Friday, July 15, 2011

Press Conference of "10th Dabur Special Teej Festival Exhibition"

Devyani Shiwakoti

13 July 2011

UWTC 4th floor Tripureswor , Kathmandu

“10th Dabur special Teej festival 2011” press conference was held in 13th July at DECC, Tripureswor Kathmandu. The exhibition is going to be held from 28th to 31st July 2011. This exhibition is organized by “Women’s Creation Centre” and it’s main sponsor is Dabur hair oil. The supporter of this event are rahul dairy whitener, NCC bank, United world trade centre, capital FM, Subisu cable net, Chaitanya, ECS media, DECC, yeti holiday, Cahitanya Spa.

WCC is a non- profit organization established in 2054 BS with an aim to work for the development and empowerment of women in Nepal. This exhibition is the platform for women to share their creation and experiences, likewise, visitors also get the opportunity to shop under than one umbrella. 15% of the total fund raised from the exhibition will be allocated for the empowerment of the women.

The festival will feature more than 100 stalls of various products like handicrafts, sarees and kurtha item, jewllery, home appliances, mobiles, and Teej sovineur. Apart from these exhibition stalls there will be more than 10 food stalls.

Press Conference of "10th Dabur Special Teej Festival Exhibition"

Monday, April 18, 2011

INNOCENT EYES

-Devyani Shiwakoti
Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010
At 11:07pm
When I was child, I, for the first time, heard about Utopian world where there everything is believed to be so good, romantic, greenery and so peacefully in order, there remain no four pillars where people live within boundary with so many rules and regulations i.e. prison.
In its real sense, prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Jails are conventionally institutions which form part of the criminal justice system of a county and house both inmates awaiting trial and convicted misdemeanants.
People take birth with no expectations of their future, they walk hand in hand with their relatives, the environment makes them voracious and for the sake of their own life they do such things which cross the limit of society than they face the dark side of life which is made by rules and regulations, the fearful silence which itself is doomed by many walls and pillars.
Just born, we can not imagine our upcoming days that bring so many things with us. It is sure that death is always prowling behind us like a shadow, mostly invisible. It is no doubt; struggle, hard-work, obstacles, happiness and sadness all are the parts of our life. We are different from each other but most of the people do not know what they are for. We always live in doubt that what we want to be, among these confused people if anyone of them knows what he/she is for; I think that person will be the luckiest one. What I want before the situation of my deathbed is to search myself and my real identity.
I do not know I am lucky or not, but I know what I am here for. I believe I am made for understanding others' problems and try to help them through different mediums. I want to understand different colors of life which are invisible, yet they exist. I once wanted to understand about the dark sides of life, for that I went to a prison in Pokhara where each prisoner had his\her own story. I saw many innocent eyes there in the prison. Perhaps, those eyes were telling me something about themselves. I felt myself invisible of mine identity too. I was so helpless that I wanted to hear their pain but could not tolerate at all.
When we walk there is shadow around of us. We do not know whom to follow either our leg or shadow. Blurred shadow, perhaps, tells us how much time remaining with us in the journey of life.
I saw an angel among all who were there in the prison, a little girl, who was playing here and there on the floor with herself. I moved to touch her, so cute and innocent. Right at the moment I was informed that the little girl had syndromes of HIV aids. My eyes rolled on my cheeks. Still I do not have words that can express what I Felt. I found myself being questioned from within. I thought about the abyss of life of the little angel. It struck me that an angel like little girl will die in the infernal like place. I became so helpless and alone. There was no-one who could help that angel?
"LIFE..." I murmured, "...IS SO UNFAIR"
Later, I got the information about everything from a woman who counted seven years in her fingers of her being in the prison. According to the information, there are two categories of people in the prison. I found one category of people regarding prison as heaven, since, they do not want live in society anymore. It is problematic because no watertight solution appears. It seems it is not so easy to brush those problems off so easily. The problems will not go ashtray building a new prison house in the every corner of the nation. Perhaps, education is the answer, if not education for the prisoners, then education for society as a whole. Most of us, if not all, even do not try to know anyone in the prison. The issue is utter remote to us or we see it as victims looking for punishment.
Hopefully, there is not such things happen where it cross the boundary of being human like beating, rape in the prison etc. According to information, people in prison are living in peace and they share things as consanguinity, different NGOs are helping them like Heartbeat for Fooding and Clothes, Prisoners' Assistance Nepal etc.

Monday, March 29, 2010

A moment to worry for girls: Arrange Marriage

Weddings in Nepal are momentous occasions which are often planned years in advance of the wedding itself. Traditionally, weddings in Nepal are arranged by the respective families. It is important that arranged marriage and forced marriage in Nepal are not confused.
It is not normal practice for families in Nepal who are arranging marriages to force their offspring to marry someone that they do not wish to marry. The offspring are also consulted and it is important that they consent to the marriage. However the underlying truth is that even the consented marriage are result of deeply rooted social pressure and beliefs that indirectly force young people especially girls to get married at an early age.
A girl just reaches her puberty and people start talking about her marriage. Even growing up as a kid, girls are constantly reminded that they are to be married off someday so they behave in a specific way. This creates a permanent mark in her psyche that she is supposed to leave soon, and it seems people want it to be as soon as possible. The girls in the capital city are afflicted with this social pressure to a shocking extent; we can imagine how grave it is in the rural areas.
Even the educated societies of Nepal still fail to acknowledge the role women play and the contribution they make to their country's development. Religious and social traditions enslave women to be bound into limitations which deprives her from opportunities which could have otherwise led to greater women participation in national developments.
The society may have moved on to educate women allowing them to build a respected career for themselves. Yet they use their educational and professional qualifications as a merit for finding better matches for their daughters. On the surface things look different but the bottom line is still the same; parents and society eagerly wait to get their daughters married off, irrespective of their successful careers.
With most youngsters flying abroad there is this new trend of getting them married before they leave. Some fake marriages have been done for the sake of getting visa. And then there is this ever prevalent fascination of Nepalis to get their daughter married off to guys with a “green card” or jobs abroad.
I witnessed a remarkable decrease in the number of students studying in Bachelors level at a particular college as the year progressed. I previously just saw that students left in middle of session for abroad and the next trend was female students getting married. As I find out, they were promised to be sent to colleges even after marriages but just the household duties and few remarks from society was enough for these girls to chose not to continue their studies anymore. This was tragic.
Women after marriage subside their studies, career and their goals to the duties and responsibilities of a socially idealized role of a wife and daughter in laws. Even if the family she is in is broad minded enough to let her continue with her education the society butts in constantly and that gets to one or the other of the family and disrupts the peaceful coordination.
The Civil code has set legal marriage age for women to sixteen, made polygamy and child marriage illegal, established women's right to divorce and broadened women's capacity to control or inherit property. Although the government has signed a number of laws to assist in improving the lives of women throughout Nepal, the implementation of laws takes time. It requires efforts on behalf of the government and by the people. And the practical implementation is way below average.
In Nepali society, marriage is seen as compulsory for women. This needs to change. When a woman gets married she has many responsibilities in her husband's home. We know what expectations come along with marriage, the duty to beget children for the continuity of lineage. Children add more responsibilities and contribute a great deal in the priority shift at an early stage.
The priority changes after marriage for women. It’s a fact even the most career oriented women will have to acknowledge. Is it really her fault, her weakness that she cannot give desired continuity to the pursuit of her career goals? The deeply rooted traditions in Nepali society and broadly speaking, women psychology to put family over herself seems at blame for the priority shift. These are too complex units to uproot completely for a plausible solution.
A considerable step for all of us would be to be patient enough till the girl is actually self willing to get into a marital commitment. In case of Nepal, as we know marriage is not just personal but a social commitment as well, the girl should have the liberty to decide without external pressure.
Changes are slow and we have to bear with that. But it’s the initial step towards the change that matters a lot. So, let your daughters play on with equal freedom of choice till she is capable to decide for herself.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Significance of media research?

Studying mass media, research, mass media research and significance of mass media research firstly,we need to know what is mean by research.Research can be defined to be search for knowledge or any systematic investigation to establish facts. The primary purpose for applied research (as opposed to basic research) is discovering, interpreting, and the development of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge on a wide variety of scientific matters of our world and the universe. Research can use the scientific method, but need not do so.

Scientific research relies on the application of the scientific method, a harnessing of curiosity. This research provides scientific information and theories for the explanation of the nature and the properties of the world around us. It makes practical applications possible. Scientific research is funded by public authorities, by charitable organisations and by private groups, including many companies. Scientific research can be subdivided into different classifications according to their academic and application disciplines.

Research in mass media is used to verify or refute gut feelings or intuition for decision makers. Although common sense is sometimes accurate, media decision makers need additional objective information to evaluate problems, especially when they make decisions that involve large sums of money. Mass media research is not limited only to decision-making situations. It is also widely used in theoretical areas to attempt to describe the media, to analyze media effects on consumers, to understand audience behaviour and so on. Everyday there are references in the media to audience surveys, public opinion polls, growth projections or status reports of one medium or another, or advertising or public relation campaigns

The use of research in different forms are:
Electronic media research studies today fall into two main categories: ratings and non ratings research. The data for ratings surveys are currently gathered by two methods: diaries and electronic meters (commonly called people meters). There are many types of no ratings research used by the electronic media.
Print media: It is used in several forms they are:
Readership the most widely used of all print research procedures including research in areas such as reader profiles, item-selection studies, reader-nonreader studies, editor-reader comparisons, and psychographic and lifestyle segmentation studies.
Circulation research about who reads the newspaper or magazine, how can circulation be increased, and what the readers want to have included in their newspaper or magazine.
Management research concerning goal setting by management, employee job satisfaction, and effects of competition and ownership on newspaper content and quality.
Readability: research on all the elements and their interactions that affect the success of a piece of printed material.
On-line media usage: research concerning the Internet and how it affects newspaper and magazine reading.

Bibliography:

Angelina schorr,communication(2003) Research in media science ,Europe.
Adhikary Nirmala Mani (2006) Understanding mass media research (1st ed.) Prashanti Pustak Bhandar

Sunday, June 21, 2009

DEVELOPMENT JOURNALISM

At the talk program in martin chautari on “Development Journalism: Necessity and Challenges” Laxman Dutta Pant gave in depth analysis over the situation of Development Communication in Nepal. He mentioned “Nepal still lacks in the professionalism of journalist as a whole. Journalism has become a hobby rather than job.” He added people from other profession can join journalism and this practice is creating some hurdles.
He discussed development communication in Nepal, another hotly debated concept in recent years. His analysis of Nepal’s development communication is preceded by brief examination of theories that underline development communication—diffusion of innovation, two-step flow theory, and interpersonal communication. He gave his analysis about development journalism emphasizing national identity, integration, creation of public awareness, promoting people’s participation and rural development. Pant provided a good overview on how effectively development communication can provide a strong base for the development of the 3rd world countries like Nepal. Pant discussed about the present one way traffic of journalists rushing behind the parties and their deeds and in this trend the state of development journalists is directionless. Not only the professionalism but the studying of the development journalism is again another crisis as the course is quiet shaded. He agreed with the concept that the development journalism is a product of 3rd world country but it is not that the 1st world country is not practicing the system. The 1st world countries are taking development journalism into the infrastructural development and in our cases we are more into social development.
Pant further discussed supportive environment is always essential for everything to sustain and this development journalism agenda should be given a separate entity as well. Press violation is always an undignified act which should always be settled aside. Regarding the investment over the development journalism pant pointed the lack of the investors’ interest towards this area. The lack of glamour in development journalism than in any other can be the crucial factor. Talking about the cause of the condition of development journalism sector he criticized the government and conflict with unpredicted the natural disasters.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

RADIO NEPAL


Radio Nepal was established on 1st April 1951. Initially, the transmission covered duration of 4 hours and 30 minutes through a 250 Watt SW transmitter. Over the years, Radio Nepal has strengthened its institutional capacity considerably and diversified itself in terms of programme format, technical efficiency and coverage. Radio Nepal airs programmes on Short Wave, Medium Wave and FM frequencies. Regular broadcasts cover duration of 18 hours everyday which includes about 2 hours of regional broadcasts 09:45 hrs. to 11:00 hrs. in the morning and 18:00 hrs 18:30 hrs in the evening. FM Kathmandu, the first FM-Channel covering Kathmandu valley and adjoining areas was started in 1995 from its premises at Singh Durbar, Kathmandu.

PROGRAMMING

Regional Programme:
Regional programme for audience in different regions is transmitted from regional stations simultaneously from 09:45 hrs to 11:00 hrs and 18:00 hrs to 18:30 hrs every day.
National Programmes:
National programme is Broadcast for a duration of about 16 hours everyday (05:00-23:00 hrs.) excluding the regional programme transmission period. Special entertainment programme goes on air in the day time during 11:00-13:00.
Radio Nepal uses a wide range of formats including features, documentaries, docu-dramas, dramas, talk shows, interviews, music shows, live commentaries etc. Recognizing the citizen's right to be informed under a multi-party democracy, Radio Nepal attempts to provide informative, educational as well as entertainment programmes.
The major programme highlights include:
Educational:
Programmes on religion, literature, science and technology, agriculture, distance learning, women , health and sanitation, public health, children and youth.

Entertainment:
Music: Nepali songs, Hindi songs and Gazals and Western music.
Songs in the different national languages.
Radio dramas and comedy shows.

Information:
» News and Current Affairs.
» Phone-in for Parliamentarians.
» Radio Reports.
» Review of the press.
» Developmental Programmes.

RADIO NEPAL: FM – KATHMANDU

In consonance with the policy of forging ahead in tune with the changing broadcasting scenario, Radio Nepal launched the first FM Channel in Nepal on he 30th of Kartik 2052 B.S.(16th Nov.1995). The FM Channel airs programmes on 100 MHz on the FM band through a 1 KW stereo transmitter installed at Khumaltar, Lalitpur. A fairly well equipped studio with stereo facilities has been established at Singh Durbar. This studio along with the provision of a standby studio has made it possible to broadcast programmes live. Radio Nepal has a policy of leasing out its air time to private parties to broadcast programmes on its FM channel by permitting private operators to use their own staff. These programmes have proved to be very popular among the urban youth of Kathmandu.


NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS

Radio Nepal broadcasts news bulletins in at regular intervals (hourly) from 06:00 hrs until the close of the transmission. News bulletins in English are broadcast at 08:00 hrs, 14:00 hrs and 20:00 hrs everyday.In additional to the news in Nepali and English, there are bulletins in other languages at various timings. They are Magar, Gurung, Tamang, Rai Bantawa, Limbu, Newari, Bhojpuri, Hindi, Urdu, Tharu East and Tharu West, Avadhi, Sherpa, Maithili, Sanskrit, Kham Magar and Doteli. Special news bulletins on SAARC related contents (SAARC News) and news for Children (Bal Samachar) have been broadcast as well. Radio Nepal attempts to provide prompt and accurate coverage of all national and international news including political, economic and social highlights in a balanced and objective manner. It attempts to safeguard the basic principle of public interest and the public's right to be informed as the prime public broadcaster of the country. The station has designated stringer reporters in more than 50 districts for coverage of news and information.


COMPUTERIZATION OF THE NEWS ROOM

In its effort to utilize the advances in modern technology and introduce useful changes in its broadcast environment, Radio Nepal has recently launched a project called "Newsroom Computerization Project". The overall concept of the project is to eventually make a paperless newsroom. A special broadcast software, NewsBoss, developed by Desktop technologies, Australia has been initially licensed to seven workstations linked-up within a local area networking system. With the support from UNESCO, Radio Nepal is proud to be among the few radio stations in Asia trying to turn the news system digital. The main features of the system are:
» Text Editing
» Audio Editing
» Auto recording
» Wire Service
» Prompter for the news delivery
» Archiving
It is a pilot project and is implemented in the central newsroom. Upon the satisfactory performance of this system, Radio Nepal has a plan to computerize its regional stations' newsrooms and interconnect them to the central grid.