Welcome to Nepal Now. My name is Marty Logan. I’m back after a long break – thanks for joining me. Today we’re doing something different. On Aug 21st I was at St. Xavier’s College in Kathmandu, talking with journalism students about podcasting. Actually, I tried to keep the talking part to a minimum — our main task was to create this episode that you’re listening to now. The theme of the session was: When you’re a journalist, how will you do journalism differently?
I was impressed with the ideas expressed by the students, who are between 18 and 22 years old, and still have three years of studies to complete. On the positive side, one noted the growing accessibility of global news, including during the Covid-19 pandemic. But others pointed out faults of Nepal’s media, including the lack of female talk show hosts and the concentration of media in the capital, Kathmandu.
They also offered many suggestions for improving the industry. One shared her passion for becoming a voice for the voiceless, another of covering stories about minority communities, and a third would aim to tackle fake news and misinformation. More than one student believes it’s important to divert the current focus of Nepal’s journalism from politics to other aspects of society. Other approaches, like storytelling and citizen journalism, were also offered as new directions.
A quick note to say that the sound is more echo-y than usual today because we recorded in a classroom at the college. I forgot to record the questions during the session so I added them afterwards.
Resources
Nepal Now social links
Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.
Music: amaretto needs ice ... by urmymuse (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/urmymuse/57996 Ft: Apoxode
Stay in touch on:
Instagram