Shepherd Foresees His Future In Journalism In Kashmir, Changes The Name of His Page To Start Journalism
Unprofessional MOJO (Mobile Journalism) in Kashmir attracts the attention of netizens for its being ruthlessly unethical and improper with hundreds of youth switching to Facebook journalism every now and then.
From a mobile phone mechanic to a salesman, Kashmir has witnessed a large number of such unprofessional young boys and girls bringing a very bad name to this noble profession.
The last thing that Kashmir had to suffer was a Facebook page “Sheep and Cattle Farm” changing its name to “Kashmir News Report” hence, the owner of the page sending out a loud and clear message about changing his profession from a shepherd to a journalist.
As soon as the Facebook users who had either liked or followed this page received the notification of the name change, hundreds of screenshots went viral on social media with people seeking answers, as to ‘who in the heavens is going to save journalism in Kashmir.’
Most of the people crafted memes out of this name change, but a large section of the society felt concerned about the future of already diluted profession of journalism.
Here’s what could have motivated this alleged shepherd to turn to journalism.
People in this part of the world have almost given up reading newspapers and a very little section of the youth rely on the credible news sources, because they have grown habitual of listening to X, Y and Z; who according to the locals had never, either been to a school or taken up journalism as one of their subjects during their studies, but unfortunately, they are the ones who by dubious means marked their presence on social media as journalists.
Nobody even dares to ask them a question about their qualifications whenever they bring out a news which needed journalistic ethics and expertise before it could have even hit the stands. Thousands of views, thousands of likes and shares hence encourages this alleged journalist and then he finds no reason to stop.
Where do the students of Journalism Departments of Kashmir University and IUST go?
Barring a few, almost all of the pass outs from both the universities have succumbed to unprofessional Mobile Journalism.
“As soon as I completed my masters in mass com and journalism from Islamic university of science and technology, I came out with enthusiasm and wanted to work for any organisation where I could gain some basic experience which I will utilize in future course of action, but I found everything quite opposite to what I had studied in the university.” Said Zahid Ahmad Chat, A journalism and mass communication degree holder from IUST.
Zahid went on to say that, he even found the bigger and reputed organisations hiring those as journalists who had nothing to do with the profession, because they hire such people on very meagre salaries.
“Moreover, me and my colleagues found it very hard to compete with mobile journalists in Kashmir, who because of their so called fan following have overshadowed the true essence of journalism. For example, I once worked on a documentary which took me more than three months to complete, it was a message for the masses, and to my suprise, it received no response after I uploaded it. In contrary to this, a video shot somewhere in open fields by a mobile journalist depicting the same message went viral and with millions of views, the video made its mark across all social media platforms. I was truly de-motivated.” Said Zahid.
Legacy journalists in Kashmir have time and again raised concerns about the growing menace of Facebook journalism which has been responsible for peddling fake news and staging stories, hence putting scores of lives and the profession of journalism in danger.
