Tuesday, September 26, 2006

RJ Regurgitation: 89.1 FM Dubai

The world really is a global village. This, I realised, when I received this email from a reader of my blog in Dubai. She writes:

Yesterday, I was listening to one of the radio stations here (89.1 FM) and the RJ was reading out (very badly) a movie review for Dor. As he was reading it out I realized that he was reading out your review, word for word.

"Since when did widows in Rajasthan wear dark blue clothes? I always thought they wore white! In fact, the clothes Meera wears after Shanker's death resemble a burqa more than anything else... and this to me seemed odd throughout the film.

I also felt that for the first time Nagesh Kukunoor has made a film which got caught up in exotic foreigner-friendly locations. That the backdrops got more importance than the struggle of the characters themselves.

And honestly, I wish he would at best make a cameo appearance and not actually play a part in every film. At the very least, he needs to lose that Hyderabad-meets-Hudson accent!"

This whole bit was said word for word. He did not acknowledge the fact that it has been taken from your blog or anything.

I felt this was a bit unfair, so I sent the radio station an sms saying that the review was copied from the blog Youthcurry and that I would let the author know about it.

The RJ calls me back in 10 mins saying " you wanted to talk to the author right? I'm the author. Go ahead. What do you wanna say?"

I told him that the review was taken from Youthcurry by this person who is the editor of JAM and he asked "Do you have any idea where Jam gets their reviews from? Do you know who writes it? We are part of the JAM *something* (I forget what) panel .

For a second I faltered thinking that maybe you had one of your reporters write it and the RJ might be of them. Then I remembered how he was reading the review. He could hardly pronounce the words correctly, and was obviously reading the review out loud for the first time.

So I called his bluff, and he then started talking about how radio is a free medium and that he can pick up anything from anywhere and say whatever. And that he writes for magazines as well and he never copies, but if a few words happens to come in here and there, that is not a big deal.

He tried to put it in my head several several times that it's not copying. I guess it may not be. But I still feel you should've been acknowledged or at least he could've said something like " According to this review from JAM mag..."

And the fact remains that he tried to pass off as the author. Which is a LIE.

Also, when I asked him for his name ( cos I really didn't know who he was, all the RJ's of this station sound the same and I had just turned on the radio at the time, I was driving home) he refused to say. Which I found to be an extremely immature and cowardly thing to do. His name is Harsha, if at all you're interested.

If what's happening is alright by you, ok then. If not, please do let the station know.


XXXX (name withheld)

Well, it's not OK and I am letting the station know by printing this letter on my blog. It would be funny if it were not so... unethical. To use the word 'I' and rattle off someone else's thoughts and views shows such a paucity of brainjuice that I have nothing more to say.

Google scripting and google journalism is NOT ok. Not for a college project, not in print, not on radio.

Will 89.1 FM care to lay down this law for its RJs?

24 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Sorry - had earlier posted with their website. Realised you'd already linked there.

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  3. Damn.Where are the ethics.

    I am quite impressed by the person from Dubai to have done what they did.

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  4. google journalism seems a very polite term for what is, baldly, plagiarism.

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  5. Chances are, this must have been going for long before it was uncovered. RJs ripping off blog posts has happened before with Maddox's webpage as well. On that occasion, the RJ had to tender an apology and you should settle for nothing less.

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  6. I would advise against the generic usage of Google's trademarked name. I suggest you cross it out. Here's why.

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  7. since, there is an act of plagiarism. Google has officially declared that you cannot use Google has verb - please check out this link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_(verb). Would a a term like 'Google Journalism' be right???

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  8. pathetic !

    Kudos to a really attentive reader who caught the guy !

    I agree...the radio station should tender an apology !

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  9. Anonymous12:18 AM

    These people need to learn a thing or two about RJ-ing from their English counterparts. Those RJs are naturals!

    Back to Harsha, maybe he doesn't read your blog, Maybe he took it from JAM.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Send them legal notice,
    Copy right issue seems to be more and more getting complicated now ...
    Other thing is that if he could have acknowledge you, are you ready for this "free" acknowledgement ( i dont meant money here) ...
    Despite of all ack. you may not want to reveal your thoughts outside your blog ... isnt it ...


    Abhishek

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  11. Congrats to the reader who dared to make a radio station face up to its mistake.. It requires guts..
    Great to hear there are folks who do care in these days of everybody copy somebody...

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  12. Apparently, your blog has quite a bit of following here in DXB. As a long time reader of both JAM and your blog, I'll certainly do my bit by spreadng this news amongst my pretty vast network of emirates group colleagues, friends and acquaintances.
    Vinay

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  13. Looks like your blog has quite a bit of following here in DXB. As a long time reader of your blog, I'll do my bit by spreading the word amongst my 5000+ strong emirates group colleagues and friends here. This guy's lack of ethics needs to be exposed.

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  14. Anonymous12:30 AM

    So did you hear from the radio?

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  15. Great, but what about the fact that Harsha claimed (as the reader says) that HE had written the review? Sucks!

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  16. hi sugaferry,
    u got it! mercator it is! wow! it really is a small world! so which team? and how did u guess that? (considering that mercator is a tiny part of emirates)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous6:48 PM

    Ok, so now you wanna blame the blogger?
    Did the blogger leave her name in order to get into the limelight for arguing with the guy? did she leave her blog address so that she can increase traffic to her site?

    No.

    So why then, do you think she did this?
    Does she have a personal thing against the RJ? I doubt it. cos if she did, then the radio station sure as hell would have made sure that she was tracked down and publicly stated exactly what the girl’s issue was so that they are safe.
    Assuming it was radio 4 who commented (we can’t be sure since the link does not lead anywhere) they know that the RJ did indeed quote Rashmi’s blog and tried to pass it off as his own. Which is why they are only defending themselves and apologizing indirectly instead of denying that it happened.

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  18. It was quite decent of the radio station management to write an explanation. They can't always control their employees. At least they went some way to fixing the problem.

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  19. guys,
    Clicking on the radio 89.1 link, i just noticed that this blogger profile - Radio4Connect has been in existence only since Sept06 and has no other team members. Its blog page also isnt available on blogger's server. Is this an official response from Radio89.1 at all? or is it a hasty bit of firefighting by the offending RJ, who probably frequents this blog? weekend mystery huh! Also, the lone defender Sherdian's blog - Straight from the Heart, too has been in existence only since sept 06. Are these just aliases?
    anyways, with this i'm thru with this topic. it isn't that big a deal i guess...shit happens!
    Hi SUgababe, i checked out some of ur writings, u write well...my extension is 3242. let's see (hear!) how u talk! ;-)
    Vin

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  20. damn!! u can actually cut a DEAL with them.
    1. Free publicity of ur blog for a whole month :) on their shows.
    2. Sponsor your mag.

    even copying has a PRICE. xerox doesnt come FREE!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. I'm glad the radio station has acknowledged the complaint, although their explanation is not fully convincing. If 'content' is a problem, officially tying up with media or individual bloggers is one solution.

    The other is to have natural conversations expressing your own opinions - the way Jaggu and Tarana used to banter on Go 92.5 FM - before it became Radio One. That is the kind of stuff that hooks listeners. So guys, lead interesting lives, develop your own style and personality. You will never need to read out or paraphrase someone else's opinion again!

    Many thanks to all of you who joined in this debate; and especially to the reader who originally pointed this out to me. I close this chapter with the fond hope that someone, somewhere will think twice before taking the easy way out...!

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  22. Tsk Tsk.
    The plight of Some Radio Jocks!!
    Maybe xxxx shud come down to Mumbai or Blr and listen to some Real Indian Radio?
    Say what?

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