Meet the Mentor : Neera Majumdar!

Meet the Mentor is a series of profiles on our stunning mentors at the Media-Makers Fellowship - journalists, creators and media professionals who help train student creators through the fellowship.

Neera Majumdar wanted to be an Egyptologist, but her love for writing led her to literature and eventually journalism. Today, Neera works as the Editorial Lead at The Council on Energy, Environment and Water. She values the ability to ask questions and believes that questioning is a habit that serves journalists well. She says, “The best thing about journalism is you get access to multiple stakeholders.” 

Neera has done multiple jobs in journalism, from reporting to desk to running the movies and book section. However she found interest in opinion writing as she was good friends with the opinion lead. 

Neera loves opinion writing because of the challenge it brings. She says,

“With opinion writing the trick and enjoyment comes with the author’s voice. While editing I ensure that I do not cancel out the original voice. Opinion articles give the platform to say a lot more strongly. Opinion articles allow the reader to hear someone's voice, and the logical reasoning behind it.”

Neera believes that schools should not restrict student’s voices. According to her, the sooner students are exposed to different opinions, the less polarized they become. She remarks “The younger we teach students to express opinions logically the better adults they will become.”

Neera shares some suggestions for excelling at opinion writing. Her first tip is to read as much as possible. She said “Opinion articles are not a rant, neither a Twitter or a Facebook post. They are well thought. There is depth to it. Talk to a vast diversity of people. Whatever you say, stand on it strongly.”

Neera’s life journey is worth knowing. She loved editing and that’s what brought her to journalism. She got the chance to meet Shekhar Gupta, an Indian Journalist at a fellowship. He was recruiting and Neera, with her passion for editing, got selected to work at ThePrint. ThePrint became her journalism school. Neera had ups and downs in her  journalism career. She was trolled badly for expressing her opinion on social media. This really affected her mental health. However her editors stood by her side and that is what really helped her. 

Neera had immense passion for the environment and climate change. But when she joined journalism, the Indian media did not focus on it. She stated “News wasn't interested in climate change but I was. Hence I changed my jobs to make climate change part of the newspaper.” Journalism gives Neera the satisfaction of having done something. As she puts it, “At the end of the day, my job makes me feel purposeful.”

Written by Parnika Sahu

Parnika wrote this article while working as an Intern at the Media Makers Fellowship.

This article was created for the program zine, The DIY Digest.

This zine was established to showcase the work of students and interns at the Media-Makers Fellowship's April '24 cohort.