mmindchd
01-30-2005, 07:40 AM
undefinedIS THE MEDIA FULFILLING ITS RESPONSIBILITY?
I wonder if editors read their own newspapers. If they did, they might be forced to think a little bit about the trash they publish every morning. It is enough to drive anyone to depression and even suicide. Life appears to be consisting of murders and accidents; nothing exciting seems to be happening in our world apart from that.
In Chandigarh we normally read The Tribune, (www.tribuneindia.com). Its city supplement is called Chandigarh Tribune and if you see it on any day, you would be forced to think about the state of journalism in the country. As an example, take a look at the edition of January 24, 2005. All the stories on the first page on that day related to murders, suicides, accidents. Nice way to bring cheer to readers!
If “Four of a family killed in road mishap” did not cheer the morning reader, you had another one, “Man strangulated by friend”. But wait, there was more: “Body of newborn girl found in BSNL colony” would surely cheer up the morbid reader, but then here was another nugget, “Bank Manager dies in mishap, wife, 2 daughters hurt.” If someone wanted more to cheer up his day, he would surely have been attracted by the news down below on the same page, “Shopkeeper jumps into Sukhna lake, dies.”
The only story on the page that was different was about some actor who we had never heard of, saying some inanities about eating food in somebody else’s house.
Of course The Tribune is not singular in its approach. Every newspaper is trying to outdo the other in covering bad news of the day. Switch on a news channel (www.ndtv.com) and your day will almost certainly be ruined by an interview with a dishonest politician along with the usual stories of rape and murder.
Of course it would be wrong to say that this all that concerns the news gatherers. City supplements of newspapers and of course TV channels are full, in the second part, of pictures of young actresses and stories of their personal lives.
I am sure that more exciting things are happening in any city. Still, newspapers and TV channels seem to be catering to people with morbid minds, as the above examples show. It is hardly a wonder that newspapers are offering pens and goggles as incentives to readers to buy their papers because they know nobody in his right mind would be spending time with such news. The poor response of readers even when newspapers are priced at Re 1 (about 2 US cents) is simply because there is nothing worthwhile in the papers.
If the role of the media is to educate and to change something in society – and there are many things that requires a change – it seems to have forgotten that role. I cannot think of anything that the media has taken a stand about in the recent past: farmers’ suicides, killing of unborn female children, selling drugs to children. True, these things have been sporadically reported in the media, but the media has not kept any of these issues alive. The only thing they have done of note is to publish notices about the tsunami relief and collected a lot of money, but only one newspaper reported about caste based relief effort. That story too was forgotten because no media organisation took it upon itself to rectify the situation on the ground.
The media today does not educate. It merely informs, and that too bad news. In the past, social reformers have used newspapers to rectify evils in society, notably, sati or burning of widows along with their dead husbands. Today, a dowry murder will be reported one day, only to be forgotten the next.
The media is a powerful force, but it does not fulfill its responsbility in any way. It has become like any other consumer product, to be consumed and thrown away. By doing so, it has dulled our senses and we do not react even to atrocities. Instead of making us aware, the media is turning us into cynics. That is a real pity.
I wonder if editors read their own newspapers. If they did, they might be forced to think a little bit about the trash they publish every morning. It is enough to drive anyone to depression and even suicide. Life appears to be consisting of murders and accidents; nothing exciting seems to be happening in our world apart from that.
In Chandigarh we normally read The Tribune, (www.tribuneindia.com). Its city supplement is called Chandigarh Tribune and if you see it on any day, you would be forced to think about the state of journalism in the country. As an example, take a look at the edition of January 24, 2005. All the stories on the first page on that day related to murders, suicides, accidents. Nice way to bring cheer to readers!
If “Four of a family killed in road mishap” did not cheer the morning reader, you had another one, “Man strangulated by friend”. But wait, there was more: “Body of newborn girl found in BSNL colony” would surely cheer up the morbid reader, but then here was another nugget, “Bank Manager dies in mishap, wife, 2 daughters hurt.” If someone wanted more to cheer up his day, he would surely have been attracted by the news down below on the same page, “Shopkeeper jumps into Sukhna lake, dies.”
The only story on the page that was different was about some actor who we had never heard of, saying some inanities about eating food in somebody else’s house.
Of course The Tribune is not singular in its approach. Every newspaper is trying to outdo the other in covering bad news of the day. Switch on a news channel (www.ndtv.com) and your day will almost certainly be ruined by an interview with a dishonest politician along with the usual stories of rape and murder.
Of course it would be wrong to say that this all that concerns the news gatherers. City supplements of newspapers and of course TV channels are full, in the second part, of pictures of young actresses and stories of their personal lives.
I am sure that more exciting things are happening in any city. Still, newspapers and TV channels seem to be catering to people with morbid minds, as the above examples show. It is hardly a wonder that newspapers are offering pens and goggles as incentives to readers to buy their papers because they know nobody in his right mind would be spending time with such news. The poor response of readers even when newspapers are priced at Re 1 (about 2 US cents) is simply because there is nothing worthwhile in the papers.
If the role of the media is to educate and to change something in society – and there are many things that requires a change – it seems to have forgotten that role. I cannot think of anything that the media has taken a stand about in the recent past: farmers’ suicides, killing of unborn female children, selling drugs to children. True, these things have been sporadically reported in the media, but the media has not kept any of these issues alive. The only thing they have done of note is to publish notices about the tsunami relief and collected a lot of money, but only one newspaper reported about caste based relief effort. That story too was forgotten because no media organisation took it upon itself to rectify the situation on the ground.
The media today does not educate. It merely informs, and that too bad news. In the past, social reformers have used newspapers to rectify evils in society, notably, sati or burning of widows along with their dead husbands. Today, a dowry murder will be reported one day, only to be forgotten the next.
The media is a powerful force, but it does not fulfill its responsbility in any way. It has become like any other consumer product, to be consumed and thrown away. By doing so, it has dulled our senses and we do not react even to atrocities. Instead of making us aware, the media is turning us into cynics. That is a real pity.