Mentor Musings

The Cambridge dictionary defines mentoring as the act of "helping and giving advice to someone who has less experience than you, especially in your job." It is not merely advising; it also reflects selflessness, as the advice relates to the highly competitive job arena. Nevertheless, mentoring is not a new concept; in fact it has been prevalent for many years now. An example, in the field of journalism, is the late American broadcast journalist, Edward R Murrow – a pioneer in TV news broadcasting who famously mentored some of the finest talent in American journalism. The web has various references to his protégés, who came to be called 'Murrow's Boys'. In India, an example that comes to mind is of Dr Prannoy Roy – his 24-hour news channel NDTV has given Indian journalism some of its most prominent faces – from Barkha Dutt to Arnab Goswami and Rajdeep Sardesai.

However, instances of mentorship comparable to Murrow date back to an age when journalism was still relatively nascent. Today, the times have changed, the pace has increased with the launch of 24-hour news channels and websites and competition has shot through the roof. Naturally, the environment is not conducive to effective mentoring on the job. Yes, people are still noticed and exceptional talent generally receives its due. But is it mentored – not as much. Recently, while talking to a senior, I questioned him on mentorship. Pat came the reply, "There is hardly any time for that. At the most, I can sit and discuss the story and its angle, but no one has the time to nurture a raw fresher." As such, new journalists – interns, trainees and the like are left out in the cold. It is a well-known fact that journalism is a vocation where much of the learning comes on the job. Education equips a person with knowledge, but experience is mandatory to hone the skill. At such a stage, a good mentor is quintessential.

But that does not seem to happen for many newcomers. Most trainee journalists lament the sheer lack of honest guidance on the job. Many feel sidelined, as they go about tailing seasoned journalists and receive flak for their first drafts. Although, it will only to be fair to acknowledge that many newcomers nowadays are rather impatient and cannot wait to land that major assignment, which will propel them to the big league. Also, in a high pressure, deadline-bound newsroom, it is but natural that people would generally not have the time or the tolerance for ineptitude, which many beginners display.

To come back to the main question then – is mentoring on the decline and who makes a good mentor? While opinion is divided on the former, the latter is easy – a good mentor is a senior from the vocation who not only advises on the job, but also helps one climb the ladder of success. It is teacher who is secure in his/ her success and wants the best from his pupils, with a demand for respect in return. As for solutions, the best that come to mind are active mentorship programmes at media organisations, reward systems for meritorious newcomers and education institutes with established media professionals guiding students academically and otherwise.

By Megha Gupta, Guest Editor, Nov 2009 issue of ezine PreSense