Shelton A. Gunaratne professor emeritus, MSUM During my recent (end of September) visit to the Philippines, I spent a whole day—a Friday—with five Asian communication scholars led by Crispin Maslog, (Philippines) the chairman of the board of directors of AMIC (Asian Media and Communication Center), on a tour of traffic-congested and polluted Greater Manilla.  Our […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne, PhD (Minn.) Moorhead, Minn.–I reckon that The Island editorial titled ETCA and mandates” (Feb. 22, 2016), which has had 1575 hits by noon the following day, drew the attention of a large audience. This indicates the editor’s correct news sense in selecting timely topics to edify his potential readers. I concur […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne, Ph.D. (Minn.) Professor of communication emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead and lead author of the book Mindful Journalism and Media Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach (New York & London: Routledge, 2015) April 24, 2011 Sunday Island Editorial Title: Big bucks, politics and rhinoceros hides” Summary: A critical look […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne, Ph.D. (Minn.) Professor of communication emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead and lead author of the book Mindful Journalism and Media Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach (New York & London: Routledge, 2015) September 4, 2005 Sunday Island Editorial Title:   When the chips are down” Summary: This editorial was on […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne, Ph.D. (Minn.) Professor of communication emeritus, Minnesota State University Moorhead and lead author of the book Mindful Journalism and Media Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach (New York & London: Routledge, 2015) Moorhead, Minn.– Upali Wijewardene, a nephew of the legendary newspaper magnate D. R. Wijewardene, commenced   publishing the […]

By Professor Shelton A. Gunaratne MOOREHEAD, Minn. American newspapers used to set the trends that the rest of the free world’s newsrooms followed to raise the quality of journalism in the world. Therefore, I was disappointed to see today’s (January 28, 2016) edition of my hometown newspaper, The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, splashing the banner headline […]

By Professor Shelton A. Gunaratne My article titled A content analysis of The Sunday Times editorials in first 15 years of current century – Part 2 of a two-part analysis”(Lankaweb, 12 January 2016) referred to 15 editorials in the non-stratified random sample I used to generalize my findings for the period 2000-2015. A technical glitch, […]

By Professor Shelton Gunaratne, Ph.D.  Reliability of the Analysis To ascertain whether the results of our content analysis was generalizable to the entirety of Sunday Times editorials published during the period 2000-2015, we drew a second (non-stratified) random sample of 15 editorials for the same period as a crosscheck. This selection yielded the following results: […]

By Professor Shelton Gunaratne, Ph.D. (The writer is a former reporter of the Ceylon Daily News who completed his graduate studies in Oregon and Minnesota following the completion of a one-year World Press Institute Fellowship in the United States in 1966-67. He is the author of several books, including Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne [Dr. Gunaratne is a professor emeritus at Minnesota State University Moorhead.] MOORHEAD, MN — Sri Lanka’s bloated cabinet of ministers, which exceeds the limit of 30 specified by the 19th Amendment, is an example of wasteful public expenditure that the election campaigns of 2015 pledged to resolve but failed to implement. […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne [Dr. Gunaratne, BA (Ceylon), MA (Oregon), PhD (Minnesota), is the lead author and editor of the book Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach” (New York & London: Routledge). 240 pp.] MOORHEAD. MN — Prabath Sahabandu, 53 (b. 29 Oct. 1962), had been the features editor […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne Ranjith Wijewardene has sent me the following clarifications on Part 2 of my three-part essay. On Esmondizing Lake House,” Ranjith says: Esmond was, I think, the secretary of the Trotskyite Students Union of the Ceylon University.  He came courting my sister on a bicycle.  A razor sharp intellect and great resourcefulness lay […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne Professor of communication emeritus, MSUM, and lead author of Gunaratne, S. A., Pearson, M., & Senarath, S. (Eds.). (2015).  Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach. New York & London: Routledge. A ‘Ringside View’  MOORHEAD, MN– I had a ringside view” (forgive me for using Manik […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne Professor of communication emeritus, MSUM, and lead author of Gunaratne, S. A., Pearson, M., & Senarath, S. (Eds.). (2015).  Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach. New York & London: Routledge. ANCL Drowns in Political Mire MOORHEAD, MN — Metaphorically speaking, Ranjith was born with a […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne  Professor of communication emeritus, MSUM, and lead author of Gunaratne, S. A., Pearson, M., & Senarath, S. (Eds.). (2015).  Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach. New York & London: Routledge. A ‘Chip’ Off the ‘Old Block’ Am not I a child of the same Adam… […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne Professor of communication emeritus, MSUM, and lead author of Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach (New York: Routledge, 2015) The manner of interaction of the Five Aggregates that conditioned the namarupa of Mervyn de Silva and Manik de Silva respectively showed marked contrasts. Mervyn showed […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne Professor of communication emeritus, MSUM, and lead author of Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach (New York: Routledge, 2015) PRAIRIE ROSES: To Manik de Silva, the septuagenarian editor of the Sunday Island for his lifetime dedication to journalism in Sri Lanka.  In an interview with Sanjana […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne Professor of communication emeritus, MSUM, and lead author of Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach (New York: Routledge, 2015) MOORHEAD, MN (28 Sept. 2015)– Because newspapers in Sri Lanka hide names of their editors and publishers from the general public while they clamor for legislation […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne (11 September 2015) Professor of communication emeritus, MSUM, and lead author of Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach (New York: Routledge, 2015) MOORHEAD, MN — Considering the rapid flux of political imponderables in Sri Lanka over the last few weeks, I shall strictly follow Buddha’s […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne Professor of communication emeritus, MSUM, and lead author of Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach (New York: Routledge, 2015) MOORHEAD, MN–As a mindful journalism practitioner and educator, I wish                    to show my thumbs up” approval to the selection of the Tamil National Alliance leader Rajavarothian […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne (Week 1 of September 2015) Professor of communication emeritus, MSUM, and lead author of Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach (New York: Routledge, 2015) MOORHEAD, MN–As a mindful journalism practitioner and educator, I show my thumbs up” approval by awarding Prairie Roses and my thumbs […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne MOORHEAD, MN–Jack Zaleski, the editorial page editor of my hometown newspaper, The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, the flagship of Forum Communications, uses his Monday editorial to give Prairie Roses and Leafy Spurge awards to deserving people, places and institutions in the news. Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) is a nuisance weed imported to […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne Professor of communication emeritus, MSUM If the Tamil community of Sri Lanka would follow the advice that Lord Krishna gave warrior Arjuna in the battlefield as explained in the Bhagavad Gita, they could rub shoulders with the majority Sinhalese as   equal citizens in a united country exemplifying diversity within unity much sooner […]

Shenali D Waduge If the sovereignty of Sri Lanka is inalienable and lies in the People that a set of people are brought into Parliament given strategic portfolios is a violation of that franchise. This is one argument to do away with the National List. Given that this request is nothing any party would agree […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne As the lead author of the book Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach” (Routledge, 2015), I am hopeful that citizen-or professional journalists in Buddhist countries would become the pioneers of adopting mindful journalism as the preferred method of influencing social change. In the book, the […]

Shelton A. Gunaratne Professor of communication emeritus, MSUM Moorhead, MN—Web 2.0 technology has enabled me to transmit messages to mass media in Sri Lanka from my hometown in Northcentral Minnesota within a few seconds. In 1966, when I first arrived in Minnesota as a Lake House journalist on a World Press Institute Fellowship, it took me […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne Professor of communication emeritus Minnesota State University Moorhead    Perhaps for the first time in the history of English language journalism in Sri Lanka, the Sunday Observer has demonstrated the suitability and feasibility of using mindful journalism as an option for the Anglo-American style of Orientalist journalism that the oligopolistic wire services […]

By Shelton A.  Gunaratne Ross Nelson’s letter (Untethered reality and irony, too,” The Forum, Feb. 18, 2015) saw an irony in the placement of my defense of jack rabbits the previous Sunday just beneath Jack Zaleski’s furious attack” on religious nuts” who resisted vaccination for measles. Zaleski might have designed the layout of his editorial […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne (Professor of journalism emeritus, MSUM) Kudos to the Sunday Observer new/old editor for writing the extremely accurate self-analysis of the pitfalls of public-owned” media institutions in Sri Lanka (Sunday Observer, 22 Feb. 2015). I presume that he wrote this editorial by the grace of those who currently rule the roost at Lake […]

By Shelton A. Gunaratne  Kudos to The Forum for the editorial Don’t call Fudd about the rabbits” (Feb. 10), which was a fine piece of mindful journalism embodying Buddhist principles. Every year about this time of winter, jack rabbits become newsworthy in the Red River Valley. This year, jack rabbits became news when WDAY-WDAZ-TV reported […]