Misleading Media!...

Gone are the days when most of our population knew the names of the Presidents, Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers, other important Ministers/ personalities/ current affairs or articles of general knowledge (which meant SO much more back then)…Now, most of us can just about list out all the Shah Rukh Khan movie titles/ Salman’s love interest/ Saif’s marital status/ the highlights of Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding apart from a REALLY little more relevant 'news'!! *sheesh*

* Media in India, since the growth of satellite television in our country, has been playing the TRP games- by sensationalizing and creating soap-operas of their stories!...It is ridiculous how someone’s grief is made into a ‘emotional-drama’ by focusing the camera more on the tears, trauma, wounds and screams. While, the popular International news channels would never ever show a gruesome shot of anything (In case of Katrina or 9/11, remember how there were absolutely no corpse/wound-shots? If there HAD to be, the cameras were placed at least 50ft away from the victims, in all international news channels, sites and papers. But our very own Indian media would not even think twice before getting the ‘juiciest’ angle possible. So what, if it gets the viewers sick in the stomach, clinically depressed or even have heart-failures when they sit to get updated with the current affairs from the world around!!), Indian news channels stick to the cut limbs, bruises and tears of a terrorism-victim, for example. If they could, I doubt if they would refrain from telecasting the odours of the dead either!! God knows, to whom the idea of starting the day, having dinner or even ending the day after seeing a human body shredded apart, has any appeal what so ever! For some reason, all this reminds of the certain film-makers from our own country, not very long time back, who used to focus their talent on conveying how poor, malnourished, uneducated, homeless and generally SAD India is. Rings a bell? These so-called movie-makers that concentrated on ‘human-trauma’ as their subject, used to be releasing short-films, documentaries and ‘Art-films’ right-left-and-center, where the entire story would revolve around, for example, on how this REALLY starving-poor-ill-uneducated-and-uncared for-young-woman is trying REALLY hard to wet-nurse her child, who is equally starving-poor-ill-uneducated-and-uncared for!! All those movies/documentaries used to make me feel sick; not because of the somber-images, but because these-very-so-called-REAL-film-makers were trying to make a bunch of money, get a ton of fame along with a bagful of ‘critical-acclaim’, over some wine & cheese party, by screening the misery of the poor… Disgusting!
* When they do not have a news story (which is quite often, given the several numbers of channels/publications, the race for TRP and the 24hrs telecasts), they simply create one…An entire day or even week at time, would get dedicated to how all Ganesha idols are drinking milk in India/ how a miraculous car has been driving on its own on the streets of Delhi/ how it is SO completely unjustified that the private schools in India do not admit any student, unless they get a huge donation in return (Is that really ‘news’ to anyone?! And before anyone thinks that the news channels are doing a great deed by stripping the existing corruption in our education-system, think again. Since the story has been telecasted, the private schools are simply being more cautious now, while taking the ‘donations’ (*lol*). And their 'criteria' has simply become more stringent! I know all this for a fact, because my nephew has been trying to get admission this year)!
* As if all that was not enough, instead of presenting news as it is, the Indian journalist also, goes on passing his/her own judgments along with every single piece…With their how-can-anyone-attempt-such-a-ghastly-act and it-is-a-shameful-crime-that-XYZ-is-charged-with statements after every news of crime, one is not left with much doubt that whoever is charged with the crime /is a suspect must be the actual criminal. I wonder what our honourable judges, analyzing committees or the jury are left to do. Why, the Media passes enough verdicts already!! (Isn’t that why the ‘editorials’ were started; so that the editors could write about anything and give their opinions?!) Ever wondered, that there could sometimes, be a genuinely innocent person who is charged? Or how any such innocents, can ever be set free, when they have already been prosecuted by the media so strongly and openly? Or even if they do get freed, how on earth can they go on and live a normal life after all this, when every single news channel/paper/station has labeled them guilty? *shakes her head*
* While one could STILL ignore the unnecessary melodramas created, complete concoction of irrelevant 'news stories' or the opinions passed along, it is hard to get over the kind of importance the Indian media (name whichever Indian news channel) gives to entertainment (mainly Bollywood), more than Politics/ Science & Technology/ Business/ Sports or any other segment…At least one main headline, during any given week would be, similar to the following:
- Aishwarya sprains her ankle!!
- Vivek gets a plaster after fracturing his leg!
- Laloo has SO many kids!
- Would Abhishek and Aishwarya get married?!
- Arun & Liz’s ceremony to be held in India!
- Rohit Bal to design Liz’s trousseau!
- Richard kisses Shilpa!
- Abhishek weds Aishwarya today!
…To anyone, who thinks I am making any of this up… I am not joking! These are actual headlines quoted and everything written in this article is true to the core.
- But seriously, are the heroes or heroines of the Indian-movie-industry more important than ANYTHING else? Are they really trying to tell us, that apart from the above mentioned (and SO many other Bollywood/Fashion related stories that make the ‘top-headlines’), nothing else happened on that particular day, in our country or anywhere all over the world, which was even a tad bit more important? Were there absolutely zilch number of scientific discoveries/ treaties signed/ Presidential activities/ Prime Minister’s doings/ business developments/ terrorist movements/ court-cases/ anything else that was of any lesser importance than the ‘AbhiWarya (*rolls her eyes*) wedding’?? I mean, REALLY? For Chrissake!!! Shouldn’t all this belong to the ‘Entertainment News Section’, instead of the front page?
- Recently our country lost the next Asian-Games pitch. Reason: The audio-visual created for the pitch, as India- the ideal venue for the next Asian Games, contained all of 'BOLLYWOOD'. Again, I am not joking! There was no mention of the development in Indian in terms infrastructure, economic growth/ business, science or technology. There was no mention of the warmth of Indian hosts. No mention of the picturesque beauty of our nation. No mention of the sportsmanship or even history of sports in India! Go figure!!
* Unfortunately, there have been quite a few rash-driving cases in our country in the past few years- all made news (No. I'm not blaming the media for this)... In all the given cases, sadly, a few rich men got drunk (/ were under some other influence/ rush/ rage) and hit the poor people sleeping/walking the pavements. The ‘media’ went and labeled this as a ‘trend’! Can you believe that? Why would any rich/ middle-class people (whoever can afford to buy/drive a car) intentionally kill or injure ANYONE?? I mean... anyone heard of a thing called LOGIC?! And by the way, during all this, no one- not even a single of any of the news telecasters, questioned the poverty and thus the lack of dwelling facilities in our country. Not even a single ‘NGO’ was caught doing anything for the poor or requesting aide for the under-privileged…you-have-seen-what-has-happened-in-the-recent-cases-so-come-and-please-help-us-so-that-we-can-start-a-drive-against-road-dwelling-and-ensure-that-every-one-of-us-Indians-has-a-safe-house-of-our-own…No one said that. And even if someone did, the common man, would never know. Because all the news channels were solely dedicated to shaking their heads on the ‘rich that drive so rash all the time’!! Ridiculous! The only good out of all this: Traffic rules got reinforced with a new-found zeal. And for sure, the cops on the roads hit the jackpot every time with these incidents, and started pulling people out of their cars at random (for whatever possible charge) in hope to get bribed!! (I have read enough John Grisham’s to understand the importance of an unbiased judge/ jury in any criminal court case... but I guess, no one else in India seems to think of it as any more than a frivolous issue!)
* This time, our countrymen couldn’t even make it to the top-eight at the Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean. And most of the questions posed to the cricketers that played for our country were on the lines of; ‘So, who do you blame for this failure??’ *sheesh* And suddenly, like they do in any other given opportunity, hoards of ‘protestors’ from God-knows-how-many parties and ‘groups’ were caught on TV burning effigies and chanting slogans! Common’ people, it was only a game! Can we relax and treat it, like 'sports' should be treated, instead of getting all violent and radical about it? Besides, everyone knows that most of the people that come one TV and do these silly things (and grin like demented folks, at the sight of a camera), without getting bothered about getting arrested for 'destruction of public-property', are the goons paid for their 50-seconds-of-fame, from some political-party/ goonda (criminal)-group or the other, looking for attention! In the meantime…
- All these cricketers that batted/ bowled or fielded, go on blaming the coach (who was nowhere on the field during the game). The cricketers were calling the shots, as the balls landed/ were thrown, remember? A cricket coach can only possibly plan out their physical-training and chalk-out a few strategies for various game scenarios. But eventually, it is a cricketer that plays. Not the coach! *:*
- The Cricket Board of India, goes on blaming the coach too, while the Board was the one that selected the saddest and OLDEST team possible, with the worst ones 'in shape'- for certain political and corrupt reasons of their own.
- All the past-failures of the Indian Cricket world, came along as ‘gurus (preachers)’ and advocated how ‘Sachin-is-a-flop-show-now’ and how ‘Dravid-is-not-an-ideal-captain’. While these same people couldn’t even play good enough to last a few matches in our ex-teams!
- Everyone has been praising Ganguly for ‘trying-to-save-us’ and ‘getting-us-the-maximum-runs’. And everyone conveniently ignores, how many balls he wasted while gluing himself to the pitch for hours together!
* Then, for fillers between their news bulletins, they also add hourly ‘top-headlines’ (*lol*), a few interviews (which are STILL alright), some genuinely informative shows on home-decoration/cookery/travel (*all praises*) and then some ‘chat-shows’! The only thing is that these so called ‘open discussions’ (a) never leave any conclusions, (b) rarely ever have a panelist who would tell us something we didn’t already know, and (c) seem to fully concentrate on rage and try to be constantly evoking anger from the ‘audience’ or the panelists! (So much for healthy discussions and exchange of information!!)
* Then there is a whole another category of ‘journalists’, called the Critique (Cinema/ Fashion/ Literature/ Drama and such)! These ones, merely sit on their high-horses and pass judgments on whether a certain new product is good or bad; as simple as that- no kidding! In case of a movie-review, for instance, if they utter anything apart from ‘good’, ‘bad’, or ‘okay’ with regards to the movie/ story/ ‘heroes’ & ‘heroines’, at all, they would again, just about barely, give a ‘good’, ‘bad’ or ‘okay’ tag, for the Cinematography/ Stunts/ Storyline/ Art Direction/ Music of a said film. One thing I’ve always failed to fathom is why on earth does anyone allow them do give out the entire suspense/storyline? Although, apart from groping upon the ‘superstars’ and giving a complete synopsis of the script, I’m yet to come across any truly professional Critique in the Indian market. I’m not exaggerating at all, when I say that rarely any of them has any knowledge of movie-making in any area what so ever. Story-writing/ Script-writing/ Production/ Direction/ Acting/ Cinematography/ Art-Direction/ Stunts/ Music do not even cover half of the aspects in film-making; any first-semester student from a Mass Com school can tell you that.
- Not like it happened for the first time, but a few months back, when I was looking for, which movie to go to, over the weekend, I flipped through the HT City, and as usual, found the their star-ratings for all the movies which were released the previous Friday. One called Eklavya got 2 star rating. For sure, the ‘reviewer’ also gave out the entire story in the ‘review’. This weekend, my husband happened to get the DVD due to his die-hard love for the Senior Bachchan. Enlightening… both, my husband and I liked the movie quite a lot. Thankfully I had forgotten the trivial ‘review’ I had read months back and thus I could enjoy the movie without knowing the ending. Same had happened in case of a movie called Anthony Kaun Hai and another called Khel, years back. I do not watch a lot of Hindi movies because the typical formulas the Dhawan’s, Ghai’s, Chopra’s and Johar’s seem to keep following. And, as it would be apparent by now, I am not so much of an ‘Art’-film-enthusiast either. But I would like to see a movie that appeals to me through the teasers, posters and videos, watch it and form my own opinion, if I want to…instead of losing a nice-simple-sensible-and-non crassy-flick over some loser-critic’s biased wits…or the lack of it!
* Another breed of journalists, is one that basically trails the upper crust, which they adamantly try to call as the 'life-style' genre. Here you would find, more often than not, a star-struck geek of a reporter, with a loud grin plastered of the face, giggling away like silly, stuttering and stammering all the while long- even after years of doing the same job (even the ‘stars’ in our country remain the same people for ages). And like I mentioned already, these segments claim SO much but at last, hardly give out any more information than the same old spiel of Abhi, Aish, Shah Rukh, Saif, Salman, Malaika, Preetie, Rani, Kareena, Mallika, Rakhi Sawant etc etc etc; their latest scandals/ relationship status/ where they were spotted shopping/ where they called hoards of press to cover their charitable deed/ where they had to take a pit-stop to pee and the usual. Sometimes, they take some ‘star’ out for a meal/ drink and do an interview with them which they relay between capsules. Sometimes, their very own Fashion-Police squad starts firing compliments or criticism away, at what a celebrity was caught wearing… How original. These shameless people probably do not know the the original ‘E-News’ has arrived in India quite a few years back- their response; it is only SO much you can do with the stories in any case. We aren’t copying anyone. But yes, we are inspired. Who does look up to the West? *sighes*

I have given up reading the news papers / watching the news for the past ten odd years now. And no, I am not proud of it. If anything newsworthy occurs, I can still hear it from the people around/ see it on the home pages of mail accounts. And then, if I find what I hear, important or interesting enough, I look it up for further details. It’s not what a responsible citizen of an educated society should do, I know that. But I refuse to put myself through the grill- Bollywood star tantrums, terrorism/ robberies/ rapes/ murders being sensationalized or some other such inane story which holds absolutely no importance in my life, thankfully!

I have had this discussion with numerous people during this past decade. And sad as it is, countless number of people still favours the Media during the entire discussion. The following statements are actual quotes that I have remembered from a few of them:
- “So what yaar (buddy)? Entertainment sells much more than Politics/Science or Business in our country.” -->Was 'news' really supposed to be about what SELLS? For some reason, I always thought that it was about ‘information’ and thus ‘education’. And please, the whole demand-and-supply excuse is such a cliché (they-can-only-run-what-the-people-seem-to-want/ it-has-to-be-interesting-enough-news-for-the-common-man-so-the-channels-can-sell-it theory). Every educated and even slightly intelligent person knows that it is all about marketing. People can get interested in / WANT to buy/ believe something if it is endorsed correctly. Don’t forget that the image of the ‘American President’ was CREATED. Pieces of information do not necessarily have to be boring, even without sensationalism!)
- “Maybe to many of us, the Abhishek (the most eligible bachelor) and Aishwarya (Miss World, not even Miss India... Miss World) wedding, is more important than the President bubba!” Why do you have to get all emotional about it? -->This statement is not even worth commenting upon!
- “So what if they give opinions? A lot of people can’t actually see the truth so it has to be spoon-fed to them.” -->Firstly, it is quite know-it-all-like to be thinking that a common Indian citizen is not smart enough to think for his/her own self. Secondly, everyone has a right to their own opinion, but the Indian Media doesn’t leave much space for anyone to be deciding for themselves, whether or not a person is actually guilty, in case of an accusation. Thirdly, these are supposed to be ‘journalists’ and not ‘judges’/ even editorials! If they want to still profess and preach, they can simply stop calling themselves journalists, at least.
- “Common sweetie, the ‘car that kept driving on it’s own’ was quite amusing.” -->Correct; amusing. That’s all that it was perhaps. But it was not ‘breaking news’ material is my point.
- “The Media was completely justified in the ‘rash driving cases’. The common man should know how wrong the deed was.” -->Incorrect. The common man should get to know about the deed (information- facts, only) and then feel for him/her own self. I don’t ever approve of anyone passing judgments unless they are judges/ jury. But still, unless someone is a lawyer, I do not think that it is their (media’s) right to call something the most ‘heinous’ or ‘commendable’ act of the century and then go on trying to carve these images and tags in the audience’s brains. The audience has a right to decide for themselves if they want to, like I have reiterated several times already. Why can’t the media simply relay facts?

There are scores of issues with the Indian media today. Now that the ‘paparazzi-culture has dawned onto the Indian soil, hopefully this all would change in sometime!!…Sort of like a blessing in disguise?!...Wishful thinking?

Whatever happened to ‘journalism’, where 'news' was supposed to stating 'facts'- non-judgmental and non-opinionated!!

Ponder on…S m i l e