2018 Montage Awards: Monsoon Journal Interview with Siva Sivapragasam

Siva Sivapragasam is a Media Professional who graduated from the University of Sri Lanka with an Economics Honours degree. He received his secondary education at Royal College, a prestigious educational institution in Colombo, Sri Lanka. His interest and passion for Journalism made him join the Associated Newspapers (Ceylon) Ltd. in 1961 after graduation. This Media organization is the largest Newspaper group in Sri Lanka and he worked here for the Daily News, the premier English Daily in Sri Lanka. He was the newspaper’s Finance Editor covering Financial News and contributing features relating to Finance and Business. In 1966, the Late. Esmond Wickremasinghe (Ranil Wickramasinghe’s Father) then Managing Director of Associated Newspapers purchased Express Newspapers (Ceylon) Ltd. and took Mr.Sivapragasam along with him to help manage the Newspaper firm he had acquired. Mr. Sivapragasam functioned as the Secretary & also the Marketing Manager for the Virakesari Group for more than 30 years. During his career here, he also edited several Advertising supplements for the Newspaper.

Mr. Sivapragasam migrated to Canada in 1997 and continued his media work managing the Sri Lankan Business and Information Directory published by Messrs. Nanda Publications. He was also a Director of the Canadian Tamils’ Chamber of Commerce associating himself in the Chamber’s annual events and functioned as the Editor of the Annual Souvenir of the Chamber. In addition to this, he has also made contributions to local Canadian ethnic Newspapers. He has also participated in Radio and TV Programmes both in Sri Lanka and Canada by way of Interviews, discussions and seminars. He is currently the Executive Editor of “Monsoon Journal”, a monthly English Newspaper for the South Asian Community.

His recent editorial contribution was an article titled “The Beginning of the Modi Era” appearing as Chapter 1 in a Book on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – “Modi’s Blueprint for India”, published by Pentagon Press, New Delhi. Mr. Sivapragasam possesses over 50 years of Media experience.

Q. I read that you earned an Economics degree from the University of Sri Lanka prior to immigrating to Canada in 1997, yet your career has moved towards journalism itself. What factors drove you to pursue it full-time?

A. After graduation, I was really looking out for a public service appointment, but at that time there was a restriction where you had to be very conversant in the official language, which is Sinhala. And we had education in English, so we had a disadvantage, so naturally I had to go into the private sector. I had a passion for writing and journalism while I was in high school and at the university. There was an opening available in an English newspaper, Daily News at Lakehouse, first as a training journalist and then after about a year I was confirmed and then naturally rose up to the position of financial editor of the Daily News. It was really a passion for journalism that drove me into this field.

Q. Were there any specific successes or challenges that you encountered from a managerial perspective as a Marketing Manager for the Virakesari Group?

A. Well what happened was the Lakehouse Group Newspapers was originally privately-owned, and then the government took it over. It became a state media institution. So, once one of the directors at Lakehouse bought all Tamil newspapers, he offered me a job of Marketing Manager, which are different from actual journalism. And asked me if I would like to take over this new challenging appointment of marketing you know. Because there I would be expanding the obligations, and once I went there we had about four or five new publications coming up and I took charge of marketing for newspaper sales and advertising. So, it was really a challenge in the sense that #1 it was a new field for me, going from journalism into marketing.

Secondly, being a Virakesari newspaper, most of our corporate clients, you know high-end corporate clients, normally they are advertising in an English newspaper. So, I had to really convince them that there is a sizeable market among the Tamil community as well for their goods and services. I was able to pull through there during the first year a couple of corporate clients to start advertising like banks and insurance companies. They started coming in because at that time Jaffna was the second biggest market for consumer goods, so there easiest and best way of promotion was through the print media because at that time there was no TV or computer technology. Any source of information or any marketing strategy had to be done through print media. So, they depended on the newspapers for most of their expansion programs and marketing programs. Also, whether state institutions or these companies wanted government information to go into the Tamil community, they would have to seek a newspaper.

Q. What is your perspective on computer technology in marketing and journalism?

A. At this point in my career, we introduced computer technology for printing. There are certain advantages of computer technology as compared with the former archaic method of printing. The thing is you can get a lot of colour advertising done through computer technology. Also, for most of the consumer products, most readers prefer to see them in colour. Another distinct advantage of computer technology, apart from colour, is the fact that you can always get the latest news and information put into the paper before it is printed because its faster than print media. Also, with breaking news, we get it in a few seconds like what happened yesterday in downtown (Toronto).

Earlier, the news could come through a ticketing system like Reuters, an ancient machine that would take quite a while for the news to come in. But here, within a second, we can know what is happening in any other part of the world. So being able to get the latest up-to-date news in a matter of minutes that is another advantage of computer technology being introduced in the media. You can provide the reader with the latest news unfolding in the world.

Q. What are your thoughts on the growth of social media such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram in the promotion of news?

A. The advantage of social media is that it grows into a wider circle of people, you know, unlike a newspaper. Because it goes from one friend to another friend, it goes on like that, right? It goes from one circle of friends to another circle of friends and then it goes on. The news is being transmitted on a very wider scale than print media. Print media is only available to the person who has access to that specific newspaper. It doesn’t travel after that, but with social media, it travels in a wider way and it is still quicker I would say for the dissemination of news and information than through the TV or any other media. These are the two main advantages where social media is concerned.

The only problem is that there is no control. That it is a big problem, whereas in print media there is a lot of control in dissemination. Where we have journalists, there are parameters of control like liability and legal constraints.

Q. How have these previous experiences in journalism shaped your role as an executive editor of the Monsoon Journal now?

A. Well having worked for a Tamil newspaper earlier for about almost 30 years, I was able to gather the social aspirations of the Tamil community; the problems of the Tamil community and their interactions with other communities. Everything surrounding the Tamil community was because I worked in a Tamil newspaper. So that was a big advantage in projecting Monsoon Journal as a newspaper that reflects the thoughts, actions, and contributions of the Tamil community.

Q. How do you think the Monsoon Journal can attract a younger audience from the Tamil community?

A. When Logan and I launched the Monsoon Journal, the vision was really two-fold. One was because it was an English newspaper, we were at an advantage of projecting to other communities the contributions and what was happening in the Tamil community. So, we are able to make note to other communities what is happening in our communities in Canada and the outside world, especially in Sri Lanka. Secondly, as far as the younger generation is concerned, I would say 90% of the younger generation cannot read Tamil, so English is a common language for them, especially in time to come, when they want to know news and views of the Tamil community, an English newspaper would serve a better purpose. Also, the activities of Tamil organizations like the Canadian Tamil Chamber of Commerce, manage to convey what they are doing to other community members as well. Our community is sort of a fog in the wind. The Tamil language news gives much exposure to our community, but for people that cannot read Tamil, they will not know what’s happening. It is only through the English newspaper that they, too, can come to know what’s happening.

Q. Are there young people writing for the Monsoon Journal?

A. We have a lot of contributions coming from young people as well in a variety of subjects such as health issues and cooking. There are two girls writing on health issues and politics.

Q. Is there a desire to have a young person in a full-time capacity at MJ?

A. If it were a weekly newspaper, then I would say that we would need someone to do full time. Since this is a monthly newspaper, we are not tackling hot news as such. It is not a daily newspaper where news is important, it is actually more so news features, so there is no push for a full-time writer since it is a monthly and not a daily newspaper.

Q. What was a memorable moment in the Monsoon Journal or your career in journalism?

A. It would be interviewing celebrity people, politicians, and people involved in Tamil activities. Interviews were an important aspect of journalism. I also should mention handling press conferences of political parties and politicians.

Q. What advice would you give to individuals aspiring to work in journalism and communications in Canada?

A. Journalism is based on truth. Articles that are written should be based on truth, unlike writing a novel where you don’t base it on what happens, but in the case of journalism it must be based on facts and truth. Anyone aspiring to become a journalist should make sure his mind does not run wild. He has to base whatever he writes on truth and what actually happened. There is a difference between news and articles or features. In the case of news, you have to 100% base the piece entirely on facts, but with features it is different. You must always be descriptive and try to express your own comment, but as far as news is concerned, you should not comment. Your comment should only be based on facts. Also try as fast as possible to break news of the latest, not what occurred a few weeks or days before. Whatever is taking place currently should be something attractive to the reader.

Also, in journalism, with news, what attracts the reader is the headpiece caption. The caption should be very attractive for the reader to read the whole thing. Whatever caption you develop about an event should force him to read the article. Also, whenever you’re writing a news story, give some background information as well. For example, yesterday there was the incident that took place in downtown (Toronto), so you can describe what took place in Toronto, but at the same time bring in background on these terrorism activities and issues around the world. Whenever you write a news story based on a complaint of someone, remember that there are always two sides to the same coin. So, you must also get the views of the other party. Say for example, it was some problem with workers. The workers or trade union will come and tell you something, right? But, what they say is not entirely true or factual. You must also ask the employer what the issue is. So, you get both sides of the story, which makes you impartial.

Q. What are your thoughts as to the state of journalism in the United States given the type of presidential administration that is currently taking place there?

A. The thing is to moderate the whole thing and give the views of all sides. It should not be one sided. Yes, there is criticism of Trump for a variety of subjects, but at the same time, he, too, has his own views on some matters. Let me put it this way, the final judgment for what is correct and what is wrong rests with the reader, not the journalist. Your job is to give the information to the reader. You give the facts of the case and give the information related to the subject to allow the reader to judge. The reader is the final judge, not you. That is very important.