Objective Journalism??? huh...
Before I begin on the "huh" part, I congratulate the current press and media for the positive changes they have brought. Press was a means to spread "IDEAS" when the likes of Tilak used to write. They exposed the fallacies and brutality of British government for social awareness. These days, there is a scam exposed everyday by every news channel. Everyday, they perform sting operations and uncover the filth of a police constable, a desperate neta and likes... All these brings the plight of common man to light.
But, I believe that this change is largely fuelled by competition in performing sting operations to get new stories and pressed by commercial interests. Therefore stories are reported but with filtering so as to satisfy the masala readers or without proper background. I present the analysis of the coverage of a few events in near past.
IISc attack: While everybody knows that a bunch of people came in a car (Ambassador got some publicity, as the name of the car never went amiss) and shot a few people. The press further followed with reporting the investigation in terrorist networks. So, we know that Mr.X, son of Mr.Y, father of master Z...was arrested as an suspect. A very complex picture of these terrorist networks was given. Information poured about the terror networks was more than people could digest, a flurry of names, they looked like copies of FIR. What was never reported was what happened immediately after the attack. What route of exit did the terrorist adopt on the IISc map. Did they encounter guards, if not then why? Although there might have been security lapses, common people will keep wondering, how they escaped so easily in broad daylight in such a populated area. Well, the news would reach someday, but I guess in the form of a over-dramatized representation like that of the D-company party on Star News.
Subscribing to various news feeds, it was disheartening to notice that foreign press reported the Japanese Encephalitis more than the Indian Press, which merely mentioned the close to 2000 deaths as another statistical figure.
A few cared to report about the 7000 odd poor people in slums who became homeless due to a Supreme Court Order, while others were busy reporting the definition of "Big-Fish" in supreme court order asking MCD to demolish the encroachments made by the wealthy lot. In, early nineties while most news papers were busy reporting the burned finger of Kapil Dev, none cared to notice the hardworking boy in a Muslim home bowling to pillars, later only to become India's hat-trick taker against Pakistan - Pathan. Thats acceptable, hero worship in this land dates back to Ramayan. But most missed to count the burns that the bus driver sustained while saving numerous people in the recent Delhi bomblast in Govindpuri. Even fewer noticed that while the problem among poor was illiteracy and health, the local leaders were able to illude them into believeing that names of their districts, villages and town were more important than their existence. Thus Bombay became Mumbai, Calutta became Kolkata... Very few realised that the solution to problems of Phalodi, a town in Jodhpur district, is not changing its name or making it a seperate district, but driving out corruption. The poor were once again made to fight for the wrong cause by local leaders.
Magazines proudly present Sex surveys, making them seem like the popular electoral mandate. In a land where talking to your life partner about sex is a taboo, these surveys are only represented by a very small lot. Yet they satisfy the readers who feel excited by the mere name of sex because its talk is kept away from them all their life. While press should be working to do away such taboos, it plays on the minds of ones who are engulfed by it.
Well thats Objective Journalism - fulfills all commercial objectives.
Before I begin on the "huh" part, I congratulate the current press and media for the positive changes they have brought. Press was a means to spread "IDEAS" when the likes of Tilak used to write. They exposed the fallacies and brutality of British government for social awareness. These days, there is a scam exposed everyday by every news channel. Everyday, they perform sting operations and uncover the filth of a police constable, a desperate neta and likes... All these brings the plight of common man to light.
But, I believe that this change is largely fuelled by competition in performing sting operations to get new stories and pressed by commercial interests. Therefore stories are reported but with filtering so as to satisfy the masala readers or without proper background. I present the analysis of the coverage of a few events in near past.
IISc attack: While everybody knows that a bunch of people came in a car (Ambassador got some publicity, as the name of the car never went amiss) and shot a few people. The press further followed with reporting the investigation in terrorist networks. So, we know that Mr.X, son of Mr.Y, father of master Z...was arrested as an suspect. A very complex picture of these terrorist networks was given. Information poured about the terror networks was more than people could digest, a flurry of names, they looked like copies of FIR. What was never reported was what happened immediately after the attack. What route of exit did the terrorist adopt on the IISc map. Did they encounter guards, if not then why? Although there might have been security lapses, common people will keep wondering, how they escaped so easily in broad daylight in such a populated area. Well, the news would reach someday, but I guess in the form of a over-dramatized representation like that of the D-company party on Star News.
Subscribing to various news feeds, it was disheartening to notice that foreign press reported the Japanese Encephalitis more than the Indian Press, which merely mentioned the close to 2000 deaths as another statistical figure.
A few cared to report about the 7000 odd poor people in slums who became homeless due to a Supreme Court Order, while others were busy reporting the definition of "Big-Fish" in supreme court order asking MCD to demolish the encroachments made by the wealthy lot. In, early nineties while most news papers were busy reporting the burned finger of Kapil Dev, none cared to notice the hardworking boy in a Muslim home bowling to pillars, later only to become India's hat-trick taker against Pakistan - Pathan. Thats acceptable, hero worship in this land dates back to Ramayan. But most missed to count the burns that the bus driver sustained while saving numerous people in the recent Delhi bomblast in Govindpuri. Even fewer noticed that while the problem among poor was illiteracy and health, the local leaders were able to illude them into believeing that names of their districts, villages and town were more important than their existence. Thus Bombay became Mumbai, Calutta became Kolkata... Very few realised that the solution to problems of Phalodi, a town in Jodhpur district, is not changing its name or making it a seperate district, but driving out corruption. The poor were once again made to fight for the wrong cause by local leaders.
Magazines proudly present Sex surveys, making them seem like the popular electoral mandate. In a land where talking to your life partner about sex is a taboo, these surveys are only represented by a very small lot. Yet they satisfy the readers who feel excited by the mere name of sex because its talk is kept away from them all their life. While press should be working to do away such taboos, it plays on the minds of ones who are engulfed by it.
Well thats Objective Journalism - fulfills all commercial objectives.
1 comment:
A busy hour of posting it seems! The write-up on jounalism is nice.
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