18th NWMI meeting held in Mumbai

The three-day 18th national meeting of the Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) concluded here in Maharashtra on Sunday. The event featured sessions covering issues pertaining to election reporting, gender outlook in mainstream Indian cinemas, intersection of artificial intelligence in journalism, reporting agriculture, etc. This year, as many as 300 female journalists from across the country, mostly working as independent journalists, attended the meet. The NWMI meet is held every year to facilitate interactions among women journalists, give voice to their opinions, and address issues faced by them. Personalities from the media, films and television, besides professors from the Indian Institute of Technology and Tata Institute of Social Sciences conducted various sessions over the course of the three days on topics such as election reporting, agriculture reporting, etc. Bollywood film director Kiran Rao and actor Ratna Pathak delivered speeches on the topic ‘Bas itna sa khwab hai: Is representation enough?’, delving into the gender issues in mainstream Indian cinema. “I want to make films which portray super ambitious women,” Rao said, adding that “most of the stories of women are unrepresented.” “I always wanted to speak in a commercial space. It was indeed a challenge for me in detailing and making it aesthetic,” she added. Pathak highlighted how women are represented on TV shows. “We women do multiple chores, from domestic work to marching out on the streets if anything is wrong,” she said, and highlighted the “different roles and expressions given to women,” saying that “we hardly see women being given bold and boisterous roles.” On the final day, separate workshops on ‘reporting on disasters’, ‘reporting on LGBTQIA’, ‘visual content verification’, and ‘how to make visuals work’ were held. The event was hosted by journalists residing in Mumbai, in collaboration with Reporters Without Borders, The News Minute, St Paul’s institutions, and the Mumbai Press Club. Most of the panellists were independent journalists, such as Kalpana Sharma from Newslaundry, the Scroll’s Editor Naresh Fernandes, and The News Minute Editor Dhanya Rajendran.