Thread by @jananisampath

All those stunned by the abysmally low reporting standards, I will try to unravel it for you from what I have seen as a reporter++

If you go to a J school, they will teach you that being human is the first rule in reporting human interest stories. My professor told us how newsrooms had insensitive people. Cited an incident after the Hisar fire tragedy in 1995. He spoke about a colleague++

Who asked the reporter how many had died. The reporter said 10, this colleague had exclaimed, only 10? We deduced that this was exactly what we shouldn't be. ++

We were also told how pathetic journalists had been while covering the 2000 Dharmapuri bus fire They had the camera on from close quarters without attempting to rescue the girls.++

Many like me tried to imbibe this human lessons to get into the field as sensitive journalists. But are we given a choice? ++

I remember how after a sensational murder case shook Chennai I was asked by my editor to find out if the girl murdered was sexually active. I thanked God when I dropped the story somehow

Another case of a kid being raped by a neighbour, editor told me to go interview the family. Inhuman to do this when you should respect privacy. I had to lie that the person was unreachable because I couldn't convince the boss it was not right.

I also remember the case of a boy who had died and rumours went around about some snack and carbonated drink causing the death. Reporters called the family and the mother lashed out threatening criminal action.

There was a story of a group of girls committing suicide and it was fishy. A well meaning senior reporter told me not to talk to the father fighting the case, as it was not the right thing to do then.

Now the pandemic has stories of despair and sorrow and we have editors who will not mind sending the reporters to crematoriums to get the ghoulish details of the deaths

What you see now as pandemic reporting is amplified insensitive reporting that lurks around on other days too++

In the form of stories on suicides that do not follow protocols of reporting. Or in the form of sensational stories that only aims to whip up frenzy and paranoia++

I see this as a result of absolute lack of discretion stemming from the pressure mounted on them by 24*7 news and those chasing a lakh of clicks and likes