Out with your story – Tuhina Anand
After covering the beat for few years now, I would like to believe that I know most of the tricks of the trade and can cajole ‘sources’ to come out with their secrets. But that’s my thinking and it doesn’t really have to be in sync with reality.
After covering the beat for few years now, I would like to believe that I know most of the tricks of the trade and can cajole ‘sources’ to come out with their secrets. But that’s my thinking and it doesn’t really have to be in sync with reality.
In the real world of chasing stories one is stumped by stubborn replies such as ‘I am very much with my current employer and it’s all a rumour that I am quitting this organisation’. While both the parties very well know that the person in question has signed the deal and pocketed the offer letter. So what do you do? You can’t really push a person to admitting that he is quitting as it is a sensitive matter.
Also, one is faced with the similar dilemma in account movement stories, where you know that the business is moving agencies and probably is somewhere in between and you can’t really get sources to confirm it. Then there are eager media hungry types, who, though seeming to be aloof, are only too glad to sing like a canary though they need a bit of ego massaging.
Bangalore and their media types, too, fall in these categories. Except that I feel that the city is just beginning to experience the power of media, especially in this field of work and are either too happy to talk or are too conscious to talk as they feel that they would be jumping the protocol by speaking to ‘media’ instead of their higher ups sitting in other bigger cities.
I do hope that this inhibition is overcome in 2009 and the city talks, talks and talks some more!
