By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Media today, both electronic and print, are giving not much attention as required to the selection of words, tone and language in their stories, said noted senior journalist Sayeed Naqvi.
Singling out electronic media he said they are high sounding loud and intemperate words in their regular news bulletins and also in live telecast of events, even when such words are not required. He was delivering key note address on Media and Language in the inaugural session of the 5th three-day national seminar on Friday being organized by the Department of Urdu, Jamia Millia Islamia, in collaboration with the University Grants Commission. The program is part of the UGC Special Assistance Programme, DRS Phase-I. The theme of the seminar is translation theory and mass media.
Recalling his days in Rajasthan as reporter of the Statesman newspaper, he said a single word sounding intemperate in his good story on famine in the state had angered the editor.
Talking on the role of Urdu in the media he said the future of the language is bright as age of Urdu media is coming soon. Even today people with Urdu knowledge are given preference in several media outlets as it is a fact that pronunciation of Urdu speakers is better than many others in the Indian language context.
He said when the BBC started its Hindi service the first director for the service it selected was a Urdu speaker, not Hindi speaker. Ale Ahmad Soroor was its first director in London.
Another topic in the inaugural session of the seminar was Role of Linguistics in Translation. Speaking on the topic, Prof. A. R. Fateehi, Chairman, Dept. of Linguistics, Aligarh Muslim University, said translation has been integral part of eastern and western civilizations when scriptures and literature were translated from one language to others. He said the Mughal era also nourished and developed the tradition.
Several papers are to be presented during the seminar. They include one by Umair Manzar, Lecturer, Dept. of Urdu, JMI, on freedom movement journalist Syed Abid Hussain’s Urdu weekly Nai Raushni and another by Prof. Ateequllah on translation of Urdu-English dictionaries – a comparative study.