Besides being a great social reformer Ram Mohan also made a valuable contribution to Bengali literature and he is regarded as the father of Bengali prose. He was the first to realize the value of the newspapers as an instrument for diffusing intellectual light. His earliest books on Bengali prose were Vedanta – Grantha and Vedanta - Saar which were published in 1815 and 1816 respectively.
Contributions of Raja Ram Mohan Roy
 The study of the history of freedom of press reveals that Raja Ram Mohan Roy was an ardent(devoted) supporter and patronizer of freedom of press. He was a pioneer of Indian Journalism. He brought out journals in some major languages including Bengali, Persian and Hindi in order to create socio-cultural and political awareness among the people of India .  e was deeply devoted to the work of religious and socialreform, so he founded the 'Brahmo Samaj* in 1825. Hecondemned polytheism and idol worship and propagatedthe concept of one God. His religious ideas hadassimilated elements of Islam, Christianity, Hinduism andmodern European liberal philosophy. He translatedancient Indian works on religion and philosophy intoBengali.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy was basically a social reformer who contributed significantly for the elimination of the Sati System and for the spread of Women Education in the country. He is truly said to be the ‘ 
Father of the Indian Journalism .
 Ram Mohan Roy tried to spread literary, political and scientific knowledge among the Indians. He had the intention of presenting popular demands and grievances before the Government by creating public opinion on current issues and topics. The purpose Raja Ram Mohan Roy had in mind could not be served properly if there was no freedom of press
’ 
Roy published magazines inEnglish, Hindi, Persian, andBengali. He publishedBrahmonical Magazine inEnglish in 1821.

.
With his inspiration following three newspapers came into being: 

1.  Sambad Kaumudi ,(Bengali); 2.  Mirat-ut Akhbar (Persian),        3. Brahminicial Magazine 
(English)

One notable magazine of his was the Sambad Kaumudi , published in1821. Samvad Kaumudi began under the editorship of  Bhabani Charan Banerjee. But Banerjee left the Newspaper after 13 issues because of the disputewith Roy on the points of Sati System and other  social reforms. Ram Mohan took charge of it. The Sambad Kaumudi was intended for the common people. Ram Mohan used the new Bengali prose style for the man in the street Banarjee launched a separate newspaper called ‘Samachar Chandrika’ and   promoted staunch Hindu values with its help.Sambad Kaumudi became bi-weekly in January1830 and continued for 33 years.

An article contained the description of the miserable condition of the Hindus suffering from caste prejudices. Another issue contained an advice to the Hindus to become tradesman rather than mere clerks. The paper also appealed to the government to establish trial by jury in the Zila and Provincial Courts. In Apirl 1822, Ram Mohan started Persian Weekly named the Mirat-ul-akhbar (Mirror of News). Through this paper he tried to communicate his political and social views to the educated elite according to their needs.
In 1822, Ram Mohan wrote an editorial about the trial protesting against the cruel treatment meted out to one Pratap Narayan Das who had succumbed to the injuries caused by whipping ordered by John Hayes, the Judge of Camilla. As a result of this Hayes was tried by the Supreme Court in April that year. Ram Mohan‟s editorial was translated into English, and published in the Calcutta Journal of May 14, 1822 by its editor, James Silk Buckingham who was a great friend of Ram Mohan. In all his publications Ram Mohan emphasized the important of subjects having educational value, besides those on politics and theology. During 1821 – 24 he published in the Mirat-ul-Akhbar several articles on scientific subjects like “Echo in Acoustics” Properties of the Magnet”, “Behaviour of fishes” Description of a Baloon, etc. His persistent Advocacy for the introduction of scientific education bore fruit long after his death. But there was a section of journalists which was opposed to the liberal attitude of Sambad Kaumudi.
2.  In 1822, Ram Mohanpublished MIRAT-UL-AKBAR in Persian language. The Mirat-ul-Akhbar happened to be the first journal in Persian language to be published in India. In the Prospectus of the Mirat-ul-Akhbar, published in the first issue of the weekly, Ram Mohan wrote that the object of the paper was not to shower praises upon its promoters or his well-wishers or to scandalize anybody. On the contrary, it aimed at reaching the truth, In its second issue Ram Mohan published his article on the British Constitution

3.Brahmonical Magazine ceased to exist after publication of few issues. But Sambad Kaumudi, a newsweekly, covered topics such as freedom of press, induction of Indians into high ranks of service and separation of the executive and judiciary.
Ram Mohan’s Role as a Journalist:-
Ram Mohan played an important role in promoting Indian Journalism. He was the first Indian to realize the value of the newspaper as an instrument for diffusing intellectual light.

 The first liberal paper to be published was the Bengali Gazette . Bengali weekly started in Calcutta in 1816 by the enthusiastic members of the Ram Mohan‟s Atmiya Sabha. The newspaper continued to be published till 1820.

The Serampore Christian Mission started another Bengali weekly, THE SAMACHAR DARPAN in 1817, and also published an English journal named THE FRIEND OF INDIA.

The first liberal newspaper in English, THE CALCUTTA JOURNAL, was brought out by James Silk Buckingham in October, 1818.

This was the group of the orthodox Hindus who started the SAMACHAR CHANDRIKA IN MARCH, 1822, counter act the zeal for reform of the Sambad Kaumudi . The Persian editorial of the Mirat-ul-Akhbar written by Ram Mohan were translated into English and were published in the Calcutta Journal, edited by James Silk Buckingham. In this editorial Ram Mohan revealed his great learning and deep knowledge of the political affairs of his time. Ram Mohan‟s editorial criticism of popular Christian faith, English foreign policy and of the British insolence on public roads towards the common people appeared too venomous for the British administration in India to swallow.

Soon the acting Governor- General came down with a heavy hand for the suppression of the liberty of the Press, and promulgated a new Press Ordinance, drastically curtailing free expression of opinion through the press.

Immediately after the enactment of the Ordinance, Ram Mohan closed down the Mirat-ul-Akhbar as a mark of protest. In the last issue of his paper, he declared his inability to go on publishing under” what he considered were degrading conditions and he lamented that he one of the most humble of men, should be no longer able to contribute towards the intellectual improvement of his countrymen. After suspension of the Mirat-ul-Akhbar in 1823 Ram Mohan became connected with several other periodicals, and continued his relentless crusades against irrationalism and suppression of freedom of the Press. In May 1829 English weekly, Bengal Herald was started by R.M. Martin in collaboration with Ram Mohan and Dwarkanath Tagore. It was a liberal periodical with a progressive outlook. It had also a corresponding Vernacular Publication called the Bangadoot printed in Bengali Persian and Hindi and was edited by Nilratan Haldar, a close associate of Ram Mohan. The Bengal Ankara the two leadings liberal English journals of the time in which Dwarkanath Tagore had large interests. Later Samuel Smith a leading book-seller and publisher of Calcutta purchased the Bengal Ankara, which happened to be one of the oldest and leading English papers in the early twenties of the nineteenth century. Under his editorship and guidance, the paper soon grew in popularity and usefulness. In the acquisition of this paper he was given substantial financial help by Dwarkanath Tagore. Dwarkanath was also one of the main proprietors of the India Gazette,

Raja Ram Mohan Roy, three more newspaper continued their  publication between 1821-1891. They were The Reformer’, ‘The Enquirer’ and Gyan Anveshan.  All these newspapers were the promoters of Progressive Hinduism.
Gaudiya Vyakaran is the last work of Ram Mohan. Before this he wrote a book of grammar in English entitled „Bengali Grammar in the English Language‟. Gaudiya Vyakaran was written by him for the School Book Society. The language of this book is very simple and it can well be called modern. Such simple style was unknown in those days of 1830‟s.Since Ram Mohan had his early education in Hindi knowing cities like patna and Varanasi he learnt the language well.

He wrote simple and lucid Hindi and his command over the language was a matter of wonder. His high attainment in Hindi language is testified to by the eminent critic Pandit HazariPrasad Dwivedi,

It is worthy of note that Ram Mohan Roy wrote Hindi prose in Devanagiri script .
Ram Mohan published Hindi translation of Vedanta Sutra in 1815.
In the following year he published another small book dealing with Shastrarth:
Soon Ram Mohan established himself as the third leading writer in Hindi in Devanagiri script.

He is hailed by the latter day critics and authors as the father of Bengali prose. Though there are prose‟s writing even prior to Ram Mohan his specific contributions created a great transformation in the literary genres of the Bengali language and also a social change in the society.

The British East India Company was against Freedom of press in India. But Raja Ram Mohan Roy strongly argued against this view. The company had the fear of public criticism under a free press. Ram Mohan Roy was successful in convincing the authority with his strong logic arguing that in India Freedom of press would not be harmful for the government as people had been loyal to it. Roy pointed out that freedom of press was helpful to both the government and the people.
A free press acts like a channel of communication between the two and solves many problems. People come to know about the plans, programmes, policies and intentions of the government through it. People also express their reactions and grievances through it thus making the governance more effective. A free press helps disseminate knowledge and boosts intellectual improvement. It allows creativity: gives literary, cultural and artistic knowledge and pleasure. The government comes to know about the defects of its policies and administration and gets a scope to remedy those before any crisis arises. Raja Ram Mohan Roy argued that a free press fails revolution and does not nourish it. He felt that there has not been a reduction of violence under a free press. On the contrary, a number of revolutions have taken place in those parts of the world where press freedom was denied. Due to lack of opportunity of expression grievances and discontentment of the people pile up and ultimately burst out in the form of a revolution.

 Ram Mohan Roy however, was not in favour of absolute freedom of press. In stead he wanted reasonable restrictions on it. He believed that those who try to incite hatred in the minds of the Indians against the British nation should be punished. Similarly, an attempt to provoke hostilities with neighbours and friendly states must be duly penalized. The notion of freedom of press as held by Roy was to ultimately establish in India the rule of law and not the rule of persons and their whims.

The Press Commission was established in India for the first time in 1956. After a lapse of ten years came the Press Council in 1966 for the freedom of press. the history of the Indian press when the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi curtailed the freedom of press in 1975 with the imposition of the Emergency. She did not allow the newspapers to expose the defence and internal affairs of our country. She was right in her way because it was against the country's safety and integrity. The year 2000 saw a milestone in the media with the passage of the ‘Freedom of Information Act’. 
Source

Tuesday, 25 July 2017

Types of Lead

The opening of a news story - usually the first paragraph - is termed "the lead."The lead is the most important part of any newspaper story, because the reader usually decides whether to continue reading based on the lead. As a writer, we have to persuade the reader to stick with us. As a result, newspaper writers naturally struggle with their leads. The lead is also called as  “nut graph”, is a sentence or paragraph identifying the focus of the story.  


An 18-year-old  Mariappan high school student was killed late Wednesday when his  bicycle  struck a telephone pole near  Vannarpettai Tirunelveli.First, what are the Five Ws in this story?Who: Mariappan.What: Killed in a single-vehicle accident.When: 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.Where: Intersection of Highway 16 and Highway 2A.Why: bicycle struck telephone pole.
How: bicycle went out of control.

Types of leads

There are  types of leads and many, many variations thereof. These are:
The summary lead.
Summery lead answer several but not all of the basic questions 5Ws and 1 H.Summary leads are most effective, it follows subject-verb-object order. This order is favoured for broadcasting writing.. Active voice is preferable in print also broadcasting news.




தர்மபுரி: கர்நாடக அணைகளில் இருந்து திறந்து விடப்படும் நீரின் அளவு அதிகரித்து வருகிறது. இதனால் ஒகேனக்கலில் பரிசல் இயக்க தடை விதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. நீர்வரத்து அதிகரித்துள்ளதால் முன்னெச்சரிக்கை நடவடிக்கையாக தடை விதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளதாக மாவட்ட கலெக்டர் தெரிவித்துள்ளார். 

Updated Lead
This is a type of breaking news  referred to as a first day lead.Television and online news require immediacy so that this type of lead used.
புதுடில்லி: தமிழகத்தில் ஒருவர் உட்பட, இந்தியாவில் இதுவரை 4 பேருக்கு ஜிகா வைரஸ் தொற்று இருப்பதாக மத்திய அரசு தெரிவித்துள்ளது.
Impact leads
The impact lead explains how the readers and viewers will be affected by the issue. This type of lead is good for broadcasting. Impact leads can be written in a hard news summery form or in a more creative form such as soft lead

Attribution  in leads.
Attribution tells the reader where you got your information. We put the attribution at the beginning or end  of the sentences.
ex: Police Cheif John law says the suspect is in custody.  

Soft lead 
Soft lead can be fun to write and fun to read. They can be effective in broadcast writing. It also called as delayed lead.
ஐதராபாத்: போதைப் பொருள் கடத்தல் வழக்கில், தன்னை தொடர்புபடுத்தி பேசுவதால், தன் புகழுக்கு களங்கம் ஏற்பட்டுள்ளதாக, பிரபல தெலுங்கு நடிகை, சார்மி கவுர், 30, கூறியுள்ளார்.
Descriptive lead. 
This type of lead describe  a person, place, or event

Anecdotal Leads
this type of lead also starts with  story about  person or n event. 
Narrative Leads
A Narrative lead tells  story with enough dramatic action so readers can feel  if they are witnessing the event. Narrative writing uses all the techniques of fiction, including dialogue 

Contrast leads. 
This type of lead can be used to set up stories about conflicts or unusual circumstances. 

Teaser Leads
These leads use the element of surprise to tease the reader into the story. Broadcast news uses the concept of teasers before commercials to convince the audience to stay turned after the break, but teases are also effective in leads on broadcast stories.

Mystery leads
Like teasers , these leads promise the reader a  surprise or a trial for reading on. They set up the story like a mystery novel. They are fun to write fun to read, but they wont work unless the subject matter lends itself to this approach.
Question leads
These can be effective if reder is interested in finding the answer to the question you pose. 
In the suggested recast lead, the writer has chosen to name five of the six key points, but in more general fashion that allows for economy of words. How, and the remaining details, will be filled in later.
- Journalists call the opening of a news story "the lead."
- The lead is the most important part of any newspaper story, because it is based on the lead that most readers decide whether to continue reading.
- The lead must accurately summarize the facts of the story.
- The lead must be interesting enough to command and keep the reader's attention.
Keep leads simple especially for broadcast]
- The modern preference is to keep leads short.
- Economical use of words will benefit any news lead.
- A telling detail that sets a story apart from the others belong
 focus on person
Descriptive approach