By Malini Goyal
Assistant editor, India Today
Delhi, India
Hosted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

As they say all good things come to an end! But I am more than happy that it’s coming to an end. With a six-year-old waiting back home, and eager to implement some of the things that I learned here, I am now more than ready to go home.

Before I list out three main things that will help me and my organization back home, I would like to make just a couple of points. There are so many things that one learns when one is far away from the daily pressure of deadlines by sheer observation, meeting new people, and reading a variety of magazines and publications.

All of it enriches a journalist in subtle yet significant ways. It certainly adds dimensions where none existed before, and broadens perspectives to appreciate divergent views and context better.

So even as I get ready to pack my bags, and more immediately to point out my three learnings here—I would like to underscore that some of the significant learnings that I carry back home, perhaps I will better understand their significance when I step into my newsroom back home in Delhi.

Here are three things that stand out in terms of impact or relevance for a journalist from India.

The first thing I learned is to understand how serious it is when you quote somebody. In India I have quoted people in my stories and have made sure they are correct and accurate in flavor as well as in context. In fact, most of the time we playback the quotes to them.

But we have not been as particular as the American newsrooms are. Here I realize even a harmless word can not be dropped, else the quote should reflect that. I liked the emphasis on accuracy—most of the time in India we do not get things incorrect, but if we are not as particular as the American newsrooms there are chances of inaccuracies seeping in. When I get back I will try and emphasize that to my peers and my seniors. It will obviously begin with me practicing it.

The second thing that I think would be directly relevant for me is how to cater to young readers without trivializing an issue. In India, in an attempt to target young readers, it is not surprising to see newspapers resort to carrying semi-nude pictures or filling edit space with stories about socialites and covering things like raunchy parties, etc. to get readers' attention.

Through paying attention to some of the stories (and the way they are handled) being done by some of the best newspapers in the US (I read NYT and WSJ regularly here), some of the experiments that Readership Institute conducted and found useful—I realize there are other ways to cater to young readers beyond trivializing issues. In fact I have already done some background work on this and I intend on discussing it with the editor and I certainly plan to cover and write about issues that interest young readers with the seriousness and rigor that they deserve.

The third thing that I figured out here is the importance of new media. From blogs to making websites interactive to putting email address and phone numbers of the reporters at the end of articles—all seemed to be good ways to get reader's feedback and engage with them.

Online media here seems to be playing a very important role in the media business—something that is yet to become as important in India. Not only because more and more readers are moving online but also because advertising revenue is also slowly shifting that way.

Online offers an opportunity for media companies to reach out to their readers in so many ways. Having accessed my own magazine's website here, I realize that the magazine has not paid enough attention to its online version. I want to know what the reason behind it is—why hasn't the magazine paid enough attention to the online edition? And then I’d like to discuss with the editors the means and ways in which we could improve it.

Even though you have asked me to write just three I am going to add one more—the fellowship has made me confident, more sure of my strengths and perhaps will help me become more assertive about my beliefs and what I consider ethically right. Having worked in one of the American newsrooms, with high quality standards, and managing to do well—all this has had an enormous impact on my confidence level. I guess this will help me standby my beliefs, convert them into actions and successfully argue and debate wherever and whenever there are differences of opinions.

Amongst all things, this is the most important thing that I think as a journalist I am carrying back. After all, journalists are all about people with strong, high-value beliefs. And successful ones are those who are able to carry them forward.