Announcing the 2nd edition of International News Forum – The Media Rumble 2018

New Delhi: Conceived by India’s leading independent news media platform Newslaundry, and produced by pioneering entertainment and arts company Teamwork Arts, the second edition of news forum, The Media Rumble is scheduled to take place on August 3 and 4, 2018 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. A specially-curated two-day news forum, The Media Rumble will feature panel discussions, film screenings, talks, interviews, workshops and exclusive masterclasses.

The forum will revolve around the three-sixty degrees of news. Both traditional and new media will be discussed in a programme founded on the key pillars of news: content, technology, economy and policy. The forum will see discussions on various issues pertinent to journalism such as the gender imbalance in newsrooms, the way media reports on women and women’s issues, how technology can be effectively used in newsrooms, whether journalists should become politicians while still holding on to their day jobs, the debate between patriotism and journalism, whether political cinema is possible in today’s India and other topics.

The 2017 inaugural edition was a first-of-its kind coming together of news professionals and news enthusiasts in India bringing together award-winning writers and journalists like Mike Rezendes, Suki Kim, Rob Wjinberg, Sarah Shourd and others.

Commenting on the second edition of the forum, Newslaundry’s Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder, Madhu Trehan said, “This year’s The Media Rumble is bigger and wider in scope. We plan to deal with the noise in the media space by crafting a passage through it. Unless we ask the right questions, how will we get great answers? TMR 2018 takes it to the next level from where we started. With twice as many speakers covering more areas of media, we are excited about the possibilities these conversations will throw up. The medium was the message. Now the message is drowning the medium. Let’s listen and talk, then emerge on a clear medium with a message.”

Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts, said, “The Media Rumble is a much-needed forum in these times in order to discuss the numerous issues that confront one of the oldest professions in the world. Today journalists are at the forefront of change and confront danger frequently. To discuss how they negotiate the new world order, The Media Rumble has the best of them coming together to share, discuss and debate their many experiences.”

Bringing together global best practices in journalism, The Media Rumble 2018 will once again feature some of the most experienced news professionals from India and international speakers who have never spoken in India. Attendees will have the opportunity to witness uninhibited discussions among media stalwarts and engage in dialogue and debate during sessions. They will also have the option of choosing to become “Delegates” and experience the forum while mingling with speakers at the Networking Lounge and other events.

The full programme is available on http://themediarumble.com/programme

Confirmed speakers include –

• Aaron Sharockman is the executive director of PolitiFact, the largest fact-checking organization in the United States. He was the former editor of PunditFact, a website dedicated to checking claims by pundits, columnists, bloggers and the hosts and guests of talk shows.
• Anurag Kashyap is a renowned  film director, writer, producer and actor, who has made some of Hindi cinema’s most compelling films – Dev. D (2009), Gulaal (2009), Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), and Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), to name a few.
• Christopher Lydon is the host since 2005 of Open Source, an online global conversation on arts, ideas and politics. A journalist in many media, he is credited with the original podcast – radio on the Internet – in 2003.
• Iyad el-Baghdadi is a prominent Arab intellectual, writer and activist. A career entrepreneur, he has over a decade’s experience with start-ups when the Arab uprisings started in 2011. Over the next few years, his Twitter account became among the most influential and respected – leading ultimately in 2014 to his being arrested, jailed, and eventually exiled from the United Arab Emirates, due to his pro-democracy activism.
• Jay Mazoomdar moved to Delhi in 1996 and over the years, honed his investigative reportage such that it has impacted a number of policy decisions at the highest levels. He is currently withThe Indian Express where he is part of the global investigations team looking into the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers.
• Malini Subramaniam is an independent journalist covering news from Bastar and recipient of 2016 International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, New York and the 2017 Oxfam-Novib/PEN International Freedom of Speech and Expression.
• Maria A. Ressa is the CEO and Executive Director of Rappler, a social news network, which combines the best of professional journalism with citizen journalism and crowdsourcing. She has been a journalist in Asia for more than 30 years, most of them as CNN’s bureau chief in Manila (1987-1995) then Jakarta (1995-2005).
• Marisa Kwiatkowski, an investigative reporter for The Indianapolis Star. She has earned more than 50 journalism awards, including IRE’s Tom Renner Award, a Sigma Delta Chi Award in public service, the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award and the Indiana Journalist of the Year.
• Meghna Gulzar began her professional career in 1989 as a freelance writer for The Times of India and other publications. Along with scripting her own films, Meghna has made documentaries for Doordarshan on contemporary issues. Meghna’s feature film based on the Arushi Talwar muder case of 2008 – Talvar – received rave reviews as did her latest feature film Raazi, based on the true story of a young girl married into a Pakistani military family and sent as a spy for India in 1971.
• Neha Dixit is an independent journalist based in New Delhi. She who has worked with multiple mediums and reported for Al Jazeera, Smithsonian, Caravan, Outlook and others. She has won multiple awards including the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Journalist 2016, Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism 2014, Lorenzo Natali Prize for Journalism from the European Commission, 2011 among others.
• Pankaj Pachauri, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, GoNews, is a print and broadcast journalist with more than three decades of editorial and management experience in print and electronic media across three continents. He has worked with leading news organisations such as NDTV, BBC World Service (UK), Public Radio International (US), India Today, The Sunday Observer.
• Raju Narisetti is the Founder of Mint, the second-largest business newspaper/website in India, and former CEO of Gizmodo Media Group, at Univision Communications Inc.
• R Jagannathan has been part of many launch teams, including Business Today, DNA and Firstpost.com. Has also helped revamp many business publications as Editor of Financial Express, Indian Management, and BusinessWorld. He was awarded the Shriram Sanlam Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
• Shane Bauer is a senior reporter for Mother Jones and author of the forthcoming book American Prison, to be published by Penguin. He is the recipient of the National Magazine Award for Best Reporting, the Goldsmith Prize for investigative reporting, the Michael Kelly Award, the Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism, and at least 20 others.
• Swapan Dasgupta is a veteran journalist and a Rajya Sabha MP. As a journalist, he has held senior editorial posts at The Statesman, The Times of India, The Indian Express and India Today, and is currently a freelance writer for various publications. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in the field of literature and education in 2015.

EVENT DETAILS:

Dates: 3^rd and 4^th August 2018

Time: 9:30 AM – 7:30 PM

Venue: India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

Entry: Ticketing information and other booking details are available on the website. (1-day: INR 500 per person; 2-day: INR 800 per person)

Website: http://themediarumble.com/

Delegate Package: The one-day (INR 5000) and two-day (INR 8000) delegate packages give access to all sections of the Forum, including the Exclusive Networking Lounge – an ideal networking area to meet with news professionals, investors, publishers, policy-makers, and technology giants from across the globe; Opening Performance by Aisi Taisi Democracy; Access to panels, film screenings, masterclass, and workshops and much more. For bookings, please contact [email protected]