Biggest Loser Kaun?

A reporter’s job is worse than that of a garbage-collector, says a survey conducted by the American human resource consultancy CareerCast. The survey looked at various professions and measured them in terms of income, work environment, stress and hiring outlook. And quite unflatteringly, out of 200 professions, a newspaper reporter’s job ended up at number 200 – right at the bottom. Of course CareerCast’s survey looked at professions in the US. But we’re guessing the picture at home is no different. Might as well keep shoveling.

Al-Jazeera Gets An Iraqi Boot

On April 28, Iraqi government authorities in Baghdad took Qatar-based news station Al-Jazeera along with nine other satellite channels off-air. They said these channels were airing shows and reports which fanned the flames of sectarianism. Al-Jazeera expressed shock and disappointment in an email in which they said “they covered all sides of the stories in Iraq, and have done [so] for many years”. Remember the good times of the Emergency? When governments are weak, the freedom of the media goes for a toss.

NDTV Profit tries to cut its losses

NDTV Profit has been having a hard time ever since it moved operations from Delhi to Mumbai four years ago. Now, they are moving back to Delhi. But before doing so, they’ve managed to create quite the uproar. A few days ago, Facebook was full of posts by NDTV Profit employees who had summarily been sacked. Seventy-eight employees from the Mumbai office were fired on the same day with no warning. Why this mass extermination? Well, in an interview to Business Standard on April 30, 2013, NDTV anchor and Chief Executive Officer, Vikram Chandra admits to tough days. According to the BS report, “Chandra said the company wasn’t asking its employees to quit. ‘There are a number of people who will not be required in their present roles. So, we are giving them options of either shifting to Delhi or to some other roles within or outside the organisation.’” Which is a polite way of saying there’ll be a mass guillotining. Smooth, Vikram, very smooth.

Hacking media Twitter handles

Life on Twitter isn’t hunky dory, as most media houses have discovered. CBS, BBC, Guardian, and for some reason football governing body FIFA, have had their Twitter feeds hacked in recent weeks. The latest to be hacked is the Associated Press’ handle which was compromised by a group called the Syrian Electronic Army. A misleading and false message was tweeted about an attack on the White House. Twitter appears to have thrown in the towel though, and in a memo it sent out on April 30 it warned media houses of future hack attacks on their handles. Their advice to media companies is to assign a single computer to send out messages and forestall instances of malware seeping in. Good way to cut down costs.