OdishaLIVE Bureau
“Media & Privacy: A Mismatch?”
The Annual Media conclave “Communiqué 2017”, organized by IlluminatiX, the Media & PR Cell of XUB took place at Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar. This year’s topic of discussion was “Media & Privacy: A Mismatch?”
The conclave aimed at addressing the contradiction between media and privacy over various platforms such as Print Media, Digital Media and the entertainment industry.
Dr. Sasmit Patra (Associate Professor, Organizational Behavior, XUB) served as the moderator for the day while a variety of media and industry stalwarts spoke at the event.
Dillip Satapathy was the first speaker of the day. He started the discussion-ns citing examples from various sectors showcasing the concept of Media and Privacy. He also threw some light on the technical aspect of the Right to Privacy being declared as a fundamental right. According to him, it is a fundamental right, but not an absolute one. Among the war between Right to Privacy and Right to Information, The Right to Information will always be superior.
Jawhar Sircar introduced the concept of media and explained how it plays a role in forming public opinion by informing, educating and exposing facts. Laws and regulations on privacy were discussed along with the recent ruling on Right to Privacy in India. He emphasized on the role of the public in media content generation and paparazzi and that public voyeurism is what drives questionable content.
Shweta Shroff believed that anything that is on the internet serves as a digital tattoo, which can’t be erased anytime soon. She explained how all our emails are being read and each and every online activity is tracked through cookies. . She concluded by stating, “The world has woken up to the right to privacy. It’s high time we do too”.
Sumrit Shahi started his talk by giving little instances of privacy concerns we tend to ignore. By giving examples of Tinder and social networking apps, he believed that the data shared on these apps are willingly done by us. He further addressed what we, as consumers have made up the media and how we should also think about how much voyeuristic pleasure we enjoy.
Aditya Maheswaran emphasized that privacy is a byproduct of the environment and the age in which we are living in. He also introduced the concept of strategic consent which forms the core of privacy. He advised the audience to understand that if they want to leverage the media for their own good, they will have to bear with its mild shortcomings.
In the end, the annual newsletter of IlluminatiX, “Communiqué” was released by the esteemed panelists followed by the felicitation of guests.
