On the role media plays in society

BANGALORE: On the occasion of Kannada Press Day, the Press Club on Friday organised a discussion about media with eminent journalists from Karnataka and India.The chief guests of the event were Pradeep Brahma, regional officer, Information and Public Relation and CHD, S V Jayasheela rao, senior journalist, Professor Ashok Kumar from Bangalore University. Ramaiah, former chief of bureau of The Hindu and K Sathyanarayana, former editor of Kannada Prabha. The programme was graced by journalists from various publications.Ponnappa, president of Bangalore Press Club of India, spoke on Kannada journalism and newspapers.He also accentuated on the importance of media today. Kannada Press Day is celebrated on July 1 in Karnataka as the first issue of Mangalooru Samachara was released on this day in 1874. It was the initiative of a German missionary, Hermann Mogling that led to the publishing of the first ever newspaper in Kannada.In the days of Mogling’s career at Mangalore, there was no simple way of communicating to the general public because of non-existence of a medium like radio or newspapers in the native language. His decision to publish a Kannada newspaper with the intention of spreading news the masses gave rise to Kannada journalism in Karnataka.Pradeep Brahma felicitated the dignitaries with the traditional Assamese shawl and also spoke about the Bodoland Territorial Council. Located in the north bank of Brahmaputra river in the state of Assam, by the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh; Bodoland is inhabited predominantly by Bodo language speaking ethnic groups.Being a crucial link between the people and the system, media plays a pivotal role in educating the masses.All the dignitaries reminisced about the old days and also shed some light on responsible press and the history of journalism.