Last year, when The Ramnath Goenka Foundation launched these awards, I said that if the world’s oldest democracy, the United States, has the Pulitzer Prizes, the world’s largest democracy has to have an award not only matching in magnitude but more diverse in its sweep.

And I had hoped that an award, with a reputation as the most prestigious and the most sought-after in newsrooms across the country, could become a major incentive for high-quality journalism in India.

Reading and watching the prize-winning entries, I am delighted to inform you that the winners — and the stories they have done — more than vindicate that hope.

But, more importantly, they also challenge a myth that seems to be gaining ground as the new conventional wisdom in our business. Ironically, in a business where conventions are made and unmade by the hour, where yesterday’s wisdom is usually seen as today’s folly.

It’s a pretty fashionable myth, I may add, and any dissent is seen as being anti-technology, as being stuck in the past. I’m sure all of you have heard this myth in one of its many variants.

Some of its most common versions go like this:

One, everybody with a camera and a cellphone is a journalist.

Two, broadband is the Holy Grail of this New Media.

Three, user-generated content is marching towards its inevitable, ultimate triumph.

Four, who needs the media, who needs editors, gatekeepers anymore, log in to YouTube or Google and get the breaking story — upload or download.

... contd.