Rural Journalism: Every Village Is a Story
How villages are changing under the pressure of urbanisation is of real public interest. Journalists who visit villages regularly will never run short of stories — and their close watch on schemes, corruption and pollution serves the village too.
How villages are changing under the growing influence of urbanisation is also a matter of public interest. Much concern is voiced today about rising environmental pollution, but that concern is confined to cities — even though village rivers and streams, ponds and pastures are all in pollution's grip.
India is a land of villages. With the spread of education, newspapers and other media have now reached villages too, and villagers have begun to take an interest in the news. That is why newspapers now give importance to village news. Papers try to ensure that a correspondent from a rural background is more useful.
Every village is a story, and within that one story lie many more. If journalists visit villages from time to time and stay in constant touch with the residents, they will never run short of news. Many journalists turn up their noses at the mention of villages, but that is wrong. Admittedly, journalists do not get in villages everything they get in cities. But once you acquire a taste for going to villages, the very direction of your writing will change.
Besides routine news, villages offer stories of social concern that give readers a new experience. Various government schemes keep running in villages. Reporting on the changes these schemes bring — and on corruption in them — also serves the village's interest. If journalists keep a sharp eye on these schemes, their benefits will reach people more fully, because when those implementing a scheme know a journalist is watching, they will think twice before doing wrong and will refrain from it.
How villages are changing under the growing influence of urbanisation is also of public interest. It can be divided into many aspects: changes in food and dress, in social relationships, among the young, and the impact of urbanisation on women.
Much concern is voiced today about rising environmental pollution, but it is limited to cities. Environmentalists are still stuck on the romantic idea of 'how lovely village life is', while today the villages' rivers and streams, ponds and pastures are all in pollution's grip. Only journalists can draw the attention of the government and society to this problem — provided they start going to the villages.
