It must be admitted that over the years, journalism has been turned into a prestigious and lucrative part-time option for many of the rural correspondents. A few years ago, a former editor mentioned to me that he was on a trip to a remote village in Goa, when he decided to attend a function in the locality. The place was packed to capacity and he was forced to stand behind occupied chairs. To his surprise, the chief guest happened to be the local correspondent of his own newspaper!
This enthusiasm towards 'extra-curricular' activities sometimes translates into political affiliation. In a recent event which established the BJP-journo nexus in Sanguem, a correspondent with a Marathi newspaper and member of the Sanguem Patrakar Sangh was been unanimously elected president of the Sanguem Unit of the BJP. Similarly, the president of the Sanguem Patrakar Sangh and a correspondent with an English-language newspaper, was appointed the BJP booth president of Tarimol-Sanguem. In most cases, reports sent by correspondents to the news desk, in the past, specially when there was no one in particular to look after this responsibility, simply lacked form and content. Illegible words either scribbled on scraps of paper or sent as distorted faxed messages were among the most popular methods deployed to communicate their reports. In some cases, only a skilled pharmacist could decipher the words used by some correspondents. Under such conditions, the sub-editor assigned to such reports had the arduous task of converting them into decent stories. Quite often, the easiest way out would be to forward the raw report to the dust bin. A sub-editor flooded with such reports and working under pressure would invariably exercise this option with considerable frequency.
Then in June 1998, it was my turn to handle the correspondent network under the fancy and wordy designation of "Chief of News Bureau". In reality, I had to play God in the laboratory. This meant subjecting numerous correspondent reports to various quality control tests each day and, in some cases, creating sense from nonsense, before they were ready to be read by thousands of readers in and around Goa. Under such circumstances, I had anticipated that my association with correspondents would not to last long, that is, if I wanted to maintain my sanity in the profession.
But this was not meant to be.
The days turned to weeks, months and eventually years. And, before I knew it, my interaction with rural correspondents went on to complete half a decade. I have since handled thousands of reports either sent to me through post, fax, emails or even dictated over the phone. In most cases, the reports may have initially appeared trivial or insignificant, but a little refinement and some cut-paste commands have succeeded in giving a new look to the report. And with encouraging results.
In a recent case, the Pernem correspondent sent me a report on action initiated by the local health authorities, in view of the outbreak of viral hepatitis in the state. In the second last paragraph of his report was a mention that the authorities had decided to shut down the Pernem police station canteen for operating under 'unhygienic conditions'. In my view, this was most significant and I refined the story with this angle as the lead. Taking cue from the news item, the Director General of Police issued a memo to the Pernem police inspector, seeking an explanation for the unhygienic conditions in the police canteen. Incidentally, Herald was the only English-language daily to carry this report.
Over the years, I have not only succeeded in building up my tolerance level to the specific demands of correspondents, I have also learnt to appreciate the crucial role of those eyes and ears spread all over the state. This experience has led me to believe that a local newspaper which ignores rural news content will be as effective as an orchestra playing music before a deaf audience.
While there is consensus on the value of local news content, the importance of rural correspondents has not always been appreciated by the powers that be in the newspaper. A correspondent is often treated like the spare wheel of a vehicle, detachable and to be ignored under normal circumstances. The merit is only recognised in times of emergency, when a big story breaks out in areas represented by correspondents. Then too, it is a common trend that newspapers would prefer to send its full-fledged staffers, often from Panjim, instead of relying on part-time rural correspondents, to cover the event. This is not to suggest that full-fledged staffers have no right to tresspass on the territory of correspondents, as it were. Rather, a staffer would benefit a great deal by utilising the expertise and local knowledge of a rural correspondent to ensure an effective story.
To cite an example, a staffer was recently asked to interview noted people in connection with a prominent cultural festival in a village. The staffer was unaware that the same festival is celebrated separately by two groups in the village and, that, the article would need to carry the comments of people from both groups. Instead of seeking the assistance of a correspondent from the area, the staffer went ahead and interviewed five persons from the village. Eventually, the staffer realised that four persons interviewed represented one group, while the sole personality interviewed from the other group went on to criticise his own group! The article was published and the damage was done. Organisers of the second group were aggrieved and threatened to withdraw advertisements to the newspaper. The issue was finally resolved when the local correspondent carried a series of reports to clarify the position of the organisers of the second group. Had the staffer sought the assistence of the local correspondent, the issue would never have been blown out of proportion.
Then again, the 'who-has-written' preference over the 'what-has-been-written' has plagued many English-language newspapers and this has largely contributed to the 'City-Centric Syndrome'. There have been instances to suggest that a news report filed by a staffer has been accorded more prominence — both in space and display — than a report sent by a rural correspondent. Recently, tension flared up along the Tuyem -Camurlim ferry route, after the river navigation department wanted to shift the lone ferry to Tar-Siolim for the five-day Ganesh immersion ceremony. An MLA, sarpanchas of two village panchayats and over angry 200 people prevented the movement of the ferry. The correspondent promptly sent the report and the item could only find place in the lower portion of page 7, normally reserved for routine and unimportant news items.