What is the F-word that you talk about?

I would be curious to see if panel members agree that current economic pressure on media are forcing them to stick to short, sensational stories focused on controversies as opposed to more in-depth, engaging reporting that lays out all the facts and depicts what the situation is on the ground.

"What is new about hunger?", a journalist once asked me. Hunger has always been around, in some way. So, what is the news point? And what do I peg it to -- the journalist wanted to know. Unfortunately,it is quite a challenge for the media to write about hunger, often slotted as a `soft story' to be kept away for a lean day. the other sad truth is that most hungry people are also very poor, and are not the readers/subscribers of these publications. This only pushes them further down the priority list. I think every responsible newspaper/publication must have fixed columns/slots to highlight hunger in the world. Even the worst pessimist would know that there still are many in the world who would care to read about the less fortunate and join the cause of helping them.

Radhika, I used to be a journalist. I understand your point of view. You think hunger is so dreadful that the media simply cannot ignore it. But I have to tell you that most media organisations exist to make money. That is their prime directive. They'll only write about hunger if the punters are interested. And except for during the occasional high profile emergency, they're not.