Prof K M Shrivastav is no more

Prof K M Shrivastav and I had a special bond. Both of us have been news agency journalists at the beginning of our careers. He was with Samachar Bharati and I with United News of India in early seventies. We met in Delhi. I think it was in 1972 and became good friends. We lost touch because of transfers and change of jobs. In 2007, I had invited him to a round table I had organised as HoD of Communication and Journalism, University of Pune. That was the time I was about to retire, but we renewed our contacts. Last year, I met him at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication last year. I realised that he was not keeping well, but had all the vigour and energy of a budding journalist.

He was constantly moving to IIMC's centres and elsewhere in and out of India. I realised that he did not tire mentoring young colleagues in IIMC, journalists and media teachers across India. When we met last time, he had recently came from Jammu after visiting the centre there. J & K was badly affected by rains and floods. He realised that the students were sitting quiet in the centre. He prompted them to cover the situation and write stories. He told them that such coverage would teach them to be dare devil reporters.

As I heard him about the incident, I realised that he was not well at all and asked him to take rest. He would not listen to me and went on to tell me about lack of initiative of the students and teachers of journalism.

He had told me about the new centre that had come up in Maharashtra's Amarawati. He had visited it several times and spoke enthusiastically about the staff and faculty there. We promised each other to meet. It did not materialise.

He has kept himself busy in teaching and travelling, but had managed to write books for students and teachers of media. And see the range of topics of his books:

News Reporting and Editing (1987, 2003 reprinted 2012), Radio and TV Journalism (1989), Media Issues (1992), Media Towards 21st Century (1998), Broadcast Journalism in the 21st Century (2005), Media Ethics: Veda to Gandhi and Beyond (2005), News Agencies from Pigeon to Internet (2007), Public Relations in the Digital Era (2007), The Right to Information: A Global Perspective (2009) Social Media in Business and Governance (2013)

Recently, I came across his message on social media saying a new edition of his book was published. I sent a message of congratulation, but forgot to place an order for a copy.  

That was the first thing that struck me when I received a call this morning about his sudden parting away from us. 

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Briefly about him: 

More than four decades in Media and Academics.

Current Research Interests: Social Media, Media and Terrorism, Media and Security Forces, Media and Diplomacy, Political Communication, International Communication

Specialties: Media Ethics, Journalism in different media, Right to Information, Public Relations

From IIMC website: 

K.M. Shrivastava, a media professional,was the senior-most Professor at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi. He has worked with or contributed to all types of media and visited media organizations and academic institutions in different parts of the world. He was plenary speaker at the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) Conference in Glasgow (1998) on the subject of Constraints in Communication. He was an IAMCR delegate to the UN World Summit on Information Society (Geneva, December 2003 and Tunis 2005) 

Prof. Shrivastava participated in IAMCR Conferences held in New Delhi (1986) Yugoslavia (1990), Brazil (1992), Ireland (1993), South Korea (1994), Australia (1996), Mexico (1997), United Kingdom (1998), Singapore (2000), Hungary (2001), Spain (2002), Egypt (2006) and Sweden (2008). Besides he spoke at conferences organised by Moscow State University (1995, 2002), Canberra University (1996, 1999), University of Leicester (2000), British Film Institute (2001), University of Tampere, Finland (2002), International Institute of Sociology (Cologne 1997, Krakow, 2001), Center for Political Studies, Tashkent (2006) and Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), Singapore (1994, 2000). Chaired a session at AMIC conference in Manila (2001) He spoke and chaired a session at the Dialogue on Cultural Diversity at Forum Barcelona (2004). Presented a paper at World Association of Press Councils Conference in Bagamoyo, Tanzania (2004) He also participated in International Press Institute Conferences in Vienna (2002), Warsaw (2004), Istanbul (2007) and Helsinki (2009), Chaired a session at 2nd World Journalism Education Congress, Grahamstown, South Africa (2010), Spoke at Commonwealth Media Forums, Kigali, Rwanda (2011) and Freetown, Sierra Leone (2012) and World Public Forum, Rhodes Island, Greece (2013). Was at WAN-IFRA New Delhi 2014.