DiJAI holds a
Session on Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI for Politics: The Digital Journalists Association of India (DiJAI), one of the five
initiatives by the Prime Point Foundation, organised a special online session
via Zoom titled "AI for Politics," exclusively for Dr. Tamilisai
Soundararajan, a senior BJP leader and former Governor of Telangana and
Puducherry. Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan and her husband, Dr. Soundararajan, a
Senior Medical Doctor, attended two sessions on August 9th and 11th, 2024,
totaling four hours. The sessions were conducted by Prime Point Srinivasan,
Chairman of DiJAI, and R Nurullah, Co-Chairman of DiJAI.
Dr Tamilisai
Soundararajan’s childlike enthusiasm, despite her extensive experience in
holding high offices, was truly inspiring. She demonstrated a strong commitment
to continuous learning and staying updated with the latest technological
advancements, serving as a role model for other politicians.
AI for Journalists: The Digital Journalists Association of India (DiJAI) conducted an
exclusive online Zoom session on August 12, 2024, for the journalists and
writers of Thamarai Brothers Media, the publication division of the leading
Tamil daily Dinamalar. Prime Point Srinivasan and R. Nurullah led the two-hour
session, which was attended by 55 writers and journalists, including R
Lakshmipathy, representing the top management of Dinamalar group.
Thamarai Brothers
Media is the first media organisation to request DiJAI hold an "AI for
Journalists" session exclusively for its stakeholders.
Contact for a free
online Session for journalists and politicians
DiJAI is open to
organising similar exclusive sessions for media houses and political leaders at
no cost, provided they can gather a minimum of 25 to 30 participants per
session. Those interested can contact Prime Point Srinivasan via WhatsApp at
+91 76650 273.
Panel Discussion on "The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules"
On 7th April 2023, Government of India released a new rules on Intermerdiary and digital media ethics code. Within few hours of its release, some of the media organisations issued press releases requesting the Government of India to withdraw these guidelines as they found it to be 'draconian'and against 'freedom of expression'. The updated guidelines (updated as on 6th April 2023) can be downloaded by clicking here.
DiJAI has been demanding proper regulations for the past several years to weed out the fake news that are causing numerous problems to the society. With the increase of technology and social media, genuine journalists need to be protected and criminals need to be punished.
Within a week of its release, DiJAI organised an online discussion on Saturday, 15th April 2023 bringing three different perspectives of the new guidelines.
Na Vijayashankar ( NaaVi ) (Cyber Law Expert from Bengaloru), Swaminathan Iyer (Mg. Partner, DigiAdapt, Singapore) and Vinoth Poovalingam (CEO , Hocalwire, Delhi) were the Panelists.
V Prem Shankar (Editor , South India - PTI) amd Hon. Secretary of DiJAI moderated the show.
By Dipti Kumar, Prem Shanker, Vinoth Poovalingam, Honorary Secretaries
On 7th August 2022, Digital Journalists Association of India (DiJAI) launched the Unlock Series, exploring topics of interest in the digital media era. The first of the series was a conversation on Entrepreneurship in the Digital Era with K.N. Arun, a professor of Media Studies at The Asian College of Journalism, Pratiba Raman, an independent digital journalist, Ramanathan Subramaniam, Head of Revenue and Product for The News Minute, and Vinoth Poovalingam, Founder of Hocalwire. The programme was moderated by Prem Shankar and Dipti Kumar, Honorary Secretaries of DiJAI.
The audience for this discussion was a mix of mid-level career professionals looking to enter the entrepreneurial space in digital news media and seasoned journalists looking to startup. Over 60,000 startups are operational in India and while they are in different stages of development, the onus on digital news media startups is to identify audiences, create compelling content, and crack the delivery mechanisms to build a sustainable revenue stream.
Several digital news media outlets like The News Minute, YourStory, The Better India, NewsLaundry, The Quint have emerged as a result of breaking away from the media conglomerates and forging a new, albeit tougher road to success. Tougher because audience selection is critical to content creation and dissemination. Breaking away from mainstream media outlets provides freedom to create, but also opens up doubts on resources to get good content that would drive engagement. Keeping a small team is not a bad idea.
“Staying lean is extremely important,” said Ram, adding that it’s prudent to start “slow and small.”
K.N. Arun helped ACJ construct the entrepreneurial journalism course to equip students in making it in the “business” of news. He reiterated that students are taught how to identify the “existing ecology and the gaps…then identify the audience gaps and know what content works.”
But the question remains- how do you know what content works?
Vinoth shared examples for tools from Google Analytics to trademarked data processing platforms to understand audience demographics, consumption patterns, underscoring the importance of investing wisely in the early days of an entrepreneurial venture. Technology is an equal player in the success of a business and with over 70 percent of web traffic to a website originating on either Google or Facebook, the relationship of technological investment to marketing success is a close one indeed. Using the right technology can serve as a marker to identifying audience personas.
While independent news startups are cash strapped and will often dip into personal savings and or goodwill of supporters, the commercials of running a business is pegged on positive revenue. Despite donations or paywalls and exclusive offers, Pratiba highlighted that a subscription to an entertainment website or an e-commerce page happens more easily than news websites. She noted that the collective opinion among Gen Z is that news is unattractive. The realization marked an important step for her own entrepreneurial journey toward building Newssence, news posts published on Instagram.
Revenue is a top priority and Pratiba highlighted the importance of partnerships to help grow revenue. Pratiba’s venture into independent consulting work has been a learning curve on understanding the dynamics of different partnerships and tapping into the specific areas of the client’s CTA to yield profits.
Ram emphasized that engagement is the true metric to assess success of a startup. While page clicks, reach, and traffic are lucrative, the impact of those don’t necessarily transform to actual money in the bank.
The four key takeaways for anyone looking to explore news media entrepreneurship would be:
•Stay lean in your venture
•Metrics matter- invest in technology
•Know your USP/audience- nail down the specific audience your venture will impact
•You matter
The DIJAI team looks forward to bringing more such open discussions and expert opinions for the benefit of the Digital Journalism Community.
The full proceedings of this discussion can be watched at
''Digital Journalists Association of India' (DiJAI) was initiated as a Trust at Chennai, India in March 2016, to hone the professional skills of digital journalism among the professionals. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras is its knowledge partner.
The following are the founders and trustees:
1. Chairman & Mg. Trustee) : Prime Point Srinivasan (Publisher and Mg. Editor of eMagazine PreSense - Now Communication consultant, teacher and Former Banker)
2. President : E Perumal alias Bharathi Thamizhan (Online Editor of Tamil Hindu and Joint Secretary of Chennai Press Club - Senior Tamil journalist)
3. Vice President : R Nurullah (Senior Tamil journalist with 40 years of experience)
4. Secretary : Smt. Susan Koshy (Editor in Chief of eMagazine PreSense - Former General Manager of IDBI Bank)
5. Treasurer : V Rajendran (Chairman, Digital Security Association of India, Cyber law advocate, Cyber Security expert and former Banker with 30 years of experience)
6. Trustee : Dr Sudarshan Padmanabhan, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
