Sir Atif Tauqeer shares his encounters identified with advanced composition and examining news coverage in various nations. He will in general clarify how news coverage in Pakistan contrasts from reporting in different nations. Sir Atif referenced that he has worked for Pakistani papers as a manager and sub-supervisor. He has a different field of work including stage shows, radio, theater, and promotion voiceovers. He likewise worked for notable stations like GEO and AAJ TV. For the most recent 13 years, he has been working with DW which is the 3 rd biggest media program after BBC and Voice of America. After a short presentation, he discusses how advanced media functions. At the point when we initially convey any news, we give brief data with respect to that (counting the W's and H) and afterward expound it; this is known as the converse pyramid. He clarifies how the fundamental design of information telling ought to be in such a way that the crowd sees it with full fixation. Besides, the distinction among news-casting and advanced composing/news coverage rotates around speed and graphical portrayal. In advanced news coverage, alongside composing components, you need to give graphical components also. Because of mechanical headway and the utilization of cell phones, the news source speed has expanded. He shares his perspective as a writer and clarifies that in advanced media, the news structure is the same as previously, yet the article part is missing which is critical.
Editors work on the language, believability, and confirmation of the substance. Since there are no editors in advanced media, any individual who possesses a cell phone or gadget can create any sort of information and spread it. This news isn't confirmed, neither has the right language structure. This is the principal distinction between news-casting what's more, computerized media. The shortfall of a supervisor has brought forth another marvel which is phony information. Today, counterfeit news has both the components of publicity and obliviousness. Sir Atif shares his experience of seeing the snappy spread of phony news when contrasted with legitimate news since it has more potential and component of sensation. He at that point discusses the impact of senders furthermore, beneficiaries on the conveyed message. These days, computerized media has expanded secret-based reporting where they additionally use misleading content sources to acquire sees. On the off chance that you follow genuine reporting, you will not get clicks and commercials. Media houses have this pressing factor of acquiring clicks from which they get ads. Organizations pay gigantic measures of cash to media houses for their own advantages and media to a great extent relies on these companies for advertisements.
Additionally, in our country there are various ideological groups having their own media cells, creating news for their own advantage. This includes the component of publicity. At the point when a media cell shares some news, both negative and positive responses are normal. Sir Atif discusses how writing in advanced media includes various components as contrasted with typical news-casting. It is undeniably more minimal when contrasted with paper articles. Vlogging on advanced media ought to be short, as it acquires perspectives and offers. At the point when you compose a video blog in computerized media, the time term shouldn't be over 5 minutes, so the web-based media calculation permits it. The language ought to be minimal and fresh, you should likewise consolidate the component of graphical pictures. The video blog ought to be written in such a way that it fulfills the crowd and individuals share it. The crowd ought to be remembered consistently, and the substance ought to be made as needs are. The language ought to be extensive and basic so everybody gets it.
Also, he clarifies iPhone reporting or resident news-casting which is educated in Europe. It instructs how any resident claiming a cell phone can take pictures, produce news and offer it on their profiles. Individuals share it and it becomes news right away. Today, online media has assumed a significant part in conveying the news that is frequently failed to remember by the traditional press or public media. It spreads news rapidly and impacts the news channels. For instance, sir Atif shares an occurrence that happened in the '90s during the Bosnian war. He specifies 3 popular papers of Germany out of which one shared pictures of Bosnian Muslim men, standing shirtless and it said, 'death camp in Europe'. This picture made a gigantic impact on both the German country and England. This model shows the force a picture holds. One picture can change the whole range of things.
Atif Tauqeer further teaches us about how one should keep in mind the reason behind you creating a product, either it is just for a click or attention of the viewers, or for it to reach people, or was the content important for you. So there should be a fine line between the sort of news you’re putting out and the way you are making others or your views perceive it. He told us that it is important for him to make the news reach the audience more than anything. And for that, he entrusted that there should be a community that matches your thoughts and your point of view. For example, there is a community for those who prefer BBC news, similar are the cases in Pakistan as well. Who share similar sort of news/things. One should never reach the level of sensationalization where the content is not important anymore. After this, a student questions him about the freedom of speech regarding journalism. How there are many threats and restrictions on one if he or she ever writes something risky, against politics or someone in power. How can one write about such issues openly and not fear any sort of threat? Atif Tauqeer answers how freedom of expression is different for every state, place, and government. On a national level, this circle of freedom has and about how this freedom of expression or speech can be put out. In Pakistan, freedom of expression is to a level that one can even point out the PM or President, etc. The only restriction one has is over Army, in Pakistan, one cannot talk bad about the Army. Different is the case for every country. For example in India, one cannot talk or point out the government of Modi, if they do, they will be labeled as anti-Indian. Similar is the case for the middle east, pointing out the government means pointing out the whole kingdom. Talking about the west, the rules are different of freedom of expression. He further pointed how there is a fine line between freedom of speech and hate speech, it is difficult to consider or point out one from another. One cannot perfectly define these two terms. If talking about religion, cultural norms, we know there is a red line that one cannot cross. Those who are writing openly about anything and everything are aware of these circles and are not crossing these lines or circles. If one does, there is a warning for them, and due to this, they are careful about it in the future. After answering this question, there was another student who asked that if he had put a restriction on all of these cases, then where does freedom of expression lie? To which he answered that the definition of freedom of expression is different in different areas. He defines freedom of expression as an opinion that one can easily and freely give, similarly another can deny this opinion with his own as well, with no threat or fear. This whole phenomenon is westernized, he tells us that it took us years to reach the level of freedom we have now. There used to be a social hierarchy, with God at the top, then angels, saints, and then a king. After him, there were nobles, royals, commoners, and then animals, plants, rocks, etc. This whole structure had no pope in it. One was able to talk about God but not about the Pope, he was considered much bigger than the God himself. For Europe, it took them 4 to 500 years to equalize everything, from a commoner to a king, to a pope. Due to which freedom of expression, there is very different. Whereas in Pakistan freedom of expression is visualized as the westernized freedom of expression. The only issue is we haven’t covered these 500 years, there is still a long way to go for us. For the western to reach democracy, we have no covered that path yet. We are not aware of their blood sweat and tears. We cannot even think of speaking up against God we were brought up to be that way, our religion our beliefs get in our way of thinking beyond the circle that we drew our self. We are taught that our God does not like when one questions about Islam or Allah, but what could Allah possibly have against such questions? Nothing. So this is the element that restricts our society the foremost thing to enhance the society for the freedom of expression is our thinking and our mindset. Ir one does not debate, one can not even think about freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is all about talking about something freely and also tolerating another opinion about something. In our society, if we talk, we have to face violence. Out teacher then jokingly questioned if we have to wait 500 years to reach that level of freedom as well, to which Atif Tauqeer replied that, yes indeed, not specifically 500 years but one does have to wait a lot. He told us to remember that for a bigger change, reform, etc, one has to ignite things. Evolution takes its path itself which is a very prolonged path. A bigger event is needed for a big opportunity which we Pakistanis have wasted, with the fear of or restriction of questions, debate, etc. He told us that he does not think that the same freedom of speech can be achieved by us that the westerners have done. In Pakistan is the army takes over, the Pakistani's will not even start protesting against it because our brains aren’t build up like that, once e get out of this loophole we will not be able to get the freedom of speech. We have a problem with perception, some things are regarded as wrong by everyone without any explanation. After such serious talks, our teacher directed us as well as Atif Tauqeer back to writing by asking him about how he starts writing or thinks about writing something during his live sessions of vlogs, and what does he prefer. He answered that if one goes live on a channel, the length is not defined, the structure of your sentences is not strong enough, you will not be compact, you will also not be crispy, all in all, you will drag something you are talking about. Live can only be seen by someone who is your die-hard fan or who is listening to it as a lecture because the content is more in that, but for vlogs, one has to write them first, and then read them, and them present it out to the world. As one would read their vlogs script and see if it is even worth watching or hearing or not. So if sir Atif had ever made vlogs, firstly he wrote them down and read it himself, understood them, and if he liked it himself only then did he record them. The teacher asks to see one of his scripts and asks how it was planned, to which the answer was the one has to know about reserve parameter if the news was important and had to reach to the audience. The priority would be that. There is a report-based vlog in which one has to start with the main news, later on including the further details. In some special vlogs, one can use the news as an example of one’s greater narrative, starting with another example, reference, or saying, and then proceed to integrate the news into it. He further explains that the base has changed a lot, at first the size of the video was supposed to be of 4 minutes, but now it's of 2 and a half only. Now the pace is different and the compressed-ness is also different. The sort of product is different, for example for Instagram and Facebook, the sound should be different for each audience, for example in some videos for sound relevance there are subtitles added as well. So that people can get the report with or without sound. Moreover, the format of the video is different as well, as Instagram requires a square format so on and so forth. He also stated how the written report is reached by lesser people compared to the visual report.
This was all he talked about and there were some further pointers that he said he would like to discuss in our next session in the near future.
His lecture was very informative for everyone, not just those who want to opt for journalism or writing.
-Adeena Khan.
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