Handling news in a flash

A look at New Media, the new kind of journalism

For years people knew journalists to wield only the pen. However, as time flew and the world advanced, people witnessed a change. Journalists started using electronic devices. And that was just the beginning of the decline of the pen which was once considered mightier than the sword! As television news came into the picture, reporting just didn’t mean the newspaper anymore.

Yes, it is true that in today’s world, journalism has also entered the “spidery” web of the Internet. This new branch of journalism, called New Media or online journalism, is yet to catch up in India. Countries such as the U.S., U.K. and Canada depend on the web for their supply of everyday news.

With increasing accessibility to the Internet this could soon be the case in our lives too. Having a laptop or mobile-internet would mean that you can be clued into news around the world through these news websites. It will also work well with professionals who don’t have the time to watch the news or read the newspaper. They can just log on to the news websites available on the net and get the latest news. There are also many businesses that depend on the latest news to make important decisions. They cannot wait for the newspaper to come out the next day as that would mean loss. Hence, these companies are increasingly relying on news websites. Not only do the websites provide accurate news, but also news that has just occurred.

In the brave new world of round-the-clock media coverage, internet seems to be on the path to establishing itself as a reliable and massive source of news. A survey done by Netcraft (http://news.netcraft.com/) revealed that as on January 2008, around 1,55,583,825 websites were launched. As a New Media student I was completely fascinated with the medium. As I got into the nitty-gritty I found that writing for New Media is completely different from writing for newspapers and magazines. We were taught techniques such as keeping the English simple, keeping paragraphs short and sweet, adding related links and adding background information to all the articles so that the readers do not go to other websites to look for them.

My course not only taught me the difference between presenting a news item in a newspaper and on the internet, the hands-on experience of working with my college website taught me a lot about deadlines. In the world of the internet, where the next website is just a click away, I learnt that deadlines can be crucial.

New Media or web journalism is an exciting job where you are constantly at war with time. The fact that your news reaches your readers in the flash of a second, at the click of a mouse, much before other forms of media, is one of the most rewarding aspects of working as a web journalist.

Profile: Morgan Tsvangirai

The elections in Zimbabwe have been in the news for quite sometime now. Although the Presidential results haven’t been declared as yet, the official election results state that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party has won 99 seats out of the 210 seats. President Mugabe’s party Zanu-PF won only 97 seats. This is the first time since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980 that Robert Mugabe’s party has lost its parliamentary majority. Amidst all this chaos, Morgan Tsvangirai is emerging as a credible challenger to President Mugabe.

Born on March 10, 1952, Morgan Tsvangirai has risen from being a worker in a mine to becoming one of the most important political figures in Zimbabwe. He has held the positions of a trade unionist, human rights activist before he became the President of the mainstream MDC in 1999, the main opposition party in Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai, a product of important social movements in Zimbabwe, which include the labour and constitutional reform movements, was also the former Secretary General of the powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). He was also the the founding chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly, a group that advocates for a new constitution for Zimbabwe.

The eldest of nine children, Tsvangirai left school while a teenager to help support his family. The catalyst for Tsvangirai's transformation was his career in the trade unions Tsvangirai became the branch chairman of the Associated Mine Workers Union and was later elected into the executive of the National Mine Workers Union. In 1989 he became the Secretary-General of the ZCTU, the umbrella trade union organization in the country.

As Zimbabwe's economy declined and workers' living standards plummeted, the ZCTU took an increasingly political role.

When Mugabe tried to raise income tax to pay pensions for veterans of the 1970’s war of independence, ZCTU’s nationwide strike had forced him to back down.

It was Tsvangirai who led the ZCTU away from its alliance with the ruling Zanu PF. As his power and that of the movement grew, his relationship with the government deteriorated. He has also been a victim of premeditated and government-inspired harassment and violence. There have been three assassination attempts, which include the 1997 attempt, where unknown assailants burst into his tenth story office and tried to throw him out of the window.

As reported in BBC, on September 2000, he told a rally of his MDC, "If Mugabe does not go peacefully, he will be removed by force." The 52-year-old eldest son of a bricklayer says this was not a threat of armed rebellion but a warning of popular discontent. Soon after the rally, he was arrested on charges of threatening the president. The charges were later on dismissed.

Again, in the 2003, he was arrested on charges for inciting violence. In March 2007, he was arrested for the third time. This time he was put in prison and was tortured badly. "He was in bad shape, he was swollen very badly. He was bandaged on the head. You couldn't distinguish between the head and the face and he could not see properly," said Chagonda, an attorney, to Reuters after visiting the Harare police station where Tsvangirai was being held.

Morgan Tsvangirai is the figurehead for all the disparate groups opposed to Mugabe: unemployed and low-wage black workers; wealthy white farmers and industrialists and ethnic Ndebeles who remember the government's murderous campaign against them in the early 1980s. Mugabe calls Tsvangirai an "ignoramus" because of his humble background and lack of education. But, with the election results, it seems as if the “ignoramus” will bring an end to the Mugabe’s 28-year-old rule.

Pakistan's New Prime Minister

With the election of the new Prime Minister Makhdoom Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, Pakistan who was under a military rule till now, will soon move into a new era of Democracy.

Makhdoom Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, a loyalist of Bhutto, has been elected the 25th Prime Minister of Pakistan. He received 264 votes against 42 to the pro-Musharraf PML Q's Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi.

Born on the 9th June 1952, Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani belongs to one of the most influential political families of Pakistan. Anti-establishment politics and leadership is almost seen as something as a birth right for him.

The Gillani family is one of the most prominent political families in Pakistan. They were once one of the most important landowners and spiritual leaders in the south of the province. The prominence of the family only led to them vying for political power.

Gillani’s grandfather and other family members were active participants in the All India Muslim league and were signatories of the 1940 Pakistan resolution. This was the declaration that eventually led to partition. His father, Alamdar Hussain Gillani also served as a provincial minister in the 1950s.

Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani officially joined politics in 1978, when he became a member of the Muslim League's central leadership. This was soon after he had completed his MA in journalism from the University of Punjab.

His first term as a public servant was as a nominee of General Zia-ul-Haq. In 1983, he was elected as the chairman of the Multan Union Council and two years later he was elected to the federal parliament and was made the Minister of Housing and Railways. It was during this stint that certain circumstances arose which led to his leaving the League. While serving as a minister he had a fall out with the then Prime Minister Mohammad Ali Junejo, which eventually led to him being replaced as minister and sidelined from the party.

He was also elected as the chairman of the District Council of Multan. In 1988 elections, he defeated the then Punjab chief minister Nawaz Sharif on PPP ticket. In 1990, again on a PPP ticket, he was elected as a MNA after defeating Makhdoom Hamid Raza Gilani, a former federal minister. In 1993, he defeated Malik Sikander Hayat Bosan and later became Speaker of the National Assembly. He served as the speaker of the Pakistan National Assembly between 1993- 1996.

He had also contested the election in 1997 on a PPP ticket; however, he had lost the election and did not even win a single seat. He could not contest elections in 2002. In 2008 he defeated PML-Q’s Sikander Hayat Bosan.

In 1995, Mr Gillani issued instructions for the release of parliamentarians detained by his own PPP government. When the interior ministry refused to oblige, he had the matter brought on record - a quite unprecedented action.

The regime tried to coerce him into joining many of his Pakistan People's Party (PPP) colleagues in switching sides.

But Gillani refused to do a deal with Musharraf and his loyalty is much admired within his party.
He was sent to jail in 2001 and he served five years following a conviction over illegal government appointments. After being sentenced by the Musharraf regime in 2001, he told reporters that the charges were “concocted and were fabricated to pressurise him to leave the PPP… Since I am unable to oblige them, they decided to convict me so that I could be disqualified and an example set for other political leaders who may learn to behave as good boys.” Reportedly, his stance and defiance won him many admirers, even among the government. He was finally released on 7th October 2006 from Adiala Jail.

At first, Gillani was not a part of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). But, after he was sent to jail he had decided to join PPP. In his book Chah-e-Yusuf ki Sada (Reflections from Yusuf’s Well), which he had written in jail, he said, “I was furious, and helpless at the same time, I knew I could not continue… and then I made up my mind.”

During that time, General Zia was still in power and the PPP faced an uncertain future.
According to a report in BBC, Gillani said that he had gone to Karachi to meet Benazir Bhutto, Zulfiqar Bhutto’s daughter, then very much in the political wilderness. Gillani said that he had presented his offer to immediately join the PPP to her. “Ms Bhutto said to me, ‘There is nothing I can offer you, why have you come?’” Gillani then said that his reply was what sealed his relationship with the PPP and the Bhuttos. “I said to her, there are three types of people in this world. “Lovers of honour, of wisdom and of wealth. I am of the first type, and that is all I want.” Soon afterward, General Zia dismissed Mr Junejo’s government. Gillani then had already joined the PPP, months before the general’s death bought an end to its political exile.

Many believe that it is Gillani’s loyalty and his disdain for politicking within the party that has earned him the nomination for prime minister. Moreover, many also believe that he would gladly step aside if Benazir Bhutto’s widower Asif Zardari becomes a MP and therefore would be eligible to become prime minister.

"[Mr Gillani] was perhaps the only man among the top leadership who did not badger Zardari for this or any other position," says one PPP insider (as per the BBC report). "This along with the fact of his proven loyalty has earned him the nod. "They know that this more or less guarantees he will abide by all future party decisions over changes in government,” said the insider to BBC.