Via Sree Sreenivasan

Tonight on “60 Minutes” – the biggest TV newsmagazine in the U.S. – there will be a 12-minute story called “The world's most beautiful woman?” It's about Bollywood actress Aishwariya Rai. The show is at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

The country that gave the world the Kama Sutra, one of the oldest known sex manuals, isn't prudish, just not into public displays of intimacy, says Rai. “In our society, you don't really see people around the street corner kissing or being extremely or overtly physically demonstrative,” she says.

The segment was produced by SAJAer Neeraj Khemlani – another example of the growing influence of desi journalists at the very top of American journalism. More on Neeraj here.

2004 was a doosey. personally and globally. I am praying that 2005 will be a happy and prosperous one for all of us.

Look to some changes here at Tiffinbox. I look forward to hearing from all of you this year. If you come across photojournalists, artists and writers from South Asia, please forward me their name and web link. It is my hope that we can create a network of kindred souls right here.

Join us!

Via Richard Prince

A well timed debate over what we have seen over the last few days after the disaster is slowly brewing.

I for one have been appalled at how the Western media has treated this whole disaster. Good that it is being covered, but the first few days were, in my opinion, a white wash; Western media covering Western (tourists) victims. I was aching for a local angle. It's not as if Western media couldn't find Enlgish/French/German speakers or local interpreters. NPR had a few audio clips of local relief agency workers and the BBC may have been, as an exception, the only network to truly “localize” the big story of 2004.

S. Mitra Kalita and Sreenath Sreenivasan wish to alert you to a continuously updated site with experts and journalists in South Asia, news & opinion links and ways you can help.

Making the list on the DesiClub site this year are several journalists. Two are friends of mine: Prof. Sreenath Sreenivasan and Hari Sreenivasan. No, they are NOT related to each other, but how often do two Sreenivasans find themselves on one “cool” list?

So says Richard Prince at The Maynard Institute.

Via S. Mitra Kalita

Ashok Malik, a writer for the Indian Express seems to think that media conglomerates in the West hold a different mirror to the current disaster in South and South East Asia. He feels networks like CNN and the BBC are more prone, and somewhat comfortable, showing corpses of brown bodies on their telecasts; something they deliberately shied away from after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center or The Pentagon in the interest of preserving the privacy of those families who were grieving.

What are your thoughts?

Via APAD

Sports Picture Editing seminar at Poynter.

Best Of Photojournalism 2005 contest guidelines posted.

New York Times pays final tribute to Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

C-SPAN tackles photojournalism.

The Washington Post's Joe Elbert spells out the language of photography.

Shomei Tomatsu's Skin of the Nation.

Giving children the gift of self expression: Picturing Hope.

Pankaj Paul, director of design and presentation at The News Journal in Delaware, recently received a Gannett Newspaper Newsroom Supervisor Recognition Award.

Pankaj played a key role in helping to improve the daily newspaper, develop and launch new sections and create prototypes for new non-daily products. He played a leading role in creation of a design desk and coached two new assistants on supervision of staffers. His work with new sections included Spark, the newspaper's weekly publication aimed at young readers, a new Health section for a range of readers, an expanded Delaware Parent section and two books.

For the Health section, Pankaj participated in brainstorming sessions, contributed strongly to discussions about what types of stories would work best for the targeted audience, the role of breakouts and graphics and the importance of diversity. At the same time, he advised students working on the student newspaper at the ASNE convention and participated in several programs in the Asian-American Journalists Association.

Congratulations!

I am usually not one to jump on a bandwagon, but a few days back, I openly proclaimed my loyalty to Apple.

As you will see below, the company that brought us the Macintosh and more recently the iPod , wears its heart on its sleeve; where it matters. Despite one of the hottest “selling” seasons, Apple has moved away from pushing it wares to show compassion in this time of great need. The company's web site says it all.

Conversely, Microsoft which to great hoopla opened up a division in Hyderabad, India is more concerned now about stamping out Spam.

Perhaps it is a wee bit unfair to pick on the behemoth in Redmond, Washington. But I find the great difference in approach quite telling of the company's priorities.

Am I buying a new Macintosh in 2005? You betcha! And the advertisement you see below is intentional. Go Apple!