Our media
I m not really a fan of the Indian media, especially the news channels. The ones who piss me off the most are Aaj Tak and India TV. I am ready to put my foot down and say they are one of the worst new channels that we could have got, but yet they are one of the most popular one I assume, at least that holds true for Aaj Tak. For them news mean crap, they would show the crapiest thing live on TV for hours at stretch without any regards whether it is of any importance to the general public or not.
So, the channels managed to make a hero out of some kid in some God forsaken place called Kurukshetra, just because he fell in to a pit!!!. One can imagine say a decade or half back, such a thing wouldn't have found a mention in the inner pages of the newspapers and forget about the CM being present at the site for hours. But the way things were presented the CM of the state thought it more important to spend hours at stretch at the site and get live coverage rather something more important as development of the state or security.
The channels managed to get a couple of girls fired by claiming repeatedly that they were drunk and that they barged into the PM's residence, threatening his security. All of this came out to be utter crap, neither were the girls drunk and neither they forced their way through the PM's residence, they went in because they were allowed to. Nevertheless their employer thought its their duty to fire the duo as its name was being highlighted on these channels repeatedly.
All this would like petty change you look at the way the other side of the media acts, the regional media especially the regional and vernacular newspapers. I have been for long trying to follow regional newspapers in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Urdu and the only action that seems appropriate to deal with them is to ban almost all of them right away.
Take the case of the riots in Vadodara after a 200 year old dargah was demolished, incidentally the same day Kashmiri separatists had gunned down some people in Doda. The next day headlines in some papers like Saamna highlighted the Doda killings as a attack on Hindus while they either ignored the Vadodara incident or presented a highly distorted version of it in some inner pages, their counterparts on the Urdu side thought otherwise and highlighted the riots as the attack on their community and chose to nearly ignore or under report the Doda killings.
The story is almost ever the same, the regional/vernacular newspapers are one of the biggest source of provocation for the local public, often the articles are highly exaggerated, distorted and inflammatory, especially in the times of turmoil. While they have a huge combined reach, the governments either ignore them or choose to keep clear of them due to political reasons as many of these are also run by politicians or organizations related to them.
The most alarming trend is that this trend of selective and distorted reporting is being carried forward by the national media too, It has become very prominent after the Mumbai blast. I would take this up on another post.
Another thing that peeves me the most is the depth of our media reports, Most of the print reports are bad in quality and too shallow. So a story which would run into many columns in say a NYT, Times of India would try to fit into one, even if that mean it doesn't make much sense and loses it relevance in the process. I don't understand, is it commercialism or pure stupidity and incompetence and as one would expect the worst culprit is Times of India, no wonder I have moved to Indian Express long back. I prefer fewer number of quality news rather than wasting time of a hundred pages of senseless ranting.
So, the channels managed to make a hero out of some kid in some God forsaken place called Kurukshetra, just because he fell in to a pit!!!. One can imagine say a decade or half back, such a thing wouldn't have found a mention in the inner pages of the newspapers and forget about the CM being present at the site for hours. But the way things were presented the CM of the state thought it more important to spend hours at stretch at the site and get live coverage rather something more important as development of the state or security.
The channels managed to get a couple of girls fired by claiming repeatedly that they were drunk and that they barged into the PM's residence, threatening his security. All of this came out to be utter crap, neither were the girls drunk and neither they forced their way through the PM's residence, they went in because they were allowed to. Nevertheless their employer thought its their duty to fire the duo as its name was being highlighted on these channels repeatedly.
All this would like petty change you look at the way the other side of the media acts, the regional media especially the regional and vernacular newspapers. I have been for long trying to follow regional newspapers in Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Urdu and the only action that seems appropriate to deal with them is to ban almost all of them right away.
Take the case of the riots in Vadodara after a 200 year old dargah was demolished, incidentally the same day Kashmiri separatists had gunned down some people in Doda. The next day headlines in some papers like Saamna highlighted the Doda killings as a attack on Hindus while they either ignored the Vadodara incident or presented a highly distorted version of it in some inner pages, their counterparts on the Urdu side thought otherwise and highlighted the riots as the attack on their community and chose to nearly ignore or under report the Doda killings.
The story is almost ever the same, the regional/vernacular newspapers are one of the biggest source of provocation for the local public, often the articles are highly exaggerated, distorted and inflammatory, especially in the times of turmoil. While they have a huge combined reach, the governments either ignore them or choose to keep clear of them due to political reasons as many of these are also run by politicians or organizations related to them.
The most alarming trend is that this trend of selective and distorted reporting is being carried forward by the national media too, It has become very prominent after the Mumbai blast. I would take this up on another post.
Another thing that peeves me the most is the depth of our media reports, Most of the print reports are bad in quality and too shallow. So a story which would run into many columns in say a NYT, Times of India would try to fit into one, even if that mean it doesn't make much sense and loses it relevance in the process. I don't understand, is it commercialism or pure stupidity and incompetence and as one would expect the worst culprit is Times of India, no wonder I have moved to Indian Express long back. I prefer fewer number of quality news rather than wasting time of a hundred pages of senseless ranting.
posted by As If at
12:02 pm
6 Comments:
Asif,
First of all, a very well-written post. By, well-written, i mean the post has come out really structured and IMHO, the best that you have written on the social scene.
Will comment in free time to your post.
Cheers,
HP
By
HP, at 5:16 pm
@mojindro
Thanks for the comments I know these people are out to kill the privacy and at times end up killing the truth, but you know they have to do that to be in business, just as the terrorists have to kill to be in business and government has to create tough situation to be in business, you know free markets and demand supply. its that vicious circle that we are stuck in.
@HP
Thanks for the positive comments, Well you know I wouldn't have mind even if they were negative :).
By
As If, at 6:30 am
@Asif,
I dont have much time to dissect the post else I am gonna give my views on this :-)
Cheers,
HP
By
HP, at 9:58 am
#Asif,
"A post that stands to the point"
Chow,
Abhi.
By
Abhi, at 5:33 am
Very nicely structured and equally well expressed post! Just a note that the "boy in the pit" issue was taken up by Zee News who are desperately trying to step in the pandemonium of crappy shit, they call news... Those idiots paid 2 lacs to the family and sponsored Prince (the boy)'s education... Well that only boldens your arguement!
-Ritam
I just wanted to add that I am dissappointed with BBC and CNN too particularly in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict case, no one is reporting the truth it looks... BBC is somewhat okay but CNN is too pro-US, well that is a known fact...
By
Anonymous, at 9:47 am
Agreed on BBC and CNN, have lots to say on them, I was dealing with only Indian media. The world media(US/UK) are too biased and act as a propoganda machine for their countries rather than independent news channels.
As you said BBC is atleast ok, but when it comes to CNN it seems to be run by the American govt.
By
As If, at 1:13 pm
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