A couple of years back, a five-year-old child, yes Prince, fell in a borewell and rose to immediate stardom so much so that the Bollywood brigade lined up to meet him. For an idol-starved country, Prince was the perfect hero, the survivor! After two long days of arduous rescue work, the young boy, sorry hero, was finally rescued from the 60-feet deep borewell. An incident that made him, his family and his entire village famous!
Such incidents will continue to happen in rural India, but no channel would really target the careless authorities for letting these incidents happen, as the more these incidents happen, the more TRP a particular channel gets. Prince was fortunate and survived but there have been many others who haven’t been equally fortunate and have succumbed to this fatal fall. The next time such an incident happens, you can be rest assured that there will be tons of media vans covering the incident whether the rescue teams reach there or not because the media simply loves children falling into borewells.
Most of the television anchors sound more like street hawkers shouting ‘breaking news’, ‘exclusive to our channel’, ‘the very first time on television’ etc as if trying hard to sell low-quality products. Reminds me of what Amitabh Bachchan says in Rann, “TRP ki hod me khabre banti nahi, banaayi jati hai”.
Why has the media taken up the role of a spy agency?? Media is dutifully informed by their “reliable sources” about every small piece of information. Yesterday I was watching Aaj Tak where Abhisar Sharma “exclusively” and proudly showed the revised security plan, following a threat-mail from one of the mushrooming terrorist organisations, for the hockey world cup starting this month in New Delhi. He claimed to be informed by “reliable sources” the exact number of security personnel to be deployed, locations of the CCTV cameras and other such confidential information, thereby reducing the terrorists’ homework. The pertinent questions are: How much should the media know? How much should they reveal?
Ever thought why SRK-Shiv Sena scuffle, or for that matter MNS-North Indians affair, become so intense an issue..?? Thank our news channels! National politics in the last few months has been a soap opera worth Ekta Kapoor‘s skills. Last week I saw Deepak Chourasia on Star News reporting a news item titled “Dalit mahila se balaatkar”. Probably the channel thought that it would not become that big a news if the word “Dalit” was not used.
Well, I’ve a lot of issues with our media; from yellow journalism to sensationalism; from paid news to only-for-TRP-entertainment-news, and many more. I mulled over the possible reasons for these problems and realised that as students, many of these TV reporters/correspondents have been cheated by our education system that has not prepared them for the demands of the real world. And as professionals, they have also been neglected by their recruiters who have never really invested in research. These are problems that need urgent attention and involvement of the government, especially the Information & Broacasting Ministry and the HRD Ministry. I hope Ambika Soni and Kapil Sibal are listening!
In his voluminous report on the demolition of the disputed structure (I don’t intend to get into a debate whether it was a temple or mosque) at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, Justice M. S. Liberhan states, “The importance and primacy of the media in a free society cannot be denied. However, with the enormous privileges that these chroniclers of history enjoy, they must also be alive to the trust that common man reposes in them.”
Unlike the other learned professionals like those of doctors or lawyers, the media in India has no professional standards body capable of effectively dealing with yellow journalism and sensationalism. There is a dire need for a body on the lines of Medical Council of India or the Bar Council of India which has a permanent tribunal which can entertain and decide complaints against individual members of the news/press corps or against TV channels, radio channels, and newspapers as also media conglomerates.
To top it all…
So next time when you watch some news channel, try to analyze what exactly is the real news and what are the channel’s views. Listen-Ponder-Respond! Tell them this is not what we wish to see. Raise your voice. They utilize the privileges of democracy to the fullest; we must do the same! We have to send out a very strong message: we do not want the media to jeopardise security measures, important investigations, etc. We believe that there are investigative agencies and judicial institutions in this country that are capable of doing their job.
7 comments:
Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
who guards the guardians themselves...it is nothing new and has been posed since the dawn of civilization...
as u rightly pointed out media does over do in a lot of cases however we cannot say the media is ignorant of its responsibility...the Jessica lal/ priyadarshani matto cases among others have highlighted the role of media..
the media is a system and that system can be used both ways...
good work bru!!
btw here's my take on media some time ago
http://maverick-kj.blogspot.com/2009/06/indian-media-heading-wrong-way.html
well it was nice........
mere aashiyane ke paas ek aashiyaana jalta raha...
socha ki use bujhau magar Kambakht beech me Media aata raha........
;)
really true........
i read old posts also and the prasoon joshi was actually nice....
keep writing........tk cr..
The Movie "Network" gave an indepth look into the world of media, Page 3 added a new perception and Rann by what I listen reiterates the belief.
The Hindi Media(television) seems to've lost the purpose. The race to get breaking news has broken the mould of constructive journalism. THe perception about media is changing from responsibility to glamour.
We have to choose what we see. We still have Greenathon, Citizen Journalist, Lead India and Teach India endeavors, constructive debates that define responsible journalism.
The recent death of a policeman in TN and him being shot made me wonder about the integrity of the cameraman who chose to shoot it than to save the guy. I hope they just realize the race is in its place, they should be complementary atleast on the basic grounds.
This certainly seems to be a topic which is close to your heart. You've penned it down with clarity of thought and with an OPINION. You made sure it doesnt turn out to be Media's biopic but clearly explains where exactly you see the problem. A crisp read. IB Ministry cant be the governing council to it, else they would be alleged to curb freedom of speech. But we need to've regulation over the problem with authority.
A pleasure to peruse, keep the wave of thoughts flowing.
KK, I feel people from within the media, say figures like rajdeep sardesai, prannoy roy, arnab goswami, should form the regulator on the lines of the censor board which has people from the industry.. Moreover the national association of broadcasters should expand its domain.
The problem is just because of few thousand people who decide the TRP, the channels assume that what they show is being very well received by the audience.
I agree that there is an audience for these kinds of news too. When you serve junk food and health food, people tend to prefer junk, probably because they do not know the harmful effects in the long-term.
And what I & B ministry can do is strengthen doordarshan, which we have forgotten is our national broadcaster!! They should develop it on the lines of BBC. People should watch national channels out of interest and not as the last resort when there is something wrong with the cable network!
I could sense your anger and frustration while reading. I hope this voice gets stronger and reaches the right people.
Yes, I think this is high time we should be saying no to such nonsense and put forward our expectations. And since we are the most disturbed ones, we together should be doing something. The student community has shown its strength at the time of freedom struggle in our country. May be this is the time to use that latent power again and show the correct path to the lost ones. May be this is the time to fight for another kind of freedom, a freedom from LIES.
samir tera sher waqai achha hai par beta tera mujhse milna bhi to baaki hai.......na soch na likh mil,,, bahut kuch mumkin hai , tum me aag hai dear,,,,,,,yeh main PAPJI jaisa nai bol raha hun.
thoda sa abhyaas baaki hai.
net ki padhai sathai hai
kitabi gehrai hai.
choice is yours
main kabhi na khud ko express kar kar paya to tujhe depress bhi nai kar paunga.
beta tujh se umeeden badhti jaa rahi rahi hain, ab itna behtar likh jo raha hai.
allah kare zor e kalam aur zyada(par kye board nai-boared)
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